Skyfall + Pie Night = :)

Another great week in November has passed! The week seemed to drag on FOREVER and now the weekend has flown by, as always. But Taylor only has 2 days of work this week and we get to go to Waco for Thanksgiving on Thursday. So this week should be awesome! 

The week started on a foul (smelling) note when the guy that lives below us got his apartment painted and all of the fumes drifted up throughout our apartment. It was so bad we had to spend the night at the Coxs' house, and they were nice enough to let us come over and crash there even though we didn't call until almost 11 p.m. We have such great friends! 

Luckily the fumes cleared out the following day and we survived the night. We eventually made it to Friday and headed up to Arlington to celebrate birthdays with some friends. There was a ton of delicious food and we played Quelf, the most awkward/random game ever created. But we had a great time! 

Saturday we finally got to see Skyfall ... and Daniel Craig ;) !! It lived up to our expectations, especially mine! I love the James Bond movies, which Taylor especially appreciates when I choose to see that instead of Breaking Dawn Part II. Taylor got to enjoy a Saturday night home alone while I went to my first Dallas Stake youth dance to chaperone. We decorated in a black-and-white theme, but sadly I didn't get a picture. 

The highlight of the entire week had to be Sunday night, when we attended our first ever Pie Night. Casey and Brady Cox hosted and 8 or so families came and everyone brought at least one pie (plus one cheesecake and one plate of brownies). It was absolutely amazing. Possibly rivals Thanksgiving as our new favorite holiday in November. Everything was delicious, but it was hard to have any self-control with that much pie available! Making it even more fun, there were tons of kids running around, which was quite hilarious, especially since we weren't personally responsible for any of them! 

Before

After

TK's Food Reviews

This week we tried our first ever authentic Greek restaurant. Simply referred to as the Greek Bakery and Cafe, it is located in the Bishop Arts neighborhood near our apartment and is a tiny place run by a Greek family. I went with a Chicken Gyro and Sweet Potato Fries, and snagged some Baklava to go. The gyro was incredible. All the veggies were fresh, the chicken was moist and delicious, and it was huge, which is always important to me. Small portions just don't get it done. 

The fries, however, fell victim to the small portion problem. For $2, we got what seemed like a handful of fries, and they weren't that great. Wouldn't order them again. The Baklava was very small as well, but it was freshly baked and fantastic, so that made up for the small size. Overall, I would order the gyro again tomorrow but will probably stay away from the fries and would only order the Baklava if I was really craving it. Grade: B- 

End of 1st Texas Football Season

Sunset High School is different from any high school Taylor and I ever attended. That was confirmed this week when a student, who said Mr. Wilson was her favorite teacher, brought him a pickle soaked in warm Kool-Aid as a gift. Mr. Wilson, being a good sport, tried the pickle before she left the class, but couldn't quite manage to finish it. Description: warm, mushy, and oddly sour. Never again haha! 

This was the last week for regular season high school football in Texas. We knew our Bison weren't quite going to make it to the playoffs, so we ventured 20 miles south to see Sunset take on Richardson Pierce in the last game of the season. As always, the halftime show was incredible. It was Senior Night and there were tons of parents there to support the band, cheerleaders, and dancers. It was an exciting halftime show and was a great way to end the football season. Unfortunately, the team lost 58-0 :(. That means they ended the season without a win, at 0-10. The head coach is already recruiting Taylor to coach next year, but I think he likes doing strength and conditioning and track. 

This was the opposing team's mascot. This isn't a great picture, but it was a really tall, goofy looking red horse! 

Before the game on Friday Taylor took me to Norma's, a cute little diner in Oak Cliff. It has the BEST BACON EVER!! I love bacon, and there is none better than at Norma's! Friday night was the best night of the week because Saturday Taylor had to spend the whole day in Teach for America meetings while I cleaned, ironed, and cooked a delicious roast/mashed potato dinner. Then we went to a baptism (which was great!). Afterwards, Taylor said he had a surprise for me and we jumped in the car and headed to an unknown location. The surprise turned out to be a trip to see Skyfall, a movie I've been waiting for all year. Sadly, he didn't think ahead enough to buy tickets in advance, and we drove all the way to our favorite theatre only to find out it was sold out. But he did his best to make up for it by stopping at the Cheesecake Factory on the way home to buy us a piece of delicious Oreo Cheesecake! 

TK's Food Reviews 

This week the review comes from Norma's Cafe in Oak Cliff. It's a classic diner, filled with checkered booths and floors and features a menu full of massive (mostly unhealthy) portions. The service is everything you would expect from a homestyle diner, with personable, mildly hilarious waitresses. I went simple with the order: a short stack of pancakes. In addition, we got an appetizer of onion rings (Maddie's favorite) and Maddie ordered her Eggs 'n' Bacon. 

The pancakes were the best I've had at a restaurant, or very close to it. They were moist and tasted delicious even with a minimal amount of syrup. The onion rings were solid too, and were not too big and not too small. I don't enjoy them quite as much as Maddie, but they're still a solid choice. The highlight of the meal was the bacon, which is thick, huge, and just plain fantastic. If I was grading it simply against other diners, it would deserve in the A- range. But against all Dallas restaurant choices, it gets a bit lower. Overall Grade: B

Scares and Laughs

Monday got our week off to a bloody start when I picked up the meat I ordered at work. Because National Carriers is owned by National Beef, we get a huge discount, which is awesome. But the one disadvantage is that we have to cut the meat up ourselves. We got 10 lbs of hamburger, which came in one massive tube, and 15 lbs of roast, which came in a giant bloody bag. I didn't mind cutting it, but we almost lost Taylor when he saw the bag 'o' blood. I thought it was a perfect way to start Halloween week!

Yummy Blue Bell Ice-cream! Gingerbread House flavor :)

This is my result from attempting the panorama feature on Taylor's iPhone

On Friday night we went to dinner with our friends at Twisted Root Burger, a downtown bar/restaurant that had an awesome atmosphere. Taylor will write a little bit more about that at the bottom of the page. But dinner was fun, as was the rest of the night, which was spent watching YouTube videos at the Lawlers' house. Most of the videos were of a guy from BYU that films awkward situations throughout campus. Some are pretty hilarious!

TK's Food Reviews 

I decided I wanted to start contributing to the blog, but didn't know how. Then it came to me. I love food. I love taking pictures of food. I love trying new places. So I figured I would start including pictures from wherever we eat every weekend and including a short foodie review, so if anyone visits Dallas you will know where to go!

In my inaugural post, I'll look at Twisted Root Burger Company, a neon-light covered bar in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of downtown Dallas. As you could guess, the place is known for its burgers. But they don't serve just any burgers. They have an array of unique options, so it was tough to choose. I went with the Philly, which was a burger with grilled mushrooms and onions, and an ample amount of cheese whiz. The picture isn't super clear but it was incredible. The meat was great, not quite as good as some other burger joints in Dallas, but the toppings and toasted bun, along with the ballin' fries, more than made up for it. Plus, I had to give bonus points for the Chuck Norris quotes in the bathroom. Overall grade: B+