Meeting The Pioneer Woman

On Valentine's Day I left my Valentine at home while my friend Danielle and I went to meet THE Pioneer Woman. For those of you who don't know who Ree Drummond is, you should. She has the most popular blog in the world and is in my mind one of the most inspiring women I have ever met. Not only does she have 4 kids, she home schools them, lives on a ranch, gardens, is a photographer, an amazing cook, and has a great marriage. She writes daily about crazy things that happen on the ranch and talks about motherhood and life from an honest perspective. Anyway, she was as beautiful in person as she is in her pictures. She had brought all of her kids and her husband to the book signing. The signing started at 6:00. Danielle and I had to pick up wrist bands when the store opened that morning to get assigned to a group. We got to Borders at 10:05 and got assigned Group 2. Each group had 100 people. Ree spoke for about 10 minutes and then the book signing started. We didn't walk out the door until 9 pm and we were in Group 2! There were 10 groups! It was so fun to meet her in person and definitely worth the wait! I really wanted to ask her how she stays so thin cooking all of her recipes!

Danielle and The Pioneer Woman

How's your burger?

Emily and I ate at Twisted Root the other day in Fairview and it got me thinking about my favorite burger places in the Lone Star State, and how funny the 'how's your burger' line is in Dumb and Dumber. Here are a few of my favorites:

1.) Mel's Country Cafe - My hometown of Tomball, TX boasts my favorite burger, and is ranked in the top 5 on Texas Burger Guy and one of the Top 50 Burgers in Texas Monthly. If you eat the Mega Mel burger you get to write your name on the wall, and it's no small accomplishment.

The Mega Mel Burger
1.5 pounds of fresh ground beef
1 pound of bacon
.25 pound of American cheese
lots, lots of lettuce, tomatoes, onions & pickles

This place has a lot of great food besides the burgers, my favorite is the chicken tenders, which can feed a family of 4. http://www.melscountrycafe.com/

2.) Roznovsky's Hamburgers - 3401 W. T. C. Jester Blvd, Houston, TX 77018 - If you live in H-Town you have to check out Roznovsky's. The founder was an All-American baseball player for UT back in the 70's. The review on http://www.texasburgerguy.com/ isn't that good, but if you are a Czech guy like me it's a right of passage!

3.) Twisted Root Burger Co - Ranked # 14 in Texas Monthly's Top 50 Texas Burgers, and the only burger place I know that has a pastry chef to help with their menu. Usually a restaurant asks you for your name, and then calls it when the order is ready. Not at Twisted Root, they give you a famous name, for example, Austin Powers or Michael Jordan. They have 5 DFW area locations, including their newest one in Fairview. http://twistedrootburgerco.com/

4.) Burger place in Austin - Sadly I cannot remember the name of this burger place, but I remember eating there at 2:00 a.m. many times in college after going out on 6th street. I'm not sure if it's because it was 2:00 a.m., but they had a great burger. It was downtown somewhere near the UT campus, just north of the basketball arena. Truly I cannot remember the name, but it was great.

5.) Mooyah Burgers & Fries - I asked Emily if she had one meal left on this earth (and it was a hamburger) where would she go? She said Mooyah burger, a great 'build it' burger place with several locations in the DFW and Houston areas, as well as a few locations in Tennessee and California now. Mooyah gives you about 650 toppings to choose from on your burger, and their large fry is enough for 4 people. - http://www.mooyah.com/

Honorable Mention

• Jake's Hamburgers
• Whataburger
• Scotty P's
• Frank's Place - Schulenburg, TX

Check out Emily's business http://www.shoppickledlily.com/

Should I have cabin fever?

Today we were officially iced in. Some people were complaining of having cabin fever, but I loved it! There wasn't much snow on the ground but we had about 2 inches of ice on our driveway and our streets. We both work from home when we can but today we were forced to stay inside. It was really fun to spend the day together and cook all 3 meals together. For lunch we made home made potato soup and for dinner shrimp gumbo. Here is my cutie making his first roux! (we both stayed in our pj's all day...notice I didn't post any pics of me)

We try to cook together every night and we are always trying new recipes. We both love to cook. Two items that are a must have for me are by Le Creuset dutch oven (pictured above) and my handy chopper (below). Both items I use on a daily basis in my kitchen. I think I could get rid of all my other pots and pans and use only my dutch oven.

We aren't sure what tomorrow's weather will bring, but I wouldn't be against being forced to stay inside again! Thank goodness for laptops!

The pups have enjoyed the snow day too!

A Post About Food

It's been way over a month since I have posted. Lots has been going on I just haven't known what to talk about. This post is dedicated to the amazing food we have had recently. Last week was by birthday and Dan treated me to a "staycation" here in Dallas. We do this from time to time and it is so great and relaxing. We can have a great evening downtown and then have only a

30 minute drive home. We stayed at the Ritz (amazing and beautiful) and had dinner at Hibiscus (omg even better than I had heard). I can't believe we have never been there. We seriously were drunk off of food after that dinner and we only had one glass of wine.

My big guy and I in the Ritz lobby

Me and the birthday cake they brought out- We took most of it home

For breakfast we went to Smoke. If you live in the Dallas area you have to try this place. AMAZING!! I had the ricotta stuffed pancakes served with apricots and blueberries. They also have bottomless mimosas! Dan and I will definitely be going back there!

Each plate had a different animal on it

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