24 Hours Kid-Free

Cody and I suddenly found ourselves kid-free on a Friday afternoon (Thanks, Granna!) so we grabbed the opportunity and headed to Bishop Arts District. I picked him up from his office around 3:30 PM and we had until our 6 PM dinner reservation to browse the unique shops. I immediately fell in love with this quirky, artsy area. It didn't hurt that the weather was a beautiful sunny 75 degrees (is this really January?)
There were so many lovely stores. Boutiques, antiques, vintage, and my favorite...
I never knew this sweet shop existed until some friends gave us chocolate from here. When we walked in last night one of the first things I saw was a box of marzipan stuffed Medjool dates covered in chocolate. Nature's candy just got an upgrade! We tried lots of free samples and I also loved the yerba mate truffles. Tea and chocolate go well together at last!

After walking around for a while we were needing a little appetizer before dinner so we stopped at Eno's Pizza Tavern. They had just what we wanted- a picnic platter full of cheeses, salami, olives, flat bread, and rosemary pecans. I must figure out a recipe for rosemary pecans and make these pronto. They were delicious.

We had dinner reservations at Hattie's. I had trouble deciding what to order because so many of the entrees sounded fabulous. I'm not incredibly adventurous when it comes to nice restaurants. I usually get the salmon, or pork, or steak...but this night something crazy came over me and I ordered the jalapeno-stuffed, bacon-wrapped quail. It came with a demi-glaze, whipped sweet potatoes and the best, I mean the hands down best, greens I have ever tasted in my life. If I could only replicate one food item from this evening it would be those greens. Cody had braised short ribs, and although we were both stuffed, we shared a banana pecan fried pie with coconut ice cream for dessert. Yes, I am freely admitting to gluttony.

We walked around a little more after dinner. We stopped in a store called M'Antiques that was really cool. The owner told us he had just finished filming a spot for Texas Country Reporter with Bob Phillips. We are dorky and actually watch that show so maybe we'll see him on there sometime!

I would have been content if the evening had stopped there, but amazingly, it continued on as we visited Specs to choose a wine for an upcoming wine dinner with friends. A knowledgeable employee taught us a lot about Burgundy wines (which is the theme for that evening) and we picked one that we think everyone will really enjoy. Then we stopped by one of my all-time favorite places, Half Price Books. I found two Henri Nouwen books (score!) and some other items as well.

We packed a lot of fun into our night out without kids. It even continued into today...but I am ready to have them back home. Although I just got an email saying the kids didn't want to come home yet, so they will be back later than expected. Hmm. I guess Granna's house is just as much fun for them as a night out on the town is for us!