Last week was not just any old Deluxe Date Night, it was an overnight-stay-in-a-fancy-hotel-with-the-best-Italian-food-in-Texas Deluxe Date Night.

The St. Regis upgraded us to a suite, probably because TH is a “preferred” guest. That’s what they call businessmen who spend their weeks away from their wives.

These cookies were left out for us. Oh those cookies. And that orange thing you see the fruit sitting on is made of white chocolate.

And did I mention the cookies?

I’ve been browsing self-portraits on Flickr lately (check out Miss Aniela and Laurence) and I think I’d like to start doing some. I’ll probably start a 365 day self-portrait challenge sometime in the near future.

When That Husband got back to the hotel room (after a very long day of work) we ordered room service. My sandwich wasn’t that great, but the fries were delicious! (After I dipped them in fry sauce of course.)

You know what I want? A butter mold with my wig on it. Wouldn’t that be the best?

My BodyBugg was telling me I needed some more exercise so I decided to explore the hotel and take some photos.

The 50mm 1.2 is a wonderful thing to have around my neck.

These disembodied portraits were found throughout the hotel and I loved them.

After a very refreshing stay at the St. Regis we packed up all of our things and checked out. But before we headed home we indulged in a luxorious meal at Da Marco. This was an extra splurgy DDN meal in honor of TH’s birthday at the end of the week.

We started off with some bruschetta. The sweet corn was wonderful.

Pecans and pears combined in a salad are my favorite. And the cheese! I felt like I was in Italy all over again.

For “primi”

I ordered gnocchi, he ordered parpardelle with rabbit. We switched halway through and realized that we each liked the other’s dish better.

What was this? I have no idea. Something that started with a “C”, some kind of white meat with lobster and melon salad on the side. I forgot how much I love sweet and meat together.

That Husband went with potatoes, spinach and sea bass for his “secondi”.

It was the dessert that really sold me on Da Marco though. We were just about stuffed by this time so we only ordered one, but oooooohhhh baby. It was Panna Cotta with balsalmic drizzled on top. The tartness of the balsalmic was the absolute best complement that I can think of for the creamy and sweet Panna Cotta. Both the olive oil and the balsamic were so good that we ended up asking if they were available in the US and tipped our server extra for providing us with a business card with the names of both written down for future reference.

“Leonardi Saba” and “Peruzza Nobile di Sicilia”. I’ll be hunting them down the next time I visit Central Market.

Great choice TH! I wouldn’t mind going back again in the future. If anyone else is considering giving up eating out on a regular basis and splurging once a month instead, I highly reccomend it!

P.S.-Any photogs know why I’m getting blurry-highlity artifacts in my photos? Dirty sensor?

Also:

• Guiding Our Household to Better Eating
• If You Like ‘Em Put A Ring On It. Right?
• 2010 in Review