On Saturday we left T1 with the sitter and went downtown for a Booth event called Golden Gargoyles. TH is in a group called a “cohort” and each cohort made a film. The top films were screened, as well as clips taken from each one to fit certain categories, like best special effects or best unoriginal soundtrack. It was pretty funny, I got most of the jokes, though I wish they relied a bit less on off-color humor to get laughs. Oh well!

The theme was Heroes and Villians, and that was supposed to prompt the costumes that people wore. Lots of James Bonds and Jokers, one Joker in particular who was really freaky and really took on the Heath Ledger persona in Dark Knight. The guy dressed in black and white stripes (prison garb) under a suit coat with a name tag that said Bernie Madoff really made me laugh.

Can you guess what we are?

The housing bubble and a mortgage backed security. Ha! I think these are so clever. Some friends from church left us borrow TH’s costume stuff, including the shirt. Thanks friends! They get credit for the idea too.

TH fashioned my one shouldered bubble dress. These pictures were taken at the end of the night and so it looks a little torn up by it help up pretty well.

We drove with L and K (K risked his life to secure us a free parking spot we snagged, jumping out of our still moving car and freaking out the guy behind us who did not expect Elvis to come flying out and prevent him from stealing our spot).

Batwoman taking off for the night.

Thanks for the free date night Booth!

Anniversary dinner celebration meant another Deluxe Date Night for us, something I haven’t written about for awhile. We visited La Duni based on the recommendation of a friend and it did not disappoint. If you’re in the Dallas area visit for yourself, you’ll love it.

I started with a fakejito, the first time I’ve understood why people suck these down like there is no tomorrow.

We splurged (as we always do on Deluxe Date Night) and ordered the Parrillada Argentina for 2.
Which included:
18 oz Iron Seared Prime Bone in rib eye Steak, Grilled Pork Tenderloin, 3 Argentinian Sausages, Chimichurri, Black Beans, Basmati Rice, Plantains, Yucca Fries, Pampas Potatoes, Green Salad & Vine Ripened Tomato

Basically an overwhelming amount of amazing food.

The plantains were the only thing I didn’t like, and I walked away stuffed. TH would like to go back and give their Carne Asada a try, it’s apparently the number one seller on the menu!

If you are in Dallas, you must drop everything right this moment and go get some cupcakes from Society Bakery. Next to the place where we got our wedding cake (Simply Desserts in Seattle, go! go! go!) it’s the best we’ve ever had.

From left to right, listed in order from favorite to not-so-favorite:

Red Velvet (Best red velvet ever, ever, ever)

German Chocolate

Lemon Poppyseed

Brooklyn Blackout

TH was begging me to visit once again the next day, for another round. We were like druggies, needing another fix. I’m already brainstorming the next event where cake/cupcakes from Society Bakery. Friday night is reason enough to celebrate, right?

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?

Deluxe Date Night, explained here, happened once again this month, this time with a trip to a local sushi restaurant, Mua Sushi. And when I say local, I mean it. We were able to there, walk hand in hand, like the cute little newlyweds we are.

The traditional rolls.

What will That Husband choose? He is quite picky about his sushi, having been able to experience in many different places due to his traveling for work. The best he has ever had was in Arizona, if you were wondering.

I learned that two of my favorite things together, cream cheese and avocado, is not always a good thing. Once we poked the cream cheese out this Mango Fandango roll was delicious.

I love the presentation that goes into each sushi dish. Isn’t this fantastic? It was just as yummy as it looks too.

Don’t be surprised if we Deluxe Date Night ends up being Deluxe Sushi Night from now on. I could eat sushi every day!

Are you a sushi fan?

When I asked what you like about this blog last week I was surprised to hear so many of you say that you like when I talk about the things I do with That Husband. Really? I think our lives are pretty boring and I was really just writing those posts because they are the kind of thing our families like to read most. It’s nice to know that all the effort I put into writing them isn’t just being spent on the 3 or 4 family members we have that read this blog.

I don’t write many posts about what we do together because we don’t do go out. The highlight of our time spent together is usually when we make a batch of homemade frozen yogurt and sit on the couch and watch a movie together Friday night. With the amount he is traveling lately we really don’t have time for much more than that.

The one constant in our dating life is a night I like to call Deluxe Date Night. Instead of eating out several times a week (or month), we only eat out once (that is once per month!), and when we do we go all out. Most couples we know like to eat out more than that simply bcause they like to get out of the house, but we don’t mind staying in most of the time, and it’s so nice to feel like we can really splurge every once in awhile, even with the somewhat limited budget we are on.

Each month before we go I spend a lot of time on Guidelive.com, the best resource for arts, entertainment, sports, and food in Dallas that I’ve been able to find so far. I pour over the restaurant option, visit their websites, look over the menus and attempt to figure out what the meal would cost. In our relationship That Wife does the planning and That Husband foots the bill. It works really really well for us.

Deluxe Date Night in January started off with an endowment session in the Dallas temple.

For the month of January I chose a Turkish restaurant called Cafe Istanbul. I wasn’t sure how authentic TUrkish cusisine in Dallas, TX could be, but after tasting the food and readig through the terrible English on the menu I’m 99% sure this is the real deal.

We started with the Humus.

Creamy blend of mashed garbanzo beans, tahini, yogurt, olive oil and garlic.

Accompanied by this really delicious bread.

The place wasn’t tiny, but the warm colors made it felt warm and cozy. There were all kinds of Turkish plates, photos, and other trinkets hanging on the walls.

That Husband had Iskender Kebap.

Alexander the Great’s favorite combination. Tender ground beef and lamb cooked slowly on vertical rotisserie, served over pita bread with warm tomato-butter sauce and yogurt on the side.

My photos of his dishes are always blurry because he only gives me .00002 seconds to take the picture before he dives in.

I had Tavuk Sarma.

Marinated chicken breast, stuffed with pistachio, garnished with pilaf and served on a bed of sauteed spinach and tarragon sauce.

We always love to order desert on Deluxe Date Night.

He had Baklava.

Sultan’s homemade buttery dough, filled with walnuts and served with honey syrup.

I had one of the most divine deserts ever, Armut Tatalisi.

Pear filled with walnuts and served with Cafe Istanbul’s special wine sauce.

We are doing Deluxe Date Night next Saturday and I’m very excited to get dressed up and go out to eat again. Any Dallas readers have restaurant suggestions for us?