M & M Shawn

My girls and I m&menized myself. Click here to check it out.

Last Tuesday (May 22), LaRissa and I celebrated our fourteenth wedding anninversary. We went to Frisco and had some incredible Italian food and heard some cool jazz music at Terilli's. We then went over to the World Market and checked out some cool stuff for the kitchen.

In fourteen years, I have grown to love my wife more and more. Here's a list of just a few of the things I love so much about her. She's smokin' hot. How did a guy like me get so lucky? She thinks I'm smokin' hot. (How crazy is that?) She loves music, writes music, plays music, and really connects with God through music. She is an awesome mom (count them, four times giving birth). She likes hangin' out with me in the kitchen. She likes hiking and the outdoors. She challenges me to try new stuff like learning to dance. She's totally out of it by 10 o'clock at night. She's really smart and is an awesome 1st grade teacher. I love that she didn't know how to grate cheese, boil water, or knead dough when we first got married. I love that she hates football but watches it anyway and continues to try to understand it because I love it so much. I love that she tries to get home early every day to spend more time with our family. I love that she has this awesomely beautiful auburn hair that is so hard to define and that changes depending on the light and that every other woman wants. I love that she likes guy movies and thinks The Notebook is a stupid movie because it is such a poor imitation of what real love is. I love it that she loves me more than any human being ever has, through thick and thin, good and bad, in my worst times and in my best times. I love her because she knows me through and through, is my best friend in the world, and is the person I would most like to be with all the time. And, I love her because she fiercely loves Jesus Christ and challenges me daily to love him as well.

Restaurant Review

One of my regular readers threatened to take away my man card for my review of a Mediterranean restaurant in Addison. So, I offer this review of Deno's Fried Pies as penance.

Deno's is located in Denison, TX, and is one of my favorite places to go as an occasional treat. It is occasional because one of the key ingredients that makes Deno's pies so wonderful is grease. The crusts on the pies are about as flaky as any you will find on a fried pie (a result of plenty of grease in the dough), and they are deep fried, giving a wonderfully crisp outer crust.

Of course, the thing that draws me to Deno's are their dessert pies. They come in an assortment of flavors: apricot, apple, cherry, peach, pineapple, blackberry, chocolate, coconut, vanilla, lemon, apricot cream, apple cream, cherry cream, peach cream, pineapple cream, and blackberry cream. Of the flavors I have tried, apricot has been my favorite by far, although the cherry is very good also. The chocolate seems like it is a little rich to me, combining the chocolate filling with the already rich crust. Coconut is my favorite type of pie ordinarily, but for some reason it didn't work for me in a fried pie.

Deno's also offers frozen custards blended with their fried pie flavorings. You can also get an assortment of breakfast (bacon, egg, and cheese; sausage, egg, and cheese; etc.) and dinner pies including flavors like Tex-Mex, Polish sausage and potato, or chicken and vegetable, to name a few. I have not tried any of these pies, so I can't give a review of them.

If you are expecting bakery or donut store prices at Deno's, you will be a little surprised. Think more along the lines of cafe prices, more than a donut store, less than Starbucks. By the way, Deno's also offers a good variety of hot drinks. Click here to see Deno's full menu.

Pie, grease, crust. How can you go wrong?

Restaurant Review

Friday night, I took LaRissa out for our Valentine's getaway. We went to Addison, TX, and ate at the Avanti Euro Bistro. Avanti is located in Addison Circle, a large apartment development in Addison made to look like an old, large city, bricktown type neighborhood. The lower levels of the apartment complexes are shops and restaurants. It was a really cool environment.
Avanti is a Euro/Mediterranean style restaurant. The decor is modern, with nods to Mediterranean stylings. (LaRissa said she new we were in a unique restaurant when the big screen television in the bar was on the fashion channel instead of sports.) There is a live band that is supposed to play each evening, but they were not playing while we were there. Our dining was relatively private, the lighting was subdued, and overall made for a romantic atmosphere.
We started the evening with warm bread and olive oil and an appetizer of stuffed portabello mushrooms covered in a hollandaise sauce. The portabellos were topped with smaller mushrooms, tomatoes, and lump crab meat. They were wonderful.
For our entrees, we went two different directions. I am the more adventuresome diner. I would rather try something different and risk the danger of getting something gross for the possible opportunity at trying something incredible, while LaRissa would rather play it safe and stick with something she knows is good. I had the Long Island Duck Confit, strips of roasted duck breast, covered in a Grand Marnier orange sauce and served over a bed of long grain and wild rice with a side of steamed vegetables. The orange sauce was sweet and tangy, and the duck had a nice, firm texture.
LaRissa got the Stuffed Jumbo Shrimp with Lump Crabmeat. The shrimp were huge and wonderful. Of the two meals, LaRissa's was probably the better, but I'm glad I tried something different.
We finished the evening with rich, bold coffee and the creme brulee. It was good, but something of a disappointment (vanilla pudding with a carmelized top).
Oh well, pretty hoity toity fare for a boy from Arkansas who is content with beans and taters. It was a wonderful evening and scored major points with my wife. I have learned that going all out for Valentine's Day is an investment that is well worth it in a marriage.