Kirstin, Lacey and Jennifer Do Dallas...

I have the two best friends anyone could ever ask for. Seriously, my best friends are infinitely better than everyone else's. They are beautiful, hilarious, and the probably the only two people in the world (besides my mom) that really know me. Jennifer Lovell and I became besties in high school. I am the Lane to her Rory and we've somehow maintained this amazing consistent friendship through 4 years of college in 2 different cities and now psuedo-adulthood. Lacey started hanging out with us after freshman year of college and we immediately became this fabulous trio. We regularly make each other laugh till we cry, we have marathon phone conversations and we always see each other through everything- break ups, new boys, tough classes, and any other sticky situation we find ourselves in. These girls are the only two people that I am absolutely 100% open with, they know every one of my faults and love me anyway! Lacey lives in L.A. and I did a brief stint as her roommate in the summer of 08, Jennifer went to school at Vanderbilt so she spent the last four years in Nashville but she's doing Teach For America in Dallas now, so obviously we don't get to see each other very often. We try to get together at least once a year and this year we went to Dallas to see Jenn. I love going to Texas, everything is big and everything is so fantastically Southern. I'd never been to Dallas so I was so excited to check it out! Lacey and I got into town on Friday afternoon and since Jennifer is a grown up and has a real job now, we decided to lay low. We ended up going to dinner with Jenn's sweet sweet roommates at this place called The Common Table. It was within walking distance of Jennifer's apartment in uptown. First of all, this place was so freaking cute. It was really busy but we got seated immediately. We ordered drinks (which were pretty expensive but totally worth it,) Lacey and I ordered the First Lady which was Ketel One, lychee fruit liqueur, cranberry juice and lime juice...SO GOOD. Jennifer got the Iron Horse- Hendricks, St. Germaine, peeled cucumber, simple syrup, torn basil and lemon juice...equally good. Then we ordered this special where you could get three small entrees for $19, such a good deal! I ordered Veal Parmigiana Sliders, they were ridiculous. Like seriously ridiculous. It was breaded veal with provolone cheese and roasted garlic tomato sauce on top served with spinach in a ciabatta bread bun. I LOVED it. Lacey ordered the Calamari, and before you say anything about calamari being played out let me just say, this was the best calamari I've ever had. It was made with cornmeal and served with cilantro sriracha sauce...which Jennifer would NOT let the waiter take away even though we were waaaay finished with our meal. It was hilarious, every time he came by our table and tried to clear the plate she would say "Wait wait!!! I'm still using that!" Jennifer shocked me by ordering Pulled Pork Spring Rolls (she's usually a festive salad kind of girl.) I really think that these spring rolls were my favorite thing we ordered...maybe even my favorite thing I've eaten all month. They were amazing, they came with yuzu sesame sauce. I usually don't like spring rolls but these just blew every other spring roll out of the water. We laughed the through the whole dinner and caught up, basically picked up exactly where we left off last November when we saw each other in Nashville. We did typical girly things the next day, like shopping, watching Say Yes To The Dress, talking about boys and made plans to go out that night.

We got ready to go the this bar called Ghost Bar at the top of the W Hotel and then hung out with a few of Jennifer's other TFA friends, then we made our way to the bar. We walked up to the bar and the bouncer looked at Lacey and said "Are you ladies on the guest list?" He paused and then whispered "Nod your head yes..." So of course Lacey said "Oh yeah, we're definitely on the guest list!" (Like a boss.) So we rode the elevator up to the top floor and Lacey said "Ok girls, the plan for tonight is to not pay for a single drink...because they all cost like $20." So we walked around the bar until this guy asked us if we wanted to come over to his table where he and his friends had bottle service! I, being little miss Pensacola had never been to a bar that offered bottle service. It was pretty sweet. They had all kinds of fruit and mixers and it was fabulous.

The next night we decided to stay in since Jennifer (old lady) had to go to school in the morning. So we went to the grocery store and bought things to cook dinner (shocking because I DO NOT cook.) We bought chicken, and vegetables to cook and also made Rice a Roni (Jennifer's favorite food....) Lacey made the chicken by mixing up mayo and dijon mustard and coating it in that then putting Panko bread crumbs on it and baked it at 375 for about 25 to 35 minutes. Jennifer coated eggplant, mushrooms and squash in olive oil and baked them and I, being "kitchen challenged," followed the directions on the back of the box to make Rice a Roni. We also picked up some wine for dinner.

Firesteed Pinot Noir

Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay

Lacey came home to Pensacola to stay with me for a week and we've been going out to all of her old favorite Pensacola places. Of course we went to Ozone, Fish House, McGuire's and Horizen, but yesterday we went to New Yorker Deli for lunch and I saw on the white board outside that the soup of the day was Beer Cheese soup. I got my usual small salad with the best salad dressing on planet earth: New Yorker Deli's basil vinegarette, grilled cheese with tomato and bacon on a croissant (you should try it) but instead of getting chips I ordered this beer cheese soup. I knew I was taking a risk but it was totally worth it. The first thing I said when I tried it was "It tastes like someone poured beer in my cheese...but in an awesome way." Lacey said the exact same thing. There really isn't any other way to describe it. It tastes like beer and cheese and I'm obsessed with it. I Googled a recipe for it, this one is from FoodNetwork.com:

1/2 cup butter

1 chopped medium sized yellow onion

1/2 cup chopped carrot

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 cup all purpose flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 (12 oz. beer of your choice) Food Network recommends Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Blind Pig

7 oz. extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

7oz. proccessed Swiss cheese, shredded

2 cups half and half

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspon Worcestershire sauce

1 lb smoked sausage

Melt butter in stockpot over medium heat

Add chopped onion, carrot and celery

Sautee until softened and add flour, let cook for about 5 minutes

Add chicken broth and beer, heat till it comes to a boil

Slowly add cheese while stirring until just boiling and smooth

Add half and half, salt, dry mustard and Worcestershire sauce

Reduce heat to low and cook until soup has thickened

Cut smoked sausage into half inch pieces and place in sauce pan

Sautee sausage over medium heat until cooked throughout

Add sausage to soup and serve!

After a week of adventures with my two best friends, I am completely exhausted. I need some serious sleep but it has been so worth it. I love those two with my whole heart. To quote Sex and the City (our favorite show) "Maybe our girlfriends are our soulmates and guys are just people to have fun with." Jennifer and Lacey are absolutely my soulmates, I am so blessed to have two people like them in my life.

P.S. (J&L)- Who even likes Helen Kellar?