The Southern Thing: Our Weekend

This weekend was another one of those "do everything you can outside" type of weekends. I know it won't be long before we're back to unbearable Texas heat, so I wanted to take advantage of my favorite time of they year while I can. For the first time in a while, the weekend felt oddly long, in a good way of course. I blame it on the lack of football presence. See, there is a good thing in all of this. With football being over, we get weekends back! Instead of posting up Saturday night - Sunday afternoon while LSU and the Saints play, we're forced to get out and do something.. the silver lining!

I was in the mood to eat something, but couldn't figure out just what that was. All of the usual places Chris and I hit up around Dallas didn't seem appetizing at the moment, and then I quickly realized why. When this happens, it means I'm craving food from home in Louisiana. I need Louisiana food and I need it now. But first, snowballs, or shaved ice, as they call it here. This was from Bahama Buck's and it did not disappoint!

About the food (my favorite part of the day, can you tell!?) This was from Copeland's in Southlake, TX. Chris and I ordered the crab cake shrimp alfredo and the red beans and rice with andouille sausage. There are a few cajun restaurants in the Dallas area, but if you want the best of the best in my opinion, it's worth the trip to Southlake. Copeland's is a famous New Orleans restaurant that was created by Mr. Al Copeland himself, the founder of Popeye's chicken! While many of the Dallas cajun restaurants have tasty cajun dishes, most of them don't quite get the red beans and rice just right, but Copeland's nails it here. Fun fact: if you like Popeye's red beans and biscuits, the Copeland's recipe is basically the same!

There's something about this time of the year with it being Mardi Gras season that makes me crave Louisiana food even more. I've been wanting some king cake for weeks and all the talk and photo teases on Facebook hasn't helped my situation, but then I remembered this little gem of a king cake cheesecake that's served at Copeland's and all was well again. The king cake gods must have known I was on a mission too, because when I went to Whole Foods later that night I was gifted a whole king cake from the sweet lady working in the bakery! Random acts of kindness at its best!

After we enjoyed lunch on the patio, we spent the rest of the day walking around the town center and exploring all the shops. Later, we headed back to Dallas and stopped for drinks before heading home. We ended up at the Yard House, where our indecisive minds were forced to choose a drink with over 100 beers on tap. I couldn't decide, so I opted for a pineapple express mojito instead. Needless to say, the truffle fries were a no brainer.