The New Orleans Restaurant Club headed to Apolline on March 14.
We had some new members, some tenured members and lots of great food. 
And of course we had some silly ones. Love these kids. 
Thanks for having us Apolline! This was the first restaurant that the owner actually came out and thanked me for bringing the restaurant club to their establishment. I was impressed.
Love and Hugs, Lizzie
After our photo shoot with Jen, we headed to dinner at Brigtsen’s. 
We had been given a gift card to Brigtsen’s before we got married and since we were all dressed up we decided to use it.
We had the butternut shrimp soup (so delicious). I was suppose to order the cup of soup, but accidently ordered the cup. Doug actually heard my mistake, but did not correct me as he was fine with more soup. ha!
I could eat there everyday. What a fun night and I had a great date!
Love and Hugs, Lizzie
Another marriage goal (clearly we were trying to knock them out as our two year anniversary was quickly approaching) was to have professional photos taken. After much research, I contacted Jen Amato and we scheduled a date.
I had my hair and makeup done by Heather (the owner of Flawless Bride in Nola) and we went to City Park.
Here are some of my favorite photos…
Outfit change!
I love the photos. She did a great job. I hope you all have a great day! 
Love and Hugs, Lizzie
Doug fixed DK in March and here is proof that it lived!
Clearly Andrew has been killing it.
As you can see during my birthday party:
heh!
Love and Hugs, Lizzie
I have amazing friends and family! On my birthday, my day was filled with surprises.
Mom gave me an awesome shoe card and some cash for shoe shopping, so off we went!
Later that day we went to visit Alex at work! Then people showed up to surprise me! (Alex not pictured)
It really was a great birthday weekend! Daylight savings time also started the weekend this same weekend so I was PUMPED. I love the late nights and more sun. It makes me happy.
Finally, sadly, my birthday weekend was over. It was awesome. Thank you Ashley, Doug, Mom, Janice, Sarah, Dad, Andrew, Alex, and so many others for making it special. I love you all.
Love and Hugs, Lizzie
One of our marriage goals was to have another cook off. We decided to merge it with my birthday party for friends and family.
We decided to have two categories to compete on. 1. Gumbo 2. Chocolate Chip Cookies. How can you go wrong with either?!
Doug and I cooked and cleaned the house. There is nothing like a party to get your house sparkling. 
Below is a photo of my gumbo being prepared. I used my Uncle Earl’s recipe. (Uncle Earl was a “famous” southern chef and if you are over the age of 50 you might remember him on TV when you were younger.) Next to it is the 3 (yes, three) batches of cookies I made to complete with. I will tell you the story later.
Once all the people and competing foods arrived, we dug in! We had 7 Gumbo’s competing for the title.
Then there was the coffee table of cookies! We had 8 cookies competing for the title. 
As for the cookies, I entered 3 different cookies into the contest. Why you ask? Well, because Doug asked me to. Doug had made three different vanilla extracts from the vanilla beans I gave him for Christmas. He made one batch in Moonshine, one in Vodka and one in aged Rum from the New Orleans Rum House. He had been asking me to make cookies to compare the flavors.
My girl, Amanda, gave me her DELICIOUS cookie recipe a few months back and we had been making her cookies on and off. So we decided to make Amanda’s recipe for the contest. I made three separate batches of Amanda’s cookies and the only difference was Doug’s different vanilla extracts. It is pretty amazing how they flavored the cookie so differently.
Everyone tasted the gumbo and voted. And then they attacked the cookies and voted.
We had 19 people in my little condo. It was cozy and fun! 
We did play a round of Telestrations. It is my largest game to date with 19 people!
Then we had a little birthday “cake”. I asked for a fruit cake. It ended up looking rather phallic, but oh well! ha!
Mom also brought the traditional age cake. See my “33” cake!
I had a blast. Thank you to everyone who came!!
To my great husband, I love you! Thanks for making my birthday rock!
Never a dull moment with these kids!
Oh, yeah. If you are wondering who won the cook off….The Gumbo winner was Brandon P (I also loved Ryan T’s!) and I won the Cookie competition with my Rum flavored Chocolate Chip Cookies. Recipe by Amanda B. So actually, I just baked them while Amanda and Doug won. Ha!
Congrats Brandon, Amanda and Doug. You guys are amazing.
Thanks to everyone who came out for the cook off/my birthday. I loved having you over.
Love and Hugs, Lizzie
