Adventures in Cham-bodia

Last night I had the pleasure of joining two of my friends from work (Jennifer and Beth) and one of our former employees (Dale) for dinner a la Buford Highway. Dale was our former IT/AutoCAD guru and still drops by the office from time to time. He is moving to Asheville in a few weeks, so we wanted to catch up with him before he heads out. Dale lives in Chamblee and recommended that we meet up to have dumplings at one of his favorite restaurants, Chef Liu. Being that Buford Highway can get somewhat sketchy the further you go, I was skeptical at first. But I was assured that this place is legit. After we scheduled the dinner, I opened an old issue of Southern Living and saw that it was featured in the magazine under an article about hidden places on Buford Highway to eat!

Here is what it looks like from outside...



Upon entering, I noticed that the restaurant was very busy and consisted mostly of families from the area dining in. We were seated at a table by the window by a lady who spoke little english.



We left the ordering up to Dale, who ordered a spread of food for the table. The food was brought out quickly and in courses. The first thing we got was Leek Pie. This is one of the dishes that was featured in the Southern Living article and let me tell you, it was the BEST. We had 4 orders of this!



We also ordered wonton soup, chicken and corn dumplings, "soup" dumplings (dumplings that are filled with a broth that you have to eat with a spoon) and lamb skewers. OMG is all I could say! It was delicious and the best part was for a huge meal that left me stuffed we only paid around $9 a person!

"Soup" Dumplings



Lamb Skewers - Yum!



Chicken and Corn Dumplings - all steamed and pretty healthy!



I'm thinking we need to go back for Monday Night Girl's Dinner soon!!

XOXOXOXO

Party at the RITZ!!

Another Christmas party that Ryals and I attended was the Atlanta Lawyer's Club party @ the Ritz Carlton, Buckhead. It was on a Wednesday night so we had to be a little bit tame, but it was so fun (Note: at last year's party, we stayed out past 2, late nighted and felt like crap at work the next day - lesson learned)!

Before the party, we went to Ryals' house for a drink and his dad presented him with an amazing framed piece for his office that had the past 5 generations of Stone family lawyers' law licenses framed - his license being the newest! It was so special!





You can see that I got another wear out of Meredith's beautiful bridesmaid dress - I got so many compliments on it!





We socialized, ate delicious hors d'oeuvres and listened to a swing dancing band. We called it quits around 12 since we had the Boone & Stone Christmas party the next night that we had to save up for...more to come on that next!

XOXOXOXO

2 Happy Years!

It's hard to believe, but this week Ryals and I have been dating for two years! They have been two very happy years! Last night, we went to celebrate at one of our favorite restaurants, Prime (also conveniently located in Lenox Mall). I got my favorite dish of sea bass and he of course indulged in a filet with mac and cheese and spinach. Yummy!!







Cheers!!

XOXOXOXO

A West Wesley Christmas

Sunday night before Christmas, Ryals and I headed back to Atlanta to have Christmas dinner/celebration with his mother's side of the family. I was so thankful to get to finally get to meet some of his aunts, uncles and cousins I had never met!

Aunt Lisa and Uncle Herbert live off of West Wesley. Their house is amazing - I could literally move in that place as-is. We arrived to find that their house is home to two dogs, a few chickens and two GOATS. On top of that, Aunt Lisa is about to buy approximately 20,000 BEES to become a beekeeper...who knew that just off of Peachtree you could find all these interesting creatures!? I LOVED it!

Me and Aunt Lisa playing with the animals...totally didn't know when we took the photo that the GOAT was eating out of the cereal:



Aww I love them!



Whoa now, crazy!



Not so sure about this...



We enjoyed a delicious dinner of homemade lasagna, salad and a yummy trifle for desert. Afterwards we took a tour of the house with Uncle Herbert and got to see many of their family photos and artwork (including a few PENLEYS...swoon). Since Ryals' mother passed away when he was younger, it was so special to get to see photos of her and hear about the type of lady that she was...I think Ryals gets a lot of his sweet traits from her according to what all I have heard!

Next up...Rome Christmas!!

Bye Bye!!




XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

A Very Blakely Christmas

Well....I have officially been a blog SLACKER!! As I sit here with Renee watching the newest Bachelor (gag - can't believe this guy is BACK on here - so much drama), I am realizing that this is the first time since my last post that I have had time to sit down on work on my blog. Lots has been going on since I shared my Christmas list (on December 8th - YIKES). I'll start a series of posts of the holiday festivities that went down with the Muller-Stones!

Ryals and I headed down to Blakely to enjoy some time with the Stone clan! We got to the house late Friday night with John and Kelsey. We had a great dinner courtesy of Mr. Bill Stone and opened some presents with their family friends.

Mr. Roger BUCK loves his presents:



Roger and Judy love Mr. Bill:



Saturday we slept late and later headed over to Dothan Alabama to see a movie. We saw "Due Date" and I thought it was hilarious! I really like Robert Downey Jr. and would definitely recommend this one (maybe as a rental as I'm not sure if it is still out in theaters). Saturday night was a big night eating, drinking and decorating the MASSIVE Stone family Christmas tree! I had so much fun - later on in the night we broke out the family albums and got to make fun of Ryals and his brothers growing up!

The girlfriends picking ornaments:



The Drink Du Jour...CrownBerry Juice! Yum - will bring to the farm this weekend:







After a few Crownberries...





John & Kelsey:



Sunday we had the usual lunch at "Mam Mam's" (his dad's mother) with a massive spread of home cooked goodies! I am usually in a food coma when we leave that place! Amongst the goodies were squash casserole, broccoli casserole, fried cornbread (an invention I had never heard of until I met Ryals - we don't have these things in Rome), delicious ham and a homemade RED VELVET CAKE. OMG

We hit the road after that and headed to Atlanta for round two of family Christmas with Ryals' mother's side of the family...more to come!!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Happy Birthday to BETH!!

Today is my sweet momma's 55th birthday! We celebrated this weekend at the lake (more to come on NYE Lake Blueridge '10) and had the best time. She is going out to dinner with my dad and their friends tonight at their favorite restaurant, La Scala. Happy Birthday Queenie! I love you!