Seven Years

David and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on Saturday, June 6th. Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's been that long and other times, it seems way too short. I feel like David and I have always been together. Strange to think there was a time when he wasn't in my life. 

David's parents have been offering for months to spend the night with Zara and Adelaide so we could have a whole day and night to ourselves. As much as I relished the thought of a whole night away from the girls, we just never did it because of David's work schedule or my anxiety over leaving the kids. But finally, I declared to David that I must have a night off and it should be over our anniversary weekend. So I forced him to take Friday off from work and finally commit to some plans. 

After bouncing a few ideas back and forth, we finally settled on nice dinner at a great restaurant and we snagged the last remaining reservation for what is considered Atlanta's best restaurant, Bacchanalia. David and I are both secretly foodies at heart and we love going out to good restaurants and eating well-prepared and plated food though we obviously don't get to do it too often. I was looking forward to Bacchanalia for weeks. 

But Thursday morning, I thought my dreams of culinary bliss were to be completely devastated by a particularly ill-timed case of food poisoning. I'm not sure what did me in, but I went to bed on Wednesday feeling rather queasy and was not surprised to awaken early on Thursday morning feeling even worse. I'm particularly fortunate to not be a frequent vomiter (I never throw up during my pregnancies) so I was both horrified and relieved to empty the contents of my stomach that morning. I felt pretty awful and slept through much of the day. I only ever managed to eat two popsicles and a piece of toast. Friday I had more luck eating but I was barely able to choke down the smallest amount of breakfast and lunch so I didn't have high hopes for relishing my entire 5 course meal that evening. 

In any event, David's mother arrived around 1pm and after finishing our last minute preparations, David and I took off to our first destination -- a nail salon to get pedicures. After our pedicures, we headed to our hotel to check in before getting ready for dinner. We had debated between staying at a hotel in downtown Atlanta where we'd be closer to the restaurant/nightlife, but ultimately decided to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn that was minutes away from the Atlanta temple. In addition to being much cheaper, we also wouldn't have to pay for parking. It seems a little silly to pay $30+ dollars to park downtown. 

With Friday traffic in full swing, it took us nearly an hour to get to the restaurant from our hotel, but we still arrived 10 minutes early for our 5:30 reservation (the only time slot they had left), but we were the first patrons to arrive and so we got the best seat in the house, a cozy corner table with an excellent view of the entire dining room and kitchen. The dinner service was impeccable and lasted 2 hours from start to finish. In addition to the 5-course tasting menu, they bring a lot of little sides and supplemental dishes. It was an incredible culinary experience and I'm grateful to say that my stomach behaved itself and I got to enjoy my entire meal. (I did have to take it slow and didn't get to eat everything.) 

This was our menu for the night and David insisted that I list what we had so we remember. I really wanted to take pictures of all our plates, but I thought that might be a little tacky so I resisted. 

Extra - Cheese puffs and Summer Squash Soup with Radish

First Course - David ordered the Chilled Maine Lobster and I ordered the Berkshire Pork Lonzino. I couldn't order most of the dishes from this course because most of them were raw, but I did love my thinly sliced pork with pickled vegetables. David liked his lobster. 

Extra - Bread 

Second Course - David got the Gulf Crab Fritter and I got the North Georgia Rainbow Trout. I think both of these were our favorite dishes of the night. I think David's crab fritter may have just nudged out my trout for the top slot, but both were really, really good. 

Third Course - I got the Wood Grilled Prime NY Strip and David got the Jamison Farm Lamb prepared three ways. These were both really good but not as stunning at the previous course. 

Fourth Course - For the cheese course, David got the Goat's Milk Feta with strawberry, cucumber and oats which was delicious. I ordered the Consider Bardwell Rupert which was a little disappointing. It was a very strong cheese and used a little heavy handedly and I couldn't finish my salad. This is the only course I wish I had ordered differently. 

Intermezzo - Strawberry buttermilk smoothie with chocolate shavings

Fifth Course - David ordered the Almond Tart while I got the only chocolate dessert on the menu, the Warm Valrhona Chocolate (which was very brownie-like) with gelato and toffee. Excellent dessert but very rich. 

But after that, they brought us a brown butter cupcake with cream cheese frosting (pictured above) as an anniversary extra. And THEN they brought out a selection of cookies. The cookies nearly did me in. For the first time in our marriage, David had to finish dessert because I couldn't do it. 

We left feeling very full and very satisfied. It was a very expensive but very delightful dining experience. There's nothing like good food and excellent service to make you feel content and happy. We loved our dinner. 

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. We had planned on going swimming in the hotel pool, but I was too stuffed and still a little sick so we opted just to lay in bed and watch TV. The next morning, we had breakfast at our hotel before heading for the 10am session at the Atlanta temple. My next planned stop was lunch at The General Muir, a Jewish delicatessen near Emory University. We even drove all the way down there, but David and I were still so full from dinner and breakfast that we couldn't even bring ourselves to order anything and so opted for dessert. I'm still a little mad that I couldn't fit in a few latkes or some pastrami. 

We had a wonderful anniversary and I'm grateful to David's parents for watching the girls for us. I've never gotten to spend the night away from the kids and it was a such a treat to have all that alone time with David, just the two of us. I hope we get to do something like it again someday. 

Dinnertime at the Malones

Dinnertime is a comical affair in the Malone household since it's usually just me and the girls.

Let me paint the scene at dinnertime most nights. Two seconds after sitting down to eat, Zara will realize she needs to go to the bathroom and will disappear for at least 10 minutes. Eight of those minutes will be spent singing and/or playing with the bath toys. 

Adelaide will eat her food with varying degrees of cleanliness. When she's either offended by a food I've provided for her or decided she's done eating, she'll start throwing all her food, cups, bowls, and utensils on the floor and start waving her hands in the air, the sign for done.

Zara will return and pick at her food for approximately two minutes before declaring it's disgusting and asking for something else which she will be denied. She'll then find a puzzle,  coloring book, or book to occupy her while I clean up a messy baby.

Adelaide, finally released from her high chair will persist in climbing on top of the table, stomping her feet, and throwing Zara's uneaten meal to the ground with shrieks of delight. (This photo was taken just seconds before Adelaide threw that piece of naan she's holding across the kitchen.)

Finally banished to another room, I will get a chance to eat my own food which is now cold.

So who wants to come over for dinner?

Something on a Stick Day

Seven years ago, I had this crush on a guy in my ward. We'd hung out a few times but he was very busy and I hadn't seen him around much and I was getting a little bummed out about that. My sister and I devised a plan to throw a dinner party with the express purpose of luring him to our house so I could see him again. We looked up a list of random national days (like national ice cream day or PI day) and discovered that March 28th was "Something on a Stick Day." So we decided to put together a fondue dipping party where everything we ate would be eaten from a stick and dipped into some sort of fondue or sauce. We invited several friends (including said crush) and had a delicious meal. 

David (my former crush....obviously) still fondly remembers that night. In fact, every March, he often casually mentions something about eating things on stick and how much fun that is and shouldn't we that again? And every March, I forget all about it until the day has passed. 

But this year, I finally managed to remember and we celebrated last Thursday with foods on a stick.

For an appetizer, we ate cheese on pretzel sticks. (Surprisingly tasty.)

Our main course was keababs of steak, potatoes and pineapple dipped in a creamy cilantro sauce.  

And for dessert, we had fruit kebabs dipped in nutella or a honey yogurt fruit dip.

Zara was rather unimpressed by food on a stick, but David and I really enjoyed reliving a moment from our early days of courtship. If you ever need a fun dinner idea, I highly recommend something on a stick. I'm normally not much for making a big deal out of made-up holidays (and even more mainstream holidays) but I think this is one tradition we may have to make a more permanent part of our family.