12 years: Watermelon Mai Tai

On August 6, Thatboy and I celebrated 12 years of marriage.

It's crazy.  I barely feel old enough to have a nearly 7 year old, let alone be married for 12 years. 

Before Thatkid was born, we used to go all out with anniversary celebrations.  But that became a lot harder once we had kids. 

This year we had tickets to a show that just happened to be 2 days before our anniversary and we decided to celebrate early.  We called up the babysitter, made reservations at Juniper and Ivy, and made an evening out of it.


Thatboy had been wanting to try Juniper and Ivy for years, but we just don't get downtown by ourselves often, and it's not a kids restaurant. 

We started off with a couple of fancy drinks while we exchanged presents.

Soon after we were greeted with an amuse bouche from the chef - their version of deviled eggs - a meringue base with whipped egg yolk which literally melted in your mouth.

We decided that rather than order entrees (plates) we would order a bunch of the smaller plates and share, tapas style.  That way we could try more things from the menu. 

First up were chicken curry arancini balls, and Thatboy's favorite menu item, Baja Yellowtail tostada.

Then came the lamb with pine nuts.

One of the restaurant specialties is their buttermilk biscuit.  We got our with a fois gras butter.  This was right up our alley - hot and served in its own baking dish, with the butter melting down into it.

Next came the salads.  Thatboy can't turn down anything with heirloom tomatoes, so the tomato salad with jalapeno caught his eye.  And the watermelon salad with granita and avocado seemed like a wonderful fresh summer salad.  Both had just the right amount of kick to make them both refreshing and spicy.

Neither of us can turn down burrata, so obviously the burrata and nectarine salad made its way to our table.

Round 2 of drinks.

Then came the more main-course bites.  This lasagna layered thinly sliced potato with pork belly.  It was so good, I'm thinking of playing around to try and make my own version for Passover this year. 

The Carne Cruda Asada was topped with quail egg and cotija.  I couldn't get over how cute the little quail eggs were on top. 

Our final dish was the Uni Carbonara.  I'm fairly sure that uni is the reason the word umami was invented.  It captures the flavor perfectly.

We ended the evening with the restaurant's signature dessert - the Yodel.  A twist on a swiss roll, chocolate cake filled with white chocolate balls with hot chocolate poured over top.  And to celebrate our anniversary, the kitchen also sent over sparkling rose and a chocolate ice cream bar.

We enjoyed our dinner so much, we ended up being a little late to our show.  But in keeping with the evening, it was a fantastic show and a wonderful addition to the evening.  It was one of the nicest anniversaries we've spent since the boys were born.

In keeping with the celebratory theme of the evening, I thought a drink recipe might be nice.  Thatboy and I really enjoyed the specialty cocktails at Juniper and Ivy and it made me realize that we mostly have been sticking to beer and wine at home.  So I decided to fancy it up a bit.

We had made a recent trip to IKEA while redoing the boys' rooms this summer and picked up some elderflower syrup.  Which is such a great addition to summer drinks - both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.  Which is how it got added to a watermelon mai tai recipe AND a lemonade recipe.  Something for Thatboy and I to enjoy, and something for the boys to enjoy!

Watermelon Mai Tai (Adapted from the Food Network)

1 cup cubed watermelon

6 Tbsp rum

1/4 cup elderflower syrup

juice of 2 limes

2 Tbsp sugar

1. Puree all ingredients.
2. Serve over ice.

Elderflower Lemonade

Juice of 5 lemons

1 cup sugar

3 cups water

1/4 cup elderflower syrup

1. Combine all ingredients.  Stir until sugar dissolves.  
2. Serve over ice.

Crave Wednesday: Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

On Sunday, Thatboy and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary.  11 years you guys.  That's over a decade of being married.

We celebrated by getting rid of the kids for a couple of hours.  That's right!  A Day Date!

We headed to Temecula for some wine tasting, but stopped on the way to grab breakfast.  It was one of those spur of the moment things, googling places while on the highway and pulling off before we got into town.

Our destination was Cork Fire Kitchen, the restaurant at the Temecula Creek Inn.  One of the things that makes this place especially special is that it's part of the same hotel group as The Surf and Sand, where we got married 11 years ago.

The inn itself was really pretty, and quiet.  It looked like a great place to stay if you were planning a trip to the area.  We are already trying to figure out a time we can come back and stay.

We decided to split a couple of their breakfast items, since both of us wanted to try the chipotle chorizo benedict.  We also ended up with the citrus chia pudding.  I've been really into chia pudding lately, and although Thatboy was wary, he ended up really enjoying it.

With the food in our belly, we were ready for our wine country adventures.

We had picked several wineries to try that weren't as kid friendly as the ones we usually go to.  Our first stop was Doffo.

We were expecting to be more wowed than we were.  The syrah and malbec were enjoyable, but the rest of the wine list left us unimpressed.

I did like the 3-D video they showed of the winery!

Our next stop was definitely somewhere we couldn't go with our kids.  Briar Rose winery is adults only.  That's right, you have to be 21 to even be on the grounds.  And just like the 21+ pools, we definitely enjoyed the child free atmosphere.  We enjoyed the wines here more than at Doffo, again sticking with reds.  Just due to lucky timing we even got to taste one of the oldest bottles in Temecula.  They had just opened the second pressing of a 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon.

If Briar Rose felt like something out of a fairy tale, that's because it was.  The winery is housed in a replica of Disney's Snow White Cottage, built by one of Disneyland's imagineers for his wife.

While working at Disney, he designed parts of Toontown and Fantasyland.  And the Toontown roofing found its way to this Temecula replica.

The inside also stayed true to the theme.  Although it's not open to the public, you can peek in doors and windows.

Other parts of Disneyland adorn the grounds.  The lanterns that hang on either side of the entrance once lit the way in the Haunted Mansion.

And the one above this clock once hung in Splash Mountain.

The rocks at the front of the grounds came from Indiana Jones.  And to keep with the Snow White theme, there are little dwarves hanging out all over the vineyard.

We spent a long time at Briar Rose and realized it would probably be a good thing to eat again.  At the recommendation of the staff at Briar Rose, we headed over to the restaurant at the Avensole winery.  We ended up making a meal of some appetizers.  Baked brie, roasted brussels sprouts, and a crab cake.

After lunch we had time for one more winery.  We went back to a tried and true, Palumbo.  We both really love this winery, but it's small, which isn't great for young children.  So we used this opportunity to stop by and pick up a bottle of one of our favorite Cabernet Francs.

We headed home and spent the rest of the days with our boys.  Who could care less about our anniversary.  Or 11 years.  They have their own things going on.  And while they want to include us in those things, it's really all about them.  What they want.  And right now?  What they want is ice cream.  It IS summer after all.  And we've been doing a lot of ice cream lately.  Including an ice cream dinner on Saturday night.  Thatkid even made ice cream at preschool last week, by putting cream and sugar in a bag surrounded by ice and "squeezing" it.  When he asked if we could do that at home I assured him we had a much better way of making ice cream - the ice cream maker.  Just pour the ingredients in, and no squeezing required!

This is a basic, light, ice cream.  Many cheesecake ice creams feature graham crackers, or more of a cake like consistency.  This one creates a cream cheese base with fresh blueberries simmered down to a thick syrup.  Pieces of blueberries remain making it seem really bright and summery.

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (From Cooking Light)

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

4 egg yolks

3 cups 2% milk

1 cup half and half

3 cups fresh blueberries

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup water

1. Combine sugar, cream cheese and egg yolks in an electric mixer and mix at high speed until smooth.
2. Bring milk and half and half to a boil in a heavy saucepan.  
3. Gradually add half of the hot milk to the cream cheese mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk.
4. Return milk mixture to the pan and cook over medium low heat until the mixture reaches 160 degrees, stirring constantly.
5. Place pan in an ice filled bool and cool completely, stirring occasionally.
6. Bring blueberries, powdered sugar, and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and cool completely.
7. Stir the blueberry mixture into the milk mixture. Pour into the freezer can of an ice cream maker and and process.  
8. Spoon ice cream into a freezer safe container and freeze for 1 hour or until firm.

A Homemade Life: Winning Hearts and Minds Cake

Yesterday was our 9 year anniversary.  9 years.

9 years of being silly.

Being serious.

Sharing laughs.

Sharing tears.

We've gone from being kids.

To having kids of our own.

And every year has brought us closer together.

The 9th Anniversary is the Willow Anniversary.  Thatboy's card to me included a quote from Bruce Lee - "The willow survives by bending in the wind."  I laughed when I read it.  "Are you really quoting Bruce Lee?" 

"I know, but the quote is still a good one!"  And really, it is rather fitting for an anniversary.  Our marriage has survived, we have survived each other, through our ability to bend.  To be adaptable to changing winds.

Thatboy's gift to me commemorates the strength of the willow through art. 

And I got him a picnic basket.  Made of willow.  Containing information about a surprise weekend trip I booked for us.  He was actually more excited about the basket itself than I was expecting, but the weekend trip really sealed the deal.

We went out to dinner to try a new local restaurant I'd read good things about - and the reviews were dead on.  I'm so excited to have a local, artisinal, farm to table restaurant to call "home."  Even though we had to bring the boys with us, we enjoyed our meals, from the compressed melon salad we started with, all the way to the butterscotch pot de creme at the end.  And then we came home to cake.  Because what kind of celebration would it be without cake?  But not just any cake.  This is the cake that Molly Wizenburg served at her wedding.  Or cakes, since she made one for each table.  Seems fitting for an anniversary.

The cake is almost like a chocolate lava cake, with a dense, rich, center that seems held together only by chocolate itself.  It has that undercooked, fudgey flavor, the search for which causes many people to pull their brownies from the oven early.  Brownie-like is actually a good description for this cake, with it's crackly exterior and decadent chocolate interior.  I highly recommend it for your next anniversary, birthday, or Thursday night.

 

Winning Hearts and Minds Cake (From a Homemade Life)

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 3/4 stick butter, cut into cubes

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar

5 eggs

1 Tbsp flour

1. Preheat the oven to 375.  Butter an 8 inch round cake pan.  Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, and butter the paper too.  Put the chocolate and butter in a medium microwavable bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time, stirring often, until just smooth.
2. Add the sugar, stirring well to incorporate.  Set the batter aside to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one by one, stirring well after each addition.
4. Add the flour and stir to mix well.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly crackled, the edges are puffed, and the center of the cake looks set.  
5. Remove the cake to a cooling rack and let it cool for 15 minutes.  Turn the cake out of the and then flip it onto a serving plate, so that the crackly side faces up.  Cool completely before serving.

15 Years: Dill Pickles

Yesterday Thatboy and I celebrated the fact that we have been together 15 years.  15 years ago we took the first step in our relationship.  It's so crazy to think about, such a huge chunk of time.  And the people we are now are so very very different than the people we were then.  Not in the major ways, because people don't really change, but we are so much older and wiser.  We've weathered storms, we've grown up and become more responsible, we're parents!

We had decided we weren't going to do anything to celebrate.  We tend to acknowledge this anniversary with a simple "Happy Anniversary!" and use our wedding anniversary to really celebrate our relationship.  However, yesterday Thatboy texted me and told me he really wanted to head out to dinner.  While on our wedding anniversary we tend to go out just the two of us, last night we headed to a family dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  Thatboy drank beer while I drank root beer.  Ahhhh pregnancy. 

One of the stereotypes of pregnancy is the idea of pickles.  I don't know how true that is, but I know the vinegary things are high on my list of favorites.  I can't entirely blame pregnancy, I've had a thing for pickled onions since making them last summer.  But I do know that olives and pickles are some of my favorite snacks.  And while olives have a little bit of a complex brining process, pickles are easy.  So much so that I've been making them at home, on my own.  So easy, not terribly time consuming, and just as delicious as what you've picked up in the stores.  So much so, Thatboy has become just as addicted as I have become.  And he certainly can't blame pregnancy!

Dill Pickles

 12 cucumbers (3-4 inches)

1 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup salt

dill sprigs

1 peeled garlic clove

1. Put the cucumbers in the sink and cover with cold water.  Let stand overnight
2. Drain and pack the cucumbers in a hot, sterilized quart jar.
3. Combine the vinegar and salt with 2 cups of water in a pot and bring to a boil.  Pour over the cucumbers leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
4. Add sprig or two of dill and garlic clove to the jar and seal.

8 years

8 years ago it seemed the blueness of the sky was only matched by the blueness of the water.  We gathered those we loved to declare our love for one another.

8 years ago we were so much younger, thinner, and more optimistic.  We had our whole lives before us and it was filled with endless possibility.  We were young and in love, and there was nothing we couldn't do.



We have grown up so much in the past 8 years, but we have done so together.  In many ways, this has probably bound us closer together.  We have supported each other through the deaths of our father.  We have brought new life into this world.  We have struggled and we have persevered.


 



















This year we bought our first home.  It's a big step for us, a putting down of roots.  A new beginning, 8 years in.  Because we never stop growing together.