Feeling Better

Yes, I feel better. There are still complaints, but they don't seem as significant as they did last week. Conference may have had a lot to do with this. I love conference and the way I feel when I hear the Lord's servants.

But it's probably because we went out to dinner.

We went out for both of our birthdays (convenient that both of us have October birthdays, no?) and we took Annie along. We decided to go very fancy - honestly probably too fancy - but a really fun experience. The restaurant's name is POSH (yes, in ALL CAPS) and they bill themselves as "improvisational cuisine." You choose how many courses you want, tell them what you don't like or any allergies or anything and they create a meal for you. We explained to Annie that they didn't have a kids meal and that she would need to be on her best behavior and try new things.

We ended up getting six courses for John and I and four courses for Annie. On our "menu" we told the server that Annie doesn't like anything spicy, that she was an adventurous eater but not to go crazy. We told them that I was pregnant and that I didn't want anything raw, undercooked or unpasteurized. John said he didn't like cranberries. We told them that we didn't want any uncooked alcohol, coffee or tea in our meal. Then we waited for the first course.

Annie was so excited to find out what she was going to eat and she ate just about everything that was put in front of her. We had an amuse bouche (it was a cucumber, honeydew gelee with a pickled grape) and a "palate cleanser" (frozen grapefruit and huckleberry lollipop).  When Annie had to skip out on courses, she just ate off our plates. It took two hours for us to finish eating, and we loved everything! They made it so special for us - especially Annie.

Just because I think it's interesting, here's our menu, course by course.

John had:
Endive and pear salad
Tuna sashimi-style with gelled soy sauce
Shrimp with ramen (real ramen, not the "top" kind. We joked that we went to a fancy restaraunt and he got ramen).
Alligator gumbo with a potato pancake
Sweetbreads and some kind of greens
Chocolate mouse with chocolate cookie, raspberry sauce with a chocolate gelee

Annie had:
Corn veloute with basil aioli and homade corn nuts
Sea Bass with purple potato puree and asparagus
Quail stuffed with sausage and spaghetti squash
Puff pastry with huckleberry cheesecake

I had:
Beet and Goat cheese salad with microgreens and balsamic vinigrette
Clam chowder shooters with two different types of fancy clams
Fluke with barley rissotto
Frog legs with creamy rice
Ribeye with spinach
Chocolate mousse (same as John - they originally brought me out a green tea brulee thing that looked fabulous and then I reminded them that I told them I didn't want anything with tea and they quickly exchanged it for the chocolate thing).

Annie said that her favorite thing was the quail and she couldn't stop talking about how fun it was for her to be surprised. The waiters were all impressed that she ate everything. We were happy that she was willing to be adventurous and try new things.

This was a good parenting moment for us. We were told that we could have asked the kitchen to make her something a little more "kid friendly," but we were confident that she could handle the adult menu - and we were right! It was so much fun to spend this time with my family and to create fun memories.