Yesterday I was able to steal this wonderful moment with her.
For dinner Tuesday night, Donald fixed grilled ponzu wild Georgia shrimp, coconut-citrus rice and sautéed gailon (Chinese broccoli). For dessert it was grilled mini bananas with a coconut caramel sauce and butter pecan ice cream. It was amazing and tasted and smelled like a toasted marshmallow.
Then, on top of that, he cleaned up the kitchen. What a lucky woman I am!
A few weeks ago, he told me he wasn't very busy at work so he would take off so we could spend the day together. I started Stella in Mother's Morning Out on Wednesdays and Fridays two weeks ago. With my birthday falling on a Wednesday, it gave us the perfect excuse to go out to eat. And that is exactly what I wanted...to go out to eat a few times in one day. Enjoying a good meal out without having to worry about another little one is a luxury I don't get too often. So instead of "things", I wanted meals for my birthday.
Well, at daybreak, I was awoken by someone pulling my hair. I could barely get her grip off of it. Then, I was karate chopped and flash dance kicked in the back. Then that same someone threw her forehead into my spine-like dead on, and nearly paralyzed me.
Once I discovered I was not in fact paralyzed and we were all finally awake, we ate, got ready and dropped Stella off at MMO at 9:30.
Stella with her birthday Mommy
We headed down to Atlanta to just ride around and kill time. When we first started dating, we would ride around in the nice and trendy neighborhoods daydreaming. We'd point out houses we loved, ones we hated, ones we were like "What were they thinking?" We had not done this in so long and it was great to do this. We had the windows done with the wind in our hair. It was simple and free (ok, we used gas, but you get the idea) and just relaxing. We went through west Midtown, downtown, Old Fourth Ward, Poncey-Highland and a few other neighborhoods that I don't know the names to or didn't realize we were in. We pulled up at Antico Pizza around 11:15. We were the first to order!
I love this place. I'd only been once before and it was almost a year ago and it was so crowded and I had an itty bitty Stella, so I was otherwise preoccupied, but going back yesterday kid free and early in the day let me see how truly awesome this place is.
Everyone has a task and a station. One guy is cutting and shaping dough in a proofing room. You can see him doing this through a window. I really wanted to smell the room because I imagined it smelling wonderful but the door was shut and it says "private" on the door.
Another person is shaving proscuitto on a slicer. One is grating and breaking the Parmesan into tiny pieces. Another guy forms the dough into a "pizza" shape and tosses it to the guy actually saucing and topping the pizzas. Another is taking the pies in and out of the three ovens. This is a great article on the empire Giovianni is building in West Midtown.
We got the Capricciosa pizza-artichoke hearts, proscuitto, mushrooms and buffalo mozzerella. We sprinkled it with crushed red pepper and fresh garlic. When I had only crust left, I dipped it in amazing olive oil. I actually used "Duh" when talking about the olive oil. I dipped the first bite, made my oh-my-God-that's-delicious-face and said-outloud, "That is really good olive oil." When I said this, I actually thought to myself, "Did you really just say that? Of course it is." But for some reason, instead of saying, "Of course it is" I said, "Duh!" Whatever. I had a dorky moment in a moment of food weakness. We left nothing behind. We ate every slice. With our hands. No forks, no knives, no plates. Just pick it up and shove the deliciousness in your mouth and savor it.
As we were leaving, Donald said he wanted something cold and refreshing. Next door was Caffe Gio-they sold gelato. Well done, Gio. Well done. Technically we didn't get gelato, we ordered sorbet. Mixed berry for me and lemon for Donald. We may have mixed and matched because they complemented each other so well. We sat on the patio listening to Italian music. Wonderful!
We picked up Stella from MMO and came home. We put her down for a nap and laid on the bed being lazy for a little bit. She woke up, she had a snack and then we got ready for dinner. We dropped Stella off at Tiffany and Landon's and headed to Seasons 52 at Perimeter. This place is great. They do healthy, seasonal meals that taste amazing. I was first introduced to this place about seven years ago when my cousin had her bridal shower here. We've been back several times and it's always spectacular.
I had a raspberry mojito-ok, I had two. Donald enjoyed a Prairie Mule. For an appetizer, he enjoyed the summer corn soup and I had a romaine and kale Caesar salad. For our main course, I chose the caramelized grilled sea scallops with the corn risotto, snap peas, tomatoes and lemon butter drizzle. Donald had the whole roasted Branzino stuffed with lemon, bay and thyme served with sauteed broccoli rabe and fingerling potatoes with a chive dipping oil. For dessert, he chose key lime pie and pecan pie. For me-blueberries in lemon curd and peach cobbler. Everything was absolutely fantastic.
After dinner, we got to meet the newest addition to The Bryan Family-Baby Olivia Ann Hower. She was born on Saturday and is an itty bitty. I got to hold her for over an hour and she never made a single peep.
We picked up Stella to find that she had been dancing and playing peek-a-boo in the closet with Landon and giving him kisses and they've even taken a bath together. She even had on one of his shirts when we arrived. They are simply the cutest together and I'm so glad they get along and play well together.
My birthday was truly fantastic and everything I wanted. I am so blessed and happy to be turning 31.
No comments:
Post a Comment