Date Night: Posh

We have made it a tradition of going out for a nice dinner before Jay goes back to work. We were going to go back to Coup des Tartes (see post here) but decided to try something new.

I was flipping through Phoenix Magazine and reading out ideas to see what peaked Jay's interest. After reading this...

"Unique in the Valley, this sleek restaurant serves up 'improvisational cuisine.' There's no menu; just tell Chef Joshua Hebert what you like and don't like, and he'll invent knock-your-socks-off dishes like uni panna cotta or popcorn soup." 

...we were intrigued...so Posh it was.

They start by giving you a "menu" that is a list of all the available proteins for the night. Everything from NY Strip to Halibut to Frogs Legs. You cross off anything you absolutely do not want them to serve you. You also decide here how many courses you want. We decided to go big & picked 7. Jay added the wine pairing to his list as well. Then, there are a few lines where you can write things that you are allergic to or that you really like so the chef can get a taste for what you like. I wrote in that I was allergic to nuts & soy and didn't like mushrooms, mayonnaise, mustard and bleu cheese. I don't think Jay wrote in anything!

Here are the main components of our dinner - at least what we could remember after all those courses:

Amuse-Bouche

Cinnamon Caviar with fried taro root

1st Course

Amie: Salad with red onion, radish and tatsoi

Jay: Salad with chicken liver, sherry dressing

2nd Course

Amie: Raw tuna, cucumber caviar

Jay: Fluke (aka flounder), mushrooms, bok choy

3rd Course

Amie: Monkfish, cucumber

Jay: Breem, mushrooms, parsnip puree

4th Course

Amie & Jay: Bruleed foie gras, fig, pomegranate seeds, mango puree, apricot chutney

5th Course

Amie: Duck, carrot/ginger puree, beets

Jay: Frog legs with horseradish

6th Course:

Amie: Venison, chick peas

Jay: NY Strip, cauliflower puree

7th Course: 

Amie: Deconstructed s'more, espresso beans, edible flowers

Jay: Panna cotta

Everything was really delicious. My favorite course was the 5th and Jay's favorite was the 4th. We had a really fun time guessing what was next and the service was very good!

More importantly, we had a wonderful night together. And in my attempt to make it even more perfect for Jay, we checked the Husker's score a few times on my phone & I resisted from "always taking pictures everytime we go out" - hence the lack of a photo. Next time, I'm having the waitress get paparazzi on us when he's not paying attention :)

Weekend Update: Friends Visit!

Last weekend Tori came in town for a quick visit. She came specifically to get Adam's (surprise) Christmas present, and we were lucky enough to spend some QT with her while doing so :) In order to preserve the nature of the surprise, I'm not going to mention any details of Friday, but let's just say we had a fun time!

Saturday morning Tori found that her flight home got cancelled, so after dropping Jay off at Sun Devil Stadium for some good ol' fashioned tailgating, we headed to one of my favorite places in Scottsdale - Kierland Commons - for some shopping. We had a great lunch, caught up on everything in our lives, and of course, shopped! I found some great sweaters in Anthropologie (best store ever - I think we spent 2 hours in there alone) & thanks to a birthday gift card from my dad, I bought two! 

Later that afternoon Ryan flew in, so Tori & I picked him up from the airport (very handsome in his uniform I might add) and then headed to ASU to pick up Jay. We all had a great night. Ryan's mom was in town on vacation as well, so the 5 of us went to Crust for dinner & drinks. Tori & I shared the Arugula & Prosciutto pizza that was so amazing we couldn't stop gushing about it! Anne, Jay & Ryan shared the Chicken Bruschetta pizza which was yummy as well. 

Anne & the boys:

 Westwinders Unite!!

Guess what? I'm now caught up with my blog posts! One more weekend update to go and then it's Thanksgiving! What are YOU thankful for???

Weekend Update: Family Visit

Jay's parents came to visit the second weekend we were home & we had a great time! 

This is what a good chunk of the weekend looked like - comfy on the couch watching football - specifically Nebraska beat Missouri:

Saturday night we went to the Roaring Fork for a delicious dinner! It was soooooo good. We started with their famous kettle of green chili pork with hot buttered tortillas...yum! Then for dinner I had the Sugar Cured Duck Breast with onion jam, sour cherry mustard and little cabbages. Jay had the RF Mixed Grill which included baby back ribs, rotisserie chicken, shrimp and sausage.

 Ed had issues with the chair. Memorable moment...

Saturday before heading out to dinner, I started working on Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls. I had wanted to try the recipe for a long time and decided this weekend was the time to go for it! It wasn't until I started mixing the ingredients that I re-read her blog post & realized that the recipe made 7 pans!!! Yikes! 

 

As you can see they did turn out quite delicious & I had enough to share with my friends at work and even freeze 2 pans for later!

After we stuffed our faces with doughy deliciousness, we headed over to Desert Botanical Garden for a little walk. It was a gorgeous fall day & perfect weather to explore. I had been telling Karen & Ed about the Chihuly exhibit that I sadly missed out on a year or two ago & I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had one installation left. Here you can see the beautiful "Desert Towers" project that the garden is raising money for so it can be a permanent fixture. Can you believe it's glass??

 Awww. Happy to have my husband home!

 I loved this particular cacti. Can't remember its name, but it had the word "button" in it. Super cute polka dots :)

With it being Halloween, there was a big Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration going on. This lovely skeleton drinking a beer greeted us.

 Pretty flowers that remind me of home for some reason:

 Gorgeous sundial that had flowers/plants set just right to tell the time (and it was accurate!):

 Handsome husband among the Saguaro:

 Who says the desert isn't green??

Thanks Karen & Ed for a great visit! We really enjoyed seeing you!!

Weekend Update: 2 Weekends Ago...(part 2)

Friday night we ate dinner at the hotel - Jay got a panini and I had a sandwich of some sort. I can't remember the exact details because we shared a side of macaroni & cheese and omgitwassogoooood.

There was a wedding going on at the pool outside of our room, so while we talked ourselves out of crashing it, we watched movies and I danced around the room and the patio to the tunes. 

Saturday was my birthday & we got up very early thanks to my alarm on my phone (and forgetting that it was MONDAY, not Sunday). Not my favorite part of the day, but I did enjoy putting on some long sleeves since it was a cloudy & chilly morning, and heading over to Koffi across the street for some pastry & coffee. We sat there & watched the old people reading their newspapers and the M-F workers grab their cuppa Joe before work. I always love that reminder of being on vacation - these other people are going to work & I am not. 

It was now time for our massage! Jay suggested a couples massage which was a nice treat! Afterwards we enjoyed the sauna for a bit before heading back to the pool. Even though it was still a little cloudy, I think we got the best part of our tans on this day. It was a great time to read & people watch...but soon enough we were hungry again & I was craving a burger! 

We found this place online called Tyler's (can't find their website but this blog post explains it pretty well) and set out to downtown Palm Springs to find it. After a few wrong-turns, we finally found this cute little place in the middle of a parking lot. I got sliders (delicious!), Jay got a cheeseburger and we shared a basket of fries. The lemonade was homemade and hit the spot. I loved the patio seating and the casual location.

We were so full we decided to take a walk. The downtown was super cute. Described by Jay as "Spanish Revival...1920s & 1930s..."(don't act like you aren't impressed...). I liked the Walk of Stars - just like in Hollywood...names like Elvis Presley & Bob Hope lined the streets. There were old photos of Rock Hudson & other celebrities enjoying the area from several decades ago. Palm Springs definitely prides itself on  its history which was really nice!

We got back to the hotel around mid-afternoon & had a coffee break at the hotel's casual restaurant. 

It was very diner-like and I liked it! Plus, how cute are the creamer & sugar containers? And these stools?

I started feeling artsy. I need to learn bokeh on my camera. I want to really bad. Maybe my friend Joe will help me?

Heading back to the room, Jay actually smiled for the picture but all I got was this...

Room 531. You walked through this wooden door to our patio & then into our room. I loved the door. 

Aren't the fixtures cute? Rustic. I like that too. 

And then it was time for dinner! I was so excited because the place we selected - Castelli's - was highly recommended to us by the CFO at my work. She goes every year and gave it rave reviews. We were definitely not disappointed! We shared the Fried Artichoke Hearts to start and then for the main course we each had one of their specialties. I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and Jay had the Osso Bucco. Both were delicious! 

And the wine. Ahhhh the wine. It deserves it's own paragraph. We splurged on a bottle of Bolla Amarone and I was in heaven. It was absolutely delicious. Yummy. Just thinking of it is making me salivate. 

                                                

It made Jay feel sexy...

                                                

And why do I love my husband so much? Because he isn't afraid to splurge on the finer things in life and he makes me laugh. A lot. 

For dessert Jay had the Creme Brulee (of course) and I had attempted eating a slice of cheesecake. We shared two different glasses of port wine and some coffee before calling it a night. Our fabulous waiter gave us a tour of the restaurant (I was ready for a mobster to walk out of the shadows at any minute) and then handed us a check along with a shot each (including himself!) of Sambucca. What a night!

Thanks hun for a wonderful birthday!!!

Weekend Update: 2 Weekends Ago...(part 1)

Two weekends ago, my husband came home!! It had been a long, LONG time, so it was so nice to see the countdown on my phone get closer and closer to the big day :) Also interesting to note: Scottsdale had rain on 10/21?! 

Jay came home Friday afternoon & we enjoyed a nice little late night dinner at Crust. Saturday I had acupuncture & then Jay went to yoga with me! Of course, after watching some Nebraska football!

Sunday morning we got up, packed, and got on the road. It was a nice slightly overcast morning and the drive to Palm Springs just flew by. Ok, it really didn't. It sucked. It felt like it took forever. 

But we made it! We had gotten a great deal via TravelZoo (have you ever tried it? We got a great deal for our Montreal trip here too) at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club.

The hotel is an old-school motel that has been renovated into a funky retro hotel. We had a patio room that felt very "surfer" to me...

I loved that we had our own private patio to enjoy...

And can you tell that it's a party hotel? They had quite the stash available to us...

Once we checked in, we immediately got into our bathing suits to lay out by the pool. They have a pool party on Sundays with a DJ, so we laid out a bit and Jay got us come cocktails. The drink menu had some interesting items on it so Jay started us off with a drink called a Figa. It's made with house-infused fig vodka, earl grey tea & honey tangerine. Um. It was gross. So guess what? Jay drank both of them. 

Then, he ordered me a Caphirina (cachaca muddled with lime & kiwi) and I didn't like that one either. So...Jay drank it! I thought it was pretty funny: 

(I'm wearing a beautiful shirt that Jay brought home for me! I look super fat in it here, but it's real cute in real life!)

And THEN, I ordered a margarita (below) and was happy! Jay, on the other hand...was drunk :)

Lesson learned: Order the margarita. 

Weekend Update: Trouble x2

Jay was nice enough to book me a trip to Kansas City for Labor Day weekend. I was so excited to see Liam & Xander (and Todd & May too!) - we hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving!! 

Todd picked me up late Friday night so I woke up Saturday morning to the sounds of two 2.5 year olds requesting "Jay TV". It was so great - walking downstairs to some big hugs and "Aunt Amie!". Melted my heart! 

May had to work Saturday morning, so Todd & I took the boys to Costco & Toys R Us to get some errands done. In the afternoon after their nap, we took them to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. This place is amazing! It's huge and has tons of animals and several different play areas. This is the best picture I could get of Todd, Xander & Liam before we entered the park.

Xander peeking over the fence at the geese.

Liam was most interested in the play areas. Check out that static hair!!

When we got home I tried wrangling the boys together for a photo. This was the best I could get!! (notice a trend??)

Saturday night May was nice enough to let Todd & I head to the bar to catch some of the Nebraska game. It was the first of the season & we kicked butt! :) I'm so used to being with Jay to watch the games, but Todd - thanks for being the stand-in - I had a great time!

I had purchased some finger paints at Toys R Us Saturday morning & Sunday before bath was the perfect time to give them a go! It made me think of their first birthday when neither of them was very pleased to have cake on his hands. The paints had the same effect. That is...until Liam got pissed and smeared it all over (Go Liam!!!):

(don't you love how artistic Liam looks holding the paintbrush like that?)

...and until we gave Xander a paintbrush. 

Sunday after nap, Todd & I brought the boys to Wonderscope. What a cool place! It's an old school converted into a kids museum with all these different themed rooms for the kids to enjoy.

This room was called "Small Wonders" and was probably the boys' favorite. It had bridges, tunnels, stairs, and all sorts of things they could play on. 

Liam liked playing with the Legos in the underwater-themed lego room:

It was equipped with submarines made out of legos!

Xander liked to push all the buttons!

Everything inside was even made with Legos - even the coffee maker, fridge & microwave in the below picture!

Sunday night was girls night! I was excited to go out with May and her friend Wendy for their weekly escape :) We had dinner & drinks al fresco - the weather was just perfect! It was great getting to know Wendy & honestly, getting to know May even more as we have never gone out together alone before! Thanks May for inviting me out - I had a great time! 

Monday we just hung out around the house which was really nice. I once again attempted to get a good picture of me & the boys:

Xander wasn't too pleased, though it looks like Liam thinks it's funny!

Slowly wriggling out of my lap...

Checking to make sure the girls are still contained (they got set free on Saturday during our first photo shoot):

....and we're spent. Maybe next time :) 

Thanks Todd & May for having me! I had such a great visit & can't wait to get back over there!!