Wild To Child

When I arrived home from work yesterday, our babysitter was sitting in our living room. To my surprise, my wonderful husband had arranged for us to go out to dinner sans children, which couldn't have come at a better time. He made reservations at Branzino, a restaurant which previously employed chef Ashley Merriman, a contestant on the most recent season of Top Chef. Once we arrived, we realized that she was no longer employed there, but the food was still amazing and the service was flawless. Proof that the food on Top Chef is every bit as wonderful as it looks!

I had Roasted Cauliflower Soup, Gnocchi (which included rabbit, mushrooms, and ruby chard), and for dessert...cannoli. While the rabbit meat could not hold a candle to the rabbit my grandmother makes, it's safe to say that it was one of the best dinners I have ever had. The only thing I didn't care for was the Heirloom Beet salad that Evan ordered. But to be fair...I never liked beets to begin with. He also had Duck Confit as his main course and Poached Pear Sorbet as dessert...each sample equally delicious.

For all you wine lovers like myself, they have a great selection...even featuring some from my old stomping grounds out in the Walla Walla Valley!

For all of you from and visiting Seattle I completely recommend giving their food a try! Here is their website for more information:

http://www.branzinoseattle.com/

I've finally decided to take a rest from the hell I call moving. I will never understand how I accumulated so much useless crap. I've been going through all our belongings to prepare for a moving sale this weekend...so we can diminish the amount of "necessities" we have to haul across the state. My daughters have more clothes than I do...a mountain of onesies, dresses, pants, shirts, skirts and any other apparel item you could possibly imagine. And yet, I can't seem to part with almost any of them. I almost dread the day when my daughters or future sons come to tell me that I am going to be a grandmother because then I will break out all the outfits they wore when they were little...and out of the 4 box selection the baby will probably only wear one outfit. And even that will be because they are coming to see me and don't want to hurt my feelings by not putting their kids in the clothes that went out of style decades ago.

While I was doing a load of laundry (washing a small portion of the abyss) the wash machine finished it's cycle while I was laying on the couch. Scarlet walked up to me and said, "get up mommy." I was wondering what she wanted, because she usually doesn't go about things so diplomatically. She grabbed my hand and said "come here" as we walked over to the laundry room. Upon arrival in the laundry room she pointed to the washing machine and said "all clean. Dry!". I was absolutely shocked that she even paid enough attention to the laundry previously to realize the process it had to go through. I must admit I was pretty impressed. Before long, I will be able to get her to do the laundry...and she won't even be able to claim she doesn't know how!