Six Years!!

Jonathan and I have been married for SIX YEARS.  Oh my.  That's a long time, right?   I think this marriage is going to stick!  :)   Just kidding, there wasn't ever any question.  Even when I want to punch Jonathan in the face, I still love him more than anyone in the world.

We always try to celebrate our anniversaries in a memorable way...hmmm....does it work?  Let's see if I remember:
1st Anniversary (2006):  Tomasita's Santa Fe
2nd Anniversary(2007): Melting Pot Salt Lake City
3rd Anniversary (2008): NYC, ate paella
4th Anniversary (2009): Taranta and Ames Hotel
5th Anniversary (2010): Restaurant Martin

Although I finally remembered, it took me about a half hour and a lot of soul and computer searching.  But once brought to mind, I remember each of these anniversaries with a warm heart and an over-stuffed stomach.

As you can see there has been a theme...food.  Good food.  Jonathan and I are really different people, with very disparate opinions on a lot of issues, however, one area in which we are absolutely 100% in sync is our love for eating really delicious food (no matter the cost).  We are more than happy to sacrifice what some people would recognize as normal life expenditures (cable, internet, turning over our wardrobes every few years, etc), in order to eat like kings at home and occasionally at restaurants. (Don't let me fool you, we also sacrifice our future income by going into debt now...eek.)  This attitude towards food has changed a bit since Sawyer has been born, of course.   Making gourmet meals or going out to nice restaurants with a baby is no longer as convenient and/or fun as it once was.  However, for our 6th anniversary and our last one to be celebrated in Boston, we went ALL IN.

For four years we have dreamed about patronizing a small but critically acclaimed restaurant called "O Ya."  Oh, and it's Japanese, mostly.  Oh, and it was ranked #1 restaurant in America by the New York Times.  Oh, and it costs a small fortune.  After a lot of back and forth and a lot of budget fudging, Jonathan made a reservation.  And for our anniversary we experienced the bliss of a dream come true on the most romantic day of the year (for us).

O Ya was everything we hoped it would be.  We sat at the bar so we could watch the chefs prepare their masterpieces.  And that's not an exaggeration.  Each morsel of food was a masterpiece of taste, texture, and appearance.  We ordered the chef's tasting, which means that the chef got to bring us whatever food he wanted.  Our dinner took almost 4 complete hours to consume.  Every minute I will remember as one of the most exciting and satisfying experiences of my life.  There's nothing better than having the full attention of a loving husband while stuffing my face with delicious, marvelous food.

Want to see what we ate?

Course 1:  Kumamoto Oyster watermelon pearls, cucumber mignonette

Course 2:  Hamachi with spicy banana paper mousse

Course 3:  Salmon Tataki torched tomato, smoked salt, and onion aioli

Course 4:  Warm Eel thai basil, kabayaki, fresh kyoto sansho

Course 5:  Homemade Russian Fingerling Potato Chip burgandy truffle

Course 6:  Wild Santa Barbara Spot Prawn garlic butter, white soy, preserved yuzu

Course 7:  Fried Kumamoto Oyster yuzu kosho aioli, squid ink bubbles

Course 8: Bluefin Maguro soy braised garlic, micro greens

Course 9:  Kyoto Style Black Trumpet Mushrooms garlic, soy

Course 10:  Shima aji & santa barbara sea urchin ceviche vinaigrette, cilantro

Course 11:  Scottish Salmon spicy sesame ponzu, yuzu kosho, scallion oil

Course 12:  Hamachi veit mignonette, thai basil, shallot

Course 13:  Bluefin Tuna Tataki smoky pickled onion, truffle oil

Course 14: Shiso Tempura With Grilled Lobster charred tomato, ponzu aioli

Course 15:  Grill Chanterelle & Shitake Mushroom Sashimi rosemary garlic oil, sesame froth soy

Course 16: Seared Petit Strip Loin 2oz potato confit, grilled onion, fresh wasabi

Course 17: Foie Gras balsamic chocolate kabayaki, claudio corallo raisin cocoa pulp

Course 18:  Raw Chocolate Carmel ice cream, carmel panacotta, burnt caramel & toasted sesame seeds

Course 19:  Wild Berry Crunch sake sabayon soy milk mascarpone creme

Catching Up: Thanksgiving

We travelled to PA to spend thanksgiving with my mom.  You may or may not have heard by now that she and Ron are getting divorced, and separated around Thanksgiving.  Sad, right?  As is true with any divorce, it's complicated, but everyone feels that it was the right thing to do.  So we hoped that our trip would cheer her up, and I think it did.

Jonathan and I drove down on Wednesday, an overall uneventful trip.  Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving at my Aunt Diane's house with my mom's entire family.  It was really fun.  Jonathan left on Friday afternoon and Sawyer and I stayed behind so we could ride back to Boston with Katie on Sunday. Although it was fun to spend time with Katie, I didn't anticipate the horrible traffic we would encounter on our way home.  Our usual 5 hour trip turned into 9 hours.  Poor, poor, Sawyer.  I think the trip was especially torturous for him since he crawled for the first time that morning just before we left!

This trip was especially wonderful for me because my mom was elated to get up in the morning with Sawyer, which meant that Jonathan I could sleep in until Sawyer's morning nap!  Ahhh!!!! Sweet sleep.  I chase after the dream of sleep.

Here are some highlights:

Banana Cream Pie that Mom made for Jonathan's birthday.

Great Aunt Diane

Great Grandpa and GG

Super Aunt Judy

Aunt Katie is the Best Aunt in the World (except for Aunt Amanda).  Yes, this is Olivia!! So big, right?!

Grammy Love.

 

Catching Up: Sawyer Was a Lab Rat

Every once in a while a Harvard lab will call me and ask if they can conduct and experiment on Sawyer.  Usually they just show him a movie and then watch what he does.  This time they called and asked if they could put probes on his head.  In exchange I would receive $5 and Sawyer would get a prize.  Sign me...er...I mean, my son, UP!

Jonathan and I both took him because we were sure it would be fun to see what Sawyer would do with probes on his head.  Once they had the probes in place they showed Sawyer a silly movie of people reaching for toys.  The people would reach for the same toy a few times in a row and then suddenly reach for another toy!  Gasp! They wanted to see how Sawyer's brain would react to the change.  Jonathan held Sawyer and I went behind the screen with the researchers.  Sawyer contentedly watched the movie.  I watched his brainwave patterns from the corner of my eye.  I didn't really see anything register...I hope his brain is working correctly.  Eek.  Of course the researchers wouldn't tell us anything.

But we gladly took our fresh, crisp $5 bill and bought ourselves some ice cream on the way home.

Sawyer handled the probe hat rather well.  At first every time the researchers put it on, he would reach up to yank it off.  But he got used to it fast enough.  Jonathan told him if he was good, he could have a bite of ice cream...we believe in using sugar to bribe children as early as possible.

Catching Up: Fall is Pretty Where I Live (Nov 11)

Catching Up: Sawyer's Money Shots (Nov 9)

Catching Up: Jonathan Made this Bread...

It was practice for Christmas. It's called Babka. It's a buttery, flaky bread with a chocolate, cinnamon, orange swirl.  I have never felt more lucky that Jonathan is my husband than I did when I took a bite of this bread.

Catching Up: The Big Three O

Jonathan and I both turned 30 this year.  Thirty. XXX.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (that's 30 h's).  I never imagined myself to be 30.  In fact, I would say that the past 10 years I've just sort of been winging it.  I don't think that I've actually had a plan for my life since I was about twenty years old.  Since then, it all feels like a really good but very unpredictable ride.

Turning thirty was not the dramatic event I thought it might be.  I woke up and felt the same way I did when I went to sleep the night before.  I looked in the mirror...it was the same face.  Sure...I'm seeing more wrinkles, sagging, etc...and everything I've read has told me that my metabolism is about to go into hibernation and that my eggs are drying up, but all in all I feel like that same girl I was five years ago, mostly.  Hooray!  Hopefully I can stave off the byproducts of my 30's for a few more years before I have to actively invest in anti-aging products and buy a gym membership.  Ew.

Jonathan of course embraced thirty.  "I like my wrinkles, they make me look wise."  "It's good that I look older because people will take me more seriously at work."  "I can work the Bruce Willis-look."  "Hello, Amanda.  I am a grown-up.  I have been one for a long time, and so have you!"  Ehhh....

Jonathan loves being thirty.  I've just decided not to think about it.  :)

We both had wonderful Birthdays.  Mine was more celebratory than Jonathan's, of course.  Jonathan is so much better at birthdays that I am.  Plus, I threatened him that he had to make my birthday memorable.  I had to make Jonathan celebrate his birthday.  After much arm twisting, he consented to an intimate birthday celebration the night before his birthday, since he would be watching the Republican Debate on the 22nd.  Awesome.

Here's mine:

I woke up in the morning (Jonathan got up with Sawyer and let me sleep in until almost 10!) and came downstairs to an immaculately cleaned house and decorations!  Jonathan also made me breakfast, which included homemade english muffins. 

It was a beautiful fall day.  Not very cold and a beautiful blue sky.  As a gift, Jonathan took the day off of school in order to devote the day to me and my birthday.  He got teary when he told me he was more than happy to do it because it's probably the last time that he will ever get to blow-off an entire day to spend completely with me. We rode the train into Boston and went shopping!  I bought a new winter skirt.

When we got home there were a pile of people waiting for us in my living room.  My sister made the most ridiculously delicious meringue cake with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache.  They all sang happy birthday and I blew out 30 candles!  It was perfect.

My birthday is also Halloween!  Here were our costumes:

Church Halloween Party. We are wearing our Japanese clothes!

This is Jonathan's real Halloween costume from the anime movie Spirited Away, "No Face" or "Koanashi" He made this himself!  

For Jonathan's birthday, I prepared an intimate dinner for the two of us to share.  Of course, it was Japanese.  It took me four hours to prepare.  We finished it off in about 45 minutes.  But Jonathan loved it, so it was totally worth it!

We had tonkatsu (panko crusted, deep fried pork loin cutlet) with cabbage yuzu salad, spinach rolls with toasted sesame seeds, slow cooked marinated shiitake mushrooms, and homemade miso soup.

Followed by a salad of marinated raw tuna, avocado, scallions, and micro greens, served with rice.

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert, but we had homemade green tea ice cream with a steamed kabocha cake.  Yum.

I hope our next 30 years find us as happy and healthy as we are now!

Catching Up: Trip to the Homeland, North Carolina

In October (I know, I'm painfully behind), we took a trip to North Carolina to visit our good friends Tim and Heather, who live near Raleigh.  We met Tim in Tokyo and he provided evening after evening of good company, good food, and excellent entertainment.  He and Jonathan quickly became soul mates (Jonathan doesn't have many of these types of friends) and so our friendship was cemented for life.  The next year Tim married Heather! Hooray, couples friends...even harder to come by.  I love Heather.  She's thoughtful, warm, and makes me feel like it's ok to be me.

I regret that I was in a foul mood for most of our visit.  I was still adjusting to Jonathan being back in school.  Sawyer was still adjusting to a sleep schedule.  And I felt CRANKY.  When I feel overtired and overworked nothing irritates me more than seeing Jonathan fresh and happy.  I'm so bad.  Jon was so happy to see his friend, so eager to spend time with him that I thought I was going to explode with evil feelings.  Luckily, I didn't have any true melt-downs, but we did end up bickering A LOT, and in front of our friends.  Oops.  I regret it now, although at the time I wasn't in the mental/emotional position to make good decisions, and Jonathan isn't one to avoid a fight, especially with me.  In other words, I don't think that we were the most enjoyable guests.  However, our hosts were more than generous.  They showed us an outstanding time.  Took us to eat amazing food.  Let us relax in their luxurious new home.  And overall were excellent friends.  Jonathan and I plan to make it up to them, eventually.

So what did we do?:

1.  We went to the NC State Fair and ate and ate and ate.  My favorite fair food, besides funnel cakes, are giant, smoked turkey legs.  We also traveled, screaming baby in-tow, to the BBQ festival a couple of hours away.  Tasty.  Tasty.  Notice that Sawyer isn't in the pictures.  He was at home with a babysitter.  Heather and Tim helped us open our mind to life beyond Sawyer.  It was nice.  Since then, we leave him with babysitters often.

2.  We saw my old house!   My dad literally picked up this house, put it on two tractor trailers and transplanted it onto its current location.  I loved this house.  I knocked on the door to ask for a tour, but sadly, no one was home.  My room was upstairs where those two window are.  I don't think my parents ever knew this, but I often climbed out of the windows and sat on the roof.  I was cool.

3.  We went out to dinner at a Dos Taquitos (delicious Mexican food) and Elizabeth, my best friend from elementary school, dropped by to say hello.

Happy Couple!

ELIZABETH!!! So pretty.

4.  Thanks to Tim and Heather, we were able to eat lunch with my Grandma, her boyfriend, my Uncle Pete, and his girl friend Genie.  They all fawned over Sawyer.  The food was outstanding.  We were afraid at first since the restaurant looked like a run-down house.  And even though the inside appeared to be decorated for an 80's wedding reception, the southern home-cookin' was exceptional.  I was a little nervous for Jonathan, but he was charmed instantly by my Grandma's southern accent and her kiss on the cheek.  Tim rolled out the "yes, ma'am" when he chatted with my grandma.  He knows how to work the southern ladies (as evidenced my his face in the middle photo below).

5.  The culinary high note of our trip was Beasley's Chicken and Honey.   The menu is short and sweet: southern fried chicken made upscale and urban.  It was simple and delicious.  I still think about it.  The juicy, savory, crispy chicken.  The creamy buttermilk biscuits.  The tangy tomatoes.  Ahh...  I made fried chicken a few evenings ago in memory of the meal we ate there, but, of course, although it was tasty, it was a disappointment in comparison.

This is what I had: Chicken and Biscuit. 

Sawyer lost it.  

All in all it was a lovely trip.  We were happy to see our friends.  We hope to see them again soon!

The Breakers, A Not-So-Quaint Summer Cottage

Our plan was to spend this last year in Boston seeing all the important sites that we've always wanted to see, but have put off until now.  Sadly, our procrastination as proved unfortunate, because this summer, Black Magic, our faithful Honda Civic finally kicked the bucket.  She was a good ole girl, but she just couldn't keep up and decided to take an early retirement.  And because we are students and because we are cheap/living off student loans, we have decided to live without a car for what feels like THE REST OF OUR LIVES.  AHH!!!  I hate not having a car.   As you can guess, not having a car also seriously thwarts our plans to get in all of our "to do's" before we move to NYC.

But, as always, fortune smiled down on us earlier this fall when our good friends the Bates let us use their car while they were traveling for two weeks.  We didn't drive it much, but we did take advantage of our opportunity to drive to Newport, RI to see "The Breakers" something that has been on our "to do" list for a long time.  

What is "The Breakers?"  Well, in the late 1800's, a time period that historians refer to as the "Gilded Age," America's economy and population began to boom.  This era was characterized by a kind of second industrial revolution and it spawned the super-rich families considered to be American royalty like the Rockefeller's, Mellon's, Carnegie's, Flagler's, Rogers', Morgan's, Astor's, and, of course, the Vanderbilt's. Among these mega-wealthy families, it was popular to build summer vacation homes, and the most wealthy built their summer retreats on Bellevue Avenue in downtown Newport, RI.  "The Breakers" is the name of Cornelius Vanderbilt II's (he built railroads) summer home.  It is the most ostentatious and celebrated of these ridiculously fabulous summer "cottages."  We took our friend's car and went to see it!

It's hard to believe that in America there were people who lived like kings and queens in fairy tales.  "The Breakers" has 70 rooms and more than 65,000 square feet of living space and nearly none of it is practical in any way.  Among some of the most fabulous features of the summer home are a platinum-leafed room, a gold-leafed room,  a room made of marble, a bathtub carved out of a big block of marble that had to be filled with hot water 10 times before it became warm enough to bath in, a mosaic tiled pool room, and more that I can't remember.  

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but...here are some....er...photos...that...I uh...have:

After seeing the crazy-ornate and overwhelming breakers, we decided to visit another historic summer "cottage" that isn't know for it's fabulousness, but rather something much more fun: Its Green Animal Topiary Garden.  

Sawyer Loves his Daddy or The Jealousy of a Mother

Sawyer LOVES Jonathan.  Many mornings Jonathan wakes up with Sawyer and takes him downstairs while I get a bit more sleep.  Mornings are special times for Sawyer.  He's groggy, which means he's calm and cuddly.  He'd rather be curled up all warm in your arms than on the floor playing.  I have to say, if I didn't REALLY, REALLY need the sleep I would be jealous of this quiet, boys-only time. Each morning, Jonathan introduces Sawyer to a favorite vocalist like Adele or Sarah Brightman as they cuddle in their jammies on the couch.  Sawyer is especially into this rendition of "Time to Say Goodbye" sung by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

When Jonathan gets home from a long day at school.  Sawyer stares up at his dad with a contented, I'm-happy-you-are-home smile.  It's very heartwarming.  It also makes Jonathan really happy.  When they hug and play, I can't help but immediately join in, because I don't want to be left out of the fun...even though I hang out with Sawyer everyday all day.  It's like, I want a break, but as soon as I see Sawyer and Jonathan being cute together, I get jealous and want a piece of the cuddle action too!

One thing is clear.  Sawyer loves his dad, separately and differently from how he loves me.  Jonathan and I are two distinct people in Sawyer's mind now.  He knows us individually and loves us and reacts to us each uniquely.  And while Sawyer loves us both, there is a little sparkle in his eye when he looks at his daddy's face!