My wish, on a budget

Yesterday my hubby absolutely SPOILED me for my last birthday without kids. My birthday wish was simple: to go out to eat for every single meal. As a foodie, this was an absolute dream for me! I feel like we already have so much stuff and I didn't really want to have to find storage space for more stuff so I made my birthday wish list short and sweet. Graham is a genius and set strict rules for himself to ensure we ate really well while staying within budget. The man is amazing--I don't know where he comes up with the deals that he does but he had a discount for everything which took away a lot of the guilt for all our indulgences (although I must say there was a bit of guilt hangover this morning as I tried to ignore the number I calories I must have consumed yesterday!) :o)

Our day started off at Julia's in Issaquah. This very well might be becoming a traditional breakfast for my birthday. Last year, Graham took me to the Julia's in Wallingford where I experienced the most amazing pancake of my life. So this year, I didn't even have to think twice (or even really look at the menu) when deciding where I wanted to go and what I wanted. Once again, I ordered their skillet-sized pancake with everything in it (blueberries, granola, poppy seeds and chocolate chips) and a fresh-squeezed orange juice. Heavenly! Graham had their biscuits and gravy and a fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice.
I was instructed not to order coffee with breakfast and I obeyed. As if our huge meal wasn't enough, next we headed off to the new Zokas location that just opened in downtown Kirkland. The shop is ultra modern with lots of light wood accents. Here we shared a small caramel soy latte (which was FREE I might add due to a coupon happened upon by my savy husband). The coffee tasted just like what we had in Italy....yum! We enjoyed lots of conversation and people watching here before we headed home for a little nap.
Before we knew it, it was time to eat again! :o) Graham took me to another eastside favorite (I've blogged about it previously): Gilbert's on Main. We ordered their french onion soup that came with a wedge of ciabatta, a mixed green salad with apples and Gorgonzola in a light walnut vinaigrette and a spinach, garlic and swiss bagel with whipped cream cheese. Once again, we were not disappointed!

The weather was starting to clear up and we were both warm in our long pants so we enjoyed our meal out on the patio.

Do I look full yet?

Next, Graham took me down to Pike Place Market so we could play tourist in our own city. Pike Place never fails to disappoint--the flowers in particular were amazing given that we're in the dead of summer. Dahlias and sunflowers are definitely in season right now!

Mr. Romance let me pick out a birthday bouquet. We had to walk the strip of flower stalls twice for me to decide on the perfect bunch. Graham ended up spotting this bouquet which is just what I love--green and white with a splash of orangy color.

After awkwardly trying to take a self portrait of the two of us with the flowers, some nice gentleman stepped in and offered to snap our photo.

By this time, we were actually both quite beat (I mean seriously, we'd be sitting and eating ALL DAY--that's enough to wear anyone out!) We decided to head home to relax and change (and get hungry!) before heading out for dinner. Graham gave me two options for dinner--he wouldn't tell me the names of the restaurants but read me the menus so I could decide. I ended up choosing the menu at Mona's Bistro in Ravenna. We didn't really get any good pictures of our meal because the place was dimly lit and I was embarrassed by our camera flash. Needless to say, the food was great! We started off with an arugula salad with Humboldt fog goat cheese, truffled honey, red peppers and pistachios. The salad with HUGE even though we ordered a small! For our main course, I ordered Wild Boar Papparadelle and Graham ordered the "Spur of the Moment" which happened to be Pork Ravioli with leeks in a Shitake Mushroom cream sauce. He also had a glass of red wine (which unfortunately we can't remember the name of) that had strong earthy and leathery tones. I could only imagine that it went really well with my rich red sauce (Graham said it did). I must say Graham scored with his entree choice--it was divine (thankfully he shared with the birthday girl). My dish was also good but I found it begging for some really good, sharp parmesan cheese to contrast the rich sweetness of the sauce (can you tell I read too many foodie books?)

After dinner, we stopped by Coldstone for my favorite treat: Cake Batter Ice Cream with brownies, cookie dough and peanut butter--which we brought home to share while watching So I Married an Ax Murderer (Graham watched, I fell asleep).

Sigh. What a wonderfully, fabulously, deliciously relaxing day!

(PS-I woke up this morning, went straight on a walk and then had a bowl of bran buds with raspberries as if to counteract my behavior yesterday.) :o)