Valentine's Date

I love to search for fine dining restaurants in cities I want to visit: New York, Chicago, etc.  I download the menus and thoroughly read them. Call me crazy, but I love to read fancy menus.  A couple months ago I had read a food critics review about a local restaurant and after reading it's menu I mentioned to Tony that one day we should dress up and try it out. 
 
Last night we went on a Valentine's date with reservations and even a babysitter set up weeks in advance by Tony.  Guess where we went?  Yep, the place I had previously mentioned.  I was very excited to hear that we were actually going to one of these places I had spent time reading about! 
I felt like I was in high school again with every hair device plugged in and make up spread all over our bathroom counter. Getting dressed was the easy part as I'm pregnant and have two dresses that currently fit.  The black one or the red one?  I wore the red one in honor of valentine's day :)  I had been wearing the same pony tail for two days straight and was thrilled to getting dressed in anything other than yoga pants.

Dinner was fabulous.  The atmosphere was even better. With less than 20 tables, it was a very intimate setting including chandeliers & mirrors all in the white & beige color scheme.  Our glasses were quickly filled with orange slices then topped with ice & water.  We puzzled at the point of the orange considering it was under all the ice.  Was it for decoration?  Surely we aren't supposed to fish it out with our silverware to squeeze it into the water?  Despite the confusion we enjoyed our non orange flavored orange water, to our waiters disappointment, I'm sure.  We were the "cheap" table since we wouldn't be ordering anything off of the extensive wine menu.

 I had thoroughly studied the menu online before we left, of course, and was excited to see there was a special Valentine's Menu taking place over the weekend.  My only requirement was that I ordered something I wouldn't normally pick, meaning no artichokes, "greek" anything, tomato-basil combinations, etc. 
Here's what we did order:

lobster beignets with a white truffle & mustard dipping sauce.

Bread with olive oil

two large crab cakes over campanelle pasta topped with a roasted red pepper cream sauce

roasted chicken with capers, asparagus risotto & a grilled mushroom prosciutto salad 

Are you drooling yet?
We planned on trying a fun dessert but when it came time we were both so full we passed.  Of course if creme brulee had been featured that night I wouldn't have passed no matter how full I was.

On the way home we realized our whole date had gone without one mention of Charlie! Well, except when we first arrived and I said how humiliated I would have been if we had tried to bring Charlie and were turned away, but that doesn't count.  It was nice to talk & take our time as opposed to frantically reviewing the children's menu first thing, pulling out crackers & juice from the diaper bag and trying to pick up all the little things that fall under his highchair. 

Real life began the next morning as I had raisin bran for breakfast & spent the afternoon cleaning out the spare room.  

It was such a fun night!