Thirteen Years

Well, Jen and I made it through the 'unlucky' year of our marriage, and I must say it was one of the best so far! So much for superstition.

We went out last night to W.A. Frost in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood of St. Paul. (That's where all those houses you liked were, Mom.) They've been in the neighborhood for 30 years and have a great menu!

We started with

Tasting of Savory Cones
wild acres duck rillette and lingonberry with chive batons, red snapper ceviche with local corn and avocado, smoked salmon mousse with dill


Those were interesting. I think my favorite was the red snapper ceviche.

For the first course, Jen had

Garlic Roasted Asparagus
fried organic egg, parmesan, house made guanciale, breadcrumbs, creamy saffron vinaigrette & minced chives

and I had

Mixed Green Salad
citrus vinaigrette, port reduction, cherry tomatoes and julienne carrots


Jen's asparagus was great! The salad was good, too, but the asparagus was really exceptional.

For the main course, Jen chose

Pan Roasted Norwegian Salmon
goat cheese risotto, bloody mary consommé with petite herb salad

and I had

Grilled Tandoori Rubbed Ahi Tuna
mango and Thai chili relish, julienne sugar snap peas and cucumber raita

The goat cheese risotto was amazing!

Jen had a glass of Riesling with dinner and I had a Corona. Odd choice for me but none of the wines sounded good with grilled Tuna.

We skipped dessert.

On the way to Como Park, where we were going to walk around, we were talking about the meal and how well the flavors were balanced and new and fresh. We came to the conclusion that you really do get what you pay for with food, but wondering if there were exceptions to that. Can you find an inexpensive restaurant somewhere that just goes all out? I suspect it would be in some small town where some chef is retiring to a labor of love or something ... maybe a Babette's Feast kind of situation.

By the time we got to Como Park and Jen had fed Charis it was getting late and she just wouldn't stop fussing, so we decided not to walk around the lake.

Instead, (in another beautiful moment from my beautiful wife) Jen suggested we stop by National Camera and Video and pick up a polarizing filter for my camera with the money we got from Mom and Dad for our anniversary!

I thought it would be about $50 but we got there and the exact filter -- Promaster 67mm Circular Polarizing Filter -- was on clearance for half price!!!

I'll have to post my experiments later.

On the way home we stopped off at the Grand Ole Creamery - one of the top 10 places in the US to get an ice-cream cone apparently.

Here's to 13 years and many more!

I love you, Dearest!

2 comments:

Eyes_Wide_Open said...

Happy Anniversary you two! Sounds like a lovely evening.

As for the food thing, you really do get what you pay for. You can come to my house for gourmet and it will be truly "on the house." ;)

Mainely Me said...

Glad you had a night out. The food sounds interesting but I don't know what a lot of it would taste like. I KNOW the ice cream is good! Hope you enjoy the lens; send me an example of what it can do. Any way you could put the Four Girls photos in one frame, edges softened or something, so I could print one in a larger size like 5x7? And in birth order? :) So darling! Sorry, Jen, but my second thought (after 'How beautiful they are!') was "Just look at that HAIR!'