This past weekend, John and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary—that would be the lace wedding anniversary if you follow the traditional gift table, or leather or fur if you're on the modern track. Long ago, we decided to relieve the pressure of another gift-giving occasion by opting not to buy each other presents for our anniversary. Instead, we treat ourselves to a lovely meal in a restaurant, where we gaze happily, gratefully into each others' eyes. Just as we did on our honeymoon, which we took in Bariloche, Argentina.
This year, we had our anniversary dinner at Muffuletta’s, in the charming St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul. Muffuletta’s menu highlights dishes with local and seasonal ingredients, prepared in generally innovative ways. My biggest quibble with the place is that the portions were enormous. The salmon rillettes I ordered as a starter could have satisfied four diners. But, the smoked salmon and wine-poached fresh salmon blended with aioli and served on toasted baguette slices was divine, and the gnocchi with heirloom tomatoes and a pistachio-almond pesto that followed knocked my socks off. We look forward to returning in the fall to see what JD Fratzke has up his sleeve for my favorite eating season.
Uncle Nik, who is staying with us for a week, was watching the boys so we took advantage of his bargain rate and lack of curfew to take in a movie. We saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the Highland Theater, which was approximately three hours long. It’s a trip to see the actors growing up, seemingly outgrowing their characters. I wonder how they’ll hold up until book number seven is turned into a move. As Order of the Phoenix represented the first truly bloated book, lots of scenes (such as Hagrid’s unnecessarily long search for the giants) from the book were edited out for the movie, which I truly appreciated.
It was a lovely, long evening, and a perfect anniversary celebration.
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