On Tuesday I turned 28. I’d love to tell you all about how I graciously entered my 28th year but in reality I spent the night before my birthday agonizing over my future. Instead of throwing myself a party party, I threw myself a pity party. And it wasn’t pretty.
Before my career took a huge turn with blogging, I always had a plan for my future that involved hitting different benchmarks for myself at different ages. By 28 I’d be married. By 30 I’d start having babies. Well I’m 28 and Dan and I aren’t in any hurry to get married. And kids, who knows when I’ll be ready for that. If anything I feel closer to 20 than 30. But I can’t help but feel the pressure to get married and have kids by a certain age. Even my doctor is telling me that I should start having babies by 35. 35! That’s just right around the corner! What about my career?
And that’s basically what all of this is about. Blogging and the big scary world of running your own business and making money on your own. It makes me feel too young and too old all at once. My brain screams at me, “You’re not reaching your goals” as I try to fall asleep. Or the even scarier, “You’ll never succeed.” And that negativity makes me forget what’s really going on.
Dan and I are great. Things are great. Life is getting better every day. The blog is doing well (for those who always ask), it’s growing and evolving, my presence in the blogging community and my brand relationships are growing. When I look back at where I was one, two years ago I think, “girl, chill.” I’m really happy in what I’m doing but like any of you sometimes I get stressed and overwhelmed. But then it goes away. It’s all normal. Yes, it sucked to have a freak out on my birthday, but at least I got to wake up and start fresh…and then go eat and drink my face off. :)
But before party time, Dan and I hopped into All Saints to look at all the pretty leather jackets. We had some time to kill so we tried on a bunch of things we can’t afford but would like to have. Dan already owns some All Saints which makes me insanely jealous but one day I too will be a badass dressed in all black and leather. One day!
Then we headed to Sitka & Spruce for drinks and snacks. Per a recommendation from a friend, I’ve had this on my list for awhile and figured it would be a good pre-dinner stop. It’s in such a cool location. Neither of us have been to Melrose Market but it’s a large quaint open space with a few half walls filled with cute shops, a bar, a restaurant. The whole place feels dreamy and slightly cottagey and magical.
We started with the ling cod brandade with black radish. This was not what we expected but definitely still tasty and interesting. I think these were the most delicate toasts I’ve ever been served so Dan smartly used the radishes as like floorboards to fill in the frame and give a nice bed for our spread.
Whipped lardo with marinated figs. Lardo is so buttery and indulgent tasting, and glorious on bread with fig and wine reduction. The sweet, tart flavor of the wine and figs really carried this one. An absolutely decadent and delicious dip, and the perfect accompaniment to a tangy cocktail. Which by the way, try their cocktails. They’re so so good.
We have really wanted to try country ham since season 2 of Mind of a Chef with Sean Brock who is totally awesome and completely obsessed with it. It’s less salty than we expected but very tasty. This plate came with pickled mustard seeds which I could eat a jar of but pair wonderfully with the ham.
For dinner we went to one of our favorite Seattle restaurants, Anchovies and Olives. We both crave clean, fresh food at all times and often find that winter menus around here aren’t very exciting. Ethan Stowell’s restaurants however are always our go-to because we know we’ll find fresh yummy food. This time we were craving seafood.
These were some of the best oysters we’ve had recently. The pairings were spot on and the oysters were so cool and fresh with delicious and creative pairings. This was Dan’s favorite course of the evening and it paired great with the sparkling rosé were sippin’
We usually go to Anchovies and Olives specifically with the escolar in mind. Normally I drool over this dish, but I actually loved the hamachi crudo more. Lately I’ve been loving the very Spanish flavor combination of olives and oranges, so the hamachi really sang for me.
Mmm pasta. Ethan Stowell’s pasta is so good. We ordered the rigatoni with pork cheek, celery root, and carrot and the linguine with uni, roasted leeks, and chili with a glass of wine to pair with each. As always the rigatoni was excellent, comfort food goodness. Not too heavy, not too rich, but just rich enough to satisfy. But the real surprise of the night was that I don’t think either of us expected to love the uni pasta as much as we did, and I don’t even know how to describe it. It was a bowl of buttery heaven. One of my favorite pasta experiences to date.
Then we stopped by Molly Moon’s for some sweets. I was so full that I figured liquid sugar would be the perfect dessert. Dan got melted chocolate with thin mint cookie crumble topping and I got the blood orange rgb sorbet. There’s ginger beer in the sorbet that makes it a little spicy! Dan dominated his ice cream in two seconds and I tried to eat as much of mine as I could but I was sooo full! It was smart move to go with something refreshing instead of heavy. To say I went home full and happy is an understatement. Ok and a little drunk. It was an excellent night.
