731 Days of Marriage [by Katy]
For two weeks, Josh & Katy blogsit. Can you remember two years ago? If you are a full-grown adult, I certainly hope you can. Otherwise, you should really drink less. I'm serious. That's ridiculous.Two years ago tonight, I put on an expensive-ass white shantung silk dress and went dancing. I went to this GREAT party in wine country, with all my family and friends.This is a picture from that party. See? Josh and I really know how to cut a rug.In honor of the party that happened seven hundred and thirty-one days ago tonight, Josh and I went out to dinner tonight at one of our favorite Atlanta restaurants, the Horseradish Grill.Josh and I fantasize about the day that we have a restaurant we consider "our" anniversary place. Josh's Aunt Gail and Uncle Steve, who have been married -- what, maybe 24 years or so? -- have a particular French restaurant in downtown Mill Valley, California they go to in order to celebrate their anniversary. There they drink a ton of excellent wine, eat the most exquisite shellfish-stuffed quenelles, and take a cab home. We find that an appealing notion.As it is, you all have no doubt gleaned that we're a pretty budget-minded duo. Tonight, however, we splurged a bit on the Horseradish Grill, a lovely restaurant in a converted barn in Buckhead that serves up upscale southern-style cuisine. The mindset there is that southern food should be what it originally was: always seasonal and always multicultural.This is the building. The location is a bit unreal. Although Buckhead is a very developed, business district of Atlanta, the Horseradish Grill is across from Chastain Park, and seems like the genteel country:
They started us off with a basket of fresh and warm biscuits, delightfully flaky and moist, served with a side of what tasted like homemade peach preserves:
Josh loves peaches. He also loves biscuits. Here is my handsome husband post-biscuitus, with a satisfied yet dreamy smile:
The North Carolina-style pulled pork on cornmeal pancakes has a great reputation at Horserarish Grill, but we don't eat the mammal, of course. And we skipped starters anyway, budget-minded romantic couple that we are.A tip for the budget-minded and amorously-inclined: if you want romance, skip the salad and steamed mussels, and invest in the BOTTLE OF WINE. I think this applies as well to single folks as it does to married. It is actually good advice for the Amateur Gourmet himself. NOTE TO ADAM: if you put as much attention into ordering wine as you do into ordering crab cakes, you'd get more action.Considering our options, we went with a bottle of a predictable Northern Californian Chardonnay. We ordered the Kenwood Yulupa 2002 -- which they didn't have. Then we went with the Cambria 2002 -- which they didn't have. Both of these are fairly popular labels that we know pretty well. But when they eventually produced an actual bottle of Chardonnay, I was so delighted to suck down a glass I didn't take careful enough notice of its name.Suffice it to say it was a typically American oaky, buttery Chardonnay with a little bit of a cut-grass flavor. I'm not one of these pooh-pooh-on-oak snobs, so it was fine by me. Indeed, I drank it enthusiastically.Here's me, happy about my oh-so-oaky glass of Chardonnay:
Our entrées came quickly. How great is it when your food comes quickly? I mean, I don't mean to be too unclassy about the dining experience and all -- but don't you secretly get really excited to see your food come out fast?Josh got the cornbread-crusted Georgia mountain trout, with whipped potatoes, garlic green beans, citrus butter, diced green tomatoes, capers and dill:
I got something truly scrumptious -- the pan-seared sea scallops, surrounding a bed of creamy red pepper grits, topped with the most mouth-watering caramelized onions and bell peppers. My goodness, this was tasty:
Now by now you might know that Josh is a first-class pie man, and I'm a solid cookie girl.Nevertheless, our siren of a server tempted us with the Horseradish Grill's specialty non-pie, non-cookie dessert, the Kentucky Oatmeal Spice Cake, with their in-house churned caramel ice cream:
The top of the spice cake had a hard caramel "brulée" on it, as Josh put it, that made this a pretty pleasant thing to sink a fork into, what with the melting caramel ice cream soaking into it.Next, we ate this:
No, boys and girls, I'm just kidding! That's our wedding cake. It was a delicious chocolate mousse layered chocolate cake inside, but that was 731 days ago, not tonight.All in all, I would recommend the Horseradish Grill for visitors to Atlanta who don't know if they can handle hole-in-the-wall-style southern cooking. Who like to drink Chardonnay with their barbeque, so to speak. You know who you are.I'd also recommend it to anyone celebrating that day that they dressed up in excessively expensive outfits with their partner and made a spectacle of themselves for unabashedly cheesy photos.
Me, I like to drink Chardonnay with my unabashedly cheesy photos. Cheers, everybody!-- katy
