3rd Anniversary

To celebrate our 3rd anniversary we spent the night in Austin and enjoyed a romantic night out. We had a Groupon for Jeffrey's, which is a highly rated (and rather expensive) restaurant in Austin. We actually ate at Jeffrey's last year too when Alex was home on R&R so it's becoming an anniversary tradition!

We started off with cocktails at the bar while we waited for our reservation time. I had a Strawberry Basil Mojito, which was good but a little odd.

Then we sat down at our table and ordered a bottle of red wine.

A lot of these pictures aren't the best because it was super dark in the restaurant so I had to use a flash. I apologize in advance...

First Course: (shared)

Steak Tartare*

Diced Filet Mignon with Onions, Dijon Mustard, Quail Egg,

Chilis d’Arbol, & Lemon Oil with Pommes Souffles

and hand-cut Gaufrettes

Yes, as in raw steak. :) We've had it before at one of our favorite restaurants and actually really love it. It's not NEARLY as weird as you'd think! If you like raw tuna you'd probably like this. It doesn't taste raw at all and is full of flavor. It was yummy and a great way to start off the meal!

Second Course: (Ashley)

White Sesame Scallop

Sesame-crusted Puget Sound Scallop with Herb Salad,

Cherry Tomatoes, Texas Peach, and compressed Watermelon,

in Tomato-Sanbaizu

(picture taken after I had already eaten half. :)

This course didn't impress me as much as others. It was pretty bland. But it was definitely light and fresh tasting so it's not a total failure.

Second Course: (Alex)

Crispy Oysters

Octavia on house-made Sea Salt Potato Chips

Bacon Royale with “Overnight” Tomato Vinaigrette

or

Original on Yucca Chips with Habanero-Honey Aïoli

and Pineapple Pico de Gallo

Horrible picture but REALLY tasty food! Alex ordered the "octavia" style crispy oysters but they accidentally brought us the "original" style so our waiter very kindly let us keep the original style AND brought out the octavia style. So we basically got a whole free course!

Both variations of the oysters were TO DIE FOR. Perfectly fried and crispy oysters, tangy sauce, fresh garnish. Love love love this dish!!

Third Course: (Alex)

Quail Under a Brick

Pressed Quail with braised Boggy Creek Farm New Potatoes,

seared Long Beans, & local Eggplant Purée

Alex gave this entree two thumbs up. He really enjoyed it and said the quail was perfectly cooked and very moist.

Third Course: (Ashley)

Braised Rabbit on Black Pepper Biscuit

Honey & Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuit topped with braised

Countryside Farms’ Rabbit and Five Pepper Jelly

This was "fancy" comfort food at it's best! Warm, filling and SO tasty! The rabbit was literally falling apart it was so moist which was a huge plus! I just don't like thinking about the fact that I ate a cute little rabbit. :(

Fourth Course: (shared)

Valrhona Chocolate Intemperance

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Valrhona Dark

Chocolate Mousse & Double Chocolate Ice Cream

We actually didn't order a dessert because we were STUFFED after all that food, but the waiter felt bad that we had to wait for a while on one of our courses so he brought us a (FREE!) dessert anyway. How nice, right??

And although we claimed to be too full to eat dessert we managed to polish off this DELICIOUS flourless cake. It seriously tasted like a mix between chocolate fudge and cheesecake. So good!

If you're ever in the Austin area and looking for a delicious meal, I highly recommend Jeffrey's! It will not disappoint! Just be prepared for a rather hefty pricetag along with it. I still get a little sweaty thinking about how much we spent, even after we had the Groupon take off a significant amount. But then again, I'm super cheap so it probably isn't as big of a deal as I'm making it. :)

And now for some wedding photos of our big day, August 18, 2007.

It's kind of a pain to upload photos for me and I don't have a lot of patience today so these might seem sparse. Maybe someday I'll take the time to upload enough to really give you a better idea of how it all went down that day. :)

Waiting for for my entrance in the back of the church with my dad. I was cool, calm, collected and ready to go!

Here we go!!

The church.

Exiting through the sabre arch

First Dance as husband and wife. We danced to "Feels Like Home" sung by my BFF.

First Dance with Dad. We danced to "I Loved Her First"

Cutting our gorgeous cake with Alex's sabre.

Our dance floor was PACKED the entire night. Nobody wanted the night to end!

Ending our amazing and memorable evening.

It was truly such a special day and we were so blessed to have everything go off without a hitch! I can't believe three years have already come and gone and I can't wait to spend the next 75+ with this man I love.