Some Grown-Up Food

I spend a lot of time scanning menus, honing in on the items the girls will eat and enjoy (key to our entire dining out experience) while trying to avoid automatically resorting to the kid's menu dregs of chicken nuggets and buttery noodles.

In fact, I spend so much time thinking about what the girlies will consume that when I do find myself dining sans kids (it doesn't happen often), I still inevitably scan the menu for the "safe" choices. It's a hard habit to break.

A couple of weeks ago my hubby and I spent an weekend in Austin for our tenth anniversary -- with no kids in tow. We were (of course) excited about the alone time...the chance to hang out, meander in museums, go for drives without having to mitigate backseat dramas...but we were absolutely giddy with excitement about the food possibilities. We planned our meals with the precision of a general going into battle. (I even e-mailed this fantastic blogger for some restaurant suggestions, as while Bryan and I lived in Austin for many years, it was over a decade ago, and when we visit, we tend to frequent the same spots.)

While we ended up eating some admittedly "kid-friendly" fare -- namely lots of tacos (it was Austin after all) and a *huge* stack of pumpkin pancakes at Kirby Lane, we did revel in such adult indulgences as fresh arugula and heady gorgonzola pizza and an amazing, magical, wholly unique meal at Uchiko. It was maybe the best meal I've ever had...it lasted almost 3 hours, involved a genius French waiter, prosecco with grilled thyme and lemons and insanely delicious food that I couldn't pronounce.

It was definitely not a kid's meal.

We need to do that more often.