cheers to three years!

W 8.7.13

• I teach my adult conversation class 'til 9pm on Wednesdays
• it was fun for me to open the class with the question, "How do Argentines celebrate wedding anniversaries?"
• I got some pretty typical answers (mostly gifts for the women): flowers, chocolates, jewelry, dinner dates, a special trip for the big ones, etc.
• one woman said her aunt gets a thin, gold bracelet every year...good way to keep track of the number!
• I shared the tradition of saving your wedding cake topper for your first anniversary...they thought this was a little strange and said it is not a custom in Argentina
• when class finished, I met Jake for a late dinner
• after a good experience here once before, I suggested to Jake that we try L'Adesso for our anniversary dinner (he's never been)
• a complimentary mini-bruschetta was first brought out

• along with their signature beautiful bread basket

• for an appetizer, we chose the prawns wrapped in deep fried spaghetti placed on chickpea puré ...because it sounded intriguing (I wouldn't say we're even huge prawn fans, but we enjoyed giving this a try)

• both of us were in the mood for pasta, and we were in the right place, as L'Adesso serves up some of the best homemade pasta, in my opinion
• I ordered the cacao fettuccine in a mushroom, lamb bolognese-type sauce...couldn't get enough of the noodles

• Jake got the tonnarelli with pancetta, black pepper and olive oil topped with pecorino cheese...he was hoping the simplicity would make it shine...but unfortunately it didn't end up being his favorite

•  I really wanted wedding cake for dessert, but...

the Italian chef, Leonardo Fumarola, greeted us at the door with an Italian,"buena sera ragazzi", then brought the dessert out himself...he's the one who snapped this shot for us ^^^

• we settled for second best....the chef's family recipe for bocconotto pugliese con gelato alla cannella (aka almond, cherry filled sweet pastry/cake from the region of Puglia with cinnamon ice cream)

• this might have been my favorite part of the meal
• then a complimentary shot of house made limoncello was offered at the end...which Jake appreciated :)
• I came home to these beautiful guys:

• and one of these:

• best anniversary gift ever! (it's for the achin' back, obviously)
• (we randomly saw this in a store window a couple weeks back and sort of joked how it'd make a great heat pack...using it currently, and it is great)
• I put this book on Jake's kindle as a surprise (funny enough, he didn't get around to opening his kindle today, so I had to sort of hint at it so he'd find it)
• snapped a little 25 week belly bump photo for good measure

•  and maybe watched some of our wedding video...which I love...

• love you, honey!  HAPPY 3rd ANNIVERSARY!