Shari's

These days, we tend to choose local places for a dinner out, places with bistro style foods, good happy hours, or tasty beers on tap.  This time, we went to Shari's, so this date wasn't for the fine dining...rather, it was a little bit of a 'throwback' for both of us.  Are we the only ones who spent countless evenings in high school hanging out with friends at places like Shari's and Applebee's?  We spent several nights there in our youth - after concerts, youth group, days at the lake, and other activities.  

We intended to go for dessert, but my appetite had been a little 'wonky' that day, and I was pretty hungry.  So, we ordered mozzarella sticks, and then we both got breakfast for dinner.  As expected, the food wasn't amazing, but it was nostalgic.  It was really great because Shari's was pretty quiet that night, which seemed to fit with both of our moods.  We had fun perusing the giant menu, and felt like kids again, ready to order whatever sweet thing sounded good.  Doing something different, yet familiar, was a nice change to our routine.  We've since joked that we might need to do some more cheap late night dinners after busy days.

Sweet Treats at Home

After work on Friday, Kim planned a fun evening at home.  We have at a very busy last couple of weeks traveling to Seattle each weekend, so it felt really good to stay home and relax together.  With Crossfit and a general want to be healthy, we tend to watch what we eat. We try our best to stay away from dairy, gluten, and processed sugars.  This doesn't mean that the cravings for sugar go away! We figured better if those sugars are ones found naturally, right?  Kim planned an evening around healthy ice creams!  She had 3 ice cream recipes picked out for us to try.  Two were banana based ice creams, and one used coconut cream.  We started with the coconut cream because it took the longest to make. Still a pretty easy recipe, but it calls for more freezer time.  After you mix it all together you freeze it and mix it a couple times over a few hours until the consistency is good.  We also added a scoop of the protein powder I use to give it some flavor and substance.  The next two recipes were very similar to each other. They used frozen bananas that you blended.  The texture is awesome!  Also the bananas are sweet like ice cream. We made one with bananas, coconut milk, almonds, chocolate powder, homemade vanilla extract, and coconut flakes. Almond joy deliciousness!  We made another with banana, vanilla, and frozen blueberries!  This one was awesome.  It tasted like a blueberry sherbet ice cream.  This and the almond joy were my favorites.  The first one is good but not worth the extra work. The banana ones are ready to eat right after you make them.  We now have a go-to healthy sweet fix when we need one.  Now I have left out an important detail of this date.  Kim outlined the date and added one twist, we had to be completely n*%^d the entire time.  Yup that's right mom and dad we were running around the house n*%^d making ice cream.  I just want to stay that some good old fashion n*d@^y is great in a married relationship.  Just make sure your kids are gone and you have some good blinds on those windows.  Who knew making ice cream could be so fun.

Dives n' Dessert

Jason has this thing for dive bars. It's not that we actually go to them frequently, but he mentions them enough that you might think that is our niche. Generally speaking, I don't like places that leave you feeling greasy and grimey. Yuck!  Regardless, I knew that Jason would fit a dive bar into our 52-week challenge at some point(s), and last Friday evening was the first.

We were already in Seattle for the Moisture Festival (Varietè/Comedy) at Hale's Palladium, so Jason took me out after that.  First, we headed down to Belltown to this incredibly classy pinball themed dive bar called Shorty's.  It has been quite awhile since either of us had played a pinball machine, and it took me a few minutes to get in the groove.  We ended up on an Indiana Jones machine for a few minutes, and had some moderately terrible games.  Okay, so we aren't very good at pinball, but it was fun anyways!

Our dollar bills started to run low so we didn't spend too much time at Shorty's.  We got back in our car and headed over to Ballard.  Jason and I are suckers for dessert.  So when he discovered Hot Cakes, he knew we had to go there.

It was delicious.  We ended up sharing two dishes - a hot cake (basically molten lave cake) with peanut butter goodness inside, and a warm chocolate chip cookie.  Both with vanilla ice cream.  While we were enjoying our scrumptious desserts, we discussed a few things relating to Church and theology.  It was fun so share our thoughts and ideas.  I find that conversations that end up having more 'meat' leave me feeling more intimate and fulfilled in our relationship.  Sometimes it is a challenge to have these authentic and organic conversations (especially when you think you already know these things about your spouse), but they are always worth it!

Approximate Cost:

Shorty's (drink and pinball) - $25

Hot Cakes - $15