Thursday, April 14, 2011

Fun With Friends

And now for the rest of the Hamilton's visit!

I am glad have we so many friends with charming little girls. It's nice to have a girl fix when I am feeling overwhelmed by all the rough-and-tumble that boys entail.

For instance, who could resist this little munchkin?

This girl can eat Honey Nut Cheerios like nobody's business (the most likely explanation being that she's usually fed something more healthy at home.) She had two bowls herself and then found and finished Willem's own abandoned bowl at some point in the morning. I have really been falling down on hostess duty, allowing guests to eat cold cereal for breakfast.

The boys and an iPhone: like moths to a flame.


While Hamilton visits often entail fine dining, we're not always fancy. Here we are enjoying an Ikea meatball lunch.


Willem can put away the fifteen meatballs on the plate all by himself.


After we put the kids to bed on Friday night, Shaun made potato chips.


I just can't leave well enough alone.


On Saturday we tried out the Pearl District's buzzy new Little Big Burger.


It's cool, but I'm not a fan of places where you have to lurk about waiting to pounce on an available seat.


On Saturday night, there was no pouncing. We lined up our babysitter extraordinaire and set off for Laurelhurst Market, a restaurant I have been reading about in my food magazines since it opened.

They don't take reservations for small parties, so we got there early. At 5:30 there was an hour and a half wait. They took our phone number and we went and had a beer at the cozy Horse Brass Pub, a worthy destination in its own right.

Then it was back to the restaurant and its adjoining butcher shop.


My quick review: I didn't really care for the steaks, but everything else we ordered was delicious (including the cocktails.) The salt cured foie gras torchon with blood orange, grapefruit, and brioche bread salad with saba and cress (I know, how pretentious does that sound!) was the dish of the evening. Shaun pointed out that it had obviously been made with pure evil, which was what made it taste so good.

After dinner it was still fairly early, so we headed downtown...

had a nightcap at Clyde Common...

and still made it home before 10:30!

It may seem like all we did was eat, but it was a short visit, so that is what we did most of. We also spent some time at Powell's and then tracked down a new iPad for Amanda, which everyone (including the babysitter) had fun playing with.

Fun. With friends.


4 comments:

eric O said...

so, i was gonna say, "hey, shaun didn't make me no goldarn potato chips when i came to visit!"

but then when i saw that you added grody fish eggs or frog innards or lizard vomit or whatever and was perfectly content that the hamiltons got to consume and enjoy them instead of me. glad y'all had a great time.

Gypmar said...

Simmer down, there, chief. I didn't add any lizard vomit until after we'd already eaten almost all of the chips :)

peter owen said...

-even if reptiles were involved / that all sounds just delightful

shaun said...

Eric, if it's any consolation...you really didn't miss much. I think I pushed everybody WAY too far into deep-fried overload with those chips (and even more so with the subsequent fries). I think I'm done deep-frying for a while.