Oct 9, 2010

Babymoon!

Hi everybody.   I'm back, and this post will be mostly photographs, otherwise it would be waaaayyyy too long.



I've been trying to perfect a stuffed pumpkin recipe (filled with bread, cheese and cream).  I tried it with pumpkin and found the pumpkin to be bland city.  So I tried again with a kabocha squash and it was better, but I've decided I like my squash roasted much better than steamed, so although the presentation is gorgeous and the stuffing is amazing, I feel like I'm wasting a perfectly good squash.  Hmmm.



Baby shower cake tasting at Jamaica's Cakes.  I love her.  I inhaled her gingerbread, carrot cake and pumpkin spice cake and although they were all delectable, the pumpkin spice won out.  Cream cheese icing will compliment it and I'm ordering a big old round cake to celebrate my baby.



I ate everything you see here, plus a molasses cookie and a pecan bar.




Husband and I had a lovely therapist sesh before we hit the road for the babymoon (we are kind of really not good at vacations).  Our first stop was a cafe/store/hippie shack called Follow Your Heart, which husband worked at once upon a time.  Husband is experimenting with raw/vegan eating, so this was a natural choice.  I'm down for whatever tastes good.



I started with a small salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  One thing I love about dining at veggie friendly restaurants is that the produce is really fresh.  Nothing worse than a sad, limp salad.  This was very yummy.



Husband ordered vegan black bean nachos.



And cornbread.  And a cup of lentil dal.  And a strawberry banana smoothie.  He was full until the next day.




I had spinach lasagna with garlic bread.  So good!  But I was a little full, too.




This is a very sexy shot of my hot feet after sock removal.  Might be retaining just a little bit of water.
Ew.




We stopped at Babies R Us to look at cribs.  Ghetto fabulous.  But we got to take advantage of some clutch parking.




I guess I was too tired to take a picture of our first night's dinner at Bodees.  We had been coveting their calamari dish since we had it three years ago.  Alas, they changed the dish and it wasn't even close to as good.  The rib-eye we had was incredible, though.

The picture above was the view from our table at Suzanne's, which was our favorite meal of the trip.  Talk about tasting the love.

We were ready to eat after our trip to Ojai Valley Inn & Spa for a day of pampering.  I got a facial and "mother's massage".  Husband got a sage and rosemary body scrub and a deep tissue massage.  I wasn't sure I would be able to shake him from his coma in the lounge afterwards...but I got him up eventually.



My appetizer at Suzanne's-asiago mushroom crostini with arugula salad.




Husband's dairy free roasted tomato soup.  Excellent!






The best entree I had on the babymoon:  mustard crusted rack of lamb with veggies and garlic mashed potatoes.  Oh my God, I want to make a rack of lamb for Christmas now.  Will I want to make a rack of lamb at nine months pregnant?  We'll see.




Husband's salmon and veggies with mango salsa.  Not nearly as sexy as the lamb (how could it be?).


 


Sour cherry crisp for me.




Chocolate peanut butter torte for husband.  We had to abandon these after a few bites to rush down to the sweet little Ojai movie theatre to see The Town.  We liked it!  And they had the nicest movie theatre bathroom I've ever experienced.

While in Ojai, we stayed at the quaint Emerald Iguana, in the tadpole room.  Our room felt like a cave, however.  Husband found an amazing hiking trail and we also took a yoga class here.  It was nice, if a little too easy.

Next up...Bacara Resort.




I loved this huge daisy centerpiece in the lobby.  They change the daisies every Thursday.




Our room.  With a fireplace.  And an ocean view!  Incredible.




We tried a vegan/raw friendly restaurant in Santa Barbara, Spiritland Bistro.  Above was my salad.  Beautiful presentation.  It didn't blow me away but wasn't bad either.  It was tossed in a tahini dressing that I think I liked.  It was hard to tell; I had really bad heartburn.
 



Husband's sweet potato coconut curry soup.




Husband's vegan potstickers.  He liked everything but the filling.




My polenta with gorgonzola and balsamic reduction.  Very tasty, and huge for an appetizer.




Husband's tofu curry thing with brown rice.




Husband's sadface for having such a healthy dinner (he was jealous of my polenta).




Love all these excited people wanting to celebrate our baby!  This was husband's dessert- a banana, macadamia nut, vegan chocolate thing.  I passed.




Our final night's dinner was at Miro onsite at Bacara.  It was the most expensive meal we've ever had.  Husband had the five course pre fixe and I ordered the lamb.  We shared everything and I forgot to take picture of each course...sorry.  Sadly, most of the food was unremarkable.  Not bad, just...whatever.  Not worth a $250 bill.  But it was fun to splurge.

Above was a grilled calamari salad.  I like the super lemony dressing and fried garbanzo beans.  Husband was not a fan.

 


Roasted globe artichokes.  Tasted steamed rather than roasted and were in desperate need of salt.




Best course of the evening.  Homemade tagliatelle pasta with rabbit and mushrooms.  Yum.




Halibut with almond foam and parsnip puree.  I only had one bite since I may or may not have a fish allergy.  It was whatevers.




Homemade peppermint patties and an almond petite four finished us off.  We slept very well.







My favorite moment of the whole trip was swimming in this salt water pool overlooking the ocean.  I always forget how much I LOVE to swim!  This will be the "happy place" I go in my mind whilst laboring.

1 comment:

  1. Any chance you can share your stuffed kabocha squash recipe? Please, please, pretty please?

    ReplyDelete