B and I have both been sick for over a week now. Today is probably the first day we've both felt mostly human. I have a knack for getting sick over the holidays, but usually it has something to do with air travel. This time, there was no real reason. We were both just plain struck down by some nasty germ. Aside from a couple short trips, we've hardly left the house since last Friday night.
A few weeks ago, after our Thursday night dinner at Urbane, I noticed they would be open on Christmas day, so we decided to make a reservation. When B and I stay in Seattle for the holidays (which hasn't been all that often), it always feels a little silly to cook an elaborate meal for just the two of us. It feels a little silly not to do something special, though. Our first Christmas together, I made a simple chicken dinner and we watched all (the extended versions) of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We started the movies on Christmas Eve. It was a looooooong two days. The three Christmases after that one, we traveled. While we've eaten out three Thanksgivings, Saturday night marked my first ever Christmas dinner out... unless you count our Christmas in Maui which I don't because, well, because it's Maui.
Christmas Day didn't start out looking the brightest. Neither of us has slept well in days. B got up a little after 5:00 AM because he couldn't sleep anymore. We both managed to get back to sleep about 7:30 and get in a couple extra hours of sleep. Once we finally got up, we even had trouble mustering the energy to open gifts. Dinner wasn't looking likely, but we decided to wait until later to make the call. About 4:00, we decided we were both feeling well enough to brave it.
Our cab didn't take as long as expected, so we arrived a few minutes early. They weren't all that busy, though, and we were able to sit down right away. They had a special prix fixe menu for Christmas in addition to their regular menu. It looked really great, but I haven't had much of an appetite lately (shocking, I know) and it just sounded like too much food. To start, we split a charcuterie plate. I would love to have tasted it fully since it was very good even though I know my tastebuds are off. I can only imagine how good it would have been if I could have actually tasted it. For dinner, I had the beef tenderloin on top of a potato puree not listed on the menu. B had the steak frites. We also shared the whipped Yukon potatoes. A lot of potato, I know. My steak was amazing.
For dessert we shared the Sticky Toffee Pudding. I'll try most foods at least once and I don't have a lot of food hangups, but I have one big one. Wet bread. Wet bread is anything that can be construed as or can become soggy bread... Pot pie, bread pudding, tortilla soup, a hamburger bun that's had sauce sitting on it a little too long... All of it. I just can't handle it. It's a texture thing. I guess I must have had a bit of medicine head, but I didn't think about it long enough when we looked at the dessert menu to realize the Sticky Toffee Pudding probably involved wet bread. As it turns out, only the top had a dicey (dicey for me, that is) texture and the Devonshire cream was amazing, so it helped a bit. The bottom was more of dry cake texture. I can't say I know what it was supposed to taste like, so for all I know it wasn't good, but the flavor was nice and it didn't totally set off my soggy bread panic. We didn't eat much of it, though, given that we'd already just consumed more food in one sitting than we had in a whole day during the week.
We were happy to easily catch a cab leaving the restaurant. Though we were both exhausted by the time we got home, it felt nice just to be away from home. B commented during dinner how it felt a little foreign and clumsy being out after staying home for so long. Yes, two weeks is a long time for us not to go out. I know that's a little sad, but it was definitely true. We both had a major case of cabin fever on top of the fevers we'd just overcome. Here's to a healthier new year!
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