5th Anniversary Weekend Recap

Another anniversary is in the books for the Cagles. Being the foodies that we are, we celebrated with an amazing dinner at a new favorite (as for Friday night) restaurant in Auburn called Acre.  It's a really neat farm-to-table restaurant with a rotating menu and fresh everything!  The atmosphere was very rustic and the food was outstanding! We started off with raw oysters and pimento cheese with smoked paprika pita chips.  As we were scarfing down our appetizers they brought out the most amazing dinner plates:

My Dinner Edible Work of Art

Come here Pimento Cheese and get in ma belly!

I ordered the Grilled Hereford Beef Tenderloin that came with parsnip-potato puree, caramelized shiitake mushrooms, hollandaise sauce, asher blue cheese, and potato skins.  As you can see the dish was a work of art and it tasted like heaven! I would say it was one of the best fillets I have ever had.  Eric agreed.  He ordered the Smoked and Seared Teres Major, which is a piece of meat from the shoulder of the cow that had been smoked and was served with peaches, purple hull peas, basil, corn vinaigrette, cornbread panzanella (think Ruby Tuesday croutons, but made with cornbread), fried okra, and calabrian chili-beef fat-butter.  It was delicious, and he dove into it so quickly I didn't get a picture.  Since it was our anniversary we splurged and got dessert (even though we were completely stuffed).  We got their Blueberry-White Chocolate Bread Pudding that came with Whiskey Caramel Sauce and homemade vanilla ice cream. And then they had to roll us to our car.  Just kidding...almost.

We are both ready to go back, but this time we want to take a big group and order one of their massive cured meat and cheese boards...aka my happy place.  We just need an occasion....any takers?

One of my favorite parts was the familiar dinnerware.  Eric couldn't believe that we had this exact salt shaker and similar cups growing up. I also spotted a mini-cast iron skillet (think ash try size) they used to serve oysters, that I have in my kitchen, and my favorite were the sectioned metal trays like my grandparents have at their lake house that I grew up eating off of!  It was sooo cool!

Saturday was pretty much the norm...Eric fished and we grilled out the the neighbors. But Sunday brought fun, some surprises, the beginning of another season for us. We headed up to the lake early to pick up my new toy.....

My first rider!

I got a paddle board!  I am stoked about it, too! Ever since I tried it on the 4th I've wanted one and now I do! As much as I wanted to take it in some open water, I figured I should test myself on it to see exactly how much balance it was going to take....so into the pool I went with it! I can't get going fast (or far) but I have been able to see how much weight shiftage it could handle. Just for the record it can take a lot more than I thought initially.  I also made sure I could get on it in deep water by myself with no help because I am sure I will fall off it eventually. I cannot WAIT to take it out on open water soon!

Almost as soon as we got back with my board Eric was off to football meetings.  The 2015 football season officially starts this week, and Eric is excited about it.  Truth be told, I am, too.  I enjoy it because I know he enjoys it, and I really enjoy our little group of coaches wives.  After shockingly short meeting, we headed back up to the lake with the neighbors for a little golf game.  We made it a family affair this time and it was a blast! The perfect end to our weekend.

Happy first day back to school to all of my teacher friends!