Celebrating One Year

This weekend, Topher and I marked one year together as husband and wife.  We didn't throw a big party or even spend it really with others (though, we ended up wishing we had when we ate our top tier- more on that tomorrow.)  We spent the two days doing things thoroughly us- eating, running, kissing, finding random dairy farm festivals, and simply enjoying being partners, friends and married people.

Also, you should know, Topher and I took a full 48 hours to celebrate because, yes, it does take two days to mark the passing of one year of marriage.  Two days of gluttonous enjoyment; zero moments of regret.  Today, I'll cover our food endeavors and the farm festival. Tomorrow you'll get to hear our experience with year old frozen cake and how we interpreted our paper anniversary gifts.

It all began with champagne, gifted from our reverend and Topher's uncle John.  What better things are there, I say, than coming home on Friday to cold champers?

If you said there are no better things, then, by golly, you are right.

After gymming it up (I don't know why I insist on using this turn of phrase, but I do.  Somehow gymming it up sounds so much more enjoyable than saying "going to the humid building full of exercise equipment to trudge along on a treadmill until my mind has beaten my body into submission"), we gussied up a bit to head to dinner at a French place in Eastern Market (a personal favorite area in DC.)

We are thusly gussied.

You should know that I tortured Topher all weekend long with self shots and food photos. He was thoroughly embarrassed.

Let's just pause this little recap of a post here for a minute and admit to it all: this was a weekend of FOOD.  Luxurious, buttery, alcoholic, delicious FOOD.

Case in point: my cold beer that never tasted so good!

Topher ordered (yucky, livery) pate:

While yours truly had amazing, buttery, pesto-y escargot!

The second best part of escargot (besides the snails themselves, obviously!) is the yummy gooey leftovers, perfect for dipping crusty French bread into:

I'm not usually a food-photo-taker, but this weekend, I had to capture our dinners.  Topher had rabbit and white truffle oil linguini:

I went with amazing seared duck breast with a pear reduction, brussel sprouts and onions:

We caught a quick picture of us enjoying the meal:

I declared myself seven bites too full, and thusly we promptly ordered cappuccino and creme brulee. Obs.

The creme brulee was perfect.  And I even won a bet- hubs said there were definite traces of almond in it, while I said it was just heavily vanilla.  Owner of restaurant confirmed: nothing nutty touched this dessert.

Kate: 1,565 Chris: 300ish

I can highly recommend Montmartre if you're looking for yummy French food and cozy atmosphere.

To work off the now overly-full-by-fifteen-bites feeling we now had, we decided to traipse from Eastern Market to Union Station, passing some of our favorite parts of Capitol Hill in the process.  This included, of course, the capitol.

Once we arrived at Union, I made Topher feel like a tourist before hopping on the Metro home:

Sunday proved to be a rainy day, but we couldn't be deterred. As we drove out to Frederick, where we were married, we thought about how different our wedding day would have been had it been raining as it was this May 1st.  So much of our wedding was about the joy of being outside- it would have really transformed much of our memories.

Have you ever been to a dairy farm festival?  You should seek one out.  I mean, they have faux milking contests:

Bluegrass bands:

Obviously they have hot dogs and sweet potatoe fries:

They churn their own ice cream (AND IT'S SO GOOD):

They also include vendors of many varieties, from those selling maple or granola to home made goat cheese spreads:

We chose garlic and herb as well as cranberry walnut. AMAZING.

Of course, the festival included alpaca's. And a husband (of one year!)

There was even homemade honey, including the hive!

Being a dairy farm, they of course have a little store. Topher and I now know where we'll be driving once a month for fresh cheese and meats:

Have you ever seen so much cheese?!

Or this many types of BUTTER?! We chose the honey butter.

And the decorations were killer in this small dairy farm store, with vintage milk bottles to cow memorabilia:

We of course sampled their ice cream (again, great. Of course.), and took a picture in front of their ice cream delivery truck.  Yep, they'll deliver their fresh, home made ice cream! Not good that I now know this.

As we drove away from the dairy farm to our planned actual dinner of tapas, I found the house I want to buy in ten years.  Topher's comment? "It looks straight out of a horror movie."

As if we hadn't eaten enough this anniversary weekend, we ordered some delicious small plates, including zucchina and feta fritters:

Cured beef with goat cheese on toasted bread:

Asparagus fries:

And handcrafted meat balls.

So my friends, just how were we feeling near the end of our two day raucous celebration? I think these next two photos sum it up well:

I've also written a much deeper reflection on our first  year of marriage on Weddingbee. Go check it out!

How do you and your partner celebrate anniversaries or markers in your relationship? Also, do you also LOVE LOVE LOVE escargot?