Full Belly with kids

Remember last year when we went to Full Belly Farm in Guinda for a beautiful dinner?

Well, we went again!  This time we brought the kids though.

We realized last year that the mellow vibe of the dinner and the open setting would be totally kid friendly, so when we went to make reservations this year we decided to include our two littles.  Kids eat free, so that makes it economical too.

We came with the same friends as last time plus another family.  The more the merrier right (and also, more kids to play together and let the adults hang out)?

They do events and weddings and now Kyle wants to host our 10th wedding anniversary here.  It really is amazing how the remote nature of the location contributes to a feeling of peace and calm that overcomes you when you arrive.  It’s an hour(ish) drive from Davis, which may sound like a long way to drive for dinner, but it didn’t feel annoying to get to.

We realllllly lucked out because the smoke only cleared out the day before we were set to dine there.

The mountains weren’t even visible and they had to close down their kids camp and send everyone home a few weeks prior.  🙁

ANYWAY!  Things are looking up for the containment and by September things are supposed to be under control.  So that’s good news!

Here’s the menu for the night.

What do you think was my favorite?  Ok, you’ll have to wait to find out, but it’s not something you’d expect.

Dried fruit!

We got a tour of the farm (just like last time) on a tractor to check in on the crops.  The kids liked it and it was cool for us too because last year we went a bit earlier in the season, so there was different stuff happening now at the end of summer, as opposed to when we previously went in early June.

To start we had sourdough with chevre and roasted tomatoes.  The roasted tomatoes were the best thing I had all night.  <- you didn’t have to wait long there did you!  It was beyond delicious.  So packed with flavor!  I just wanted to eat the entire bowl my myself…and then putting it on top of the fresh baked bread with the chevre…ohhhh man.  It was so good I can’t even tell you in actual words.

Here’s part of the kitchen bustling in action.  Unlike last time I didn’t mention my food sensitivities to them because I just wanted to eat everything and enjoy myself and get back on track with my GI stuff the next day (if I even needed to).  Last year I had the sourdough and had no issues, so I was optimistic that my gut would cooperate again.  It’s all real food made from scratch so it’s definitely different than processed bread you’d buy in the store.

I also didn’t even mention P’s allergies!  That is where we are right now guys.  I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TO MENTION MY SON’S LIFE THREATENING ALLERGIES.  Can we please get OIT as a mainstream treatment already??

Moving on to the next course.  This was a close runner up for top dish.  The cucumber was extremely crunchy and just tasted so cool and crisp and refreshing. It was a perfect contrast to the juicy sweet melon and salty feta.  And then there were the fresh herbs and a slightly spicy thing going on.  SOOOO good.  Gotta recreate!

The corn was fine but nothing special for me.  Kyle agreed.

This dish was different and I appreciated the change up, although the kids weren’t into it at all.  Never seem black eyed peas like that before!  I guess they just turned green from the salsa verde?

The pasta was Kyle’s favorite part of the meal and according to him he probably ate 8000 calories of that alone.  Sounds like an exaggeration to me, but it was really good so I wouldn’t put it past him.

The fresh basil and simple sauce was all it needed.  I think there must have been some kind of truffle oil going on in there too because it had an earthy umami thing that I couldn’t figure out.

There were two kinds of pork with the mustard stone fruit salsa.  I only tried the braised dark meat above because at this point I was getting super stuffed.

But here’s the other cut, which looked lovely and received rave reviews as well.  Man I wish I could have taken a baggy to bring home all the leftovers!  There was sooo much extra food and I was in agony not being able to package it away for later.

V had stopped eating by this point and was off playing with the other kids, but P was still at it…and I was getting nervous that we were going to have a 4th of July repeat.  He didn’t want to stop eating despite being full and I was like welcome to the club kid.  This is life.  I promised I’d smuggle the extra bread slices home for his breakfast the next day so he wouldn’t feel like he was depriving himself (even though he’d already had 3 pieces of bread) and that seemed to satisfy him enough to abandon the food and go play with his friends.

Last course was a goat cheese ice cream with figs that I thought was amaaaazing but others weren’t into.  I hard core disagree and found the tangy ice cream to be heavenly!  And the figs!  It was beautiful.  Maybe it helps that regular ice cream isn’t my favorite.

What a wonderful night!

We arrived home wayyyyy past bedtime and the amount of crying that happened during showers and pjs reminded us why we don’t stay out late with kids.  Ha!