Our Wedding!!

So here you are!

These are some photos (from our kick ass photographers Root Photography) of some of the awesome food we enjoyed at our wedding. The club was nice enough to let me design our menu.. and the chef did an absolutely incredible job! We had guests from all over the world... one particular who travels quite often, dining in some of the best spots on the globe. He commented that the lamb was some of the best he had ever had. Needless to day I went straight to the chef and told him! =) He said, "Yea... I can screw stuff up pretty well!" haha =)

For starters we had roasted garlic and french bread.
Along with an AWESOME greens salad with dried cranberries and blue cheese.

Followed by choice of rack of lamb in a mint chutney or chicken crepes with a Calvados cream sauce and apples. (no one got a pic of that one tho dangit!)

Then of course... THE CAKE! Topped with an Eiffel Tower (for those of you who don't know, that is where Dave proposed!) =D
It was delish. So glad we found such a talented pastry artist in town (Sweet Temptations Bakers, Melbourne, Florida). And the cake tasted great to boot!!


I had intended to hand sculpt all of the wedding favors (see above), but the wedding guest list just kept getting longer and longer until I couldnt keep up any longer.... so...


We ordered these for all of the guests, and gave the faerie heads to special guests and relatives. =)

Loch Fyne Fish & Oyster Bar : Nottingham

Loch Fyne is one of the many places we decided on a whim to eat at while we were on our honeymoon. We were on originally aiming to eat at an Indian Joint we had just watched on Kitchen Nightmares the night before.. but alas.. they weren't open for lunch.


I also realized while we were there, that this awesome little fish restaurant, is actually a CHAIN!
A CHAIN! For God's sakes! We can't even get privately owned restaurants with this sort of quality food. I've decided Brevard Florida is officially one of the worst places for restaurants in the world. Inundated with Chili's, and TGIFs on every other corner.

Anyways, I digress.... this place... even though it was a chain... ROXORED!


The raw bar is completely open, as you can see, and we had some awesome seats right next to it, so I could watch the girl there with her mad shucking skills. From where we sat, I could also spy into their kitchen.. and watch the ever fascinating madness that happens back there. The only prepackaged anything I could see back there were OXO granules... which I assumed were for gravy making... like the bangers and mash Dave ordered.... but I was at a seafood joint.. and was totally all over some fishies. Especially after eating meat pie after meat pie after meat pie. (Not that I dislike meat pies... and Todd Sweeny was a kick-ass movie btw)




We went for their fixed menu which included an appetizer and entree for £11 (about $20)
I had the raw oysters. I love raw oysters... and being a Florida girl, I've had many. But these oysters tasted distinctly different than the ones I am used to coming from tropical waters. Their flavor was much lighter and cleaner. They were really very good... but I think I do honestly prefer my robust ones from home.



For my entree I decided to go with the whole grilled sardines. I'd never had sardines this way... and admit to have only ever eaten them from those little cans (and oh how I love them). Needless to say they are MUCH bigger... which also means much bigger bones! Although they were cooked perfectly and tasted awesome with that balsamic vinaigrette ... it took a LOT of willpower to convince my brain it was okay to chew and swallow the bones! But isn't that presentation awesome? Could you ever imagine seeing something like this in an American chain restaurant?? I think not!


To finish Dave and I both ordered an Irish coffee... done the proper way!! Yay!

So in the end, very impressed with the food.... totally envious that we don't have places like this back home (oysters a plenty... but you'd never find a whole fish bone-in of any kind anywhere save maybe an authentic Chinese or Vietnamese joint).

On the bad side.. the service was pretty crap. The staff were all nice... but it just seemed they kept forgetting we were there.. and it wasn't just us... several tables around us looked a bit confused and lost trying to spot their servers. It ended up taking over 2 hours to get through that little lunch (not that I was in a rush or anything) But our server actually left before even giving us our bill.... so... needless to say, we left no tip!!!

Chicken Pot Pie

So... usually on Sundays we roast a whole chicken. Just the two of us usually only finish off half of it, the other half usually going into my salads for lunch. Well being that I was a particularly bad eater the past week, we were left with half a chicken that needed eating pronto!


Dave loves chicken pot pie. I guess its the closest thing to any sort of meat pie (btw, Sweeny Todd... AWESOME movie) that is easily accessible here in the States. Cracker Barrel, apparently, is the Mecca of Pot Pie.

I even went so far as making the pie crust from scratch using the "Good for Everything" pie crust recipe from Dorrie Greenspans "Baking" book. Its a damn fine pie crust. As if I needed an excuse to use my new mixer *grins with glee*

Filling

• 1 half of a cooked chicken, cut into pieces
  
• 2 sliced carrots
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 3 stalks sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions, celery and carrots in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and thyme. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Stir in peas and cooked chicken.
3. Pour hot liquid mixture into oven-proof bowl (we used soup crocks). Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

I'm making a turkey today....... I am all over some turkey pot pie.