Monday, May 4, 2009

Absolute Yumminess

A couple weeks ago Mr. Peep and I had the pleasure of going to our venue for a tasting!! And let me tell ya- it was fantastic!!! From this point forward, please forgive me for my over use of adjectives like fantastic, amazing and phenomenal.

We showed up to the restaurant, were seated and just waited for the surprises to start arriving.

They started off slow: olives and wine:


And then this was brought out- Asparagus and Basil Pizza Fantastic-ness!!

It was so amazing. It instantly was put on the hor d'oeuvre list.

Next up, beef skewers with lemon aioli and an ahi crustini with a spicy aioli.

As a ahi lover, I was so excited for the ahi crustini- it was great, but there was too much aioli. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised by the beef skewers, they were pure deliciousness.

At this point in the evening I had to ask the waiter how much more to expect because I seriously needed to pace myself.

We thought the next course would give us a bit of a reprieve, the salad course. But both were so great we practically licked the plates cleans and we still haven't really decided what we want.

First up, baby greens with toy box tomatoes, feta, radish and balsamic vinaigrette. This one was light, springy and perfectness.

Second, baby greens with blue cheese, spiced pecans and herbed vinaigrette. This had a bit more flavor and we found ourselves devouring the spiced pecans.

We're thinking of doing the second salad yet adding the yummy little tomatoes.

After the salad, we both realized how much we needed this dinner. Mr. Peep was stressed out to the max with school and work, so this gave us the perfect opportunity to sit back, relax and enjoy a fabulous dinner together. Here's Mr. Peep enjoying good food, good wine, and an even better dinner partner (he he- that's me).


Next up, the entrees. We had already put on the RSVP that we'd be serving Fish or Beef, but we had no idea what that really meant.

The Chef prepared two fabulous beef dishes. First, a Grilled Fillet with Potato Gratin and Wilted Pea Greens. I never really knew it, but wilted pea greens are da bomb.

On any given day, I'd be so happy with this meal, but then I took a bite of this:

It was a Grilled Ribeye with Compound butter, Wilted Pea Greens and Mashed Potatoes. Uh-MAZ-ING!!

After both of those great beef choices, I was super excited for the fish course. I am not that much of a beef person, so I figured that the fish would be right up my alley. It was a Petrale Sole with Masa Brown Rice, Brown Butter, Capers, Radish and Hearts of Palm.

It was a good dish, but for some reason Mr. Peep and I didn't feel that all of our guest would love it. So we still have to decide what fish to serve. We're thinking Halibut??

At this point in the evening, we started to try the different wines on the list to figure out what we wanted to serve during dinner. We really wanted to serve only local wines, and we found a Napa Valley Red that we loved: a Joel Gott, 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. But we also fell in love with a white Soave, Classico Inama from Verona, Italy. We figure one forign wine on a list of 7 wines served through out the evening isn't bad??

All in all the evening was beyond great. We finished the meal with some butterscotch ice cream (we'll be serving cup cakes at the wedding) and some delicious coffee and mint tea:


We left feeling ridiculously full and extremely excited for our wedding. I just hope we get to eat some of it!!

Since then we've looked over the hors d'oeuvre menu and decided to serve the following:
Risotto Croquettes with Parmesan and Green Onions
Asparagus Pizza with Basil
The beef skewers with lemon aioli
The ahi crustini with a spicy aioli (just less aioli than before)


In the end, I have no doubt that the food will be ridiculously delicious!! Now, I have to go eat. So hungry.

How'd you decide what to serve?

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