Weddingbee Blog

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 overuse 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, with 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 hors d’oeuvres list.

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

As an ahi lover, I was so excited for the ahi crostini—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, salads, would give us a bit of a reprieve. But both were so great that we practically licked the plates clean and we still haven’t really decided which salad we like more.

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

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, and 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 (hee hee—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 rib eye with compound butter, wilted pea greens and mashed potatoes. UH-MAY-ZING!!

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 guests 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 foreign 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 cupcakes 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 the food!!

Since then, we’ve looked over the hors d’oeuvres menu and have decided to serve the following:

• Risotto Croquettes with Parmesan and Green Onions
• Asparagus Pizza with Basil
• Beef skewers with lemon aioli
• Ahi crostini 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.

Was your tasting a mini-escape, or was it a stressful experience?