Wedding Day Food

Carlos and I had our wedding on July 7th, 2012 at the Henderson House in Weston, MA.

We haven't gotten our professional wedding photos yet so this is a mish-mosh of different photos from different sources. Above is the Reception room although it looked different on the night. We had 8 tables plus a sweetheart table in the back.

Source: Menu Card designed by JK Design

Above is our menu and below is the list of all the delicious food! The Henderson House chef and staff are super talented when it comes to creating delicious appetizers and meals. 

Food

Appetizers

Baby Lamb Chops

Crab Cakes with Basil Aioli and Tomato Basil Relish

Fig and Goat Cheese Flatbreads

Tomato Bruschetta
Imported and Domestic Cheese Display with Fruit

 Salad 

 Antipasto Salad with Artichoke Hearts, Kalamata Olives, Red Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Red Onion, Romaine Lettuce and Red Wine Vinaigrette Dinner Rolls with Butter 

 Entrees 

 Seared Beef Tenderloin Medallions, Horseradish Sauce, Oven Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes and Vegetable Medley with Fresh Herbs and Olive Oil 

 Lobster Ravioli, Sherry-Basil Cream Sauce with Vegetable Medley with Fresh Herbs and Olive Oil 

Vegan Tofu Milanese, Steamed Basmati Rice and Vegetable Medley with Fresh Herbs and Olive Oil 

Desserts 

 Wedding Cake from Bittersweet Woburn

 Assorted Mousse Shots (plus cookies!)

 Coffee, Tea and Decaf

We went to a tasting a few months before the wedding. It was a great opportunity to try out what the chefs had to offer and to pick things we liked and rule out things we didn't. We were really impressed with their Fig and Goat Cheese Flat Breads and their Crab Cakes (see above). We also really loved the fact that they did Baby Lamb Chops as an appetizer. It didn't cost any more as we had our pick of 4 passed hors d'ouevres and we thought it was a very unusual but very upscale pick. We hadn't tried the tomato bruschetta but thought it would be a basic appetizer that would please picky eaters and vegetarians too.

The salad was very good. Light and refreshing but also packed a punch in flavor. Artichokes, Kalamata olives, roasted red pepper, delicious!

For entrees, guests could chose from a Vegan, a Beef and a Lobster Ravioli entree. When we were at the tasting, we noticed that the chicken and pasta dishes (except ravioli) were the dishes we liked the least. And again, since it didn't cost us any extra we tried to chose the most delicious and upscale meals we could.

The Lobster Ravioli was divine. It was so good even Carlos, who never eats Lobster or any type of seafood except Calamari, loved it. The herbed vegetables were a delicious addition. Guests who got the Lobster Ravioli were served extra vegetable.

Then came the Beef Tenderloin medallions with the vegetable medley and super scrumptious potatoes. What you don't see in this picture is that there was a little bowl of horseradish sauce for adding to the plate. This was so good and what most people ordered.

I really wanted to try the Vegan entree but unfortunately the venue didn't give our sweetheart table the dish to try. They do vegan dishes on a regular basis and I had at least 3 vegan/vegetarian guests so it was nice to give folks options. 

For dessert, there were assorted mousse shots in strawberry, coffee and chocolate. These were divine and a great small cool treat on a hot day. It was nice because it wasn't a filling dessert and wouldn't compete with the cake. The venue also provided cookies which was a surprise to me and very nice of them.

Oh and the cake. Wow. What a beauty! This gorgeous Art Deco style cake in silver, grey and deep pink comes from my favorite bakery of all time Bittersweet Cake Shop in Woburn, MA. It's a bakery run by two sisters, Atosa and Panta, and they do the most amazing desserts including custom cakes. This cake had vanilla chiffon cake and whipped dulce de leche filling (more creamy than caramel) with fondant on the outside. If you are getting married anywhere in a 35 mile radius of Woburn, make sure your wedding cake comes from Bittersweet. You get an amazing cake from two very talented women for a very good price!

And it's true what they say, your guests enjoy the food more than the bride and the groom. I was running around so much I only got to eat one crabcake appetizer and was too nervous to eat most of my meal. Oh well. At least I got to enjoy a lot of it at the tasting!

We had a blast at the wedding. All the festivities, drinks and food were great and everything went off without a hitch. Although the planning was a nightmare so at the end of the day, I loved the wedding but was so relieved it was over. 

Chile Olive Oil #ChileEVOO Event hosted by David of Cooking Chat

My friend David from the blog Cooking Chat (he can also be found on multiple Twitters including @CookingChat) invited me to attend a Chile Olive Oil dinner he was hosting at his home. The dinner was sponsored by ChileOliveOil.com -  The National Association of Manufacturers of Olives and Olive Oil in Chile (ChileOliva) and Whole Foods Woburn. David was kind enough to let me bring along my husband and my father-in-law, who happens to be from Chile! At the event were some social media experts including @BostonFoodFan @clownface3 and @eric_andersen. It was a wonderful time and David and his wife Jodi did a great job as hosts!

All the food at the #ChileEVOO event was prepared using Chile Olive Oil in either Smooth or Bold flavors.

Appetizers included this Roasted Red Pepper Dip made with Chile Olive Oil and David's secret ingredient: pomegranate molasses!

Next up were Pesto Crostinis made with Chile Olive Oil. I'm usually not a big fan of pesto but these were delicious!

There is my husband Carlos @fastefelson enjoying a Pesto Crostini.

We all enjoyed Chilean Red and White Wines while we were waiting for the main course.

The third appetizer was a Caprese Salad served with the Bold version of the Chile Olive Oil. What's not to love about this salad? It's so light and refreshing and fulfilling. The smooth Chile Olive Oil over the top made it all come together.

While we waited for the main course, we were able to check out some pamphlets about Chile Olive Oil and where in Chile the olives were harvested. Carlos' dad talked a lot about Chile and his experiences with olives from the Northern region. The olives used in these oils were from the central region.

Next up was an Olive Oil tasting. I have never drank straight olive oil before! It was quite an experience. David poured Smooth and Bold flavors of the Chile Olive Oil in these little square cups and we got to taste them separately to note the differences in flavor. We cleansed our palates in between oils with some slices of Granny Smith Apple.

The smooth was by far my favorite. I primarily use Extra Light Olive Oil in my cooking versus Extra Virgin Olive Oil which to me is too heavy in taste. The smooth Chile Olive Oil was just like my favorite olive oil but a deeper yellow in color. It also had a peppery aftertaste. The bold was quite heavy and the peppery taste is something you can tell right away. The smooth is a great cooking oil while the bold would be better for dressings and dips.

Here David is sauteeing some red and white onions for the main course.

Carlos waiting for the food.

Another glass of Chilean wine!

And here was the main course! On the right is a mixed green salad with walnuts and tomatoes topped with Bold Chile Olive Oil and Balsamic dressing. On the right was Honey Chicken with Onions and Yukon Potatoes cooked with some thyme and Smooth Chile Olive Oil. The meal was absolutely delicious! Good work David!

David's son has a Egg allergy so this was a Chocolate Olive Oil cake sans eggs. It was delicious! Almost brownie like in texture. Since I've been dieting for my wedding in July, it had been a VERY LONG TIME since I had chocolate cake. So I savored every bite.

The other dessert was courtesy of Whole Foods Woburn. An Angel Food cake with whipped cream frosting and fresh berries. It was quite delicious. Carlos isn't even a cake person, he hates overly sweet and dense cakes and fake frosting, and he had two slices!

It was a wonderful evening of good food, good olive oil, good wine and good conversation. We took lots of photos, tweeted with hashtag #ChileEVOO and generally had a great time. David sent us home with little gift bags with Chile Olive Oil samples and some more information about the product.

I really like this type of event. David wasn't a sales person, just a host, so we didn't feel a lot of pressure to buy anything and it didn't feel like we were being pitched. The casualness of it allowed for independent exploration of a product which I think worked very well. Thank you to David, Chile Olive Oil and to Whole Foods Woburn for a great night!

Book Review: What to Eat by Marion Nestle

What to Eat by Marion Nestle

April 2007

Paperback ISBN 9780865477384

Farrar, Strauss and Giroux

A couple of years ago, when I was in for my yearly check-up, I was describing to my doctor my various intestinal dilemmas as well as my issues with certain foods. At that point in my life, I was really wanting more information about food and nutrition in general. He gave me a short list of books that he recommended I read and on that list was Marion Nestle’s What To Eat. I bought the book and set it aside. While I didn’t pick it up for another year and a half, I left it somewhere visible so it’s continued presence would be a constant reminder to pick the book and read it.

Finally this year I read the book. What took me so long? I didn’t want to be a victim of scare-mongering and I was very worried that this book would do that. That reading it would scare me enough that I would be living in fear of many foods. Instead, I got a thorough education.

It took me about 6 months to read this book. Mostly because there was a lot of information to take in and I really wanted to take my time with it. While this book could be used as a reference guide, it’s best read from cover to cover. The author Marion Nestle has a very impressive resume. She’s written multiple books about food and food politics, she’s a professor of nutrition and sociology and has a Ph.D in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition (Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/about/) . So when you pick up this book, know that you are in good hands.

What to Eat covers a variety of food topics including (in no particular order):

Fruit & Vegetables

Organic produce

Meat

Fish & Seafood

Eggs

Milk & Dairy

Margarine

Bread

Oils & Fat

Tea & Coffee

Soy Milk

Frozen Foods

Processed Foods

Packaged Foods

Prepared Foods

Snack Foods

Sugars

Cereal

Foods targeted at Children

Infant Formula & Baby Food

Supplements

It would be impossible for me to write in this review all the valuable bits of information and food for thought that I gleamed for this book. But I’d like to point out a few that really surprised me.

I think the most difficult chapters for me to read were the ones on Fish & Seafood. It was the scariest topic of them all especially since there are many issues with the quality of fish & seafood which comes from over-fishing, mishandling, pollution, toxins and farming. I gathered from these sections that fish & seafood as a food group is not as healthy as we think it is and as a seafood aficionado this made me nervous.

I also learned that for a carnivore the worst thing to eat is another carnivore. If you are going to eat meat or seafood, make sure what you are eating one on the lowest rank of the food chain. Nestle made the case by showing how shark meat can be quite dangerous. Sharks are notorious carnivores that not only eat herbivores and omnivores but also other carnivores too. If one small fish carries a toxin and a larger fish carries another toxin and that larger fish eats the smaller fish, the larger fish will basically be contaminated with both toxins (or if it’s the same toxins, a double-dose). If a Shark eats that larger fish, the shark will be carrying the toxins of that larger fish and the smaller fish that the larger fish has eaten. And sharks eat a wide variety of fish but also carnivorous mammals too including seals, dolphins, whales, etc (that eat fish that may or may not eat other fish). So eating shark meat is quite a gamble because of the multiplication of toxicity! After I read that, my mind was blown and I ended up having nightmares about eating shark meat. This was the best lesson in biology though as it made me understand why humans don’t eat other omnivores and carnivores. (I also correlated this to mad cow disease and how farmers would grind up diseased & dead lamb/mutton and put it into cattle feed).

The other interesting chapter that surprised me was the one on supplements. My father-in-law has been trying to teach everyone about Vitamin D supplements and both of my parents take various supplements and vitamins on a regular basis.  For years my mom harassed me about taking multivitamins which I never really took consistently. Right now, I take a calcium supplement daily and if I’m off a hormonal medication then I take natural supplements like Phytoestrogen. Marion Nestle makes the case that no one really needs added vitamins in their diet whether they be from  supplements or from enriched foods and drinks. Why? Because if you eat a wide variety of foods, including vegetables and fruits, you most likely do not have a vitamin deficiency because the variety is already contributing to your basic vitamin needs. In fact, vitamin deficiencies in non-third world countries are very rare. She only suggests taking a multi-vitamin if you have one (or a few) days in which you eat very poorly. Nestle also discusses about how too much of a vitamin can be a bad thing! Interesting. I wanted to argue with her about other non-vitamin supplements though. For me, placebo or not, supplements have helped me immensely with various problems I have. But then again, I’m no expert and I only know from my own personal experience.

What to Eat is very informative and thorough. You get an important lesson in food politics and how food companies want to make money off of consumers regardless of whether it affects your health negatively or not. This is something I already had some knowledge about but Nestle’s findings are quite eye-opening. After reading this book, I don’t think I’ll look at food marketing quite the same way. Nestle does have some bias. She has opinions and she is not afraid to share them. At certain points I had hoped this book would be more technical and less biased, but in the end I came to the conclusion that the book works very well as it is. Nestle shares a lot of her own personal experience with food as well as her experiences with companies and key figures in the food industry. It adds some very informative and enlightening details as well as context.

If you are interested in learning more about food and food politics, pick up What to Eat! You’ll come out of the experience an enlightened (not scared) individual who will be empowered to make better food choices for yourself and your family.

Greek Festival 2012 Woburn, MA

Carlos and I went to the Greek Festival in Woburn, MA again this year and had a blast. We mostly go for the delicious and authentic Greek food and pastries but it was also fun people watching, listening to music and see folks dressed in traditional Greek costumes dance.

We got two plates and a few sides and shared. Above you see Mythos Greek beer, a Beef Souvlaki plate with rice and a Greek salad. The beef was so tender and flavorful. Carlos kept talking about it for hours afterwards.

We also got a Pastitsio plate with came with rice and green beans in tomato sauce. Pastitsio is a traditional Greek casserole which is layered with macaroni noodles in a béchamel sauce, flavored with cinnamon, and in between that is a layer of ground beef. We also got a piece of Spanikopita (Greek Spinach & Cheese pie) and some Dolmathes (Grape leaves stuffed with rice). The dolmathes were warm and I prefer mine cold and pickled. Carlos loved them.

 I kept debating what I would get while we were standing in the extremely long and slow line waiting with other hungry festival goers for food. I ended up deciding on Pastitsio because I had been thinking about it all day and it was a reasonable $9 price (the other dishes ranged from $10-$16).

The best part was diving into a bunch of delicious Greek pastries. The Greeks know how to make some delicious desserts. On the top right is a generous piece of delicious Baklava. It was not too sweet, just sticky enough that you want to lick your fingers while you eat it and it was flaky and scrumptious. Below right was Galaktoboureko which is a phyllo dough stuffed with a custard and drizzled with honey or a sugar syrup.

My absolute favorite Greek dessert of all time Melomakarona which is a honey cookie topped with chopped walnuts. I love these even more than Baklava. My mom (we are not Greek even though we have dark hair and our last name ends in "os") makes the best Baklava and I'm sure she'd kill me if she knew I have a new favorite. Above the Melomakarona are Kourabiethes, which are sweet almond cookies in half moon shapes. They are dusted in powdered sugar. So delicious!

We had a great time at the Greek Festival and are already looking forward to next year!