Valentines Night at The Nook On The Square

Known only as a daytime cafe at present The Nook On The Square is looking into the possibility of opening in the evening for private dining, one off events and even maybe a regular supper club.
It's not easy, and takes a lot of planning, but the end result is always worth the many hours of preparation and hard graft.

Valentines night was our first proper evening event. We had prepared a 3 course menu and were fully booked within a week or so of advertising.
Below you can see a photo of our back room with dimmed lights, plenty of candles, tablecloths and fully laid tables. It all looked beautiful and romantic.



The Nook On The Square all set for Valentines Day

We offered a choice of 3 starters.
Warm Scotch Eggs, Pea Puree and Pea Shoots.


Warm Scotch Eggs, Pea Puree and Pea Shoots

Skewered Pesto King Prawns


Skewered Pesto King Prawns

Portobello Mushroom with Goats Cheese, Walnuts and Tarragon


Portobello Mushroom, Goats Cheese, Walnuts and Tarragon

Our starter choice was followed by a choice of 3 main courses, meat, fish and vegetarian.
Panfried Salmon on Taglitelle cooked in a White Wine Cream Sauce..


Panfried Salmon And Taglitelle

Beef Bourguignon, Parmesan Mash and Seasonal Vegetables.


Beef Bourguignon, Parmesan Mash and Veg

Baked Aubergine, Goats Cheese, Walnut and Pomegranate  Salsa 

To follow all that we had a choice of 3 sweet desserts and/or Cheeseboard
My favourite Pink Lemonade Pie.


Pink Lemonade Pie

Crème  Brulee 


Crème Brulee

Trio Of Chocolate Mousse


Trio Of Chocolate Mousse

Cheeseboard

And after all that our customers enjoyed a cup of coffee with our own Baileys Truffles


Chocolate Baileys Truffles

The evening was a fantastic success with all customers saying that we should so more evening events.
Maybe we will....... watch this space!!
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What To Do With Left Over Shortcrust Pastry?

What do you do with your leftover shortcrust pastry?

If you ask most home cooks they will probably say make jam tarts, lemon curd tarts or something similar.
 I was quite interested to see a good idea appear on my facebook news feed a couple of weeks ago for pastry biscuits with leftovers. Such a simple idea but a great new one for us at The Old Red Lion to serve complimentary to our customers, with a dip, whilst they peruse the menu.
So what do you do? Well as i said, simple! Roll out your pastry. Cut out some circles, or other shapes if you prefer, with cutters. Place on a baking sheet and top with salt and pepper. You can add other toppings if you fancy. I sprinkled poppy seeds on some and sesame seeds on others. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Shortcrust Pastry Biscuits Ready To Bake In The Oven

 

When cooled serve with your favourite dips!
I put my first batch with red onion marmalade.

Shortcrust Pastry Biscuits With Red Onion Marmalade Dip

And for the second batch I made a garlic, red onion, red pepper and ricotta dip. Easily made in the food processor!
Seemed to go down very well with tonights customers.

Shortcrust Pastry Biscuits With Red Onion, Red Pepper, Garlic & Ricotta Dip

 

So what do you do with your leftover pastry??

Summer Wedding

This Saturday saw The Old Red Lion play host to a high tea wedding reception.
Fortunately the heavy lunchtime downpour of rain turned into an afternoon of hot sunny weather, perfect for afternoon tea!
Food was fiddly, and time consuming to make, but well worth the effort when it was all put together and a perfect end result achieved.
Unfortunately we were too busy to be able to take as many photos as we would have liked but below is a small selection.

Restaurant at The Old Red Lion laid up for high tea.

Pretty bunting

Table arrangemennts

Mis match of crockery gives a great effect

table decorations

Bride and groom initials

Champagne reception

Smoked salmon& cream cheese blinis

Canapes.
Mushroom and tarragon crostini.
 Mini yorkshires with beef and horseradish
Smoked salmon & cream cheese blinis

Mini fruit and custard tarts

Close up of fruit tarts

Cookies n Cream Pie

Do American recipes make you feel frustrated?
Always insearch of new ideas I came across a gorgeous photo the other day of a cookies n creme pie made with oreo biscuits. Looked fab so I started googling recipes.
Every recipe seemed to be American and included "chocolate pudding mix" and "cool whip", both of which are not on the UK supermarket shelves.
So I did a bit more googling and came up with my own plan for a recipe.
I bought large oreo bisuits as well as snack size, cookies,butter, cream, chocolate philadelphia and then chocolate flavoured angel delight and dream topping.

I crushed the large oreos and added 30g melted butter and divided them into individual cake tins and pressed down and chilled.
Following packet instructions I made up the angel delight and dream topping and mixed it altogether with the cream cheese and added broken up cookies and small oreos. Dollops were placed on the chilled biscuits base and then I piped cream on top and finished with a mini oreo.

Cookies n Cream Oreo dessert

My son tested them this evening and gave them a thumbs up tho did say the cream probably wasn't needed on top as the 2 textures were the same and also that they didn't need to be any bigger as might be too much. For me I don't think I like the angel delight in the mixture, I was never a big fan!

Cookies n Cream Dessert

And if you fancy making the dessert a bit more portable then it looks great in this small glass jar!

Cookies n Cream Pie in a Jar

More Christmas Cake Designs

Last batch of christmas cakes for Radmore Farm Shop!
Now to start on the mince pies!!

Snowflake and Star design christmas cake

Snowman design christmas cake

Holly wreath design christmas cake

Homemade Christmas Cakes

It's that time of year again for mince pies, christmas pud and traditional christmas cake.

Vicky made the cakes and gave me the task of icing and decorating. This task was right up my street!!

Lots of research on the net first at christmas cake images for ideas. Then I went to a local cook shop looking for cutters. Then, armed with creative ideas, I set to work!

Below are my first 8 designs on the smaller cakes.

Simply white with snowflakes and bow

Christmas tree and snowflakes

Holly, berries and merry christmas

Christmas wreath and white bow

Christmas wreath and white bow

Christmas tree and presents

Christmas tree, presents and stars

Simply snowflakes

Christmas tree and snowflakes

Christmas tree and snowflakes
 

What's your favourite?

Christmas Party

Last Thursday saw the first of our christmas parties.
The local bell ringers joined us at The Old Red Lion for an evening of fun and gorgeous christmas fayre.
Very successful evening and I managed to capture a few shots of the food.

Smoked salmon, red onion marmalade and cream cheese tart

Parsnip,apple and chestnut soup

Basil roulade

Stilton mushrooms and ciabatta

 

Baked ham and roast vegetables

Chocolate and chestnut torte

Pear and ameretto cheesecake