April 30, 2010

Roasted Mustard Rabbit

We'd been wanting to cook rabbit at home ever since we attended the last Iron Chef class at Kitchen Conservatory. That night pitted chefs Josh Galliano of Monarch & Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Cafe against food blogger Bill Burge and chef Chuck Friedhoff of Persimmon Woods Golf Course.

The secret ingredient, which neither team knew of ahead of time, was rabbit. I'd never eaten rabbit before and was surprised by how much I liked it. Our only hesitation in cooking it at home was finding the rabbit to cook.  Luckily, we bribed our friend Justin (who operates Yellow Tree Farm) with a free oven. In return, he gave us one of his rabbits.

April 15, 2010

Our Porkapalooza Wedding Reception

Whew! The wedding is over, and the reception was a huge hit. Our plan was to have a backyard pig roast at Jerad's parents' house the day before Easter. We set up a big tent on Friday, but the weather wasn't looking good for our party.  It rained the day before and was very windy the morning of the reception, but it all turned out in the end.  The clouds cleared and the wind finally died down.  We ended up with a beautifully sunny day that helped to make the party just what I'd dreamed about.

You see, I had actually dreamed about our wedding reception a few years ago...before we dated even. Jerad and I were just friends at the time; in fact, I was married to someone else.  But, we worked together every weekend, so we spend a lot of time together. One night, I dreamed that we got married and had a reception under a white tent in his parents' backyard. The decorations were green & yellow.

I had forgotten about that dream until after we'd planned our pig roast.  Jerad then reminded me of the dream, which I told him about right after I'd had it. I'm sure he thought I was crazy at the time. Nevertheless, I find it a bit strange that I ended up planning that very reception. It must be fate.