The eighth wedding anniversary is traditionally celebrated with bronze or pottery. Matt took those recommendations and turned them into a fantastic weekend getaway for us! We drove to Greenwood, MS to have massages at The Alluvian Hotel and Spa and to attend a cooking class at The Viking Cooking School. His thinking was we'd use bronze/copper pots in the cooking class (a bit of a stretch - I think they were actually stainless steel) and on our way home, we drove through Merigold, MS to pick up a new piece of pottery from McCarty's Pottery. It was really nice to get away for a couple nights and enjoy getting to hang out with each other without having to referee kids in between sentences!
I don't have pictures from our whole weekend, but I took several from our cooking class because it was so much fun!
Most of you know that I am definitely NOT a cook. Matt is the head chef at our house. But I can get into it when wine is served and it's more of a party! (Or when you secretly make it a contest to make sure your food turns out better than the other teams...)
Here is Matt caramelizing the apples that would go on our salad.
Our tied-up tenderloin is ready to cook! And my always-in-charge husband allowed me to flip the shrimp skewers...under his watchful eye. :)
Cooking together! He probably wishes this happened more often at home.
If you've never attended a cooking class, it works like this: the class of 12 is divided up into three groups of four and each group prepares the same menu. There is a center cooking table where the instructor gives details for each step and then you turn to your cooking area to do it yourself. Once everything has been cooked, the instructors plate it and serve it for dinner. Each group eats the meal that they cooked.
Here we are, ready to dig in!
Our meal started with a salad of mixed greens, pistachios, and candied apples topped with a homemade champagne vinaigrette. On the side were grilled rye and brie cheese sandwiches. This was not really the part I was looking forward to but ended up being so delicious! In fact, I may request it for dinner again tomorrow night.
I forgot to take a picture of the main course until I'd eaten half of it. We had cheesy broccoli souffle, chateaubriand (beef tenderloin) with bernaise sauce, and glazed prosciutto-wrapped shrimp. It was fantastic!
We finished the dinner off with chocolate creme brulee and fresh raspberries - my favorite!
It was a weekend trip to remember and I'll be ready to do it again next year...hint, hint. :)