Le Blaireau, Carey's Manor Hotel, Brockenhurst

One of our favourite venues so far is Carey's Manor in Brockenhurst.  This hotel boasts 3 restaurants on site, the Manor Restaurant, a Thai Restaurant - Zen Garden, and a French Bistro - Le Blaireau.  We decided to have lunch at the latter today, and although the outside is needing a bit of a fix-up, the inside is well decorated and nicely laid out.  The waiters were very attentive and friendly.  Ian ordered the snails to start, and I opted for the goats cheese parcel with apple and parma ham.  The snails were nice and garlicy, a bit slimy but they are snails after all.  Ian enjoyed them but I think he would have liked a few more (there were 6 or 7).  My starter was delicious.  I'm unsure what the pastry was on the goats cheese parcel but it was light and crumbly and tasted really good.  There were some fried apple slices to accompany it, and some shredded apple on the top of the salad garnish.  It was well presented and went down well.   

For mains, Ian ordered the duck in plum sauce, served with dauphinoise potatoes and I ordered the trout with new potatoes and a melted butter and lemon sauce.  Ian is always worried about onion in the dauphinoise, so we swapped potatoes, which I was happy with because I love dauphinoise potatoes very much!  Ians duck was succulent and tasty and the side order of fries that he ate most of were nice and crispy.  My fish was in fact an entire fish, and I struggled to get round the bones, but I soon got the hang of it.  The butter and lemon was amazing and really worked with the fish.  They dauphinoise was extremely tasty.  

Again we didn't have room, or time for dessert.  I'm really pleased that we ventured into this restaurant.  We were not disappointed and it really beat our expectations. 

The Queens Head, Fishers Pond

Ian and I have a week off.  That means we're eating out.  Hopefully lots! Our first meal out of our holiday was at The Queens Head, in Fishers Pond.  They don't have a website so we were unsure what kind of food would be on offer.  The menu was typical pub food with a few extras.  Ian and I opted for the fondue to start, with a hoisin duck salad as well (as we do like our starters).  Mum didn't go for one, which I think she regretted after we took forever with ours! The fondue was really good, it really made me want to come home and get our fondue set (never used) out.  The hoisin duck salad confused us, the first mouthful was totally unexpected as it was chilled, and both Ian and I were expecting it to be warm.  It was tasty but it really would have been better with a bit of warmth.  

For mains, we all opted for their 'sizzlers', something new to Mum, but something Ian and I regularly had at his local pub up in York.  For those not in the know, it basically comes on a very hot skillet and continues to sizzle for most of the meal.  Ian ordered the ultimate sizzler, which came with a steak, a chicken breast, chicken wings and garlic and herb prawn skewers.  Mum and I went for the surf and turf sizzlers, which was just the steak and prawns.  The menu mentioned that the steak was served on a bed of onions and peppers, I'd imagine this is done to stop the steak burning.  As Ian hates both of these, we asked for his without.  Unfortunately, they got a bit confused and gave him onions and peppers and Mum none, but they did a quick swap and I think it all turned out OK.  The chips were nice, my steak was well cooked, although disappointingly it did have a big vein down the middle which makes me a little sad, but I ate round it.  

We couldn't manage dessert, and there wasn't a vast number of desserts on the menu anyway, only four I think.  It was a nice meal, plenty of food, well priced and a large restaurant, so likely to find a table even on busier nights.  They also have lots of outside seating which would be nice in the summer. 

The White Horse, Ampfield

As well as planning our wedding, Ian has also been working on IBM's annual Blue Fusion event, which runs during National Science Week and offers 64 schools the opportunity to play 8 activities/games designed and made by IBMers.  The event finished on Thursday, so after tidying up on Friday morning, some of the team took the chance for a well earned rest, in The White Horse in Ampfield.  Ian and I both choose the Fish Platter on their fish specials board, 4 different types of fish, scallops and prawns, all in a creamy white wine sauce.  Ian chose the chips and vegetables, I chose the saute potatoes and wilted spinach.  I cannot fault the food at all, the fish was all good, and there was plenty of it.  I'd probably have liked more than one scallop but it was a really tasty scallop, and they kept on the orange part that most restaurants discard.  The rest of our party seemed to enjoy their food also, there were two meat pies, which were well received as they were 'proper' pies (entirely encased in pastry instead of just a pie top).  There was also sausage and mash ordered, the mash being mountain high accompanied by plenty of gravy (and sausages of course!) 

We decided going back to work was a bad idea, so we also ordered some desserts, Ian opting for the profiteroles, and my choice was the pavlova.  I must say, it was the weirdest pavlova I've ever eaten - it had meringue (key ingredient really) but on top of that was chocolate and then some sort of jam/coulis with some strawberry cream on top, with some fresh strawberries stuck into it, all served with a few fresh raspberries and a jug of double cream.  I'd eat it again, it was nice and there was plenty of it, but I'm not a big fan of chocolate and fruit (unless it's something like a fondue or chocolate fountain).  Ian's profiteroles disappeared in seconds and he had a healthy smearing of chocolate round his mouth, so I'll wager he enjoyed them. 

We've eaten here before but I never got as far as reviewing it, but I think the general conclusion was that the food was good, although a tad on the expensive side.  I'd say this time, the mains we ordered were quite well priced for the amount of fish we received and as I made Ian buy the desserts, I'd say they were great value for money!

The Armada Restaurant - Rhinefield House

The search for a venue continues.  This week we were off to The New Forest for a wedding fayre at Rhinefield House, so we booked ourselves in for lunch to see what the food was like.  We arrived promptly for our 12.30pm booking, to find that the restaurant wasn't quite ready for us.  We took this opportunity to have a quick look around the fayre, which was much smaller than I'd expected.  When we returned the restaurant was ready and we were told that they'd had a party of 100 for breakfast so it had been a lot to clear up.  This wasn't a great sign because you really hope they could cope better with parties that size if they're offering wedding catering on site. 

We ordered from what seemed like a smaller menu than the one we'd seen online (perhaps because it was a Sunday lunch menu), Ian choosing the Chicken Liver Pate with fruit chutney & brioche and my choice was the goats cheese and red onion tart.  We noticed that the glasses had many many water marks on them, which was disappointing, although we didn't actually use the glasses set at our table.  Ian ordered a lemonade, and asked for it to come with a wedge of lime.  When it arrived, it had a slice of lemon, so Ian pointed this out to the waiter who seemed confused to start, but then happily took away the drink to replace it.  At this point I was reminded of Fawlty Towers, because in full view of us, the waiter who had taken our order told off the waiter who had bought our drinks and I half expected him to slap him round the head! Most amusing.  

Our starters arrived and were quite underwhelming, mine was not really a tart, but a giant vol-au-vent, which, although nice, was not what I was hoping for, and was not very warm.  The filling wasn't very consistent either, in some parts it was mainly goats cheese, in others more red onion.  It was, however, much nicer than Ian's starter.  He had a small slab of pate and two tiny pieces of brioche.  There was minimal effort involved, I could have knocked up the same dish in less than a minute at home.  I personally think pate should be served with toasted bread, although I'm not sure that would have made the starter much better.  

So, with low expectations, our mains arrived, mine the confit duck leg & Ian's the roast beef rib-eye.  Mine came with fondant potato, red cabbage and green beans.  The red cabbage wasn't the best I've had, slightly too vinegary but the fondant potato wasn't bad and the duck was tasty, although overcooked in places.  Ian's beef was nicely cooked and juicy, and came with roast potatoes, carrots & beans and a yorkshire pudding.  The mains were far nicer than the starters led us to think they'd be, so we were pleased, although we did notice that both the beef and the duck had the same gravy which we think was a bit lazy of the chef.  

At this point we ordered more drinks and browsed the dessert choices.  Ian went for a warm plum frangipane tart with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce.  I chose the lemon tart with lemon sorbet and a citrus salad.  By the time our desserts arrived, we hadn't received fresh drinks which I pointed out to the waiter.  They arrived when we'd finished our dessert, so we happily sent them back without paying for them.  I couldn't detect any plum flavour in Ian's plum tart and the butterscotch sauce wasn't really an accompaniment, more just a small squirt to make the plate look pretty.  My lemon tart was nice but would be more accurately described as a creme brulee in pastry.  

Having dined at Rhinefield House, we've now removed this from our list of venues - the outside of the property would make a wonderful backdrop to our photos but the inside just didn't provide us with the confidence that they'd give us the perfect day we are hoping for.   

The Restaurant at Chilworth Manor Hotel

Good news! After 5 years and 10 days of dating, Ian proposed! So, now we are planning a wedding, and as the wedding breakfast is the most important bit (to Ian at least, I'm pretty excited about the dress), we decided to try out the food at one of our possible venues.  

Chilworth Manor is quite close to home for us, and they're the only venue we've seen so far that advertise more than a 3 course wedding breakfast, so they're high up on our list at the moment.  As usual, my mum tagged along (she's spoilt!) and we all had a very nice meal.  

We were served an amuse bouche of cream of vegetable soup in a tiny tiny soup bowl.  Unfortunately, Ian isn't keen on vegetables and my mum wont eat cream but I thought it was yummy and I helped eat Mum's.  Ian suffered through it because he was starving.

For starters, I went for the haggis with caramelised shallots on a swede and sweet potato rosti with a whisky sauce.  It was presented really well, and I really enjoyed it all - I don't think it was entirely traditional haggis (didn't seem to be in a skin, think it was just the inside bit) but tasty nevertheless.  Mum and Ian went for the smoked ham hock rillette with a pineapple and cracked black pepper salsa.  The salsa went nicely with the ham rillette although it had onion in it so Ian didn't take it, but my mum cleaned her plate so I think she enjoyed it.  

I ordered the roasted guinea fowl supreme, mainly because it came with braised red cabbage (which I could eat all day everyday!).  It came with fondant potato, which is never as good as it sounds, but this was the best I've had so far (I'd still rather have a different type of potato though).  The guinea fowl was cooked really nicely, it wasn't at all dry and it went beautifully with the cabbage - big thumbs up from me.  Mum and Ian continued to copy each other and both went for the braised shoulder of lamb, Mum sticking with the lyonnaise potatoes, and Ian substituting them for buttered new potatoes (to avoid the onion).  The lamb was melt in your mouth good, and Mum said the lyonnaise potatoes were really tasty (they disappeared before I could steal some).  Ian ordered a side of chips, which arrived, looking like a jenga tower (although quite a small one).  They were cooked nicely but Ian said he would have preferred a few more of them.  

For dessert, Ian chose to copy me this time, selecting the marbled chocolate tartlet with pomegranate milkshake & sweet orange sorbet.  The tart was very rich, I struggled to finish it, but it was very good - Ian didn't suffer the same problem.  I think my favourite part of the dessert was the sorbet, it really was sweet and tangy and had a really strong fresh orange flavour.  Both Ian and I decided that the pomegranate milkshake (served in a shotglass with a tiny straw) was a bit of a gimmick and didn't really fit with the dish, but we drank it anyway.  Mum ordered the baked figs with pannetone and cinnamon ice cream.  I didn't try the ice cream as cinnamon isn't really my thing but the fig was a pleasant surprise - much nicer than it looked.  Mum said the pannetone was very sweet - not sure if it was too sweet or not, she did mention it being very sweet several times though.  

Overall, the food was excellent, the service friendly and prompt, and the location charming.  A good time was had by all, and Chilworth Manor remains on our list of possible venues.

Stuffie Swap Part Two

Introducing my new stuffie Bradley! Named by my colleagues at work and made for me by my lovely swap partner.

Stuffie Swap

I signed up for a stuffie swap as I hadn't managed to finish the ones I was making for Christmas and I figured by joining a swap I'd be forcing myself to actually complete a project!

The rules were that each participant would list 3 animals they'd like to receive and the swap partner would pick one they think they can make. My partner listed snail as one of their choices and it sounded like and interesting choice.

The first decision to be made was which colours to use. I wanted something un-snail-like because I was pretty sure I couldn't make a realistic looking snail so why try. I also wanted it to be bright and cheerful. I had some nice sparkly pink felt but I noticed my swap partner didn't like pink. So, I went for yellow and green, nice and bright!

I figured I'd give the snail a swirly shape by doing some embroidery on some circles and adding them to some panels to create a shell. I was pretty pleased with the neatness of my stitching. I created the body and then attempted to stitch together. As I'd partly stuffed the body and completely stuffed the shell it made it quite hard to attach. I think if I was to do this again I'd try to create the whole thing as one so there was only one piece to stuff.