Fearrington House

Steve's work hit a milestone. I can't remember what milestone it is, but to celebrate they took us to the Fearrington House in Chapel Hill last night. It is the only five star restaurant and hotel in North Carolina. We arrived around 5:30, checked in and quickly headed to a cocktail reception in the "Garden House". They had some hors d'orves there. One was salmon with a dill sauce on a cracker and the other was duck and some kind of sauce on the cracker. My favorite was the salmon. I tried not to eat too many because dinner was coming and I didn't want to ruin my appetite. At 7:00 we moved to the Fearrington House restaurant where the 14 of us were escorted to an upstairs room. When we sat down at the table, I took a good look at my place setting. There were four different glasses to drink out of and three different sets of silverware. It was pretty amazing. I am glad we studied table setting in Home Ec. this year and hoped that I remembered what everything was for! We started off with a roll, either white or cheddar and chive. I opted for the cheddar and chive. It was delicious! Then we all had a small, and I do mean small, cup of potato and leek soup with diced apple on top. It was absolutely fabulous. That was definitely one of my favorite courses of the evening, along with dessert. The next course we had a choice of Ceasar Salad or poached trout with horseradish potato salad and caviar dressing. I opted to try the trout. I decided since I wasn't paying for it, I should taste things that I wouldn't ordinarily try. Besides, Steve was not feeling too well, so he only ate a few bites of each of his courses. So I not only got to taste mine, but his as well. Each time he ordered the opposite from me so it worked out well. Anyway, back to the trout. It definitely wasn't my favorite, but I did like the horseradish potato salad. I decided I wasn't up for trying the caviar dressing that was put around the plate as a garnish. Some things are a little bit too much for me. The next course was quite tasty. It was a seared scallop on top of a bed of risotto and goat cheese with a rhubarb sauce around it. That was followed by a stew made with salmon and mussels. Once again, I opted out of tasting the mussels. Steve had some asparagus with an egg on top and some hollandaise sauce. For the main dish I had Sea Bass with some kind of corn cake or polenta thing in the middle and vegetables around it. Steve had beef filets and a potato cake. By this time, Steve really wasn't feeling well, so he left to go back to the room to lay down. Carolina was playing at 10:00 and he wanted to be able to stay up and watch the game with all of us. I decided not to let the waiter know that Steve had left because I wanted to try his dessert when it came. I am glad I did!! I ordered the chocolate lava cake with pistachio ice cream on it. It was very good. But then I tasted Steve's banana tart with rum ice cream. It was out of this world! I ate every bite of it! I told Steve later that I was sorry he didn't feel well, but I was very thankful he left because I loved his dessert!! After we were finished with this two and a half hour meal, we all went back to our rooms and changed quickly. We then met in the "Red Room" to watch Carolina play. I have to admit I was really worried most of the game, but fortunately they were able to pull it off in the end! After the game, we said goodnight and headed off to bed.
This morning, we woke up around 8:3o and started getting ready. Breakfast ended at 9:30 and we wanted to make sure we were going to make it. We got there with 10 minutes to spare. Steve had the usual, eggs, bacon(only I ate the bacon) and hashbrowns with a side of fruit. I had pancakes with caramel bananas on top. Yummy! I am sure that I probably weigh a few pounds more than I did before this weekend. Although, the scale in our room actually said I was about 4 pounds lighter than I was before I came!! Hmmm....sounds suspicious to me!!
Anyway, after a quick trip to the bookstore to buy a puzzle for little man, we headed home! It was so nice to see Josiah again. This was our first night away from him! I think he was excited to see us too. He thought the puzzle was very tasty and that made us happy!
We have company coming tonight and then tomorrow is Steve's dad's birthday so the family will all be here for that. Squeeze in church and then school Monday and I am going to be ready for a break!! Fortunately, starting Tuesday I have two weeks off. Maybe, just maybe, I will get a chance to stop and breathe...or at least post a blog every now and then! :)