Anna Getting Married

So the blasted thing about life is that it throws you some curve balls, and plans have to change. Gaz lost his job, and that means we have decidedly less money and a decidedly less flexible budget for the wedding planning.

The funny thing is, the closer it gets and the less money we have to actually book venues and things, the more I would be happy to just get married in my lounge room. I am so comfortably in love with Gaz that I don’t feel as much like making a big show out of it as I did.

We’re both pretty keen now on the breakfast wedding, though it’s been poo-pooed by a few people (“9am! I don’t even know how to be up at 9am!”). The only stumbling block here is that Ashcombe Maze only seems to have weddings from 10am, which brings us to either a lunchtime shindig or having the ceremony part somewhere else. I quite like the idea of having the ceremony at the reception venue, which I’m hoping will be The Bridge in Mordialloc. We could get married in the cold on their lovely deck, overlooking the marina and the water.

After the ceremony, we’d have a gorgeous breakfast of eggs, pancakes, sausages, potato rosti, salmon, bacon and all kinds of deliciousness. Then what we’d probably do is go away for a few hours, but put some money on a bar later in the day/evening and those guests who wanted to could meet up with us for a few drinks in a much more relaxed environment. Cheaper for us too.

I have also not asked our celebrant yet whether we can change the time of day, or even whether he does morning weddings. Having already butchered the date with him, I don’t want to jump the gun on the change in time.

The loss of job also means that I’m going to have to let go of some things – mostly the photography. I am supremely sad about this and need to find a suitable alternative as soon as possible, as I just refuse to have shoddy photos of our day.

So that’s where I am right now – nowhere. This planning stuff is for the birds!

It’s lucky we still have 10 months before the big day, because I am out of control with my “What if we did it like this?” garbage.

I was just reading the breakfast packages for The Point at Albert Park (mostly because I work at Albert Park) and was really taken by the idea of getting married early in the morning and then having breakfast by the water. I’m not sure why I’m compelled to move the ceremony earlier and earlier in the day, but Gaz and I are both morning people so it would at least be relevant to us.

Now, this probably won’t happen, but for interest’s sake, and because it does appeal to me quite a lot, have you ever been to a breakfast wedding? Was it too early in the day? Did you have a breakfast wedding? Did people refuse to come?

These are some random things I enjoyed at dribbble, designed by very clever creatives and great inspiration for the stationery, which is still doing my head in (Georgia and Lily’s pictures were rubbish! LOLJK they were awesome and I’ll upload.)

Of course, I saved all of these to my hard drive without bookmarking them, so I’ll have to go back and find/add credit shortly.

So I did give the baked gnocchi a whirl on Monday night. It was a cold night and completely perfect for some heart-stopping comfort food goodness. I made a double batch to accommodate my sister and her boyfriend (both bottomless pits!), but it still only made 6 smallish serves. Of course, I later found out that you really only need a smallish serve, so maybe it was more like 8 reasonable serves.

Ingredients

600ml cooking / pouring cream
300g some sort of blue cheese. I used creamy blue, which is like a blue brie – cut off the rind! – and sliced it into small pieces
1kg gnocchi, store bought (didn’t have the guts to try making my own)
A few slices of pancetta – I used about 60g – torn into shreds with your bare hands
1 good, firm avocado, sliced
4 large mushrooms, sliced
Cheese for topping

Method

Preheat oven to 200Cish (for browning cheese).

Bring the cream to the boil in a smallish saucepan. When it is boiling, pop your cheese in and stir until the cheese has more or less melted (it’s okay if it’s a bit lumpy, as long as the lumpy bits aren’t rind). Turn right down to a very low simmer, or remove from heat.

Boil water in a large pot. Once the water is boiling, pour the gnocchi in (careful, it splashes). As soon as the water has returned to the boil, remove gnocchi and drain.

Pour gnocchi into casserole dish. Cover with cheese/cream sauce. Add pancetta, avocado and mushrooms and carefully cover gnocchi in sauce (carefully because the gnocchi will get smushed and break apart if you’re not careful).

Sprinkle with cheese. Bake until cheese is golden.

Serve hot and go “mmm” often.

Notes

I ate this for lunch yesterday as leftovers, and it was even better as next-day food, like lasagne.

This is a lot of cheese. Like, once a year meal amounts of cheese.

Tonight I’m going to make a  baked blue cheese and pancetta gnocchi, though that sounds very salty and I might substitute the blue cheese for a creamy blue, or even take it out altogether and use brie. Now, this is almost too healthy, so I’m also going to add avocado and mushrooms, and serve with a side salad.

While I was pondering this, it occurred to me how nice it is to have a partner in crime who will happily mow through anything I put in front of him, declare it “awesome” or “fantastic” and then find the hidden chocolate and eat that with me too. It just makes everything that much easier.

I have a sudden reinvigorated love of cooking. I imagine this was spurned on by cooking a dish one night that everyone loved, and in my usual fashion I immediately assumed that I was an undiscovered cullinary genius, so I have been cooking non-stop since. Last night I banged together a pizza dough and made roast capsicum, chorizo, salami, roast potato, mushroom and olive pizzas for the group of nerds hiding in the loungeroom, but besides that I have mostly been working on a series of casseroles and pies for the cold winter nights.

Tonight I am having my own invention test and making macaroni and cheese. I’m currently halfway through, so anything could happen, but here’s my recipe (rather approximate, as with most things).

Ingredients

500g short tube pasta (I’m using a narrow rigatoni)
200g Havarti cheese, chopped
50g Parmesan cheese, shaved
250mL Philadelphia cooking cream
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup plain flour, sifted
100g diced rindless bacon
Pinch of sweet paprika
100g sliced cup mushrooms
Grated tasty / pizza cheese for topping
Ground black pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to about 180C. I have a temperamental oven that heats unevenly, so if you don’t then you might go more with 160C.

Pop chicken stock into saucepan and bring to boil. Remove from heat and whisk in plain flour (do it quickly, or it’ll be lumpy!). Add Havarti cheese and whisk quickly until melted. Stir in cream and return to low heat. Add bacon, paprika and parmesan. Allow to simmer for a little while, stirring gently. Add pepper to taste.

Cook pasta as per instructions. Pop pasta and mushrooms into a casserole dish, pour sauce over.

Note: Do not blog instead of cooking and end up with mush pasta as I just did. Also, bacon stuck to bottom of saucepan, added extra bacon.

Sprinkle with grated cheese and stick into oven. Turn oven light on so children can say “Ooh!” a lot.

Leave in oven until cheese is golden brown and house smells like a Michelin Star chef lives there. Serve with those fabulous garlic ciabatta rolls from the Woolworths fridge section.

Looks like it will probably serve about 6.

Verdict

The macaroni and cheese was delicious. The Havarti cheese gave it a creamy, subtle flavour, whilst the paprika gave it some bite (I would probably add a little more paprika next time). The consistency of the sauce was perfect, but there wasn’t quite enough for all 500g of pasta – perhaps 400g would be better.

The dish really needs to be oiled! I had a layer of pasta stuck/burned to my dish, which is now soaking (sulking?). Probably an entire serve was destroyed because of that oversight.

The garlic ciabattas came out of the packet looking very strange, covered in butter (all over the outside!), so when they cooked the butter on the bottom burned and the top didn’t cook properly. Threw those out, which was a shame because they would have really finished the mac off nicely.

(Clockwise from top): Edible Chocolate Filled Toadstools | Lego Cufflinks (I have Lego earrings, necklace and bracelet, for matchies) | Wall stickers | Wooden Sweetheart Tree | Mouse Couple & Swiss Cheese Heart | Mini sewn paper sunset decorations

Every time I think I have the stationery design figured out, it changes. My latest idea is to have the girls draw pictures for it, and to keep it really simple with some great typography. So for the invitation I might ask Georgia to draw a picture of Gaz and I together, and then for the RSVP I might ask Lily to draw a picture of someone posting a letter, etc. It could be a nice way to involve the girls, and eliminate my commitment issues with the way the stationery should look. Might do a test run on the weekend and see whether they want to and what they come up with.

Being autumn, and late autumn at that, and on the Mornington Peninsula, there’s a very high likelihood that it’ll be colder than a witch’s tit on the day. I want to be wearing something that fits in with the surroundings, and isn’t too flashy or princessy, but that’s also flattering. With that in mind, I think I might have to have it made. Mum has already offered, though she made my first wedding dress and it was still in several pieces on the morning of. I might ask her again.

For now, these are some that I love, but I have no idea what will look best on, and how I’m going to lose enough weight to be spectacularly gorgeous by May.

This is silk. High potential for complete disaster. It could be made in a cotton though I suppose.

This has gorgeous length and wonderful pettiskirts. Tiny waist required.

Then a wrap, shrug, bolero or some other sort of warmth provider is required. I wouldn’t mind fur (faux!) with the second dress, but the first one is tricky. It sort of needs a beautiful shawl, but not so beautiful that it clashes with the dress. Like a very fine lace or muslin, both of which are not very warm.

I had my mind completely set on a tea length retro sort of a dress very much like the second one, but the first has taken me by surprise and I love it. I don’t know how to order a dress from the US though, so am thinking of just getting a size that could be okay, then changing my body to suit.

Gaz returned on Friday morning from his 2 month tour of the US and Canada. It was so good to see him that I barely functioned all weekend – mostly stared at him and said “you’re back!” a lot. He is as divine as ever, and was surprisingly very keen to talk about the wedding almost as soon as he got back.

Currently we’re working on figuring out a budget for the wedding. The one thing that’s really important to me is the photography, and the one thing that’s really important to him is having the ceremony at Ashcombe. Apart from these things, we’re open to ideas and suggestions and ways to have a beautiful wedding without spending an insane amount of money. More to the point, a wedding that costs an insane amount of money and is completely flashy and over the top is not our style anyway. So we had a good chat about how it might all work, and came to the following sort of best approach:

• Lunchtime ceremony at Ashcombe Maze with Kirk
• BBQ reception with Jono manning the grill, at a park somewhere between Ashcombe and home

The weather might not be ideal, so we’re on the prowl for a park with some sort of hall that we can hire as well. I am conscious of the fact that having an afternoon reception spoils my “fairy lights” desires, but Jono will put on such an amazing spread, the kids will be able to run around and it’s more casual and less expensive overall. I like it, and I love the fact that Gaz likes it and is excited about it. The more we save on having a casual reception, the more we can put away for our house and the more time and money we can spend on personalising it. Happy times.

So now to find the perfect park and plan the perfect BBQ menu. Things like:

• Grilled garlic prawns
• Grilled lemon/butter crays
• Delicious gourmet sausages from the market
• Steaks in some kind of delicious marinade that Jono will know more about than me
• Home made chicken / beef skewers
• Salmon steaks
• Vegetarian options
• Grilled vegetables

Jono will have lots of ideas, and I can ask him when they move back from England next month!