I Could Not Get Reservations at White Castle...so We Did This Instead

Yes, you are assuming correct by the title...we (well I) wanted to go to White Castle for Valentine's Day. Having never been inside one of these establishments I figured that this would be a great time to try the cute little burgers that some people love so much. So I called on Thursday for attempt to land one of the coveted reservations, but sadly I did not make the cut. There was not a single White Castle in the Nashville area that still had an open reservation. I guess I was not so original in thinking that this would be a fun dinner. With your reservation you received reserved seating as well as a special menu that had special combo's at reduced prices.

Here is the link to our local news and some stories of the lucky ones that got the reservations.
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=11985377

So snapping back into reality...I didn't really want to try White Castle...I just loved the idea of something that ridiculous. So what did we do instead?
Lucky enough to A) have good friends that can cook! and B) enough money to afford a nicer meal out...here's a run down of my Valentine's Day weekend.

February 13, 2010
Saturday evening we went to Frank and Amy's house so that Frank (our designated Italian Jersey Friend) could teach me how to make pasta from scratch. I was VERY suprised to learn that there is hardly anything to it...it just takes awhile. Well time and that very SEXY Kitchen Aid Mixer that I have been wanting for quite some time now.
Franks Pasta

Ingredients
1 pound of flour (he believes in weighing, not measuring)
A little extra flour for dusting the board.
5 eggs
Kitchen Aid mixer with fancy dough and noodle attachments
Food Processor

Method




Weigh out 1 pound of flour







Place your 1 pound of flour and crack your 5 eggs into the food processor.







Blend until your ingredients look like this.








Sprinkle a little flour on your board and remove the mixture from the food processor.







Begin kneading it until you have a good dough.








Make a large ball with your dough.








Place dough ball in a freezer bag. Place in fridge for one hour. This allows the dough to rise and do all those other fancy things it needs to...like rest.




WHILE WAITING FOR THE DOUGH HERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO:



Watch Amy demonstrate how to use her favorite new kitchen gadget...the Cookie Smoosher.







Eat some of Frank's Amazing Brushetta...should have got the recipe for this one too.






Play with Brian and Oliver!








Drink some (a lot) of the AMAZING wine you brought over!









Sample the cookies that broke before they made it to the cooling rack.






OK...BACK TO THE PASTA


Take the dough out of the fridge and put it back on the slightly flour dusted board.







Cut the dough into pieces, so that you can feed them through the flattening attachment.






Continue to do this until the dough is thin enough to easily tear.









Finally run the dough pieces through the noodle cutter attachment.






Continue until you have NOODLES!









Place noodles in boiling water. They do not take long to cook...about 2 minutes. They will rise to the top when they are done.






Add your favorite sauce. This sauce was made by Amy! Yummy!









Serve to your guests!








Make sure you drizzle a little sauce on your bread! Enjoy!





AND AS A SIDE NOTE LADIES FRANK WILL CLEAN WITH OUT HIS WIFE TELLING HIM TO!




Just look at that! Amazing!






February 14, 2010

Valentine's Morning we took the long car ride from our house to The Daily Dish in Franklin, TN. This is by far our favorite spot for Sunday brunch and we have no problem taking the 45 minute drive or waiting in line once we get there...it is really that good.
Thankfully we also have great friends that enjoy this place and don't mind the car trip either.



Since the aforementioned lack of reservations at White Castle Christi arranged a wonderful evening of Fondue and movie watching. Over dinner the week before we were stunned to learned that Marc had never seen Robin Williams (greatest cinematic feat in my opinion) the Birdcage. So this wonderful film was added to the days events. Then over brunch we learned that he had not seen Talledega Nights either. So our "romantic" Valentine's day turned into the four of us (Jason, Christi, Frank and Myself) changing Marc's life through movies.

Like I mentioned above we were lucky to have the Melting Pot dinner come to us! Christi and I made the cheese for the wonderful cheese course.
We also enjoyed a wonderful meat course as well! Dinner was excellent, but due to the large brunch and overindulgence by everyone on the cheese course, dessert never came into the picture. I hope you all had a great Valentines Day...and that those of you lucky enough to go to White Castle enjoyed yourselves. I am thankful that I got to spend the Holiday with the love of my life and some amazing friends.


Marc, Frank, Christi and Me eating yummy Fondue!








Lucky to have a friend that I love!













Another shot of us enjoying the wonderful fondue!






















HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!