It has been a wedding factory around here lately. Kevin and I were lucky enough to have a long four-day Thanksgiving weekend off work, and while we enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with his family, just about every other second seemed filled with wedding madness. Our house is filled with boxes, supplies and decorations. We did take a break on Friday evening to thank someone very special—the person who made Kevin and I a reality. Our friend Judy was the matchmaker behind our love story, so we were excited to grab a quick dinner with her a week before the wedding.
We went to Fresh, a new restaurant to the Hannibal Square area of Winter Park. They focus on locally sourced and mostly organic ingredients. We started out with the chicken satay, which was coated in bits of garlic and was served with a peanut dipping sauce mixed with chili oil, which gave it a nice kick.
For our main course, I ordered the wild mushroom salad, which had a variety of different mushrooms. You have the options of chicken, mahi or tofu as protein additions. I chose tofu, which blended perfectly with the savory truffle vinaigrette and salty shaved parmesan. I am obsessed with this salad. The mushrooms were huge and meaty. It was a hearty salad considering there was no meat involved.
Kevin ordered their filet, which came with chimichurri sauce over mashed boniato (a sweet potato).
He enjoyed his steak. It wasn’t the best steak he’s ever had (not steakhouse quality), but he said the flavor was good and it was cooked perfectly. I really liked the mashed boniato.
Judy ordered the lamb ragu, which was very hearty and flavorful.
With our bellies full of food and two bottles of wine, we decided to throw caution in the wind and go for dessert. That evening they were offering pumpkin flan and apple and pear crisp, so naturally, we ordered one of each.
The flan had really good potential. The flavors mimicked pumpkin pie perfectly, but the flan was frozen in the middle making me wonder how long it had been frozen. I think the flan would have been heavenly had the texture been right, but the frozen center sort of ruined it.
The flavors of the apples and pears worked really well in the crisp. The warm dessert was perfect for a chilly evening. I really enjoyed Fresh. The atmosphere is friendly, and their staff makes you feel like you’re in a neighborhood restaurant.
We owe so much to Judy for making our relationship happen. See, Kevin and I both used to work for Disney but for two completely different companies within Disney so there was pretty much no chance of our paths ever overlapping where we would have met. My department ended up moving buildings to the same building where Kevin worked. He spotted me coming in one day and thought I was cute and asked Judy, who also worked in the same building, if she knew who I was since Judy had a lot of colleagues in my work area. It took a few months but Judy finally figured out who I was and that we had mutual friends in common. Judy set into motion a couple other friends at Disney to play matchmaker, and Kevin and I finally met at a group happy hour. The rest, as they say, is history. We had our first date just a few weeks after. Little did I know that would be my last first date.
And now we’re just five days away from our wedding!
