Day Four - Meg and Rob's Planning Session where Meg takes pictures of every single thing on display at Franck's and Rob pretends not to know her - Part One
I say Part One because I've got so many pictures, this is going to be a multi-part series!
We woke up to gloomy skies - another day of rain. We were happy that it was raining for the people of Orlando who had been in drought conditions. However - why on our vacation? Oh well - Hakuna Matata!
No breakfast was had, because we were going to have our tasting session at 9:30. The usual Fruit Punch powerade (me) and Coffee (Rob) and we were up and out by 8:30. We had decided to take a taxi to the Boardwalk instead of going through WDW transport and having it take forever. There are always taxis outside the POP, and we had no trouble getting one and making our way over to the Boardwalk. (For reference - the fare was 6.60 from POP to Boardwalk)
It was about 9am when we got there. We had to sit around and wait. So being the intrepid DISBride, I decided to take all sorts of shots of the Boardwalk lobby in case anyone needed them on the Boards.
Big huge picture when you come in the doors
The doors coming in
The Chandelier
One hall away from the lobby
The other hall from the lobby
The Floral Arrangement
The entrance outside
Looking one way outside
Looking the other way
The floral arrangement at the end of the hall
Rob looking bored as we wait for Diane
I even took pictures of the women's loo. Rob refused to take any of the men's room. I have no idea why I thought this would be important!
(No there wasn't anyone around!)
Diane showed up not long after and escorted us to our room. I have no idea why but we didn't take any pictures of the tasting session! I'll describe everything as much as possible!
We started off by meeting our chef and waiter. Our chef was Wayne, and I just adored this man. He was funny and sweet - not to mention an extremely talented chef! One of my favorite things about the tasting session was honestly just talking to him - I hope we meet up again! Our waiter was Mike, who was from Lowell Massachusetts! YAY! We talked Boston Sports with Mike, who was a great guy as well!
The first thing we did was choose our napkin folds - we decided on the fan fold as it seemed to be more traditional than the other ones, and New England is pretty traditional. Then we started with our appetizers - Spankopitas with Artichoke-Tomato Tapenade and Crab Cakes with Lemon Dill cream. Oh my gosh - I loved the Spankopitas! The only way I can describe them would be spinach and artichokes wrapped in a flaky pastry crust. Oh delicious! I only nibbled on the crab cake as I don't like seafood. Rob loves crab and declared this crab cake to be the best ever!
Then we went on to salad. Let me tell you something before I forget. Before you go down to tasting session and/or wedding - be sure you know which fork to use. I thought I knew all this etiquette stuff, and I found out that I was so lost. I wanted to look all dignified as a big part of the tasting session is people watching you eat. But I was lost. I tried, but I really was lost on the fork thing!
Back to the salad - we went with the medley of field greens with sunflower seeds, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrot angel hair, raisins, dried cranberries with either zinfandel vinagrette or bacon ranch. Again - I love veggies and fruits down in Florida - they taste so much better down there than in Maine. I loved the salad as well - I prefered the vinagrette as a dressing and Rob liked the bacon ranch, so we decided to get both. And we also decided to make it a mini-salad bar, where all the toppings are separate from each other. We figured people would be able to get what they wanted!
Then onto the best part - the main course! We had chosen the grilled NY strip steak with merlot and black pepper reduction and roasted shallots and the roasted chicken with applewood bacon, carmelized shallots, and with an apple and cabernet reduction. I cannot put into words how excellent the chicken was. It was one of the best things I had ever tasted!! Rob says the steak was awesome - I only had a bite- I'm not big into steak. But the chicken was amazing! Wayne gave us Herb Roasted Red Potatoes and grilled veggies (zucchini, red onions, asparagus, summer squash, carrots, and red peppers) to go with it. I ate it all (except for the steak!) oh so good! So both of those things were definites!
We were done at that point - we aren't going with a dessert - we say let them eat cake! So we sat with Wayne and Diane and went over the menu. For another starch we added saffron rice in and for the cocktail hour we added the antipasto display. So the menu for the reception will be...
Cocktail Hour -
Spankopitas with Artichoke-Tomato Tapenade and Crab Cakes with Lemon Dill cream - 19.50 per guest
Antipasto Display - Plates of Meat, Cheese, Vegatables, and Seafood - $14.25 per guest.
Reception - Lunch Buffet - 56.00 per guest
Salad - Medley of field greens with sunflower seeds, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrot angel hair, raisins, dried cranberries with either zinfandel vinagrette or bacon ranch
Grilled NY strip steak with merlot and black pepper reduction and roasted shallots
Roasted chicken with applewood bacon, carmelized shallots, and with an apple and cabernet reduction.
Herb Roasted Red Skin Potatoes
Grilled Vegatables - Zucchini, Red Onions, Asparagus, Summer Squash, Carrots, and Red Peppers
Saffron Rice
Assorted Dinner Rolls and Butter
Coffee, Decaf, Selection of Hot Teas
(We're also probably going to add New England Clam Chowder at the request of my dad - he loves the stuff and since he's paying - if he wants it - he gets it! LOL)
With budget trimming - we may take out the spankopitas and crab cakes - we'll see!
At this point we bid a fond farewell to both Wayne and Mike - I gave them both huge hugs - they were wonderful! I wish I had thought to get pictures. It was about 11am, and the rest of the Planning Session wasn't until 1pm, so Diane left us on our own until 1. We decided to go take a walk on the boardwalk...
END OF PART ONE! Now onto Part 2!
We are waiting ever so patiently... ok totally impatient but we're waiting!!! 
I'm easily amused!
)
