Father's Day Weekend {Better Late Than Never}

Believe it or not we actually celebrated Father's Day early this year - last Saturday instead of Sunday...it's just taken me a while to blog about it! Better late than never though right, the food was delicious so I definitely wanted to share! :)

My Dad came down on the Friday night and my Mum babysat so that Dad, my two sisters, Liam and I could go out for a meal. Dinner at the local Indian restaurant first. I've been in a bit of a rut when we've ordered curry recently - always ordering two veggie side dishes, but this mushroom biryani was a really nice change and not at all greasy, perfect!

Followed by lots of Pimms & lemonade while watching England vs Sweden. Liam and I have got into the bad habit of buying jugs of Pimms when we go out. We buy a round or two of normal drinks first, and then get through two jugs of Pimms between just the two of us. Considering Mum likes us home by 10pm when she babysits I think we're drinking a bit too fast, but seeing as we go out less than once a fortnight it's not too bad I guess! Pimms = Summer though - love!

On the Saturday morning, Dad looked after Izzy and Toby so that Liam and I could clear the garden in the old house. We then rushed home to shower before heading out for lunch with three Dads - Liam...

my Dad...

and my Grandpa...

As soon as I looked at the menu I was very happy. We'd originally chosen the pub/restaurant as it has a good outdoor play area for the children, but the weather wasn't exactly outdoors weather last weekend! The menu had been recently revamped though so we were pleased with our choice anyway. For my main I had a mushroom "burger" with goats cheese and onion marmalade. I loved the presentation of this - the wooden boards even had a hole cut out ready for a mug of chips!

I gave Toby the top of my bun as it was huge and I needed wanted to save room for pud. The mushroom was really tasty but, even for a goats cheese lover like me, the log of goats cheese was a bit too thick - definitely the dominant flavour!

As good as the main course was, the thing I was most looking forward to was dessert - as soon as we'd sat down I'd spotted exactly what I was going to have...

As intriguing as the pineapple dish looked, it was the dark chocolate and salted caramel torte that was for me - homemade peanut butter ice cream, yes please!

Again, I really liked the presentation of this - the new menu is definitely a step up from the standard pub grub they used to serve!

The chocolate torte was nice, but nothing amazing, and the caramel sauce could have done with more salt. The best components were definitely these...

I don't actually like praline chocolates so wasn't expecting much from the praline dust, but it was lovely - like fine breadcrumbs of caramel. The peanut butter ice cream, thankfully, lived up to my expectations - so good!

All in all a really good meal with lots of family - both my sisters, my Dad, my Grandma and Grandpa, Liam and the children. We had planned to do it all again on the Sunday with Liam's family - but for a whole day trip to Lyme Regis this time. In the end, however, I decided to stay at home with Toby as he can get a bit difficult being in big crowds for that long and it would have made the day not-so-enjoyable for everyone. I was glad we'd made that decision when Izzy and Liam got home - they'd had a great day, but were out the house from 10am-6pm! Liam took the camera with him but forgot to take many pictures with it. They went for breakfast in Lyme Regis and then pub lunch in Uplyme, then back to Lyme Regis for ice cream! Liam did get a photo of the 4th Dad of the weekend - my Father-in-Law, Terry...

and also a photo of Izzy - she had a fantastic day being the centre of attention, ha, the benefit of being the only child there - she was thoroughly spoilt by her Grandparents and Auntie!! :)

While they were out for the day, Toby and I had lots of fun playing in the garden and having a "disco" (his two favourite things to do at the moment!), and when he napped I made brownies - can't have a celebratory weekend without brownies! :)

Yum. I actually managed to resist eating more than one or two of these, which meant they lasted all week for Liam and Izzy to take in their packed lunches too - a great portable treat! :)

 

Did you do anything to celebrate Father's Day last weekend? Have you ever had peanut butter ice cream? We are going to London a week today (eek!) - we haven't made many plans as yet, which is starting to worry me, but I have been making a list of whenever people mention eating in places in London - most of them seem to be fro yo or ice cream so hopefully we'll at least have lots of tasty treats, can't wait! :)