Easter Weekend Wedding

It was a beautiful wedding this weekend as Sam and Elizabeth tied the knot with close family and friends from both this side of the pond and the other (United Kingdom). They are such a cute amazing couple that are so in love and you could not ask for a better family, on either side, to marry into! Their friends are so supportive of them and are so happy that these two found each other which was obvious through out the weekend.

Sam and Elizabeth wanted a unique weekend starting off with a rehearsal dinner from Pizzeria Moto, a portable/traveling brick-oven pizza kitchen. Saturday was a nice relaxing day for the bride and groom with Make-Up by Tracie coming out to Briar Patch to do the girls hair and make up in our Cottage. Legends Catering did a fantastic job as always with the food and refreshments. There was a 3PM ceremony in our ballroom so as not to risk any uncertainties of weather. The brides brothers, all musicians, did a fantastic rendition of "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles. Fitting that the groom is British. Here are some pictures of their special day. Elizabeth I wish you all the best in your move to Germany!

The tables were set in the back of the room behind the ceremony.

The ceremony was in a semi-circle shape like a theater.

They used our bird cages and our antique oil lamps as centerpieces.

Mingling before the ceremony.

Father of the Bride ready to walk his little girl down the aisle.

Happy calm bride and bridesmaids seconds before walking down the aisle

Such a beautiful ceremony!

Start of the Wedding Season

This past weekend started our official wedding season of 2012. We could not have asked for a better couple to start off our season, thank you Kathleen and Steve you and your family were so much fun to get to know! There families were so much fun to get to know and they were definitely a fantastic group of people to be with! Kathleen and Steve are both very lucky to have such amazing families!

The entire weekend was definitely them. They were very low key and laid back and that was their entire weekend. From the relaxed entertaining breakfast to the hair and make-up appointments to the ceremony and reception. They had a beautiful ceremony in our event hall followed by a cocktail hour, and reception indoors. Thanks to Six Star catering for doing such an amazing job on the food and to Torre Photography for photographing the entire event. Below are some pictures we took of the set-up of the room.

There will be more pictures of this wedding at www.pinterest.com/cej223

Long Overdue!

Hello all! So please forgive me for this is my first blog post ever! I know its very exciting and I have been putting this off for a very long time, but after speaking with several of our guests over the past week they have convinced me that I should post on here. So here it goes!

I am actually not too sure what to write about and I apologize if it takes me a few posts before I get better at this. I have been asked to blog about the food that I have made at Briar Patch and also the recipes that I have made. I am not going to lie I get my recipes off pinterest.com/cej223.

This past week I made a Cinnamon Baked French Toast. It was super easy and very delicious! Here is how it turned out!

Here is the link to the blog that I got the recipe from. I cannot take credit for it but I highly recommend it! http://whatscookinglove.blogspot.com/2012/01/cinnamon-french-toast-bake.html

I also just made individual baked eggs. This is an original recipe that Henriette came up with! What you need is individual ramekins.

What you will need:

1 Small Carton of white mushrooms

2 yellow onions

1 1/2 C 1/2 and 1/2 cream

Parsley

Salt for seasoning

Pepper for seasoning

9 eggs

cheese for topping

What you do:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F

2. In a medium sized sauce pan saute onions until they are see through

3. Add cut up mushrooms and saute with onions until mushrooms are soft

4. Add half and half, salt and pepper, parsley and simmer for 10 minutes

5. Spoon sauce into ramekins evenly

6. Crack 1 egg per ramekin

7. Sprinkle Cheddar blend cheese on egg white (so you know when the egg is done)

8. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes

This recipe works really well with Salsa to replace the onion/mushroom sauce.

I think this will be all for now. More to come later on!

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Cooking Classes at Briar Patch

Fall/winter marks the start of our cooking class weekends, which we generally hold one weekend per month in our "low" season of November through March. Our first one of the season was held a couple of weekends ago, when Chef Nancy Robinson of Mrs. Robinson Cooks showed us how to prepare the following menu:

Briar Patch B&B Cooking Weekend
Menu for November 19-21, 2010 Weekend

Friday evening hors d'oeuvres

• Tuna mousse on toasted baguette
• Crudité with Asian-style aioli dip
• Chicken morsels with remoulade sauce

Saturday evening dinner

• Appetizer: Salmon with lemon-pecan sauce on crackers
• Salad: Warm wilted spinach salad with pine nuts
• Main Course: Braised Chicken with fresh tomatoes and olives; served with cauliflower purée
• Dessert: Creamy apple cider reduction sauce over fresh apple cake

The tuna mousse appetizer and the cauliflower puree were my (Ellen) favorites. We also enjoyed having a wine tasting with Lori Corcoran of Corcoran Vineyards. Since Lori was out of her white wines, I introduced our guests to the white wines of Israel.

Our next cooking class weekend at Briar Patch will be January 21-23, 2011. These weekends consist of hors d'oeuvres and wine tasting on Friday night, a two-night stay in one of our rooms at Briar Patch including breakfast, an optional wineries tour on Saturday afternoon, and a four course cooking class meal with wine on Saturday night. Our other cooking class weekends are February 18-20, 2011 and March 4-6, 2011. We still have a few spaces left for the classes so please contact us for reservations by going to our website or call us at 703-327-5911.

As you can see in the photos below, Chef Nancy did a great job in teaching us how to make some good healthy food.

Thank You To Our Veterans

On Veterans Day a few weeks ago, my husband Dan Haendel and I (Ellen Goldberg) were honored to host veterans and their families as part of a nationwide bed & breakfast promotion offering free rooms to veterans. Dan is a veteran (retired lieutenant colonel in the Army JAG Corp reserves), so we decided to go all out by providing all nine of our bedrooms free for the nights of November 10 & 11.

As you can see in the photos below, we had both active duty & retired veterans, male & female veterans, and veterans from every branch of the military. We had some nice articles written about us, including one from WUSA9 and another in TalkLoudoun.com.

We were really pleased and honored to participate.

Chili Cook-off at Briar Patch

Recently Tom & Shelley Campbell held their annual chili cook-off at Briar Patch. Tom is a real estate agent with Long & Foster and Shelley owns Shelley's Floral Enterprise. Shelley does the floral arrangements for our monthly Middleburg Women networking luncheons at Briar Patch and, as you can see from her beautiful floral arrangements below, she does amazing work.

Tom & Shelley hold an annual clients & friends appreciation event where they ask their clients and friends to prepare chili, sides, and desserts. They then hold a contest with prizes for things like the hottest chili, the best name for the chili, the best side dish, and the best dessert. They also have a bar with bartender and a DJ with dancing. The food and fellowship were fantastic, as you can see in the photos below.

This kind of event is a great idea for anyone owning a business who wants to show their appreciation to clients. It's not too hard to organize and it's a lot of fun!

Briar Patch Hosts the Middleburg Biz Buzz

Briar Patch was pleased to host the monthly meeting of the Middleburg Business & Professional Association, known as the Biz Buzz, the other evening. Over 60 local business people attended and enjoyed the outstanding cuisine of Tutti Perricone, owner of Back Street Cafe & Catering, and the beautiful floral arrangements of Amy Potter of Country Way Flowers.