A Sunday Dinner and Not-Wedding Cake
One of the traditions I have come to love since living in England is having a Sunday roast dinner. We don’t do them often so I need some practice; I try to read about new methods and meats every time I do one.
Yesterday I decided to try pork. Not a meat that we have often, a pork roast just seems like something a girl should make at least once, right? I really wanted to try for “pulled pork” roast, but it didn’t quite workout. Despite roasting for nearly four hours, the pork was tender but not melt-in-your-mouth tender like I hoped.
Since this was kind of a special Sunday dinner, I drank a glass of red wine and Matthew and I shared some crusty bread while we cooked 
We dipped the bread in some EVOO mixed with the new agave marinade bought Saturday at the food festival. It was very sweet so we just used a little.
We used my special bread dipper dish (technical term) bought during our trip to Siena, Italy. I love, love, love it! The mould of the dish is unique to the little shop who sold it. The man hand-painted it himself—truly one of a kind!
I was going to do step-by-step photos but that kind of got away from me! Here is a pretty photo of the prepared vegetables: new potatoes, broccoli, red onion, carrots and parsnips. I LOVE parsnips and had never tried them until I moved here. They are like a peppery, earthy carrot.
I par-boiled the potatoes, carrots, and parsnips before throwing them in with the roasting tin about an hour before the meat was done. The onions went in the oven, too, and came out nice and caramelized
Four hours later…
Bon appétit!
And for dessert…how about some not-wedding cake?
On our actual wedding day, we had cupcake wedding cake (photo here), but two months later we hosted a celebration party at my in-law’s home and there we had traditional English wedding cake. This is a fruit cake, usually made with raisins, cherries, and almonds and covered with a layer of marzipan and then frosting.
August 2008
We stuck the top layer of ours in the freezer last August after the party. Certain people have insisted that it is supposed to be eaten at the christening of our first child, but I recently decided this was ridiculous for several reasons; the main one being we are not even thinking about having kids for several years. The thought of eating five-year-old frozen cake doesn’t sound that appealing. A christening is another subject entirely, and even if that were all happening in the foreseeable future, we are hopefully moving across the ocean in a few months, so hauling a frozen, old, not-even-my-wedding cake across the ocean seems a little silly. Don’t you agree?
Cake it is! I need the room in my freezer back!
So, just a couple of questions…
Do you have a “pulled pork” recipe to share with me?
If you are married, did you save your wedding cake?
What is a good way to use pork leftovers?
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I’m a veg head myself but I make pork roast in a low cooker for my omni hubby. I follow a very basic recipe. If you have a slow cookier Google some recipes. It’s very easy and cooks all day on it’s own. Speaking of husbands we saved our top tier and ate it on our first wedding anniversary. It was a little dry but overall was actually pretty good. My parents had tripple wrapped it in saran wrap and foil before freezing. I love the looks of the traditional English wedding cake! All that goodness baked inside?!?!? YUMO! Oh and last thing… I love your Italian dish. Very typical of the italians! Makes me miss Italy!
-A
The best pulled pork in my opinion starts with pork tenderloin. I throw it in the crockpot with a ton of onions, salt, pepper and garlic and let it cook all day on slow. Then I shred it and mix with BBQ sauce (I don’t have the recipe with me, but I will get it to you) and bake in the oven on very low temp, covered in foil. It gets all thick and gooey and yummy.
We saved our wedding cake for one year and ate it on our first anniversary. It was carrot cake and we wrapped it in multiple layers and kept it in my mom’s crazy deep freeze freezer. It actually was not bad!
Pulled pork sandwiches with some cole slaw and sweet potato fries are always good!
I’m never made it but everything looks amazing–I don’t think I’ve ever had a pasnip.
I’m not married yet but I’m pretty sure I want to save the top of the cake and take it out on our 1 year anniversary–don’t know if I’d eat it though! HA
Do you make yorkshire pudding? It’s one of my husband’s family favorites.
Enjoy your Sunday roasts. I think it’s still too hot to turn on the big oven in San Jose. But by the time you arrive, the temps should be cool and breezy. Perfect for roasting (or making yorkshire pudding).
PULLED PORK SAMMIES!!!! They are sooo good
I <3 a good piece of bread dipped in olive oil that has some parmesan cheese mixed in. I could probably sit and eat a whole loaf of bread dipped in that combo, scary huh? LOL.
Your pork dinner looks out of this world though, awesome job!
And your cake looks like it would love to me in my belly… hehe
hey there! its my first time to your blog, and i am excited to keep on reading.
that bowl is so lovely, and that cake looks amazing too
Thanks for visiting my blog. As you can see I am very new to the blogging thing so the mroe support from experienced people, the better.
In answer to your question, I am from the South of England but moved to Scotland for 5 years and now am living in NYC (pretty well travelled lol)
The wedding cake for christening has always grossed me out a little. I am right with you in that it is stale and rather disgusting after such a long time.
I am not the largest fan of marzipan and icing so usually leave that bit of a cake and jt eat the yummy fruit bit
Hope all is well (its great making friends in cyber land!!)
My mom would love to see this! She used to make roast dinners all the time when we were all living at home. Complete with roast potatoes and/or roast parsnips (mmmm…) but she usually did a roast beef. Oh and yorkshire puddings. Have you had those? Doughy and delicious.
Your “wedding cake” is beautiful!! I must say that I’m not a fan of English wedding cakes, however, because I’m not one for fruit cake but it really is beautiful. I don’t blame you for eating it now! We did save our top tier and had it on our 1-year anniversary. Forget the Christening thing! It was still delicious despite being in the freezer for one year!
I’m going to have to look through my recipes and see if I can find a pulled pork one. You’d think I’d have at LEAST 1 after living in TX for a year!
Oops! I mean after living in TX for 10 years…
that picture is so pretty! I love the dress!
haha! That is ridiculous if only for the pure fact that it entails WAITING TO EAT YOUR CAKE, when u can clearly eat it now
I applaud your decision! I think a BBQ pulled pork chicken sandwich, or salad sounds divine!
that is one of the biggest thing i remember about england. sunday roasts! yorkshire puddings with gravyy???? swooooooooon!
you look SO beautiful in that pic, and truly glowing
i’ll have a bite of your cake too! haha
I’ve always heard that you eat the top of the wedding cake on your first anniversary…much better than 5+ years!
Dinner looks awesome! And so does that cake! I can’t wait to get married haha!
You look great in that cake cutting photo, like a model! My mom makes pork in the slow cooker with apple cider. Then to make pulled pork she shreds it and cooks it in a weird mix of brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, and mustard. I don’t really eat pork, but this is GOOD! We had pink and brown wedding cupcakes, so no frozen cake. But my mom did go back to the bakery to get us 2 more cupcakes!
Not-wedding cake sounds just as good as any wedding cake that I’ve had! Congrats on your not-anniversary
I love your cake!! I’m not a big fan of chocolate, so I would totally want a fruit-y or carrot cake! If my future hubby approved!!
I love that dipping bowl too! it is beautiful!
HAPPY THURSDAY LARA!
Roasted veggies are the absolute greatest. ESPECIALLY roasted potatoes! Mmm, and that dress looks gorgeous on you girl! xoo
I completly agree about the five year old wedding cake. We did not save our top layer. I had different flavors for each layer and wanted everyone to try each. My mom was disappointed, but I’d rather just have fresh cake on our one year anniversary.
Pioneer Woman has really good pulled pork/beef recipes.
You two look stunning together.
Oh my goodness, how did this post slip by me?? I love Sunday roasts. I remember how I used to think it was so funny how Brits have so many “veg” accompaniments but of course love it now! Roasted turnips are my favorite! With Bisto gravy of course
We didn’t save the top of our wedding cake, darn! I didn’t even think about it at the time (probably because we eloped and then had a celebration party two months post-wedding day and we were too sloshed at the party by the time we got the cake part. I woke up the next morning with icing in my ear, ‘nough said LOL)
Love the cupcake tower idea!!!
Have a great weekend, chica!
This is going to sound CRAZY but I have actually eaten pulled pork in an omelette the next day with veggies I had steamed on the side from dinner. I threw it all in and it was incredible! Ive done it with pot roast too (potatoes and all). Trust me, it does not disappoint!
Mmm that cake looks good! We had a destination wedding, so we didn’t keep our cake either. We then had a hometown reception, but I guess we forgot to keep that? Anyway, our 1 year anniversary is next Sunday, so we just ordered a small version of what we had at our reception, hehe.