mango on an apple

Finding a location to get married was harder than we had imagined. When we visited my mom in late August, location scouting was on the top of our to-do list, and it was something that needed to be checked off before we left by Labour Day.

Here’s what we discovered in those two weeks:

• Van Dusen Gardens – very $$$ for basically, uh, how shall I put this – a very big lawn, and I left the garden tour with 6 mosquito bites.
• Teahouse in Stanley Park – beautiful view of the mountains and the water, reasonable rates…but the restaurant itself wasn’t my favourite. It had a built-in divider for the room that went halfway up, making it feel rather awkward for even the small size of our wedding guest list. And the greenery planted inside those dividers totally isn’t part of my “vision”.
• Grouse Mountain – beauuuutiful terrace that I fell in love with, but overall, the nice parts of the restaurant/catering business were more geared towards tourists than groups of any size. Alex was also unimpressed for some reason, even though he loves mountains.

Our top 2 at the end were Edgewater Lodge in Whistler, and Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine, WA.

View from the lawn where the ceremony would be held – Edgewater Resort

The lawn itself for outdoor ceremonies and possibly receptions – Edgewater Resort

I don’t think the pictures need any words…Edgewater Lodge in Whistler is breathtakingly beautiful, with the lake and the mountains in the backdrop. The lodge itself is small, with very friendly staff, and a very typical West Coast lodge feel inside the dining room. However, the rooms were slightly dated, and the lodge only has about 12 rooms. Also, they didn’t have quite enough equipment on hand to do everything we needed/wanted – for example, they wouldn’t have enough chairs, so we would have to coordinate rentals from Squamish.

After some heated debate on the way down from Whistler, we proceeded a few days later to check out Semiahmoo Resort.

The drive into Semiahmoo had me hook, line, and sinker. Much like how Alex was infatuated with mountains the whole drive up and down Whistler, I was in love with water everywhere – the resort is on its own peninsula.

  

The resort sees a lot of weddings every summer, which makes it a bit like a “wedding factory”, but on the plus side, they were prepared with every idea I had in mind – nothing was too new or unusual for them. Since it’s also quite a large establishment, we would be able to have our ceremony and reception in separate parts of the resort – the ceremony on the lawn pictured above, and the reception in…a tent!

I. Love. Tents. This tent had me at hello. Did you see the floors on this thing? Did you see the chandeliers? With the tent also comes a huge dock that is private to the tent, so at night during the reception, guests can wander out along the dock to look out to White Rock beach (where I spent many summer and winter nights hanging out with family or friends).

In all seriousness, Semiahmoo also turned out to be more economical, more accommodating, and less stressful. We’ve also booked most of our vendors through their suggestions, which has made the whole planning process easy thus far. The only sad thing is that the lovely wedding manager we met with left the resort recently, after a long tenure, to take up her dream job….wedding planning for the St. Regis in Kauai! So when we go back for the menu tasting later on this month, I’ll be meeting someone new to work with for our wedding.

After this long rant, if you’re still with me….Friends who are attending our wedding from afar (i.e. Toronto, which is not the centre of the universe in terms of scenery, as illustrated above) – please do check out Whistler, and all the other places we scoped out. They’re all beautiful, and they’re all parts of my beautiful home that I want to share with you!

Also, Alex may be very upset if you don’t go to Whistler and get all warm and fuzzy about the mountains like he does. Just thought you’d like to know.

One of the regular “weekly columns” I’d like to start working on in 2011 is Sunday Suppers. The idea is that throughout the week, Alex and I will eat relatively healthy, but on Sundays I’d like to take some time to make a nice meal with a real dessert. It’ll be a chance for me to try new recipes, or make a lovely layer cake, or overdose on chocolate, or….you get the idea.

The inaugural post came from the idea of using up the turkey stock from Christmas, and from me eyeing my copy of Jim Lahey’s My Bread every night on my bedside table. I decided to throw together a stecco with cherry tomatoes, and a ribollita soup with lots of veggies and canned beans to counteract all the indulgences we’ve had recently. For dessert, I also took something new for a spin – my apple pie recipe in the Williams-Sonoma apple pie pocket mold. Old recipe – something totally new and pretty!

Ribollita

• 2 small carrots – diced
• 1 onion – diced
• 1 stalk of celery – diced
• 1 small potato – peeled & diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp. chili flakes
• 1/2 28-oz.-tin of San Marzano tomatoes*
• 3 cups of chicken/turkey stock
• 1 bunch of kale, roughly chopped
• 1 small can (about 1.5 cups) of beans – soy, navy, that kind of texture works well
• a couple of handfuls of fresh bread pieces
• salt and pepper to taste

1. In a medium-sized pot, cook onions, celery, and carrots (mirepoix) with the diced potatoes on medium-low heat so that the vegetables “sweat” for about 5-8 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add in the garlic, fennel, and chili flakes, and continue to cook for about another 5 minutes.
2. Turn the heat up to medium. Drop in the tomatoes and mash them up roughly, mixing them in with the rest of the vegetables.
3. Add in the stock and bring to a boil on medium-high heat, then add in the kale. It’ll look like a lot, but it’ll cook down quickly (much like spinach).
4. Once the kale is wilted, put the lid on the pot and let the soup simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
5. Add in the beans and cook for another few minutes before serving.
6. Serve with bread pieces, a glug of olive oil drizzled on top, and freshly grated parmesan sprinkled on top.

  

For the homemade bread, I used the recipe as posted here, but shaped them into thin strips with cherry tomatoes or crushed garlic cloves pressed into the loaves (the recipe makes about 4). When pressing the sliced cherry tomatoes in, Jim Lahey’s recipe also called for a thin slice of garlic on top of each tomato, with a little bit of thyme leaves on each one. Don’t be afraid to push the tomatoes in – the dough should’ve risen to the point where it doesn’t bounce back when poked. Then brush with olive oil so that everything is coated thinly, and sprinkle with coarse sea salt to finish off. Bake uncovered at 475 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-25 minutes until golden.

*Apologies for using a 1/2 tin – I suppose you could use the whole tin, but I prefer a lighter tomato soup.