My Contribution to Gary & Carrie's Big Day

 

   

 

 

I think I may have been to my second favorite wedding, my own being my favorite. Cousin Gary, and his now-wife Carrie, had a very informal, casual, friendly and humorous wedding. The officiant that married them new them and was able to throw in a lot of good humor to the ceremony. Following the ceremony it was a casual bite on desserts, followed by cutting into the amazing, gluten-free, cake made by Arleen of Gnarly Cakes, wife to the groom's best friend, Arlen. That's not a typo, Arlen is married to Arleen and is best friends with Gary, who married Carrie.

Arleen did an amazing job on this heavy, four tier cake, that was originally going to be six. They said that carrying it in was quite a task and were hopeful that the table it was set on would bear the weight. It did, thankfully. They were a little bit behind schedule getting to the church and, so, I did not quite as much time to photograph it as I would've liked but the results are just fine with me.

Originally there was the potential that I would photograph the wedding. Seeing the church, I think I could've managed to cover the ceremony and I'm pretty sure that wherever they had their pictures done before the ceremony, I could've made do. However, it has been such a wonderfully warm and dry fall that now since we have received some snow, and it's the soft sticky kind that I get stuck in much more than very cold, frozen snow, I'm glad I wasn't the one to do the photography.

So, wonderful job on all of the aspects, Arleen. I've tasted some perfectly fine gluten-free foods, but this was superb. Everyone appreciates the effort you went to to make it happen, just days after getting home from Mexico. I hope I soon have the opportunity to photograph another one of her masterful creations.

 

   

 

 

Ah, Barbecue Season

I have been working on this post for almost 2 weeks, now. We have been thoroughly enjoying our barbecue season and often feel remorse when we choose something made inside when we could be outside grilling up a storm. So many of our excellent recipes and creations are made inside because the barbecue season is fairly short. We do our best to get creative and grilled vegetables are an example of something other than just meat that we love to cook on the barbecue. But, after a while, it starts to seem quite similar and anybody who knows us knows that we are not the meat-and-potatoes types.

 

  Cedar Plank Steelhead Trout and Mexican Bean Salad by Jay Scott on 500px

Certainly, a person can do much more than just meat and potatoes on the grill but those dishes where the flavors all combine and come together to be something more than the sum of themselves don't seem to often happen for us cooking that way. Don't get me wrong, few things satisfy me the way biting into a tender and flavorful piece of meat does. It's just that a lot of our favourite flavours don't often go the same direction as a lot of barbecue flavors. I guess that's just why we will need to keep watching online and searching for some exciting ways to cook on the barbecue.

We've been trying to include more fish in our diet and are very thankful that Fiona seems to always like any type that we give her. The cedar plank steelhead trout and Mexican bean salad were a hit with all three of us. And the best part was that everything can be made ahead which resulted in virtually no dishes. That is a win in our household.

 

  Banana Maki Rolls by Jay Scott on 500px

Finally was a photo that I took a long time to get around to making. These kid-friendly maki rolls mimic sushi in a delightful way. Simply a white flour tortilla, spread with peanut butter and rolled up then sliced into bite-size pieces. The strawberry sauce drizzled on the top was an analog for the spicy sriracha mayo you will often find on maki rolls, in Canada, anyway. The analog for soy sauce was chocolate sauce and the vanilla yogurt stood in place of wasabi. They were quite tasty. My only regret is that the strawberry sauce was not cold enough so it did not maintain the proper shape. I look forward to seeing what Fiona thinks of these once she gets a little bit older. I have collected a number of fun food items to prepare for her and hope that I don't need them, but have the opportunity to enjoy making them for her just for fun, not because she is going through a phase of picky eating.

Time will tell.