We Tied the Knot!

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E-CJ-07(all photography c/o Meghan at Bluebird Creative)

Things have been a bit slow around here on The Fig Tree. Unintentionally slow! But I have every intention of getting things back up and running again this week. I have tons of recipes I want to share. I just have to snap some photos and type up some recipes and we’ll be back in business. Pinky swear!

After an extremely busy summer of photographing weddings, Jesse and I had a wedding of our own! Two weeks ago today, we said “I Do!” in front of our closest family and friends at the West End Cultural Centre here in Winnipeg.  It was a truly wonderful day! Everything turned out just perfect. Even though it was a tad chilly outside, the sun was shining with all its might. The leaves had not yet all fallen, but were still vibrant and bright. We had family come in from across Canada to join us celebrate our special day. One of my cousins even flew in from Cardiff, Wales, and did a Welsh blessing before our reception dinner. It was very memorable and meant so very much to us.

E-CJ-52On the Friday before our wedding, we hosted a wedding rehearsal dinner at our condo for our wedding party, my grandparents and our parents. We ordered vegetarian lasagna and cannelloni from Delucas to serve. My mom ordered a fantastic assortment of cheesecakes from Double D’s cheesecake for dessert. We enjoyed seeing everyone and getting prepped for the wedding day!

Saturday, we met some family from out-of-town for brunch at Coras followed by a visit at my sister-in-law’s place. It meant so much to us to have so many family members fly in for the big day. It was wonderful to see everyone and we wish we could have spent more time all together! After brunch, the bridesmaids, moms and I went to Clarion Spa to get our fingers and toes primed for the big day. It was such a nice relaxing afternoon with some of my very favourite people. In the evening, we went for dinner with some family we’ve not seen in a while including my cousin from Wales.

E-CJ-58Sunday, October 13, I woke up bright and early (okay…who am I kidding…I did not even sleep a wink!) to go to the salon Pink Star to get my hair done. The bridesmaids and moms met me there and we got all gussied up for the wedding. Robyn, my sister-in-law, brought some mimosas to get the day started! Thanks Robyn! After we got out hair done, we returned to the condo to get our make-up done by the utterly wonderful Melissa. She made us all look spectacular (who knew I’d love fake lashes!?) Thanks Melissa! My mom then had lunch delivered for us from Stellas (my fav restaurant) and then we all got dressed and went outside to do photos before the ceremony. Jesse and I did photos just the two of us to start and it was really nice.

After some shots of the wedding party, our transit bus we rented picked us up and took us to West End Cultural Centre for my dream ceremony. I’ve wanted to get married at West End Cultural Centre since I was eleven – when I attended my first concert there. The ceremony was only about 20 minutes, but very nice. Our marriage commissioner Brenda from I Promise did a fantastic job performing the wedding ceremony. She made the ceremony very personal and specific to us as a couple. We wrote our own vows and read them from Jesse’s iPad. It was quite funny :) We walked down the aisle to “My Favourite Chords” by The Weakerthans (our favourite local band) and exited the venue to Matt Costa’s “Sunshine”.

E-CJ-13Our reception was held at Fort Gibraltar – a beautiful old log fort in the French community of St.Boniface, Manitoba. The reception started off with cocktail hour where Fort Gibraltar provided an amazing assortment of vegetarian and vegan appetizers such as mini stuffed potatoes with truffle oil, avocado bruschetta, mushroom guyère tarts, tofu pops with pesto, parmesan risotto balls with marinara sauce, summer rolls and vegetarian spring rolls. The dinner menu was excellent – fresh ciabatta bread, roasted root vegetable soup with cinnamon creme fraiche, roasted vegetable strudel with marinara sauce followed by a chocolate truffle tart with berries and whipped cream. Delicious!

Our wedding cake was a sooo delicious – a small earl grey cake with lemon buttercream from Cake-ology. For our guests, we had chocolate cupcakes with Nutella buttercream, vanilla chai cupcakes and carrot cake cupcakes. Yum yum yum!

E-CJ-33After a delicious dinner, speeches and some cake, Jesse and I danced our first dance to “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver and then I danced with my dad to our favourite Paul McCartney song “Calico Skies”. After that, I literally danced for 3 hours straight with our guests. Jesse and I had our best friend Paul do our DJing (and emceeing) and he picked the BEST music for our wedding. We had an amazing time dancing up a storm and celebrating well into the early morning! I believe we ended the night with a small group of people singing along to Radiohead’s Karma Police. It was epic.

The day after our wedding, we attended a potluck at Auntie Louise’s house followed by dinner at my parents’ place. Tuesday morning, Jesse and I flew to NYC for a wonderful week-long honeymoon!

E-CJ-10A huge thank you to our parents for all of their help and support leading up to the wedding. Thank you to our sisters, Alyssa and Robyn, and their spouses Jonny and Louis. Thank you to the bridesmaids and the groomsmen for celebrating our big day by our sides. Thank you to my grandparents for all of their love and excitement about the wedding. Thank you to cousin Steve for coming all of the way in from Wales and for the beautiful Welsh wedding blessing. Thank you to our extended families and all of those who travelled far and wide to spend the day with us. Thank you to Matt and Nishan for being such awesome ushers! And to Amelia – thank you for being the cutest little flower girl ever. Paul Little – we knew you’d do an amazing job as DJ and emcee! Thank you a million times over!

Thank you to Meghan at Bluebird Creative for being our wonderful wedding photographer. Thank you to West End Cultural Centre for making my dream come true! And a huge thank you to Fort Gibraltar for helping up plan our perfect vegetarian wedding reception. I highly recommend Fort Gibraltar, as the staff was incredibly helpful and the venue had so much charm and character.

And a special thank you to my new husband Jesse! I love you so very much.

I’ll be sure to post some wedding pictures when we get them from our lovely photographer. Thanks for reading about our special day. Regular programming to resume this week!

E-CJ-34

Roasted Onion & Cauliflower Mac n Cheese

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20130918-DSC_5232I’m back….finally…and with a real winner of a recipe! A macaroni and cheese recipe in fact! A really, really delicious macaroni and cheese recipe loaded with roasted cauliflower and onions. This is an easy recipe to put together but tastes extra fancy. Pop the cauliflower and onions into an oven and roast for 30 minutes. Purée the veg, add some cheese, some seasoning and some dry sherry (optional). Toss with your favourite small shaped pasta and you’ve got a really classy dinner on your hands.

The beauty of this macaroni and cheese is that it is loaded with cauliflower and a minimal amount of cheese. Greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream keep this recipe low-fat, but still nice and creamy. It can also easily be made vegan with the use of Daiya Swiss cheese and dairy-free yogurt.  Use whole wheat pasta for extra fibre. A delicious, healthier spin on macaroni and cheese!

Hope you are all doing well and had a nice summer! I’ve missed you and I’ve missed blogging – A LOT!!!  Jesse and I are just finalizing our wedding plans and will be heading to the alter in mid-October. It’s coming so quickly! Looking forward to sharing details with you soon :)

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Roasted Onion & Cauliflower Mac n Cheese

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 medium head of cauliflower, chopped
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
  • 1/2 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
  • 1 cup of fresh bread crumbs
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of fresh chopped thyme, divided
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 pound of macaroni pasta
  • 1/4 cup of dry sherry (or apple juice)
  • 2 cups of vegetable broth
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of shredded Swiss cheese (or Daiya Swiss)
  • 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream (or dairy-free yogurt)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 425'F. Place cauliflower and sliced onions in a medium bowl.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the minced garlic , Dijon mustard and white wine vinegar with 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of oil. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle mixture over the cauliflower and sliced onions and toss well to coat. Transfer vegetables to a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper (for easy clean-up). Roast cauliflower and onions for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tender and slightly browned.
  3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, toss the bread crumbs with remaining 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon of fresh thyme, salt and pepper. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, toast to a golden brown. Set breadcrumbs aside in a small bowl.
  4. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.
  5. Transfer roasted cauliflower and onions into a blender with sherry and vegetable broth. Blend until smooth. Note: You can also use a hand immersion blender for this. Just be careful not to blend a liquid that is still very hot.
  6. Pour the cauliflower onion purée into the large saucepan. Bring to a simmer then add the Swiss cheese, other 1/2 tablespoon of fresh thyme and sour cream or Greek yogurt. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Note: if you like really cheesy mac n cheese, be sure to use 1 cup of Swiss cheese instead of 1/2 cup.
  7. Stir pasta into sauce and heat through. Garnish with bread crumbs and serve.

Notes

Source: adapted from Fresh Juice Magazine (October 2013)

Simple Mexican Layered Salad

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20130803-DSC_3633Hello! Wow – a post!? I know, I know – it’s been ages since I last posted a recipe!  *hehe* I apologize and thank you so much for your patience :) In July, I photographed 5 weddings and then attended my favourite annual festival – The Fringe Festival – where I attended a ton of fantastic plays. Photographing all of the weddings was a wonderful experience. I had a fantastic time getting to know the couples and photographing their specials days. But weddings are also a lot of work and editing photos can be very time consuming. And, in all honesty, the busy schedule in July really made me feel a bit lack-luster about cooking and keeping up with the blog. Sometimes it can be tough to feel inspired and motivated. Do you find that sometimes too? It’s funny, as I tried to do a bit of cooking throughout my busy schedule, but so many of the recipes I made were an absolute flop! I was starting to feel like I could only do one thing well and it had to be wedding photography in July! *haha*

Saturday, we had some friends and family over for a small BBQ. I decided to make a nice simple, yet delicious salad to share with everyone. This layered mexican salad is actually a recipe from my wonderful mom. She makes it from time-to-time and the whole family adores it. We fight over the leftovers! I find that using romaine lettuce allows for the salad to last up to a day without the romaine wilting. So it makes for a nice leftover lunch. Layering the salad in a large glass bowl allows for a very pretty presentation. And all of the ingredients combine make for an incredibly delicious, filling salad. Yum! This salad is perfect for picnics, BBQs and potlucks – especially since you can make it all ahead of time.

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! I’ll be sure to post again before the week is over. I’m finally back in the kitchen…and not burning everything! *hehe*

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Simple Mexican Layered Salad

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 avocados, peeled and diced
  • 1 cup of fresh corn kernels
  • juice of one lime
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1-15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 8 cups of chopped romaine lettuce, well rinsed and dried
  • half pint of grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1/4 cup of pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
  • 1 cup of low-fat shredded cheddar cheese (or Daiya cheddar cheese shreds)
  • your favourite oil + vinegar dressing (I use Newman's Own Oil + Vinegar)

Method

  1. In a small bowl, combine the diced avocado, fresh corn and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
  2. Approximately three hours before serving, layer the salad in a large glass serving bowl. Begin with half of the romaine lettuce, followed by half of the black beans, half of the shredded cheddar cheese, half of the corn/avocado mixture, half of the tomato, and a sprinkle of the pepitas. Repeat with a second layer of the ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
  3. Drizzle the salad with approximately 1/4 cup of your favourite oil and vinegar dressing about 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

Source: Mom