This past weekend we were visited by the lovely Hurricane Earl. He arrived early Saturday morning (before a 75 person wedding) and took our phones and power with him on his way through. Because all of our stoves and ovens are propane powered the power outage was not a problem in getting all the food out on time and, depite all odds, the wedding went flawlessly. I don't think there was a person on site that didn't enjoy themselves that night; myself included. We learned a lot that night and we now have one more thing to add to our list of things that cant hold us back.

We are proud to offer fresh baked bread for all of our weddings. It's one of my favourite tasks because I find it calming and I love the beauty of the finished product. There is no scent that I would rather fill our Great Room with than that of bread baking.

Another gorgeous dish is our beef wellington. It is a beef tenderloin portion seasoned and wraped in a puff pastry and baked to a beautiful medium rare. We serve it on a beef jus with fresh steamed vegetables. Words can't quite do it justice, but I think the photo says it all

This is one of my favourite dishes: chicken roulade. It's sauteed mushrooms, swiss cheese, and spinach inside a chicken breast all wrapped in prosciutto. In this photo it is served with a vegetable tower (beets, sauteed vegetables, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes), a mushroom jus, and a sprig of thyme. The dish brings very intersting flavours in that it is bright with the vegetable tower yet earthy with some of the other flavours going in; it truly is a beautiful dish if I may say so myself

We are very lucky to have some great local cheese makers. One is That Duchman from Economy who provides us with his specialty cheese, Dragon's Breath Blue, and also with a great medium cumin scented gouda. We can pick up our order the day of an event and have never been let down by his quality or service.

This weekend we served a 40 and a 20 lb halibut to the guests of a wedding. It was quite the battle tracking down the fish as there were few caught last week, but the finished product was well worth all the trouble. We baked the fish off and served it on beet risotto and asparagus tips and could not have imagined it turning out any better. It was a great catch.

One of my favourite parts of weddings is the late night snack. We do a late night deluxe poutine bar which includes regular and sweet potatoes, 5-6 gourmet cheeses, cheese curds, chicken gravy, beef gravy, and a house made chilli.
We deep-fry the fries on the line and serve the guests as they creat their own versions of this French specialty

This is my latest and greatest condiment development: it’s a salsa of fresh organic pineapples and Thai chillies (local if you are in Hawaii).  I aged it in a mason jar for a month to let the oils from the peppers work their way through the pineapples.  It starts off sweet and hot, then slowly burns and increases in intensity and makes you pause and think/worry.  Great on a teriyaki spiked burger and accompanied by a light beer with a wedge of lime. 

I’m bringing some back to Nova Scotia and I will have it on hand for any BBQ events that I put on this summer. 

This wild boar was trapped on the mountains behind the stand, and slow cooked on an open pit burning mango wood.  This pit is on the side of the road outside of Kapa’a, Kauai and is only open on weekends.  It’s inspirational to me because the animal is well respected from start to finish.  The meat tells the tale: the cut shown is the loin, very tender, with a mild flavour that was complex without being gamey. 

Roadside Stand. Wild boar and huli huli chicken.

One of my favourite off season activities is Barbeque Research and Development.  Yes, I do consider it work time, and yes it is more fun than bookkeeping.   I love burgers in Hawaii because anything goes – it’s a mix of tropical fruits, Asian sauces, and the classic American burger.  Barbequed pork here is amazing too: there has been much research into slow cooked Kalua pork and sampling of roadside wild boar stands.