Our Wedding Food (plus recipe links!)

While most girls probably focus on the dress or the decorations or the guest list for their wedding (not that those weren't all heavily discussed in our household over the past eight months), for me, it was all about the food!

I was frequently asked, "So who is doing your catering?" Every single time, everything inside of me was yelling in response, "Me! Me-me-me!! I'm catering my own wedding!!" (I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes.)

Unfortunately, everyone around me thought (and was probably right) that that was a terrible idea, so I was slowly reigned in. We wound up hiring Tim's friend Carlos to do the ribs and chicken at $10 a head. He was incredible. The chicken was roasted, while the ribs were slow-cooked and then finished off on the grill. He also made three sauces that people could choose from to sauce their own meats. One was a hot and sour sauce, there was a traditional BBQ sauce, and then a honey-garlic sauce. We chose to do the sauces separately because of a serious garlic allergy among our guests, and it worked out SO well. People could have no sauce, tons of sauce, one sauce, all the sauces. Loved it. Carlos and his wife Andrea were also so crucial to keeping the whole dinner running smoothly. They were there to answer any questions, refill everything, and direct the other two kitchen helpers, Marie and Renee, that Wendy had hired.

Wendy contributed to the buffet as well. She made the caprese salad with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. I know there was a last minute panic on Thursday to find the perfect local tomatoes, and she bought a ridiculously good $30 bottle of balsamic from Chasing the Cheese for people who wanted extra drizzle. She also catered in the potato salad from BE Catering in Peterborough. It had heirloom potatoes, red peppers, celery, green onions, red onions, grainy Dijon mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper, parsley, dill, and a little bit of Miracle Whip. (Miracle Whip? Really? I would have used mayonnaise.) Both salads were delicious.

Wendy's friend Betty-Ann added a kale salad and my Mom made two different types of green salads. I think Dean picked up buns at Costco.

Photo by Ree Drummond (a.k.a The Pioneer Woman)

Even though I was downgraded from my original plans of doing everything, I still made the pasta salad. I'm so glad I wasn't allowed to do more, because it's amazing how much of a mess that was! We had about six containers left over, but this is how much I originally made for 140 people:

• 5 x 900 g bags of pasta
• 2 kgs of Bothwell smoked cheddar cheese from Chasing the Cheese
• 6 quarts of currant tomatoes from McLean's Berry Farm
• Leaves from 18 stems of basil from Twin Pine Farm
• 6-1/2 cups of mayonnaise
• 3-1/4 cups of whole milk
• 3-1/4 cups of white vinegar
• 6-1/2 tsps salt
• Lots of freshly cracked black pepper

I don't know how I would have done this without my Kitchenaid stand mixer and Shannon's big canning pot to cook the pasta and mix everything in. I just used my hands to mix it all together. None of my spoons were long enough. It fit PERFECTLY into 20 of the extra-large Foodland deli containers, which they sold me for 10 cents each. The currant tomatoes were PERFECT because they're so teeny-tiny! I didn't have to cut them, which saved tons of time.

Here's the recipe, in semi-normal proportions: Spicy Pasta Salad with Smoked Gouda, Tomatoes, and Basil. 

Photo courtesy of Lisa Soltermann

For dessert, Shannon busted her butt making miniature cupcakes all week, half chocolate and half vanilla. Angel, Blaire, Sarah, and even Owen helped to ice them at the rehearsal dinner at Dean and Wendy's. Uncle Bob performed quality control by eating any that didn't look up to his standards. The cupcakes were more of an addendum to dessert, though, since I knew all along that what I really wanted for the wedding dessert was trifle! For nine years now we've been making a gigantic trifle in honour of my birthday. For the wedding, we just moved them into individual mini champagne glasses from Costco. Angel, Sarah, Shannon, and Owen worked their way through half of them on the day before the wedding, until we realized there just wasn't enough time to finish 150 of them. Luckily Kendra, Teri, Kristy, and Jess stepped in the morning of the wedding and finished the rest of them off. Everyone loved them!! They were so adorable! I was so excited to get to share the trifles with everyone. The trifle has a bit of folklore status with my friends after being made every year ONLY on my birthday for so long.

The recipe can be found here: Joy's Prizewinning Trifle. I usually mix the pudding mix with enough milk to make it smooth before adding in the sour cream and Cool Whip.