Weddingbee

Thanksgiving Day for most people is a time to gorge. You eat, you laugh, you lie on the couch and rub your swollen belly. This year, we had a full week of non-stop eating — we squeezed in FOUR wedding tastings on top of the normal holiday fare and my mom’s compulsive need to feed people whenever they set foot in her house. Here’s a little recap of the tastings. They went so fast, I wish I could do them again!

1) Rehearsal Dinner, Lazy K Bar Guest Ranch

Mr. Lily’s Mom and my family picked out the space without him ever seeing it. This was his first time visiting the ranch and he loved it as much as the rest of us (phew). They simply could not be nicer there. If you live in Tucson and are wanting to host a wedding or rehearsal, see the Stardance section because it is so beautiful. And the food was awesome. They sat us down in the dining room and brought out more plates of food than I can even remember. BBQ ribs, chicken, fish, jalapeno corn bread (my personal favorite — yum), the softest biscuits on earth (Mr. Lily’s favorite), corn, stuffed potatoes, cowboy beans, cole slaw, salad, peach cobbler, brownies… I know I am forgetting something, but who knows what? There was not one bad dish. And did I mention how nice everyone is there? We even got to see a baby horse that was born the day before while we were there. This was a fun, fun night!

2) Wedding Tasting, Westward Look

The chef at the Westward Look is very talented so I can only hope things turn out as well when made in mass quantities. We tried tons of hors d’ oeuvres and almost all of them were A++++ (but we ruled out 2, which made us feel productive). Then we tried 3 different salads and agreed unanimously which one to choose (my parents, brother, Mr. Lily’s Mom, and Mr. Lily and I were all a part of the tasting). It was excellent.

The main courses were trickier. Everyone loved the meat (don’t ask me what it was, I only eat fish so I can’t remember), although there was some debate over what type of sauce to put on it. I think Mr. Lily and my Dad have polar opposite taste buds when it comes to these things, but they worked it out without a wrestling match. The fish was good, although a bit dry and cold. I’m sure those are super easy things to fix though (I hope!).

The starch proved harder. One option was a stuffed potato, which a) we are having the night before and b) screamed “Fridays” to my Mom and was immediately nixed. Apparently it tasted good, but I never got a bite for whatever reason. Then there were little roasted potatoes which were also nixed for being boring. Then there was a potato gratin which was clever in theory, but stone cold so it tasted very boring. Maybe if it was hot it would be better? The last item was a risotto. I was most excited about this, but it was terrible. Really terrible. It was like cold glue. The event coordinator (who was so so helpful) spoke to the chef though and they are going to let us try more starches next month. I’m glad they are doing that because all of the other food was excellent — the starch should be too! I hope that isn’t bridezilla-y. Also, a word of warning, they made us pay for part of the tasting since there were so many of us. I hadn’t heard of that before (the Lazy K didn’t do this…) and thought it was a bit strange…???

3) Wedding Cake, Busy B Bakery

I was so psyched for the cake tasting. I love me some wedding cake. Mmmmm. I called in advance to taste certain flavors. Both places I called had set flavors people generally try, but both tried their best to accomodate me and add in at least some of the others I wanted. At Busy B, they brought out the cakes, with fillings already in them. It was a bit harder to taste what was going on this way if you wanted to mix and match. The cakes were all very good and I would have been happy to have any of them as my cake. Also, the decorating skills there seem excellent from their pictures.

4) Wedding Cake, Village Bakehouse

The place was packed when we went for our tasting, but they immediately found us a secluded space outside. The cakes came out as little muffins, not layered with filling, and the frostings, jams, fruits, and creams, were in little cups on the side. I wish there had been more cake for 5 people, but what we did try was awesome. I don’t know why, but the cake just seemed so much better here and I really enjoyed working with Paulette who was sweet as can be. We chose our cake right there and everything seemed to fall in place. I’m keeping my mouth shut about what the cake looks like and the flavors so it will be a surprise for my guests. This will have to be a post-wedding blog!

Hope you’re not exhausted from reading all of that! Imagine how we felt after all that eating! I had 2 dress fittings that week — what are the chances they were accurate. Ha!

• Beehive
• Mean Website