I was up at the trailer a few weeks ago for the express intent of throwing my cousin Jennifer a bridal shower in anticipation of her upcoming September nuptials. It's the solemn responsibility of any good maid of honor, after all. With the shower set for Saturday, and most of the food already prepared (more on that later) I had a free Friday night.

John's Motorcycle

Luckily, I had just the way to spend my evening.

My friend John from Jamestown—who ordinarily occupies his time as an illustrious world traveler—is back in his hometown this summer renovating his house. We decided to meet, trailer-side, and head into Ellicottville for dinner. A few hours later he rode up in his... (gulp) motorcycle. You must understand, I had never ridden a motorcycle before and I was otherwise strapped for transportation. While I am ordinarily a devotee of the Pittsburgh bus system, back home in the city I do have options—namely to grin and ask Saundra, "Can I borrow the car?"

Neilbert and his car. Sorry, no keys for Sarah

Saundra may be glad most days to lend me her PT Cruiser, but Neilbert isn't so easy with the keys to his Volcano Red Mazda 6—the car we had driven to the trailer. And so, my choices were, get on the back of that motorcycle or... well, at least I can be proud to admit that I didn't consider any other options. I pulled on the helmet, took a deep breath and held on tight. The verdict? While I'll likely never be investing in a Harley of my own, I can say at least that riding on the motorcycle didn't freak me out and count that a victory.

We rode into Ellicottville and decided to grab a bite at The Gin Mill, a venerable Ellicottville bar and grille that I have oft intended to visit but just never got around to. The Gin Mill is everything you'd expect from a no frills ski resort bar. Alpine-y wood paneling, a nothing-to-complain-about selection of beers, a choice of booth, table or bar stool.

The Gin Mill

Another important fact to note about The Gin Mill is that its small town location apparently outweighs its ski resort location—the food is a lot cheaper than you find in the city. $8.95 entrées, $5.95 sandwiches plus side dishes, $3.95 and $4.95 appetizers. We decided to start off with an order of the jalapeño poppers. They were everything you could ask for in a jalapeño popper, gooey, crunchy, hot. They also came, intriguingly, with a raspberry dipping sauce. It was good but too sweet for every dip. I could have used a blue cheese or ranch for dipping in tandem. For the meat of our meal, John got the Reuben and I decided on a south-western New York delicacy, the Beef on Weck. Unlike Buffalo Wings, which have gained acclaim far and wide—even if Buffalonians claim that none can compare to the local variety—the Beef on Weck has not enjoyed widespread popularity and remains largely a local favorite.

Just outside The Gin Mill

For those who have never experienced the phenomenon that is Beef on Weck, it's sliced roast beef au jus on a bun (the "weck") with caraway seeds and horseradish on the side. While I normally despise caraway seeds, these are just on the bun, not in it and so I can aptly avoid them. I wanted to try the Beef on Weck that night because I've witnessed its eating many times throughout the years of my vegetarianism, and later on even tried a few bites, but had never myself eaten a Beef on Weck proper—and anything that requires horseradish as a condiment is a welcome addition to my diet. It also came with mashed potatoes and gravy which was fine by me (this, careful readers, was before I decided to go low carb). The sandwich in general was tasty, though the beef was much fattier than I would have liked. While this would have made me go screaming in my pre-meat years, it simply made the sandwich a tad disappointing in this instance. I've seen many Beefs on Weck in my day, and the beef has more often than not been pleasantly lean. It also could have come with more horseradish—but I'm the type who will layer on the horseradish until my nose runs, and I'm reasonably sure John is glad that I didn't have that much horseradish at my disposable. He, by all accounts, enjoyed his sandwich. After dinner, we set out on a walking tour of the Ellicottville business district, which took all of ten minutes, tops. While Ellicottville is about the only place in Cattaraugus County where you'll find city-style restaurants (by virtue of the ski resort), it's still very small. The best way I can describe it is to liken it to a plus sign; if you're standing in the middle of the main intersection, it radiates one block in all four directions. Still, Ellicottville packs a lot into those four blocks, and so we ended up at Dina's.

Dina's

How to describe Dina's...? It's a coffee bar slash wine bar slash southwestern themed slash mid-to-upscale restaurant. Concept-wise it's a strange place, but definitely recommended. I've been there before and had the sweet potato quesadillas which are uniquely tasty, but definitely not low carb. That night, however, John and I showed up in search of cheesecake. We ordered one plain New York style cheesecake to share and two cups of espresso. I'm often wary of cheesecake because it's usually too dry for my taste, and beyond that... why dilute cheese with cake? Actually, I prefer cheesecake when the cheese taste is only a hint and not too heavy (after all, why not just eat cheese? Still wondering why I went low carb?), and in general I prefer chilled rather than baked cheesecake. I believe this cheesecake was the latter, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was softer and creamier than I expected, and a great complement to the espresso.

Jennifer with Aunt Vicki and Aunt Marlene; check out the food on the table behind—this may be the best picture I got of it.

The next day was Jennifer's bridal shower and after slicing up the toast points, we were ready to take on the world. Er, well, at least, the twenty women most closely related to Jennifer and her fiancé. In effort to slake these twenty thirsts, I mixed up a batch of my Cosmopolitan Punch (recipe below). There were chips and guacamole and Trader Joe's chipotle salsa, which nearly everyone thought was too hot, except me. There were mini bagels with bacon blue cream cheese (recipe below), a recipe I thought up off the top of my head because my plans for lox spread were defeated by the truly ludicrous price of smoked salmon at the Ellicottville grocery store. There were toast points with a choice of tuna salad and chicken salad (both recipes below) and many folks pitched in by contributing their own finger foods, such as Aunt Marlene (mother of Jennifer; wife of Jimbert) with shrimp and cocktail sauce, and Aunt Vicki (mother of Smooth; wife of Robert) with veggies and dip. Saundra made a low carb offering of deviled eggs—but you'll have to wait for her to start a blog to get that recipe. Jennifer's mother-in-law to be, Salamanca restaurateur extraordinaire and real estate agent, Wendy O'Neill, was kind enough to bring a red velvet cake and ice cream, and even kinder to bring Skyy vodka,

Jennifer opening the Lenox Tuscany Ice Bucket

the upshot of which is that people drank that instead of the big tub o' Nikolai that we got on sale for $10 at the Ellicottville liquor store—now I have something to drink when I house-sit for Neilbert and Saundra. After the requisite hour of noshing and drinking, we set to opening gifts, which in the not terribly generous space of the trailer meant that I was shuttling wrapped gifts in, snapping photos and shuttling unwrapped gifts out in record time. If there were an Olympics of bridal shower hosting, I swear... I'd think about trying out. Jennifer received a surprising number of colanders, many neat kitchen gadgets, Corelle French White (a must for any woman's kitchen, married or single), but the highlights of the gift opening were undoubtedly the Lenox Tuscany Champagne Flutes that she got from... er... somebody... I certainly can't be expected to remember these things, that's Jennifer's job... and the Lenox Tuscany Ice Bucket that she got from me.

Neilbert with his brothers, Jimbert and Donbert, ready to eat shower leftovers

I know, it was a little tricksy of me. She hadn't registered for the ice bucket, but she registered for so much other Lenox Tuscany that I took the liberty. A gal can never have too many ice buckets after all (... ahem... there's a Lenox Tuscany ice bucket on my single gal registry... ahem...). When all was said and done, Trevor—the future Mr. Jennifer—and Jimbert came to haul the gifts off to Jennifer's trousseau and I beckoned Neilbert and his brothers (who were hanging out at Donbert's trailer three lots down) over to help out with the leftovers.

Jennifer opening the Lenox Tuscany Champagne Flutes

Cosmopolitan Punch

• one 8 oz bottle of Real Lime juice, or one can of frozen limeade concentrate (the latter will make for a sweet version, the former will make it more tart)
• one 64 fl oz bottle of cranberry juice
• one 2 liter bottle of orange flavored seltzer water (seltzer water is clear, this is NOT orange soda I'm talking about)
• one 2 liter bottle of tonic water

In a medium-size punch bowl, pour lime juice (if using limeade concentrate, just put in the thawed concentrate, don't reconstitute) and cranberry juice over ice.* Add more ice if needed, then pour orange seltzer and tonic into the punch. Spike if desired.

* I recommend against using regular ice cubes. Instead, take a silicone jello mould or even just tupperware, if all else fails, and fill with water plus slices of orange and lime. Freeze and use to chill the punch. It will melt more slowly and thus dilute the punch less.


Bacon Blue Cream Cheese

• one package of cream cheese
• real bacon bits (you can cook and crumble yourself, or buy at the store in the salad aisle
• red onions or scallions
• one package of crumbled blue cheese

Whip the cream cheese in a large bowl with electric beaters. Gradually add remaining ingredients while beating. If the mixture gets too stiff, add just a splash of milk, but be careful it doesn't get too watered down.

Jennifer and her bridesmaids. I'm the blonde one.

Sarah's Tuna Salad

• one can of albacore tuna
• real bacon bits
• red onions, diced
• swiss cheese, shredded
• horseradish sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine dry ingredients (all to taste, of course) in a medium-sized bowl, breaking up the tuna with a fork. Add horseradish sauce to coat. If using all horseradish sauce is too intense for you (come on, give it a try, you know you want to), then use half horseradish sauce and half mayo. If using just horseradish sauce isn't intense enough for you, mix in some actual horseradish to boot!


Sarah's Chicken Salad

• one can of white chicken
• sunflower seeds
• dried cranberries
• diced cucumber
• cilantro or basil (cilantro is my favorite)
• mayonnaise
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine dry ingredients (all to taste—don't be afraid to put some creativity into your cooking) in a medium-sized bowl, breaking up the chicken with a fork. Add mayo to coat.