From Pioneer Square, view of Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria BC.
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At the Inner Harbour, Victoria BC, Canada.
Las Vegas is certainly a place of contrast. I struggled with it all some of the time. But for most of the five days we were there, I was able to surrender to its charms and experience delight and awe. I was especially taken with the service we received. The Signature front desk, concierge, housekeeping and other staff members were all courteous, friendly and very helpful; even bringing us chocolates when they found out we were getting married. Our waiter at Shibuya, Jeffrey, was inspiring in his care of our experience and delightful in expressing his love of living in Las Vegas. The Cirque du Soleil experience always blows my mind (and the lovely folk seating us at Kà were so much fun). Here are some other bright moments:
The most awesome thing we saw: Elvis riding a mobility scooter.
Fiori di Como sculptural installation by Dale Chihuly at Bellagio.
A wonderful autumnal display at the Conservatory and Botanical Garden at Bellagio.
The dancing waters at Bellagio. There is video on their website.
Each tower at The Signature has a lovely pool area. They are quiet at this time of year.
GJ makes a friend at the pool.
We found some very good food in Las Vegas. I only took one food picture strangely, but here are our eating highlights in no particular order.
• Kabuki Japanese Restaurant A small chain, but food was good and service was excellent.
• Julian Serrano At the Aria Hotel. Small plate Tapas with lots of vegetarian, delicious.
• Tamba Indian Cuisine Very delicious Indian food, nice atmosphere, very affordable.
• Chipotle I am so excited to find that a fast food chain could have this kind of integrity. One of our best (and most affordable) meals in Vegas.
• Shibuya Exceptional Japanese cuisine at the MGM Grand. Incredible meal and amazing service. A great experience.
• Mon Ami Gabi We wish we had tried this place sooner. Another small chain, but food was so good and service outstanding. We sat in the atrium just inside from the patio. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
One of our best meals: Mon Ami Gabi. GJ says best Eggs Benny he’s ever had. English muffins are made in house. Mine was florentine with spinach and artichoke hearts and GJ had smoked salmon.
On Wednesday, we drove with K and R out of town a bit to Red Rock Canyon. It’s amazing how close to the bright lights this National Conservation Area is. The colours are astounding; layers of reds, yellows and grays and then the variety of green in the abundant flora. We even saw a (too) friendly chipmunk looking to be fed for his participation in a photo opportunity (strictly against the rules – the feeding, not the photos!). It would be fun to explore some of the other wild places in the area, like Valley of Fire State Park, where my sis and her fella spent the day at on thursday. Here are a few pics of Red Rock:
And then on Tuesday, we did this:
My gorgeous GJ and me, just after the ceremony; such fun!
Kitsch and cool all rolled into one awesome wedding venue.
Super fun morning having a manicure at the MGM Grand spa, hair by darling Kerry, makeup by my dearest sister Nicole. The wedding itself was surreal, but super fun. Everyone at the Graceland Wedding Chapel was so gracious. Three songs by a very tall and awesome Elvis. Then we all went to the Aria for late lunch at Julian Serrano and then Kà, another blow-my-mind Cirque show. Totally the best day of my life; feeling so blessed to have shared it with my beloved.
On Monday morning, we did this:
Lounged by the pool in the afternoon and then saw an amazing Cirque du Soleil show, Zarkana, at the Aria. It was spectacular; just gorgeous. Wonderful day.
I had intended to blog daily along our fabulous adventure in Las Vegas; our first time there. I found, however, that I was overwhelmed with emotion and conflicting feelings and knew I would need to be home for a few days before I could share in this forum.
We had great flights through Seattle. We were lucky to have our friends from Colorado visiting Victoria first before we all flew together on GJ’s 50th birthday, November 3. It was still daylight as we flew over Las Vegas. It looked so small and unassuming from above. The sun was just setting as we entered the Strip and we could see “unassuming” was not a word that could be used as a descriptor; fantastical, colourful, bright and shiny. Immediately it all appealed to my love of the outrageous. We drove down and back and then settled into our hotel: The Signature at MGM Grand. We were super pleased to have chosen this hotel. It is situated behind the MGM Grand with an indoor walkway connecting to the larger complex. It’s a non-smoking property with no casino, which at the end of the day was very welcomed. The MGM had some good amenities as well as easy access to the rest of the strip. It wasn’t as busy as some of the other hotels we visited.
The first night we united with my sister and her partner and the six of us found a Japanese place for a delicious dinner. Here are some of my “out the window” shots from Sunday and Monday.
GJ nudged me to look out at this magnificence. Not sure where we were at this point.
Desert, beautiful beautiful desert.
The Venetian was one of my favourite hotels to explore.
Show girls. These were so colourful.
The iconic Caesar’s Palace. And palm trees, so many palm trees.
The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace is a big shopping mall, but very pretty as far as malls go.
This place was super weird. We watched an awesome clown show on our last day. There is a large arcade above the casino with family entertainment and games.
Stratosphere was at the opposite end of the Strip. There is a roller coaster along the top edge that circles the building.
It’s All Hallows’ Eve, so pumpkin seems like the perfect post today! We carved spooky faces into a couple of pumpkins earlier this week, but I much prefer to eat them. Soup, roasted with spices and sugar and eaten in a salad, in cakes and muffins; delicious – but my favourite way to eat pumpkin is in pie form.
Sweet, delicious little pumpkins.
So many varieties of squash are available at the farmer’s markets.
This year I tried coming up with my own recipe for the filling. A bit of trial and error occurred with three different attempts. I’m still not sure it’s perfect, but that might be because I slightly overcooked the last trial. The other experiment this year was finding a gluten-free crust recipe. I found two I wanted to try, but opted for the nut-based one here. It was a crumb-style crust and the flavour was perfect with the pumpkin filling. The other recipe I will try soon for making a fruit pie. When not making treats for my gluten-free friends, I almost always use a Pâte Brisée recipe for pastry. This is an easy recipe to find. Three tricks for ease with pastry: add a bit of fresh lemon juice to the water, keep everything cold and don’t overwork it.
Pumpkins, pre-roast.
Here’s my filling:
1 & 3/4 cups pureed pumpkin (I used organic local pumpkin, roasted until soft and pureed in the food processor)
3 large eggs (plus one yolk if you have made the nut crust and have a yolk left over)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whipping cream (36%MF)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional: 1 tablespoon sherry, rum or brandy
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until well combined and creamy. Fill you pastry shell. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350° and bake 35-40 more minutes until the custard is set. With the nut crust, I just used 350° for the whole baking time as the crust had been pre-baked and I was afraid of it burning at the higher temperature. Let the pie cool completely on a rack and enjoy at room temperature or chilled. Yum!
First pie of the season. This one used the Pâte Brisée pastry. The filling didn’t set very well. I had used 2 tablespoons of sherry in the filling and wonder if that may be why. It was still DELICIOUS!
This was attempt number two with the Paleo nut crust. The filling set a bit better with this one (I reduced the amount of sherry to 1 tablespoon).
In a few days GJ and I are heading off in a plane to a warm place for a five-night adventure. Can you guess what we might be up to?
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