Cafe Maplethorpe Blog :: PEI Restaurant

Sugar Cookies With Sprinkles

Nothing like a real grandchild-made sugar cookies with sprinkles.

First Maplethorpe Garden Tomato 2010

Yes, we were lazy last spring.

When we should have been planting the tiny seeds in flats perched on card tables under sunny living room windows, we were sleeping in. As our gardening friends described their organic, heirloom varieties and the merits of the sunny window vs. grow lights or the heated greenhouse, we just nodded sympathetically.

We eventually got around to starting our future tomato crop, far past Easter.

We could have purchased bigger transplants at Kool Breeze Farms when they opened their greenhouses at the first hint of spring, but we drove past. We stuck with our tiny, spindly home-grown tomatoes, still in the living room but transplanted into bigger pots.

Finally on August 27, we picked our first ripe tomato. We have admired it on the counter for a few days and are now ready to eat it tonight for supper. Behind our firstborn there are hundreds more. Some will make it to sublime redness and other are destined for green tomato relish.

Like an only child born to elderly parents, there is nothing like the wonder of your first-of-the-season homegrown tomato.

This has been a busy summer at Maplethorpe, with 3 wedding activities taking place just in the past week!

Michael and John, a same-sex couple from New York, traveled to Prince Edward Island to be married in Canada. We were thrilled that they chose Maplethorpe for their wedding location!  We discussed a possible outdoor service, debating the possibilities of battling either rain or the famous Bedeque mosquitoes. It turned out to be rainy, so Michael and John had a lovely, intimate service in the parlor and we were all happy to share their special day.

John and Michael, Wedding Commissioner, Jim and Dianna

Fred and Teena had a big wedding in Summerside and asked the Maplethorpe staff to create a cake for the reception. It turned out beautifully…even if we do say so ourselves! The three tiers consisted of a pound cake on the top, a marble cake in the middle and a chocolate cake anchoring the bottom, all covered with pink buttercream frosting. The brown ribbon and fresh flowers from Summerside’s Kelly’s Flowers matched Teena and Fred’s wedding color perfectly!

Teena and Fred's Wedding Cake

Jessica and Daniel were married on the beach in Lower Bedeque, then had their wedding dinner and reception here. It was a great day for a wedding, perfect weather, and a great supper for 27 guests after. We served a beautiful salad with veggies pulled from our garden just minutes before service. The salad was followed by Confederation Cove mussels, steamed in white wine. Half of the guests had seafood pie (thanks, Captain Cook’s for the fantastic local seafood) and half had chicken breast in a delicious sauce of Rol-Land Farms mushrooms and fresh ADL cream. The wedding party enjoyed a fantastic chocolate-banana wedding cake with Maplethorpe homemade ice cream.

And That’s Not All!

The B&B rooms are full, and the lunches and supper at Maplethorpe are also crowded this summer season. We just love taking care of our local customers as well as visitors to Prince Edward Island! (But sometimes we feel like Santa’s elves on Christmas Eve–run off our pointy, curled feet!) The weather has been perfect for all kids of outdoor adventures and we have been slipping out to the beach every couple of days.