Growing up, my family and I would take lots of road trips in the summer time. We usually drove to Buffalo, Florida, Georgia, Boston….lots of US towns.
Now that I’ve made it my mission to explore Ontario and more of Canada, I really like taking my family with me to see what’s in our own backyard, so to speak.
For the May 24 long weekend, we headed up to an area that none of us had been to before- Grey County. Grey County is a huge area best known for Blue Mountain, apples and waterfalls. Our trip began in Flesherton, Ontario. We stayed at a wonderful cottage resort, Cedars of Lake Eugenia.
Our cottage had 2 bedrooms and a lake view. The cottages are equipped with TV and WiFi just in case the weather is bad. If you are lucky enough to have perfect weather like we did, then you can borrow a canoe or paddle boat, BBQ outside (comes with the cottage!) or just sit and view the lake in a Muskoka chair. It doesn’t get any better than this.
The property is owned by husband and wife Gary and Pippa. They are both very friendly and welcoming, and are full of suggestions of what to see and where to eat. If you don’t want to stay in a cottage, beautiful 3 bedroom lakeside chalets are also available.
While we were there, we had the opportunity to do a cooking class with Gary. I was looking forward to it, and expected that we would maybe make homemade burgers, or a steak, or maybe some fish. In reality? We were blown away.
It turns out that Gary is a chef. He used to own a cooking school before he became the owner of this resort. Chef Gary is extremely talented and cooks with local and foraged ingredients. He grows his own vegetables and even makes his own cheese. The meal that we were creating? Bacon Wrapped Chicken Supreme stuffed with homemade cheese, Wild Leek Risotto, Focaccia, crepes filled apples with Chapman’s ice cream. In other words, amazing.
Gary started off the class teaching us some basic knife skills. We prepped the fresh wild leeks that he had foraged for in the woods for our risotto, while the foccacia dough rose. We used local chicken for our stuffed chicken and wrapped it in bacon. Fresh asparagus was steamed as a side.
This was my first time making risotto, and it was an act of love. We learned to never take our eyes off of the risotto as it cooked. Under Gary’s supervision, it came out perfectly! For dessert, we peeled and diced apples, and Gary taught us how to use a crepe pan. It was very fun, and we couldn’t wait to eat our creations.
At the end of our meal, Gary told us to head to our cottage. He would meet us there to serve us our meal and finish off the salad. When he arrived, he grilled us a fresh peice of local trout for our started salad, and gave us grilling tips. He then set our table with white linens and served us dinner so that we were able to enjoy our meal while looking at the lake. It was pretty magical. And the food? Everything was perfectly seasoned. The risotto was creamy and flavourful, the chicken was juicy and crisp. Perfection.
Overall, we had such a great stay that my family is still talking about it, a week later. I highly recommend this spot as a weekend getaway to unwind!
Cedars of Lake Eugenia is at 134 Cedars Resort Lane, Flesherton, ON
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