Party snacks and an "Iron Chef" bachelorette party challenge

Over the long weekend I hosted one of my closest friend's bachelorette party at my cottage in the Lake of Bays community in Muskoka. The clear blue skies and cool lakefront breeze was the perfect summer weather.

During the day, our dockside snacks included spicy black bean dip and fresh, local veggies; salsa and corn chips; and Canadian cheddar cheese and artisanal crackers. We washed it all down with fresh mint Mojitos.

We split into two groups for dinner, and each picked a "secret ingredient" out of a hat, à la Iron Chef. My group's ingredient was nuts, and we hurriedly started the competition. Each team had to make two courses—a main plus a side, and a dessert.

We feasted on all our efforts. The winning team made two dishes of pad Thai—one with chicken, the other with tofu, which we had with the opposing team's awesome mango salad. The winning dessert was gluten- and dairy-free walnut-crusted sweet potato cheesecake—yum!

All our memories were caught with Fuji Film's new, modern Instant Camera as we put together a weekend scrapbook for the bride-to-be. Good friends, good food, and great Canadian outdoors—doesn't get much better than that.