Inspiration can come from anywhere, including a recent trip to the Vietnamese sandwich shop near by to have a fairly lackluster Special Banh Mi. Banh Mi simply translates as "bread", but has come to mean the sandwich served on a specific type of crispy, French-inspired, demi-baguette. The classic is known as the "special" and comes [...]
Category: Ideas
This little piggie…Kyle’s Whole Roasted Pig
So Kyle says, "We should cook a pig." What are you thinking - like a pork shoulder? "No, a whole pig." How would we get one? "Don't know yet." How would we cook it? Even a small pig wouldn't fit on the gas grill. "We make a roaster." And that is how it started. This [...]
Split Whole Roast Chicken & Stuffing
Necessity is the mother of invention. It also leads to re-visiting the past. We were looking for the best way to use some excess wild rice stuffing which we had prepared for use in stuffing a kabocha squash (bit more on the kabocha here). We used wild rice from Northern Wisconsin, pre-cooked in chicken broth [...]
In Praise of Pumpkins – Soup, Pierogis, and Pancakes
Pumpkins are simply a uniquely identifiable type of winter squash, indigenous to America, and now a globally recognized symbol of autumn. The flavors of winter squash can vary from relatively bland to rich and buttery. They can also take on vegetal qualities similar to summer squashes, such as zucchini. Pureed or roasted, they provide a [...]
The Autumn Ritual – Apple Orchard Trip
A recent piece by James Norton over at HeavyTable on the "Noble Farce" of the modern apple orchard inspired me to comment here on our autumn ritual of visiting the folks at Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon, WI. If you haven't read the blog, articles, and books by Mr. Norton over at HeavyTable, you are [...]
Great Lakes Cuisine 