A few summers ago, my children introduced me to a camp tradition - Tin Dins. They prepare them at Camp Batawagama in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with a layer of cabbage leaves topped with diced potatoes and onions with a hamburger patty on top. A bit of salt and pepper, then wrap the whole [...]
Category: Ideas
In Praise of Rhubarb
Rhubarb means summer. Summer in the 12 year-old, off-of-school, complete freedom sense. Summer in the sleep-in, wake-to-warm-sunshine, go-play-in-the-field sort of way. When I was 12, we lived on forty acres of prairie grasses and wild flowers, bordered on two sides by a slow flowing river, which would sparkle like gold in the setting sun. We [...]
The Ethnic Epicure
Just outside of Eagle, Wisconsin, is the world's largest museum dedicated to the history of rural life - Old World Wisconsin. Over 50 buildings were identified across the state, disassembled, and re-assembled in one campus. And one part of the fund-raising effort to get this all started back in 1976 was a cookbook - The [...]
The Devil’s Playthings – Smoked Deviled Eggs
Idle hands are the devil's playthings and a bit of idle time led to to this take on Deviled Eggs. The History Channel tells me Deviled Eggs may be as ancient as 1st century Roman culture, where they marinated small song birds and stuffed them into eggs. In this case, my good friend Tom gave [...]
Duck, Duck, Goose – Duck Fat Poutine
So sometimes, it's just for fun. We took the duck rillette we had saved after our smoked duck breakdown and decided to to use the fat to oven-fry Yukon gold potatoes and top with the shredded duck. So that's duck, duck. We just had to come up with the goose to complete the childhood game. [...]
Great Lakes Cuisine 