Due to a fortuitous turn of events, we found ourselves with an overabundance of beautiful, Wisconsin cheeses. A quick consult of the composed cheese courses Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook provided inspiration as well as past courses created with my good friend, Tom. In sequence of how they were served, here they are: Oven roasted beets [...]
Cooking over the Campfire: Re-creating Tin Dins
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 [...]
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 [...]
Smoked Whitefish Mousse
For nearly 300 years the Ojibwe thrived on the shores of Gitchii Gamig, what we now call Lake Superior. Fishing on the creeks, smaller lakes, and on Lake Superior was a near constant through the seasons, using nets formed of branches in the summers and fishing through the ice in the winter. One of the [...]
Lake Superior Whitefish with Mutiny IPA
We have a nice stock of Capitol Brewery's Mutiny IPA and wanted to pair it with Lake Superior Whitefish fillets. A simple fish fry is a perfect combination and a great touchstone of Great Lakes Cuisine but we were looking for something a bit...well, a bit different. Instead of the traditional coleslaw, we went with [...]
Great Lakes Cuisine 