One of the featured examples of innovation in Frans Johansson book The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation is the work of Marcus Samuelsson at Aquavit. Johansson explains the idea of Associative Barriers, the associations our brains naturally make between certain ideas. Some of these ideas are culturally bound. When we hear [...]
Tag: Bacon
Red Cabbage – Rotkohl-Style
My grandmother on my mother’s side was German, and my great grandmother was really German, Bavarian royalty somewhere in the lineage. I think that may explain why we served the sweet and sour red cabbage dish known as Rotkohl with our Thanksgiving turkey. I have taken up the tradition and modified it a bit over [...]
Mac Attack
My son made this request for his birthday meal - "I want Great Lakes Cuisine worthy Mac & Cheese". Here you go - Mac Attack 6 thick slices bacon ½ cup maple syrup 1 tbl. barbeque seasoning (such as Penzey’s BBQ 3001) 1 lb. cavatappi pasta (corkscrew tubes) or elbow macaroni ¼ cup butter 1 [...]
In Praise of Smørrebrød
Nordic cuisine has ascended in recent years to join the culinary pantheon of fine dining, a welcome broadening of the traditional European references for modern American experimentation. Such a re-emergence of Nordic influences generates an interesting confluence in the Midwest, particularly in Wisconsin and Minnesota, where immigrants settled a few generations ago. They brought with [...]
For the Love of All That is Smoky – Nueske’s Bacon
I am a smoke junkie. I'll take beef brisket, pork roast, chicken, ducks, pheasant...all smoked please. Smoked salt and smoked paprika are favorites in the spice cabinet. Smoked sugar was a fun experiment. So a duck fat washed bourbon cocktail enjoyed at Hinterland in Milwaukee, WI gave me inspiration to try a bacon fat washed [...]
Great Lakes Cuisine 