Posts Tagged ‘recipes’

Door County Tidbits…

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Last Thursday we got five inches of snow! Oh what a difference a day makes!  By Saturday, the snow was pretty much gone with temps in the 60’s.  Businesses in Egg Harbor are getting ready for the season to begin. The weather was so beautiful, Christine from Christine’s Casuals and Erin from The Patricia Shoppe both had clothing displayed outside this weekend.  Mark and I  spent the weekend at Egg Harbor Lodge in our Stonehearth Suite which was just perfect.  We had friends over for dinner Saturday and Sunday nights and saw two great sunsets.  My new favorite appetizer is… bacon wrapped green beans!  It sounds kind of gross but they are really good.  I think with all the fresh asparagus available lately, I will try the recipe with asparagus next time. I saw this recipe on Fox 11’s Living with Amy. Green Bay Packer player Chad Clifton’s  wife Candy, who is a Southerner made them on the show and they really are good.

Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bundles

2 cans canned green beans drained  (yes, canned green beans!)

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 bottle Catalina Dressing (personally, I had never tried this type of dressing before)

One pound thick cut bacon.  I used Nueske Applewood Smoked Bacon which made these super good, but took about and hour to cook.

Mix the dressing and brown sugar.  Cut the bacon strips in half and bundle about 6 beans with the bacon.  Secure with a toothpick and pour the dressing on top.  Candy cooked hers at 350 for a half hour, with the Nueske bacon I raised the temp to 400 and cooked them for about an hour.  They smell amazing!  Try it… you’ll like it!

Bruce and Gail Hill from the Lull-Abi Inn of Egg Harbor are coming tonight for dinner so I am going to see how they like my new fav.  Speaking of Bruce and Gail, they ate breakfast at the Rusty Tractor just north of Carlsville over the weekend and they loved it.  Lots of food, good prices and a bonus… they now serve on real plates and have  coffee mugs instead of Styrofoam.  We’ll have to check it out.  Darn, I am a huge fan of paper plates.

Nancy Nevins and her husband Jim Logerquist are here from Portland, Oregon.  Nancy’s parents owned the Mariner Resort and Nancy’s mom Pat died last year so they were trying to get things organized.  The Mariner’s cottages, Captains Quarters and houses will be open this summer, but the motel will not.  We have a lot of nice memories hanging out at the Mariner.  Back in the day, on the Fourth of July, Nancy’s dad would make a huge brisket on the grill and at night Nanc and I would shoot bottle rockets off their pier.  We would tool around on the golf cart around the property and hang out with her parent’s friends.  Those were the days!  Nancy gave me some old records from the Village of Egg Harbor when her dad was president of the village.  I am reading them now and then I will pass them on to Egg Harbor’s current president Nancy Fisher who coincidentally is on Egg Harbor’s newly formed Historical Society.  Most of the information is on the dock that Nancy’s dad Gordon Nevins help bring to Egg Harbor.   Nancy Fisher will probably find it interesting as she was  instrumental in Egg Harbor’s  brand new marina that is being built as we speak.

We had a burger at John Henry’s last night and afterward there was an Egg Harbor Men’s Club Meeting.  I decided not to stick around for it so I started walking t0 my friend Bernadette’s house when it started to drizzle.  No problem… Polly and Don Helm and daughter Hanna from Door County Nature Works drove by and gave me a ride.  Thanks Polly and Don!

Well, I had better get something done… we open April 30!

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Posted in Door County Boutiques, Egg Harbor Happenings, Egg Harbor Lodge News, Egg Harbor Restaurants, Egg Harbor Shopping, People of Door County, recipes | No Comments »

Door County Deer Hunt

Friday, November 20th, 2009

The annual Gun/Deer hunt begins tomorrow at the crack of dawn…6:22 a.m. to be exact.  Tonight, I will make Pan Seared Venison Loin with a Shiitake Mushroom and Chardonnay Sauce for my family and any hunters that stop by. My friend Ronnie and I took a wild game cooking class at the Savory Spoon Cooking School (now located in Ellison Bay) and got this recipe from our teacher Chef Bruce Alexander, from the famed Alexander’s restaurant in Fish Creek.  Even if you think you don’t like venison, this recipe will change your mind…

Pan Seared Venison Loin

3-4 pound venison loin

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Dry Rub (you can use any type of rub you have on hand i.e Emeril’s etc.)  Bruce uses his own concoction

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground  black pepper

Clean venison loin of its silver skin.  Brush with olive oil and rub with dry rub, kosher salt and pepper.  Let meat sit, covered in the refrigerator for 3-8 hours is desired…  Preheat heavy saute’ pan (I used my cast iron skillet) until very hot.  Sear all sides of loin until seared well.  Pull the loin from the pan and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.  Place loin back in the pan and roast in a 375 degree oven until medium rare (I know this sounds weird for venison to be done medium rare, but trust me, it’s delish and important for this recipe).

Shiitake Mushroom and Chardonnay Sauce

2 cups shiitake mushrooms stemmed and sliced thin

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 cup chardonnay

1 cup veal or beef demi-glace (it is like the Better than Bouillon… add water to it to make a cup.  The directions are on the package.  If you can’t find it just use 1 tsp. Beef Better than Bouillon and 8 oz. of water and mix together).

1/2 cup heavy cream

Place the meat on a platter and cover with foil, then in the same pan saute’ the mushrooms in the oil over medium high heat until tender.  Add the wine, demi-glace and cream and reduce until nice and creamy.

I usually slice the meat and pour the sauce over as opposed to keeping the loin whole because when people see the meat is medium rare they turn up their noses.  Serves 6-8.  I usually double this.

Have a safe hunting season and if you are a walker, don’t forget your blaze orange.  I cut a blaze orange cap and put it around our dog, Bailey’s neck, just to keep her safe.

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Fall in Door County

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Yes, folks it is here… fall that is.  The weather has been a bit rainy of late but once this passes we’ll be good to go.  We have the Egg Harbor Lodge decorated for Autumn but still have to put our scarecrow display together this week before Egg Harbor’s Pumpkin Patch Festival this weekend.  The colors have started and the trees are really starting to turn.  The weekend is going to be crazy but don’t forget their are vacancies during the week with the “crowd free”  bonus factor.

All this cool weather makes me want to cook and last night I made my famous “big chicken”.  We get theses huge chickens from our friends Patti and Billy Bley who raise them.  They are around 8 lbs. each which is enough to feed even my whole family.  I usually make mashed potatoes and pan gravy out of the drippings but last night I decided on just scattering the potatoes, onions and carrots around the chicken which makes for an easy supper.  Here is the result…

The "Big Chicken" before...

The "Big Chicken" before...

The "Big Chicken" after

This recipe is fool proof… I also make it on a charcoal grill but it takes a lot longer to cook but the smokey taste is worth it.

THE BIG CHICKEN

1 Large whole chicken

1 head of garlic

1 lemon

1 thyme bundle

Salt & Pepper

1 Large Spanish or sweet onion

1 Cup Chicken stock or broth


Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Liberally season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper or any seasoning of your choice… I use Rotisserie Chicken seasoning  that I picked up at Fleet Farm.  Oil the outside the chicken with vegetable oil and/or butter and liberally season the outside as well.

Cut the lemon and garlic in half and stuff the cavity with the 1/2 lemon, the 1/2 garlic, the thyme bundle, and then the other halves of the garlic and lemon.   Tie the legs and tuck the wings.

Cut up small Yukon Gold potatoes in half, cut up the peeled carrots, and slice the onions into rounds and spread all around the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Add about a cup of chicken stock (so the vegetables don’t burn before the chicken gives off its juices) and cook for and hour and a half or so or until a meat thermometer is at 165 degrees.  During cooking, cover with foil when it gets nice and brown and periodically stir the veggies and baste the bird.  Let sit for at least 15 minutes before carving.  If I make mashed potatoes, I will substitute rutabaga for the Yukon Golds and make a pan gravy (there is no equal to roast chicken pan gravy).  Place the vegetables in a serving dish, carve the bird and serve.  This recipe is easy and once you do all the prep work (particularly if you don’t make the mashed potatoes) once it is in the oven you’re done.  Perfect for guests… everyone loves chicken!

Anyway, watch for my video of Downtown Egg Harbor all dressed up for fall this week.  My granddaughter Adi and I are taking a walk this week to film the decorations and fall colors.  We aren’t near peak yet, so there is a lot of time to see the fall colors in Door County.

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Posted in Door County Festivals, Egg Harbor Happenings, Egg Harbor Lodge News, People of Door County, recipes | No Comments »

My five minutes…

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Wow, what a great time.  My girls and I headed down to Green Bay Sunday night trying to beat the latest winter storm before my TV gig on Monday morning.  The roads were horrible but we got to our motel safely.  We woke up early Monday morning and headed to Fox 11 before 7:30 a.m. The people at the TV station were really nice to us and showed us around the studio and gave us the scoop… when the red light is on it means be quiet which is pretty hard for me us.  I got busy right away making my casserole- being careful not to drop anything and make noise.  We met Deb who seems to run the show for Living With Amy- I am not sure what her title is… probably the producer or floor manager… I’m not quite sure.  She was great and really helped me figure out just exactly what I was supposed to be doing.   Then we met Amy who was really down to earth and someone I may actually like to hang with.  She loves to cook and hates to bake… just like me.  The show went off without a hitch and other than me looking twice the size of Amy, I thought I did o.k.

Amy Hanten of Living With Amy

I was bummed that Pete Petoniak was sick yesterday…  I totally wanted to get a picture of he and I on the weather deck.  I was fortunate enough to meet Rachel Manek one of the Good Day Wisconsin anchors… she was kind enough to take a photo with me behind the news desk…

Rachel Manek Fox 11 Good Day anchor

It was really a great experience and Amy invited me to come cook with her again… She also said she would like to take her show on a road trip to Egg Harbor this summer.  I hope she makes it to Egg Harbor to see all the really great restaurants, boutiques, lodging and of course the great views our little village has to offer.

Here is the recipe I made on Monday’s Irish themed show…

Rueben Casserole

1 loaf rye bread cut into cubes

1 16oz. can Sauerkraut

3 cups Swiss cheese, shredded (deli Swiss not the prepackaged)

11/2 c sour cream

3/4 c. thousand island dressing

1 lb. sliced deli corned beef (or leftover corned beef sliced thin)

1/2 c butter plus more for sautéing

caraway seed

Sauté the bread cubes in butter so they crunch up a bit.

Put 1/2 in a greased cake pan

Add a couple teaspoons of caraway to the sauerkraut and layer on top of the bread cubes in the pan.

Mix the sour cream and 1000 island and spoon 1/2 on top of sauerkraut

top with 1/2  of the Swiss cheese

then the corned beef

then the rest of the sour cream mixture and

lastly the remainder of the bread cubes and

the rest of the Swiss cheese

drizzle butter over all

cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

uncover and bake an additional 10 min.

Serve hot

(leftovers-if there are any, are delish)

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