Tomato season: roasting bushels

Making a peach pie

Without perfect peaches, you can't make a pie worth the calories.

CAP 144: breakfast and pantry, week 2

I suppose getting the least exciting breakfast station for the first week of live service means that it's now out of the way:  sandwiches, smoothies, quiche, salad & fruit.  However, my team used the opportunity to get to know each other better and bang out some pretty wonderful little bites to accompany the more traditional breakfast items. 

Tomato season: Green zebra

An heirloom variety that has a mouth tingling balance of sweet and tart, the green zebra is ripe when green. It makes a fantastic jam, seen below with an Indian influence -cumin, cayenne, garlic, & ginger.

Diced and boiled with cider vinegar, brown sugar and spices.

Paired perfectly with these fluffy hush puppies!

We wait all year for the Cider mill to open. I'm very happy to announce that it has reopened. But it's a Good thing that the best donuts in town are only available for 10 weeks....

Zegli take Acadia

We hit Acadia national park so hard this week, biking & hiking, that Mama ate as much crab as she wanted.  And what spectacular local Bar Harbor crab it was! It beat the lobster, which I wasn't expecting. It was finely shredded and succulent, and perfect in cakes, curried salad, grilled crab sammies. We have been driving all day, are away from the great ocean and back in the land of the lakes. At least I have Monahan's. Right?!

Here were a few highlights.

First lobster roll of the week at RedBarn in Augusta.

Even the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are special on vacation. Pb layered with fluff, Maine blueberry jam, sliced bananas & cinnamon.

Grilled crab and cheddar on whole grain. Preceded by crab Louis dip at Thurstons in Bass harbor.

Best for last: the Burning tree in Otter Creek. My kind of creative combinations of smart concepts and playful flavors led us back a second time. The above was a crab Napoleon: pappadum layered with spoonfuls of lightly curried crab salad. So wonderful! 

A tomato sandwich

White lotus farms Sesame levain

Empire White truffle mayo (because it came in my last Hatchery box)

Sliced Avocado

Green zebra heirloom tomato

Kale pesto

Red chili oil drizzle

Come over...&  I'll make you one!

Ummm, no!

I don't normally do negative blog posts. It's not my style. But this stuff is terribly atrocious!! DO NOT buy it. It bites your tongue and throat with an awful nail polish poisonous water flavor, with the added benefit of an aspartame aftertaste. 

A complete Waste of money and swallows. I took one sip and poured the rest down the drain, violently. I normally don't fall for the skinny girl rigamarole, but the end cap at Meijer suckered me. Damn! 

Birthday bash

Sometimes I get the urge to cook an extravaganza. I'm always happy when it lines up with someone's birthday- because then I'm honestly grateful that I get the excuse to cook for a couple hours uninterrupted for someone I love. Last night's meal was no exception: 

Maryland crabbies: with spicy mayo and smoked paprika tartar

Fried green tomatoes: with garlic scape ranch 

Olive oil poached gulf shrimp: the texture on these was incredibly sexy

Michigan garden flatbreads (rubbed with kale pesto topped with charred corn salad and homegrown sweet pea sprouts) 

These sprouts gave their life for you Buns!

Passion fruit key lime bars were the sweet course, but it looks like theygot eaten before they were photo-ed.

west side of the mitten

live at Sonic lunch last Thursday

Appleseed Collective

Don't ever drive by this fishery in Ludington, MI thinking it's just a shack. Oh man, will you be sorry. 

You can get it smoked....

or dipped lightly in crumbs & flash fried. 

Then you can take it across the street to Bortell's landing and watch Lake Michigan's clear waters as you enjoy.  Warning: bring your own ketchup. And ask for extra salt!

I scream, you scream!

Jeni's ice cream is mouth slapping good.  Usually ice cream is rich, sweet and satisfies your need for a cool treat, but even your favorite is only mildly flavored. But Jeni's ice cream is different.  It takes real flavors of desserts that are also your favorites and turns them into amazing concoctions of deliciousness.

Check out their website that has picto-stories of certain flavors, and is just generally cool.
Preview Sweet Cream Biscuits & peach jam. 

In Ann Arbor you can buy Jeni's at Plum Market in pints. Otherwise spend a few extra dollars and get a party pack shipped to your house. It's an indulgent luxury but it's worth it!  It's especially sweet because it hails from Columbus, Ohio, the city of my new cool sister-in-law, Emily.

a photo story: making Elderflower cordial

I found some of these on my property, and others off the side of the road nearby.  Is foraging the same as stealing?

add lemon slices and zest of lemon

cover with simple syrup

set overnight & strain.  mix with soda water and a splash of Hendricks gin

Smack in the middle of summer

Farmers market finds:

White lotus heaven:

A goat crottin & baguette

With this for dinner:

Brown butter trout 

On a bed of Brown rice salad 

Of wilted kale and zatar viniagrette

Countdown until school starts: 4 weeks

High summer

Garden bounty: cool and wet defines this summer.  

a new lavender patch for the honeybees

a butternut hiding in the parsley patch

brussels!!

broccoli which gets eaten in its raw state by my little guy

calendula

marigold (for beeswax soap)

look who made it inside!

restaurant gleaning

Save money. Reduce waste. PareUp. 

Everyone loses when food gets thrown away. PareUp is developing a mobile marketplace for surplus or unsold food. Retailers post their quality excess for a discount.  Users enjoy delicious goods and keep them from the trash.

This is a very cool concept!  Check out the website.

NAT GEO explores the future of FOOD

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/ngm-food-anthem

&

http://natgeofood.com

Slow's BBQ hits the spot

The yardbird satisfies! I love Slow's outpost on Cass. Same great food without the two hour wait! 

Raising the bar :: Part one

I'd like to try to (yeah, that's right. I said "try" to. I'm a realist)  start a series called Raising the Bar.  I don't know if you realize it but there is a revolution happening in Ann Arbor.  It's a facet of the artisanal food movement, one where granola bars & other bar cookies are being HANDmade in small batches, right here in Ann Arbor.  As a general grouping, they are wonderful unique and you can totally taste the love added to each batch.

Here's my first recommendation:  At first I only noticed them at Juicy Kitchen, in whose kitchen they're made.  These Solid Gold Bars are now available at Babo Market, and I think I even saw some at Arbor Farms.  

It's definitely not an average granola bar, and it does indeed taste like solid gold.  Check out the limited quality ingredients found in this bar.  But that doesn't mean that they're low on taste!  The little ginger bits are perfectly zingy and the cocoa nibs add the tiniest bit of indulgence. The soft consistency is a welcome change because you can taste that it's due to the freshness of the ingredients not to a preservative. 

I can't find a website dedicated to marketing these, but I did find this facebook page & this link which describes his mission.   Try to grab one if you see them. It's a snack you can feel good about.