Madison House Chef

Bento # 1 (Shades of Orange)

This year for MELG's (my 7 year old daughter) school lunches I wanted to try something different.  While surfing the internet for lunch ideas I came across a marvelous website called Just Bento. Little did I know, but soon I was to discover, that this site is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are dozens of quality websites with Bento ideas, plus hundreds of photos via Flikr.

School ideas and lists of kid friendly options are widely available and are a big help to deciding what to put in the bento for variety, good taste, balanced nutrition and a beautiful presentation. 

Pulled Pork

Pork -- the other white meat.  Pulled Pork -- the most versatile way to use it.  More than anything, we call it delicious and enjoy shredded pork every way from sandwiches to plated with kraut.  Having been hungry for good, slow cooked pork and eager to have some put back in the freezer for some of our upcoming busy days/nights we decided to do a 9lb picnic shoulder (that and our pan won't hold a larger piece...LOL).  Here are photos of the process of start to finished, minus the ones of us duping around all day, and by hour 6 standing at the oven taking in the amazing aroma.  

Smoked Whitefish / A New York Times Article

How exciting to pick up a copy of the NYTimes while getting coffee last week and finding an article about the whitefish that we had thoroughly enjoyed in the UP of Michigan.  A couple of places mentioned, including the one way up in the Copper Harbor place are all familiar.  For more information about the UP's flaky, moist, rich whitefish enjoy this article:  
New York Times article about Whitefish in the UP of Michigan.

"Signs for smoked fish abound outside gas stations and stores on U.S. Highway 2, the Upper Peninsula’s main east-west route, making it one of the area’s best-known specialties. Another is the pasty, a hearty Cornish pie filled with meat, rutabaga and gravy."

I chuckled when I read these true words about gas station and fish signs...and yes, we still have a couple of pasties in the freezer.  The article also mentions a place across from the copper mine.  This is the very spot, a little white building with a screen door entrance on the side that slams as you walk through, that we bought our first whitefish to cook on our own.  We used Jiffy corn bread mix as our coating and fried it in an electric frying pan atop a picnic table at the state park.  Lo these many years later, long before our children were born, I can still taste the sweetness of the fish. 

Wistfully I think to myself,  "It's time again (yes, already) to return to the UP for more fish. If only I had 3 more weeks of vacation.  And the first thing I'd do would be to go to our favorite whitefish spot that we pass on the way to Point Iriquois, a restaurant that also sells pieces of smoked fish to go."  Mmmm 

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Sugar Topped Blueberry Muffins

 

These light, delicious sweet muffins are quick and easy to make for breakfast, for coffee or for anytime!

 

 

 

 

 

Cheesy Roll Ups ... for Kids Who Don't Eat Enchiladas

While Ken and I enjoy Mexican food, our kids aren't wild about it.  For example, when we go to our local favorite Mexican restaurant (on this side of the border) we order carne guisade, chicken with mole' sauce, and eat the freshest salsa verde.  The kids order pancakes.  Sigh.
At home, when we cook Mexican the kids want ... yes, pancakes.  Again, sigh.   

Buffalo Shrimp (Hot and Spicy)

 Buffalo Shrimp and Pineapple Salsa

Ken and I have a real love for buffalo style foods -- buffalo wings for example -- and have still not found a local place that makes a sauce that we both crave.  Therefore, I've continued to refine our homemade buffalo sauce and we've tried it on a variety of foods. Most recently we've put the buffalo sauce on shrimp.  Yum!

 

World Record Cupcake

Now this is a cupcake!

A 1224 pound cupcake "took the cake" and won the Guinness World Record for largest cupcake.  Not surprisingly, this tasty record was achieved in Michigan.  It is reported to contain about 2 million calories.  Delicious.

CLICK HERE to see the cupcake and to read more.

Chicken Enchiladas Fresca

 

One of the exciting things about living in the Rio Grande Valley is learning about new cuisine.  

It's remarkable how many variations there are on enchiladas. It's a very personal taste whose recipe varies from household to household. 

 

 

Pineapple Salsa

You can never go wrong with a fresh pineapple whether you plan to slice and serve, make a tropical fruit salad, bake a pineapple upside down cake, mix tropical drinks, or in this case, dice it nice and small and create salsa. 

Ordinarily when I buy pineapple I buy a whole one and cut it up myself when I get home; I do this especially if I'm not going to use it for a day or two since it keeps better.  But this time I picked up an already peeled and cored one.  

Figs with Goat Cheese and Honey

As I was walking through the produce department while picking up a few items for dinner, a couple boxes of beautiful figs caught my eye. They were perfectly ripe.  

Dessert!  

Now you have to understand that dessert is not a regular occurrence at our table, not because we don't like it ... trust me, my kids would have dessert after every meal, including breakfast if I'd let them ... but because most of the desserts that we yearn for are rich, creamy, high calorie, high fat, decadent plates that delight all the senses.  

Broccoli and Almonds

A vegetable with our pork chops for supper...?  
Broccoli in the refrigerator.  Great.
However...I'm kind of tired of steamed broccoli.  Food confession --- I am tired of any vegetable that's steamed, with or without butter.
What to do?
Ah ha!  Foodblogs.com -- search for a recipe for a new idea or two of how to make that broccoli in the refrigerator.

Enter girlichef blogger in her entry "I'm choppin' broccoli." 

Old Fashioned Grilled Cheese

A Rite of Passage: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

There is a rite of passage in our family of foodies that perhaps goes back generations.  The culinary journey begins when the little one is old enough to kneel on a kitchen stool, reach the counter, and be able to help pour ingredients into the bowl.  From this comes practice not only in cooking, but also counting, measuring, fine motor control, and of course good communication and manners.  But when that same child grows a little taller and has a longer reach, when s/he can stand up tall on the step stool, when an awareness of danger-caution (especially when it comes to hot appliances) is realized, then the next step is the making of Grilled Cheese.

Today, the second member of the Junior MHC members made Grilled Cheese on her own (fully supervised, of course, with plenty reminders of safety).  She made 3 sandwiches and served them as lunch to Mom, Gregory her brother, and herself  (Dad was advising a Graduate student over lunch this afternoon and thus wasn't able to be home for lunch today). 

 

PBS to launch "Winemakers"

In September PBS will be airing the first episode of The Winemakers, a reality game show.  I'm curious to say the least. Some of these shows become instantly repetitive or bawdy and subsequently are not worth watching.  I'm hopeful that PBS's reality show will not be dumbed down like most of the network shows, but will educate as well as entertain.  I remember watching much of Frontier House which was generally good and seemed to stay fairly accurate to its history; more than anything else it was not too cheesy. I'm hopeful that Winemakers will follow in the same path. 

If it's as contrived as some of the other reality tv shows that little resemble reality then we'll just know that PBS is trying to cut in on Prime Time tv.  

ALSO...

Decanter.com tells of a wine documentary spoof called Corked.  We, of course, won't get to see it in any art theatre (I'm momentarily missing D.C.), but it will be interesting to read the reviews.  The trailer though...looks awful!

Stuffed Blue Cheese Burger

 

This burger delights the blue cheese lover with tender beef, the sweetness of pickled red peppers and the full bodied flavor of the blue cheese. The preparation technique allows for a larger portion of blue cheese.

 

 

 

 

Grilled Salmon

My husband sets the standard for grilling fish on the bbq.  The combination of simple seasoning and indirect heat combine to form delicious, moist, fleshy fish that allows the true flavor of the salmon to shine through.

One of the key elements to the consistent successful grilling of salmon is to grill it with the skin still on.  Grilled properly the flesh is removed effortlessly from the skin.

A second helpful tool for great grilled fish is a large oval fish grill basket. 

The Secret Recipe for the most Tender & Delicious Ribs

I've been hungry for ribs and as we've traveled we've been looking for a good ribs place, but to no avail.  I may have to wait until we get home and have Ken make his soon to be famous ribs. 

The key to perfect ribs is time. 

Lifesavers are a Life Saver

When we travel (we've logged over 3000 miles thus far on this trip) my mouth and lips get dry and I need something soothing.  This trip it's been LIFESAVER candies.  The taste began with a single roll purchased at a gas station.  Later, while visiting Gordons in Grand Rapids to pick up spices, potatoes, and parchment paper (all items I have particular favorites for and can't get them in the RGV) we picked up an enormous bag of Lifesavers and all 4 of us have been enjoying them since the first southern-ward miles.  Along the miles we had quite a discussion about the flavors which I've come to realize after a little searching have in fact changed.  The original flavors were lemon, lime and orange with cherry and pineapple added soon after.  I remember getting Lifesavers in my Christmas stocking as a kid and Ken has always had a penchant for the roll of cherry.  

I'm sorry to report that we've not had any meals "to write home about" in the last couple of days.  We're looking for a good BBQ place along the way but thus far no luck.  Perhaps we'll just have to wait until we get home and have some of Ken's amazing ribs! (I'll post the recipe tomorrow and some photos from one of the recent times he made them.)

Lake Superior Whitefish

A view of the Coast Guard lighthouse overlooking Whitefish Point in the U.P. of Michigan (taken from the birding deck behind the museum buildings)

Grilled.  Pan Fried.  Beer Battered and Deep Fried.  Cooked over a campfire.  Shake n bake style using Jiffy Mix and cooked in an electic frying pan while tent camping.  Pate' on crackers. Smoked.  Whitefish's delicate taste and flaky flesh takes to each and every cooking method like a fish to water.  

 

 

A NEW Favorite Breakfast

Over years of travel and culinary collecting, Ken and I have compiled an ongoing list of the 100 Most Memorable Meals.  A new meal had found its way into the Top 10 Breakfast category -- this is the story of that meal.

Since I have had a taste for delicious, crisp, malty waffles since my birthday in June (a food tradition that began several years ago when we were camping in the Soo on my birthday) we decided to have breakfast at the Lockview Restaurant, located directly across from the Soo Locks Visitor Center before heading back downstate.  I, of course, ordered the light and delicious waffle which comes topped with strawberries and whipped cream (Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...) and the kids each had French Toast -- another Lockview hit.  Ken looked over the menu and mulled his decision.  Something new appeared in the "Breakfast Features" box:  Whitefish and eggs.  Move over steak 'n eggs!