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Pumpkin Pasties
Pumpkin Pasties. Nothing more need be said.
While the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was last week, it took us a while to get our little posting up (sorry, Ben, but it was just too hot). Our friends were completely psyched about going to see it at midnight (I had ticket in hand), and we wanted to celebrate the last movie in style, complete with our friend’s Snape shirt. As you can tell, we are complete nerds.
Mike had gotten me Dinah Bucholz’s The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, and I gave our friends the freedom to choose which of her recipes we’d make that night. Thus follows are just a few pictures of our favourites. If they look good to you, I’d recommend getting the book, or finding it at your local library. For those in Marquette, the wonderful Peter White Public Library does have, down in the children’s library (though I think we should also have a copy in the adult’s section, but that’s just me).
Tasty Sugar Mice, with almond extract
Our friends decided on one main dish and two desserts. For the main course we made Cock-a-Leekie (though it was eaten before pictures could be taken). It was a wonderful soup with rice, chicken thigh and leeks. Our desserts were the famous Pumpkin Pasties and Sugar Mice (a variation of Ice Mice). The pasties were perfect, and hinted a pumpkin pie but less creamy. The textures and flavours were lovely. For the sugar mice, we scrapped the vanilla extract and went for a slightly different almond and it achieved rave reveiws.
Once again, I would highly recommend the cookbook!
The actually release was, if you haven’t yet seen it, spectacular. The theater had all eight of it’s rooms open and all were jam-packed. We were amazed, if not pleased, to see so many people our age there at the movies. Then again, most of us have grown up with Harry Potter since we were kids and have eagerly been awaiting the finale.
Delicious baked ziti
It was a Saturday evening and we were driving down Third Street and noticed that Border Grill had a taco truck parked outside Black Rocks Brewery. This was too much of a temptation so we headed on in. We tried a few beers which we always enjoy (especially the previously mentioned Mint Porter) and sat out on their new outdoor area to enjoy them. Then we walked over the taco truck and got some chips and salsa and two chicken tacos; both were wonderful and went perfect with our beer. After we finished eating we played a few games of checkers while finishing up our beers. After this we took a walk down Third to Frosty Treats to enjoy a banana split and an Almond Joy Parfait. Frosty Treats is definitely one of the best parts of summer in Marquette.
A few nights and cooler temperatures later, we ventured back into the kitchen to try out a family friend’s recipe for baked zit.
As it comes out of the oven, hot and bubbly.
It makes a lot, but even the leftovers are delicious:
To make you need:
-1 lb. Italian sausage
- 1 small white onion
- 3 gloves of garlic, minced
- 1 ½ cup sliced mushrooms (or get fresh tops like we did and dice them youselves, so much tastier)
- 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 2 tbs. fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 16 oz. ziti pasta
- 1 10 oz. frozen leaf spinach, thawed
- ¾ cups grated parmesan cheese
- 2 cups diced fresh mozzarella
- salt and pepper to taste
To make:
Preheat the oven to 375 F, and grease a large baking pan. Heat a sauce pan, or frying pan, and cook sausage and sauté the onions together. When browned, add the garlic and diced mushrooms. Saute for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes (with liquid) and simmer until the sauce thickens, around 10 minutes. Add the parsley and salt and pepper. Cook the pasta until al dente and then blend the pasta with ½ of the Parmesan, mozzarella and spinach. Add the sausage, mushrooms, and tomato blend to the pasta mix in the baking pan. Sprinkle the remaining cheese along the top. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling.
You can also substitute Parmesan for asiago if you’d like, and we also added Gorgonzola to the top of ours and it was met with a round of applause by our friends.
Sake and Soy Pork Chops
The smell of meat sizzling on the grill is intoxicating!
Time to hit Presque Isle and do some more grilling, and our recipe this week?
Sake, sriracha, Soy and Ginger marinated Pork Chops!
It was so very easy to make and we apologize in advance for the lack of good pictures, but well, once you’ve started making them you’ll forget about pictures as well.
All you need are:
-2 extra thick pork chops
-½ cup of sake
-½ cup of soy sauce
-A few good squirts of sriracha
-1 Tbs of Ground ginger.
Mix all ingredients together and soak pork chops overnight.
Throw on the grill and cook to desired doneness. We served these with grilled corn on the cob.
Barbeque at the Beach
It was a warm Tuesday July the 5th so that means it was time to BARBEQUE! And the best place, we think, for that is at Presque Isle Park.
We got a hold of some fresh raw shrimp and boneless chicken thighs and decided it was skewer time. First we marinated the shrimp in a lime and garlic marinade and cut up chicken thighs in soy sauce, brown sugar and Thai chili sauce, both overnight. Then we made small skewers and headed out to Presque Isle Park to take advantage of the grills and the beach and the wonderful weather.
Our friend brought her five year old, Hunter, along with the vegetable tray and cupcakes she brought (the son chose them of course. Who else would decide on chocolate cupcakes with candy bars on top…oh right, us). We had a lot of fun at the grill, and as it was so nice out we headed down to the beach to go wading and rock skipping. Of course, Hunter found all sorts of new friends with other kids at the beach. It’s not really a sandy beach, but rather red sandstone that extends far out under the water. It made for a nice wading excursion, and the water didn’t get deep at all. It never went past our thighs and we were quite a ways out. The good thing about the beaches at Presque Isle is they tend to be slightly warmer then other beaches in Marquette, which is quite nice.
Happy Independance Day!
So it was the 4Th of July and we decided to hit the annual Marquette International Food Fest! We headed down to the lower harbor around noon on the last day of the festival: The 4th of July!
We got to festival with an appetite and needed some much sustenance and because it was the 4th we thought we should start with something American. So we went to Stucko’s Pub and Grill tent and tried their fares. We got a ¼ pound all beef Chicago Dog that was topped with tomato, red onion, pickle, hot peppers and seasoning salt. The Chicago dog was great and needed no further condiments, I would have got a second one, but I needed to save room for later. We also tried their BBQ pulled pork sandwich and it was divine. The pork was perfectly seasoned, was so tender, and was messy enough to live up to the best of pork sandwiches. It was just sweet enough, complementing the pork, while savoury enough to satisfy your hunger.
Next was the Thai House! We got a combination of their appetizers: crab ragoons, potstickers and spring rolls. The crab ragoons were great; they were sweet with that slight hint of crab flavor that made them delicious. The potstickers were even better; they were crispy, salty and the sweet and sour sauce made them divine. The spring rolls were fresh and great, especially with the hot mustard.
However our day was not finished yet! Next was the parade. We watched the first part of the parade from the corner of 3rd and Washington which gave us a great view. The parade was your standard parade with your high school cheerleaders, dance squads, 
marching bands and of course lots of candy and as it is Marquette, the President of NMU, Dr. Wong. The day of course was extremely hot and sunny, so about half way through the parade we decided to finish watching it from the window at the Doghouse Pub. We got some of our favorite beers here: Belles Oberon and Leinenkugel ‘s Summer Wheat. Both are great summer beers!
Following the parade we made our way down to the Upfront Company for a bit of dinner. They have a well stocked bar, and their food is both scrumptious and well priced. We settled for a Goose Island 312, and initially a rum and Dr. Pepper (our friends find that combo weird). Our first choice for appetizers was their spinach dip, but they had been so busy they were out by the time we tried to order. Instead we had their hot crab dip. It was succulent, hot and savoury. The crab itself was delicious and oh, so soft and was mixed with artichoke, and two cheeses. It came with a platter of thinly sliced crostini bread.
After the Upfront, we headed towards Marquette’s Lower Harbour again to get ready for the fireworks (always a treat in the city). Two of our friends met us down there, while we enjoyed some of Jilbert’s ice cream (the best in our opinion). Mike was still hungry, so he stopped by the Hunan’s Chinese booth and sampled some of their five-spice chicken bits. We lined up along the harbour’s edge to watch the boat parade and then waited for it to get dark enough for the real show to start. All together this was a great day and to end it off we watched the fireworks in the rain!
Happy 4th, everybody!
Fresh Tomatillo and Pepper Pizza on a Whole Wheat Beer Crust
It started off as a cold rainy day today so we thought we would spice things up, so we came up with this pizza!
Fresh Tomatillo and Pepper Pizza on a Whole Wheat Beer Crust
Toppings
Poblano Peppers
Jalapeño Peppers
Sweet red peppers
Drained and rinsed black beans
Crumbled Goat Cheese
Sauce
5 Tomatillos
3 shallots
5 cloves of garlic
I can of green chilies
I can of El Pato jalapeno salsa
! handful of fresh cilantro
Dice Tomatillos, shallots and garlic. Sautee until well blended together and then add El Pato, green chilies and cilantro.
Crust
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup of beer
1 packet of yeast in warm water.
Mix up into dough adjusting for if it is too dry or wet and then let rest a few minutes. Then roll out on cornmeal on a pizza pan and spread olive oil on dough and bake at 400 degrees for a few minutes to give crust a slight crisp.
Then spread layer of sauce, drained rinsed black beans, sliced poblano, jalapeño and red peppers. Then crumbled goat cheese on top and put back into the oven until cheese starts to brown.
Canoeing and Pubbing
The Au Train River is shallow and murky, but still alluring.
We intended to post our adventures a bit closer to their dates, but this past week or so has been extraordinarily hectic (doesn’t everyone love finals weeks?). At least, now we can finally get it out with the hopes you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.
For starters, now is the season to get out in the woods and go hiking, or in our case, canoeing along the Au Train River for a few hours. It’s a nice, shallow river that meanders through a small portion of the U.P. with a plethora of wildlife to see (herons, fish, deer, you name it). We were lucky enough to see a few herons take off while we paused on the river and it was amazing.
Our friend had wanted to spend her birthday doing something fun, and therefore we found ourselves driving about thirty minutes east of Marquette to the small hamlet of Au Train. There are a lot of canoeing and kayaking businesses here, so take your time to shop around. Our friend had chosen the Northwoods Resort, and they had very reasonable prices (only $25 for a two person canoe). If you are interested, they also have cabins for rent.
Here's Mike cruising on the Au Train River.
The route along the river is just over five miles, meandering out in parts of the Hiawatha forest, and depending on how you’d like can take around 3 hours or so. There are a lot of wildlife in the area. We saw quite a few turtles, two herons, a lot of river clams and snails, and heard a lot more. Deer tracks were all along the riverside, so it can be assumed that you might see one as well. There were stops along the river that made for a quite resting spot, whether just to pull in or to have a picnic. Around 45 minutes into the trip, we came across a rope swing that made it perfect to make a stop and cool down.
A nice, shallow shore on the Au Train.
The day after that, we took a drive down to Petoskey to catch up with a friend of ours. Petoskey is a nice, small town in northerLOWER Michigan (our yooper friends would never forgive us for calling it northern Michigan). The only downside is that it can be too overly run by tourists (just follow all road signals and you should be fine). We walked along the newly remodelled trails along the Bear River. If you have one, you can take a kayak down it, or even go body surfing as we saw a young boy do. The end by the bay is also a great place for fishing.
Our friend took us around and we finally stopped for lunch at Papa Lou’s. It is a nice pizza place with excellent staff and amazing pizzas. They have a list of specialty pizzas, but be warned; if you order a specialty, don’t try and alter it. They will not. Papa Lou’s has a fine selection of beer, and our friend felt bad for asking the waiter to go through it more than once. We partook of a pizza called “The Goodfellas” and it was divine. It had no sauce, however the basil olive oil was perfect for it.
Later that night we headed out towards the Stafford’s Perry Hotel and the pub underneath called The Noggin Room. At the pub, there is a list of 40 beers that you can have. If you complete the list (not in one night of course, that’d be far too much), they give you a glass upon which they will have engraved whatever you wish it to say. One of us got through seven that night, and our friend the same. The other only had a measly four (though being the most sober person that night did have its perks in being able to remember what had happened the night before).
That weekend was probably one of the most enjoyable we’ve had in quite a while. It’s not been often the past month that we’ve been able to let our hair down so to speak and just enjoy life without worrying about what is going on at school.
Glad you could bear with us in the absence of posts the past two weeks.
Temporary hiccup
Hey there, everybody. We wanted to apologize for the time taken between the past updates. School’s been pretty busy but rest assured, we will be updating again by the beginning of next week with some awesome adventures here in the U.P. Keep checking back!
Friday Night Beer and Dinner
So we finally had a Friday night off and took the chance to try a beer at Black Rocks. We got there at about 7:00 pm and it was already filling up with just standing room only. We decided to get their Ryeness beer and the Mint Porter and the prices were great! Both were good and different enough in their own rights, and had we been able to stay longer, we would have been keen to sample some of their brews they planned on bringing later that night.
The Mint Porter was very nice; it was dark, heavy and rich with just the subtlest hint of mint and nice Smokey flavor. Altogether it was a meal in its own. Initially, it was difficult to taste the mint, but once you’ve rolled it around on your tongue the taste evolved. It also had a hoppy quality that I have not seen in many porters.
The Ryeness had a good, solid flavour with a slight hint of bitter at the tail end. In some ways, it reminded us of an IPA. Overall, it was medium ale, not too light or too hearty. In many ways, it wasn’t too different for its kind, just an average beer for a Friday night.
We did notice that a lot of the regulars had their own ceramic mugs hanging in the rafters, or along the wall leading to the second floor. The interior is smaller than what we had anticipated, but offered the closeness and intimacy of a well-loved establishment. Even the outside benches are comfortable and loan themselves to an air of camaraderie. We did notice that they had a contractor’s drawing of an addition that had been approved, so perhaps in the near future there will be even more space for those interested in well-crafted Michigan brews.
We finished our night by stopping over at Vango’s for some dinner. Vango’s is a great affordable casual place and the service is extremely fast. If your in a hurry and short on cash they are great. Overall it was great way to spend a Friday night.
