This is a seriously flavorful dish! Traditionally made with ground lamb, Mary kicked up the flavor on her family’s Shepherd’s Pie recipe yesterday evening by replacing the ground lamb with fresh ground sirloin. The resulting dish was so tender I had difficulty getting it out of the bowl in one piece so I could shoot a […]
Category: Michigan Cuisine
Eat This Blog: Muskrat Dinner at Erie VFW Post 3295
In a nutshell: This dinner, a Muskrat Dinner served at Erie VFW Post 3295 yesterday evening, was far nicer, far tastier, far more satisfying than I had imagined it would be. There was no “gaminess” to the meal I ate, which you can see in the above photo. Mary said she had one bite that tasted […]
Review: Ichabod Pumpkin Ale, New Holland Brewing, Michigan
We love this time of year, when all the seasonal foods come out. In case you hadn’t noticed, fall in Michigan means certain harvests are happening that don’t occur the rest of the year. Pumpkins are out in force right now, with pumpkin farms such as Houpt’s Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze on M-50 west […]
Photo Essay: A Sauerkraut Party for an 80-Year-Old!
What kind of a birthday party do you throw for someone turning 80? Well of course, you give them any kind of party they want. And if it means a hundred-people-or-so making a ton of sauerkraut and then square-dancing, so be it! At the far left in this image is one of mom’s brothers, my […]
Recipe: Linda’s Refrigerator Pickles
Oh, wow … these are sooooo good … and so easy to make! We learned about them this past weekend while staying at the B&B Railroad Depot Bed & Breakfast in Oregon, Ohio. Our hostess, Linda Brinkman, had found out about my dad’s affinity for pickles, and planted a bowl of these sweet little puppies next […]
An Oversized Corn Cob Cooker
Back on June 27th I posted a pic of a camping-grade deep fryer that I’d picked up at Cabela’s in Dundee and made corndogs with for family and friends on June 30th. On July 15th I posted a pic of an industrial-sized pot filled with over a hundred cobs of corn. Combining the two, the deep fryer […]
Recipe: Michigan Corndogs, plus Why Some People Don’t Like Corndogs
I like corndogs. In fact, I absolutely love them. I always have and probably always will. It doesn’t matter if they’re the frozen variety, as I can eat those just as well as the ones that are handmade. But when it comes right down to it, the handmade ones are certainly better. This picture isn’t […]
Baked Apple Macaroni & Cheese
Ok, no fair looking at the title of this post, thinking, “What is he, crazy??” Well … ummm … no, I’m not! In fact, I’m thinking of making a batch of this for this weekend when my kids are over, as they just love it. This modification of a classic recipe for baked macaroni and […]
A Simple Breakfast Skillet
One of the more comforting foods to wake up to, the kind of thing your grandmother from the deep south might have made, or your grandfather made on a lengthy camping trip, is what’s called a breakfast skillet. Traditionally made in a single skillet, which was also traditionally cast iron, these are hearty breakfasts everyone will […]
Mary’s Bean Stew
Mary and I have only known each other less than three years and been married slightly more than two. So of course, we’re both still learning about the foods and dishes each of us grew up with. While my family was mostly German farmers, Mary grew up in the midst of a lot of Polish tradition. […]