52 for 52 Week 26

Hello! It's a beautiful summer morning here in Northeast Wisconsin.  The sky is blue and the birds are chirping.  It will be 90 degrees again today, but right now it is in the upper 70s. This weeks new food is halibut cheeks.  I must say the pictures are not very pretty since halibut is white and I served the fish with a white sauce. So it's a lot of white on white.  On to the food.

This is what the cheeks look like - yes they are the cheeks of the halibut.  Halibut is huge.  I made sure to pat them dry before I seasoned them with salt and pepper.  I cooked them in a hot skillet with some olive oil for about 2-3 minutes per side.  So a lot like cooking sea scallops, if you have ever done that.  Before I started cooking them I roasted potatoes, and made a mock beurre blanc sauce. Here is the recipe from a few weeks ago. For never having cooked these before they turned out very well.  The kids and I all enjoyed.  My husband, who is not big fish eater, said we shouldn't waste them on him.  He had a chicken breasts. 

I also served some local bock choy, so the plate wasn't entirely white.  

This is the interior of the fish.  It had a stringy texture but in no way was is tough or unappetizing at all. Just very different.  

Dessert was pot de crème with homemade caramel sauce. Yum.

If you see fresh halibut cheeks at your local fishmonger please give them a try.  You won't be disappointed.  

 Stay well and bon appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

My Midwest Life June 30th

Hello!  I hope you are doing well today.  This past week my husband, Chris and I, were able to pop ut to Door County for two nights.  A whole series of events fell into place and we were able to enjoy the family's condo by ourselves.   I thought I would share a few photos of the days.  

Finally it is strawberry season.  We bought out the rest of our favorite farm stands berries when we drove up on Tuesday - yup just 3 left. My husband snuck in a treat for later. 

Out to breakfast at our favorite at the White Gull Inn.  I love their Door County Cherry Stuffed French Toast.  Usually they don't have outdoor dining, just a coffee bar, but with COVID 19 there were some tables outside.  Yeah!

Wednesday morning I went on a stroll by the beach and along a shore road.  Here are just a few pictures from that walk.

Someone's driveway monuments. How fun! 

I love an view of an open body of water and the Bay was beautiful. 

It's also incredibly high right now

Lunch was at our favorite lunch spot, Casey's.  They have great BBQ. I had pulled pork with chips and coleslaw, yum!

That afternoon we found a new farm, Door Karma Farms,  and chatted with one of the owners.  She taught us a lot about mushroom foraging; this will be my new thing to try.  

That evening for dinner we used up the rest of the local asparagus, the last for the season, some trumpet mushrooms, bacon from the farm and few other odds and ends I brought up with us.  We had chocolate eclairs for dessert. (Sorry I was too busy eating and forgot to take a picture.)

I hope you all had a pleasant week and enjoy the holiday weekend!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

52 for 52 Week 25

Hello! I can't believe it is the end of June and the 4th of July is right around the corner.  Yes this week again is a new rosé.  I love rosé in the summer; I'll have a glass before dinner as I cook or with my weekend lunch if the spirit moves me.  There are also some great rosés that can stand up to a meal, and this is one of them.  The tasting note sheet says there is a hint of bell pepper.  When I first tried this wine, which is made from Cabernet Franc, I was sure what the little something extra was - but that is it.  If I like a rosé it is most likely dry and not cloyingly sweet like some can be.  This fits the bill; it is crisp, fruity and dry.  I would say this is a must try if you can find it.  If you can't pick up a new bottle of wine and give something a try.  

Cheers! or Santé!

 And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

My Midwest Life June 23rd

Hello! Welcome to another post of my Midwest life.  I try to capture a variety of photos of what I'm doing throughout the week, food of course and other things.  This project has been fun for me, and I enjoy reading what others do in their daily life. 

I had 5 of 6 burners going for Chicken Parmesan on night.  My grain free daughter had her pasta going with ours. 

Breakfast: green smoothie, sunny side up egg on top of leftover cooked greens, cracked wheat bread topped with natural peanut butter & homemade jelly and of course local berries. 

Our friends sent us a beautiful plant arrangement for the death of my father-in-law

I took some time to sketch.  Iris with charcoal and pencil. 

I love to read outside and reread Picnic in Provence by Elizabeth Bard.  If you need a memoir to escape to someplace lovely this is it. 

We've been eating almost all of our meals outside recently. The bugs aren't bad, and the temperatures have been warm.  

I made toasted coconut cake.  My husband, son and I love this with berries or warmed up jam. 

Updated some of the books I've read and I'm going to read, especially for book club. 

As I've mentioned we have a lot of lettuce. 

Lunch: Grain bowl of leftovers. I included shrimp, lentils, micro greens, tomatoes and olives with a quick homemade vinaigrette. 

Of course I went to the farmers' market, the tomatoes and the fresh caught whitefish are not in the picture.  We ate the whitefish for dinner that night. 

I hope your week was delightful.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

52 for 52 Week 24

Hello! Happy Monday.  I hope this post finds you well and gives you inspiration to try something new in the kitchen.  I realized that I hadn't tried a new recipe in a few weeks so I thought I would give something new a try this last week.  On the subject of trying something new don't be afraid to do it.  It can be anything, a main course, side, dessert, breakfast, a beverage etc.  I find it easy to get stuck in a rut and then cooking is no longer fun.  

This week's new recipe was from Eating Well, grilled cajun jambalaya.  This was easy to prepare and everything could be done on our grill at one time.  (I must say I do own a XL Big Green Egg, and a grill basket is really nice to have for this.)  I served this with brown rice as suggested so that was the only thing I had to do on the stove top, easy clean up for my husband who kindly does the dishes. I liked this, but some of my family members thought it was a bit spicy.  They thought they were getting kielbasa sausage, not andouille.  For ease I just skipped the skewers -they are annoying.  I also just grilled the sausage whole and sliced it later.  I also don't have okra in Northeast Wisconsin at this time or really ever so I skipped that piece.  We have an abundance of lettuce so of course we had a salad on the side.

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Life June 16

Hello! I really enjoyed capturing photos of the previous week so I thought I would continue on with this endeavor this week.  Unfortunately last week my father-in-law passed away so much of the week was consumed with the funeral, yet there were other moments that were beautiful and yet ordinary at the same time.  

Magic, our black lab, likes to start her day near the garden and is always looking for some warm sun.

My parents came up from Chicago for the funeral; I hadn't seen them since Christmas.  For dinner the night they arrived we made homemade pasta and served it with a cream sauce with local asparagus, cherry tomatoes, pancetta, mushrooms and herbs.

I was in charge of the lunch after the funeral.  Of course I made some desserts, lemon bars and bourbon blondies. We also made popcorn as a snack, because it was one of my father-in-law's favorites. 

I had my first non-virtual book club since March! We sat outside.  I loved the way my friend made a pole to hold up twinkle lights.  She put cement in a plastic pot to hold the wood.  Then with the rest of the space put in potting soil and flowers.  It was so cute. 

Breakfast one day: soft boiled egg with sourdough bread topped with peanut butter and homemade raspberry jam, fruit and coffee. 

A family favorite for dinner: breaded chicken breasts, rice and asparagus. I topped my chicken with some local hot-house cherry tomatoes and micro greens.  It was like a little extra salad. 

I also made sourdough bread.  The flour is from a local farm.  I'm grateful to have found this farm; I feel like my bread is really local that way.  I use a combination of Turkey Red, Rye and Bread Flour. 

Saturday was the Green Bay farmers' market.  I remembered to take some pictures this week. The amount of vendors is very reduced, but I'm just there for the produce so I am happy. 

A freighter was in the river next to the market.  I can't remember the last time I've seen this at this market.  Pretty neat.  

My haul! Yummy produce for the week and yes we got the first of the local strawberries.  

I hope your week was wonderful as well.  

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

52 for 52 Week 23

Hello!  It is a glorious day in Northeast Wisconsin as I write this.  I just finished eating my breakfast outside and came in to get a few things done.  One of which is to write a blog post.  Last week's new ingredient/food is a new rosé.  Yes again.  The owner of our local wine shop, David, put together some new rosés for me that I could enjoy as a appératif on my patio, in my sun room or as I cook dinner.  I also enjoy them for a weekend lunch if I don't need to get anything done in the afternoon.

This is a big rosé!  If you are looking for something sweet this is not for you, but yes you still taste fruit.   It is a combination of grenache noir, cinsault and carignan.  This wine stood up well to my lunch, a mezze platter of eggs, radishes, arugula, hummus and olives, and was delightful to sip.  I highly recommend it.  

Santé!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth