Category: Food & Drink
Get the scoop on Door County food and drink scene, including breweries, restaurants and taverns. From Brussels to Washington Island, we’ve got the latest on what the peninsula’s chefs, bartenders, and artisans are cooking up for you in Door County.
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Cherry Bounce and Fritz the Lawnmower Man
I love a good cherry beer. Always have. Always will. My first successful homebrew experiment was a cherry stout, using as a base one of the recipes in Charlie Papazian’s landmark homebrew book.
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Making Old World Cider in the New World: Island Orchard Cider
Bob Purman was 11 when he made his first bottle-conditioned product, a root beer. “Within three days of bottling, I’d be in bed at night and two floors down in the basement, I could hear the pop and then a geyser hitting the ceiling,” he said.
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JT & the Clouds, Valmy Thresheree and More Weekend Plans
Don’t have enough Door County memories stowed away just yet? We’ll help you make some – check out our top picks for the weekend ahead! Friday, Aug. 14 Valmy Thresheree & Antique Show Step up for some rural country fun on the farm. The Valmy Thresheree is far more fun than the name suggests even for […]
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My Recurring Kitchen Nightmare
The author owned a Sister Bay bar and restaurant for eight years before leaving the industry. The industry refuses to leave him. I woke up in a panicked sweat at 5:41 am.
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Ask Kansas City or Memphis about barbecue tourism. They’ve known for years there is money to be made in smoked meats. Plenty of other places are establishing themselves as ’cue destinations, such as Alabama, where the state Tourism Department declared 2015 the Year of Barbecue, and Washington Island, where Death’s Door BBQ draws competitive BBQ […]
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In the essay “Diplomatic Pay and Clothes,” Mark Twain writes: “A minister was trying to create influential friends for a project which might be worth tens of millions a year to the agriculturists of the Republic; and our Government had furnished ham and lemonade to persuade the opposition with. The minister did not succeed….Any experienced […]
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Tomato Zucchini Bake and More Tomato Recipes
In my opinion, the tomato is the most versatile fresh ingredient in the world. They are delicious when eaten raw like an apple, in salads, roasted, baked, sautéed, marinated, pan fried…they are just so good. And there are so many different kinds: Amelia, Arkansas Traveler, Baby Cakes, Beefmaster, Big Boy, Black Pearl, Box Car Willie, […]
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Anything But Plain: Nielsen-Massey Vanilla
Let’s imagine for a moment that it’s Door County Trivia Night and the Food and Wine Category has been chosen. The question reads: “What do Egg Harbor resident Cam Nielsen, the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez, Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Jefferson and a 12-year-old freed slave have in common?” A turn of the card yields the answer: […]
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Garlic scapes are a once-a-year late spring treat. Scapes are the flower/seed heads that grow out of hardneck garlic varieties, and harvesting them allows the plant to push its energy back to the underground garlic bulb rather than the flower head. They are whimsical and bold in flavor! Sometimes in mid-winter I get garlic scapes […]
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You can thank Odin and recycled mead for all the bad poetry in the world. According to Norse mythology, Odin stole the “mead of poetry” from the giant Suttungr by drinking all three vats of the precious inspirational mead. He then turned into an eagle to fly back to Asgard, home of the gods, pursued […]
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Honey has been written into historical documents in many world cultures as far back as 2100 B.C. It was the very first sweetener incorporated into food and drink. Not only was honey used in consumables it was also highly regarded as a currency in ancient times and used for its medicinal purposes. Honey has been […]
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In Volume VI of Wisconsin Beekeeping, dated February 1929, Sturgeon Bay resident Herman Riechard writes, “I think that beekeeping is very good for the orchard man; as the bees help pollinize the cherry and apple bloom. I had fifteen hives of bees in 1927 and my orchard and those of my near neighbors yielded more […]
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“We raise our own beef cattle and know beef. The steak at CHOP was one of the best we have ever had.” “CHOP never disappoints. Staff is always accommodating and consistently meets our dining needs.
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Her name was Thalia and she tended bar at a local dive in Chicago’s Logan Square. She was a Canadian girl with long black hair, bewitching eyes, and no green card. My husband was a bit besotted with her and honestly, after she made me my first hot toddy, I was too. It was a […]
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Do you remember the holiday movie A Christmas Story? Toward the beginning, there was a family gathering around the dinner table. Randy looked at his plate with grotesque disappointment, “Meatloaf, shmeatloaf, double-beatloaf. I hate meatloaf,” he said. Followed up with Dad saying, “All right, I’ll get that kid to eat. Where’s my screwdriver and my […]
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What exactly is kimchi, other than delicious? Is it considered a condiment, a salad, a side dish? Sour like sauerkraut, yet spiced up with ginger, garlic and hot peppers, kimchi is all of the above. It was developed in Korea centuries ago as a way to preserve vegetables for long periods of time and varied […]
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Door County’s Other Red Fruit – Strawberries
The senses of taste and smell conjure up the most vivid memories, especially when you are talking strawberries. Growing up in Door County, days getting warmer and warmer, building up to summer, I recall hitting the jackpot in my own backyard – stumbling upon a patch of wild strawberries. They were so tiny, nestled in […]
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Mae West said, “Between two evils, I always pick the one I haven’t tried before.” I like to take her advice when it comes to cocktails. Pair them with seasonal hors d’oeuvres, invite over a few friends, and put on some tunes. Here’s to summer in Door County! Beetini My grandfather’s advice: “Don’t drink martinis […]
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Homesteading in Door County with Artist Pamela Murphy
A day in artist Pamela Murphy’s life isn’t just wrapped up in canvas, paint and brushes. Instead, she starts each morning milking her Nigerian Dwarf goats, feeding her chickens, geese, rabbits, ducks and turkeys, then moves on to weeding and watering her vegetable gardens before finding time for the studio. Murphy and her husband John […]
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My earliest childhood memories on Pleasant Ridge include hunting morel mushrooms each spring. When the umbrella leaves of May Apples opened in our woods, my family knew morels wouldn’t be far behind; all the mushrooms needed was the encouragement of a warm rain, and on a good year, we’d fill paper grocery bags with our […]