Bayfield, WI and Madeline Island

Bayfield is a city in Bayfield County Wisconsin. The town was named after Henry Bayfield a British Royal Topographic Engineer who explored the region in 1822-23. Today is a tourist and resort destination. There are many restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts establishments, specialty shops, and marine services. It is the home of Wisconsin's national treasures including the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and the famous Ice Caves.

I was quite taken with the gorgeous scenery, the vibrancy of the town and flowers everywhere. 

It all began with an early morning sunrise noticing a lovely wildflower garden out my window. 

Sweet Pea

Lupine

 The charming town of Bayfield has something for all.

Flowers everywhere.

You can shop till you drop!

Enjoy some waterfront views 

with the unexpected! 

And catch a ferry to Madeline Island.

Madeline Island– the largest of the Apostle Islands – is just across the bay. 

The Island is named after Madeleine Cadotte, daughter of Chief White Crane and wife of fur trader Michael Cadotte. The Ojibwe (Chippewa) and other native peoples made their home here for hundreds of years before European contact. Etienne Brule, a French explorer, visited Madeline Island about the same time as the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. About 1660, two explorer/fur traders, Groseilliers and Radisson, made their way to Chequamegon Bay. Five years later, Jesuit Father Claude Allouez and Father Jacques Marquette arrived. A mission was soon established at LaPointe, on Madeline Island. For the next 150 years it was an important outpost for French, British and American fur traders.

Top 10 reasons to visit Madeline Island 

• Wisconsin’s hidden gem in the 22 Apostle islands
• Miles of sandy beaches, hiking and biking
• Camping on the shores of Lake Superior
• Exploring the area by kayak, canoe, sailboat or fishing boat
• Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed golf course
• Voted one of the coolest small towns in the US
• Unique local shopping 
• Fine dining
• Local history
• Artisan community  

More of the unexpected-a car embellished with jewels galore. 

And last but not least a stop back on the mainland to Wild Rice Restaurant for one of their signature dishes Wild Rice Soup.

 We asked for the recipe and it came in a sealed envelope from the chef. The soup is that GOOD- there must be lots of requests. 

Next posting: Wild Rice Soup. The recipe will be posted including their two secret ingredients that sets this soup apart from others.

Wisconsin Road trip

on a solo road trip 207 miles to meet up with some friends in the Bayfield, WI area. 

Despite multiple wrong turns, (its Mapquest's fault), road construction and long stretches of single lanes I did manage to reach my first destination Washburn still intact with time to spare before meeting my friends.
Part One Washburn
Washburn is in northern Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay.
Initially, the city's economy was based on lumbering, with sawmills lining the busy waterfront. In 1905, the DuPont company opened an explosives plant just outside town, providing an important source of employment as timber resources were growing scarce. The closing of the DuPont plant in 1971 was a severe blow to the local economy.
Currently, the city's economy focuses on the tourist industry as it is 15 minutes away from the town of Bayfield and close to the Apostle Islands. 

It is  the home of Houghton Falls Nature Preserve, the Chequamegon National Forest and Bayview Park.

Houghton Falls was not running (no water) but the serenity of the wooded trails leading  to the scenic lake views more than made up for not seeing the falls. 

So I stood for awhile watching these brave young people enjoying several jumps off the cliff into the water. What I really wanted to do was not JUMP but get closer for a photo. So these very kind people reached up for my camera to help me as I CAREFULLY made my way down the rocks. What some people will do for a picture!! Huh?  

But it was so well worth it. The views were amazing.

Next Posting Part Two: Bayfield and Madeline Island 

Belated Birthday Wishes and Puff Pastry Ham and Cheese Squares

Catch a Little Rhyme
by Eve Merriam

Once upon a time
I caught a little rhyme

I set it on the floor
but it ran right out the door

I chased it on my bicycle
but it melted to an icicle

I scooped it up in my hat
but it turned into a cat

I caught it by the tail
but it stretched into a whale

I followed it in a boat
but it changed into a goat

When I fed it tin and paper
it became a tall skyscraper

Then it grew into a kite
and flew far out of sight ...

Eve Merriam, “Catch a Little Rhyme” from Catch a Little Rhyme (New York: Atheneum, 1966). Copyright © 1966, 1994 by Eve Merriam. Reprinted with the permission of Marian Reiner.

July 19, 1916- 1992 Eve Merriam was a poet, playwright, director and lecturer.
Puff Pastry Ham and Cheese Squares

Cook's notes: This versatile Puff Pastry recipe can be served as dinner, side or as an appetizer. 

Ingredients:

• 2 Puff Pastry sheets, thawed but cold
• 3/4 lb. deli ham, diced
• 1-1/2 cups, grated Cheddar Cheese, Gruyere or Swiss 
• 1 egg and 1 TB.water (egg wash) 
• 1-1/2 TB. sesame seed
• sprinkle of Garlic Bread Sprinkle

Mustard Dip

• 1 TB. honey
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or 1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
• 3 TB. Stone Ground Mustard

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a large piece of parchment paper unroll one sheet of puff pastry. Lightly roll the pastry sheet and place on a rimmed cookie sheet. 
• Mix mustard dip ingredients and use a pastry brush to cover the puff pastry with mustard dip.  
• Spread diced ham and grated cheese over puff pastry sheet. Leave 3/4-1 inch of space between the filling and the pastry edge along the entire perimeter.  

• Mix the egg and water together with a fork to create the egg wash. Brush the inside pastry edges with egg wash. 
• Place the second puff pastry on a parchment sheet. Roll gently. Flip pastry sheet over on top of ham and cheese mixture. Use a fork and crimp edges all around to seal with a fork. 

• Egg wash the entire puff pastry and sprinkle with spice Garlic Bread Sprinkle and sesame seeds. Use a sharp knife cut a large t and bake 18-20 minutes.  

• Use a serrated knife to cut Puff Pastry into squares. 

Black Forest Ice Cream Pie

Celebrate National Ice Cream Day July 19th 

with

Black Forest Ice Cream Pie

Cook's Notes:This ice cream pie is quite versatile. Some options include: a graham cracker or cookie crust, vanilla or cherry chunk ice cream, using reduced fat, low fat or sugar free products and canned cherry pie filling or a homemade cherry sauce. The recipe comes from Midwest Living and I have included my adaptations. 

Ingredients:

• 1 package of regular Oreo cookies ( you will need 2 rows  24 cookies, finely crushed crumbs ) and 3 TB melted butter or 2 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs with 1/3 cup melted butter, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 2 TB. sugar
• 1 pint vanilla or cherry chunk ice cream
• 1 oz. softened cream cheese
• 6 oz. Cool Whip thawed or 1-1/2 cups heavy cream whipped
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1-21.oz. can cherry pie filing, chilled or make a homemade cherry sauce (recipe below)
• hot fudge ice cream topping or chocolate flavored syrup

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Use a food processor to make graham cracker or cookie crumb crust, add melted butter and mix well. Pat the crumb mixture in a glass pie pan. Bake 8 minutes. Cool and set aside. 
• Soften ice cream and spoon over cooled crust. Freeze covered 3 hours or until firm.
• In a mixing bowl beat confectioners sugar, cream cheese and Cool Whip or heavy cream whipped.
• Spread evenly over ice cream and return to freezer. Freeze overnight covered with foil. 
• To serve spoon cherry pie filling over pie slice and drizzle with fudge topping.

Homemade Cherry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 can Dark Sweet Cherries, pitted
• 2 TB. cornstarch
• 2 TB. cherry preserves
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract or 1 TB. cherry brandy
• reserved cherry juice

Directions:

• Drain cherries set aside. In a saucepan add reserved cherry juice, cornstarch, cherry preserves and extract.  Whisk to blend well. 
• Cook on low heat until mixture starts to thicken. Add drained cherries to the saucepan and cook 2 minutes more. Add tablespoon cherry brandy, mix and cool. Refrigerate sauce in a covered container until serving.

Bon Appetit! 

National Ice-Cream Day Sunday July 19th

"Ice Cream" or "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream" is a popular song, first published in 1927 with words & music by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert King. After initial success as a late 1920's novelty song, the tune became a traditional jazz standard, while the lyrics refrain "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream" has remained a part of popular culture even without the rest of the song.
National Ice Cream Day July 190, 2015: Free Ice Cream and Deals


There’s no doubt about it—we Americans love our ice cream. We eat, on average, about 48 pints of ice cream each year (almost a pint a week), and at any given time, 87 percent of us have ice cream in the freezer, according to IceCream.com. California, by the way, produces the most ice cream of any state in this great nation—about 131 million gallons each year, so says the California Milk Advisory Board.
As far as who eats ice cream and where, women are more likely than men to eat ice cream in bed. And one in five of us shares our ice cream treats with our pets.

Ice cream lovers are sure to be super excited for this weekend—it’s National Ice Cream Day on Sunday, July 19 (or should we say Sundae). In fact, July is technically National Ice Cream Month. 

The following are six ice cream freebies and deals to enjoy-—and, in one instance, your four-legged, furry friends will be able to indulge, too. Information supplied from parade.com
1. Carvel
Carvel is celebrating National Ice Cream Day by treating guests to a buy one, get one (or BOGO) free offer on any size, any flavor soft-serve cones all day long on Sunday. All you need to do is show up at your local participating Carvel shop.
2. Friendly’s
Friendly’s locations have two reasons to celebrate this week–National Ice Cream Day and the chain’s 80th birthday! Kicking off the celebration a day early, you can visit a participating Friendly’s on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19, after 11 a.m. each day, for a BOGO ice cream deal. You’ll get a single scoop, in a cone or dish, for just $1.99, and then the second single-scoop cone or dish is free! Only Friendly’s locations in the following states will be participating: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and South Carolina.
3. Baskin-Robbins
Throughout the month of July, Baskin-Robbins’ guests can upgrade their double scoop of ice cream with a free freshly baked waffle cone. Also,Baskin-Robbins is having its own ice cream holiday on Friday, July 31, offering 31 percent off of all ice cream sundaes at participating Baskin-Robbins locations nationwide.
4. PetSmart
This freebie has gone to the dogs! This Sunday at PetsHotel locations nationwide, dogs will receive a four-ounce, complimentary serving of dog-safe ice cream, if you visit between noon and 4 p.m. This frozen treat, called Treat Time, is traditionally offered as an add-on service to sweeten a pet’s stay at the PetSmart PetsHotel, whether there for an overnight or just for a few hours of Doggie Day Camp. Check out the PetSmart website to find a participating PetSmart PetsHotel near you.
5. Your Pie
Despite its name referring to pie, Your Pie serves gelato and will be giving it away on National Ice Cream Day. (FYI, gelato is the Italian word for frozen, and gelato is often smoother and lighter than traditional American ice cream.) You’ll find Your Pie locations in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia.
6. Albertson’s Safeway Supermarkets
This deal lets you save $1 with ice cream on sale. That is, Albertson’s Safeway grocery stores are selling Open Nature ice cream pints for $2.99, which is $1 off the usual $3.99 price, on Sunday, July 19 only. Albertson’s says Open Nature ice creams are made with all-natural ingredients. There are 23 different flavors. This deal will be available at Safeway, Jewel-Osco, Acme, and Shaw’s, along with Albertson’s locations.

A Note from Ben and Jerry's Flavor Graveyard

Ice cream flavors, like everything else, have a beginning and an end. While some of our flavors have proven to live long and happy lives, others were cut down before their time (or in some cases just in time). Here we pay tribute to our dearly de-pinted.

Follow the link to see the retired flavors

http://www.benjerry.com/flavors/flavor-graveyard

and here is  photo courtesy of a friend of mine who visited Flavor Graveyard in Waterbury, VT

Next blog posting: Black Forest Freezer Pie a decadent dessert made with a chocolate cookie crust, ice cream, whip cream, a cherry sauce and drizzle of chocolate.

Weekend Round-Up

Some of the Week's Best

Asian Salmon in Foil

8 Foil Packet Recipes
http://damndelicious.net/2015/07/15/8-quick-and-easy-foil-recipes/

Chocolate Cake with Whipped Mocha Ganache Frosting

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/chocolate-cake-with-whipped-mocha-ganache-frosting/

Kung Pao Chicken Salad with Sichuan Dressing

http://www.closetcooking.com/2015/07/kung-pao-chicken-salad-with-sichuan.html


"Stir" is an exquisite memoir about how food connects us to ourselves, our lives, and each other. At 28, Jessica Fechtor was happily immersed in graduate school and her young marriage, and thinking about starting a family. Then one day, she went for a run and an aneurysm burst in her brain. She nearly died. She lost her sense of smell, the sight in her left eye, and was forced to the sidelines of the life she loved.

Jessica's journey to recovery began in the kitchen as soon as she was able to stand at the stovetop and stir. There, she drew strength from the restorative power of cooking and baking. Written with intelligence, humor, and warmth, "Stir" is a heartfelt examination of what it means to nourish and be nourished.

While recovering Jess reminisces on what food means to her, from the comfort foods of her childhood, to the other recipes that have important memories tied to them. She eloquently captures the smells and feels of memorable meals and tastes. Food helped Jessica recover. 27 simple recipes are woven through out the story perhaps inspiring you to head to the kitchen and try. The book is a testament to how the body will heal on it's own and how our thinking affects our outcome. I found the storyline quite intriguing and the book is well written.

Friday Sock Fairy Adventures Stop # 3 Sock Mart

Friday July 17 Sock Fairy Adventures in Sockland Chapter 5 Stop #3 Sock Mart

Reader ages 6-9 Story synopsis so far…
Will is searching through the clothes in the dryer for his lost soccer sock. He really wants to find the mate as his soccer socks are a lucky pair. He once scored a winning goal wearing them. As Will leans into the dryer he suddenly is sucked in and tossed about. When Will stops spinning he tumbles out into a new place called Sockland. 
This new magical place has mismatched socks everywhere hanging on tree branches. Three fairies fly by Will. He knows they are fairies from seeing pictures in his storybooks. He runs excitedly down the road hoping to catch up to them but trips and falls over a large rock on the road. His leg hurts but he manages to catch up just as the fairies disappear through the door into the Sock Bank. 
Unexpectedly Will’s size changes to very small when he rubs fairy dust over his hands. He is able to make it inside the Sock Bank behind a fairy just as the door closes. Will watches sock fairies unload their bags of mismatched socks in the bank hoping to find mates for their socks getting a gold coin in return. When Will spies his missing sock he grabs it but is caught by the sock security guards. When the guards lose their grip on Will a sock fairy named Melinda is able to rescue him. They fly out the opened Sock Bank door around the corner and out of sight. 
Will and Melinda spy a poster advertising a sock hop at the Avalon Theater. All Will needs to do is wear his lucky socks, bring his dancing partner Melinda to the Avalon and dance till dawn to win the bag of coins. Lucky for Will wearing his matched pair of socks he and Melinda are able to win the sock hop contest. But unlucky for Will the sock security police spy him in the crowd. Melinda uses her magic powers and they fly out the door away from the theater. Melinda gives Will the bag of coins and tells him to get on the Sockland Express but be sure to get off at stop #3. The driver, Rocky Socky, is a sock monkey who wants Will to pay for the ride on the Sockland Express. 

Vocabulary Words
Sock Mart-a store where you can buy socks
Advertisements-drawing attention to something you might want to buy
Billboard-a large outdoor board for displaying advertisements
Mid-Season Clearance-a time in the year when stores reduce the price of items they want to sell faster 
Shrieked-to call out excitedly

Chapter 5 Stop #3 Sock Mart

"How about a gold coin?" said Will to the driver.

"That will do. Now take a seat and hold on tight." Rocky Socky smiled at Will.

Will was excited. The Sockland Express seemed like no ordinary bus that he had been on. The outside of the bus was colorfully painted from top to bottom with advertisements for all sorts of sock items available in Sockland. Actually it made Will’s head spin thinking about all the things like leg warmers, arm warmers, purses, sweaters, toys and many more things.

The Sockland Express started out slow down the road and suddenly began to pick up speed. The wheels went under bus just as wings came out from each side of the bus. Will couldn't believe this was happening. He watched Sockland below get smaller and smaller as the bus sailed over the roofs and treetops. The sky seemed to change colors from blues to pinks to oranges. Wispy clouds floating by reminded him of candy floss.

Will sunk into his seat hoping no sock security police would be coming on the bus at the next stop #3. He remembered Melinda told him to get off at that stop. Suddenly a loud beeping alarm went off. “Emergency, emergency… landing, landing,” yelled Rocky Socky. the bus driver. 

Will felt a whoosh of air and a scream that almost came out of his mouth just as the bus hit the ground with a HUGE THUD! Amazing the bus landed upright and only a few passengers had rolled into the aisles. Everyone began to talk at once. Rocky Socky ran down the aisle checking on his passengers. “Look out the window!” shrieked a fairy who was sitting in front of Will. And then she fainted right in her seat. 
Everyone scrambled across the seats to get a better look out the window. The passengers all seemed to gasp at the very same time. 
SOCKLAND MID-SEASON CLEARANCE was clearly written across the billboard in red letters. TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE 

”What a deal!” whispered the passengers excitedly. 
“Sorry to give you all a scare stopping so suddenly," exclaimed Rocky Socky. My friend Moxie just radioed me about this sale sign that just went up this morning. She was sure we’d want to make a long stop at #3. 
Will began to imagine all sorts of possibilities purchasing mismatched socks. He was sure these socks would increase his chances of finding a matched pair at the sock bank. In return he’d be lucky to get more gold coins. The passengers got up quickly pushing their way down the aisle to get off the bus. Will felt weird stepping off the bus with his new small size. But none of the sock fairies even paid any attention to him. 

A line was already forming in front of the Sock Mart. Will felt excitement in the air as everyone waited for the doors to open.  At 10:00 SHARP a buzzer went off, the doors opened and the crowd pushed forward.

Rocky Socky waits for his passengers to shop. Suddenly screams were heard.

Chapter 6 Big Trouble at the Sock Mart Friday Sock Fairy Adventures  July 24th
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