[Door County Fish Boil Recipe Here]
August- This month, I am feeling inspired by summertime traditions. Cookouts,
fishing, family reunions, backpacking trips, campfires, berry picking,
s'mores making, star gazing, baseball games, sunbathing, picnics,
outdoor music festivals, state fairs, beach days, and weekends at the
cabin.
There is so much good food that goes along with all of them!
One of my family's most honored summertime traditions is the Door County Fish Boil.
The history of the fish boil connects back to the early Scandinavian
roots of the upper Great Lakes Region, and involves boiling chunks of
freshly caught whitefish in a giant pot with salt, onions, and potatoes.
The
Fish Boil is more of a show than a meal, and an exciting process to
watch. After all of the ingredients are added and the fire is stoked,
people gather and watch as flames engulf the pot and the boil increases
until eventually the combination of heat and oil from the fish causes
the whole thing to boil over- which is how you know the fish is done.
Then everything is drained and the feast is served with trays of lemon
wedges and pitchers of butter. A delicious marker that summertime has
arrived (or hasn't ended yet!) Interested in trying it? Find the
recipe here.
Call to action this month:
What is your most honored summertime tradition? Make it happen one
more time before the season ends! Better yet, invite some friends over,
make it a Project Cook night, and tell us how it goes. Cheers!
[Lemon Asparagus Pasta Recipe Here]
Inspired by the Minneapolis North Lyndale Farmers Market and Simply in Season: A World Community Cookbook.
June- This month, I am feeling inspired by the North Lyndale Farmers Market.
I like that it's big and overwhelming and even at 7:30am there are
people eating roasted corn on the cob with chili and lime and dancing to
live music. I have gone for the last two Saturdays, with $15 in my
pocket and no plan on how to spend it.
This past weekend, that got me asparagus, baby bok choy, spinach,
rhubarb, a
small box of strawberries, and a small piece of peppered bison jerky.
The bison jerky I ate with bread and cheese and olives (first time
eating bison. delicious.) For the greener ingredients, I consulted my
favorite seasonal recipe book: Simply In Season, Recipes that celebrate fresh, local foods in the spirit of More-with-Less, and made a Lemon Asparagus Pasta
garnished with fresh dill and nutmeg, and a spinach salad with walnuts,
dried cranberries with an apple cider and balsamic vinegrette. The
rhubarb and strawberries I roasted with some green apples I had lying
around in my fridge, and took them to a friend's cookout to serve over
ice cream as dessert.
It
wasn't until later in the week that I got to the baby bok choy-- mostly
because I had no idea what to do with it-- but then I found this YouTube video that teaches how to make garlicky sauteed bok choy to a background of Mission Impossible theme music. Awesome.
Call
to action this month: head to the farmers market nearest to you, spend
$15 on whatever looks most interesting, then figure out what to do with
it when you get home. Better yet, invite some friends over, make it a
Project Cook night, and let us know how it goes. Cheers!
