Baked Squash for a Cool Day in Northern Michigan

The other day when I was buying ingredients for my stuffed portabella mushrooms, I saw some acorn squash that were pleading to be stuffed and consumed. I’ve never cooked acorn squash. Mother did the standard butter & brown sugar thing, but I wanted something more…

• 2 Acorn Squash – halved
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped salted pecans
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 chopped Granny Smith apple
• 1 8 oz. can of pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice
• 3 tbsps pure maple syrup

Mix it all up, put a pat of butter in each half and then add the mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour with the acorn squash covered with foil. Remove foil and bake another 5 to 15 minutes. Eat ‘em up.

My sister and I think that some finely chopped jalapeno pepper might be a great addition to this sweet treat.

John

Petoskey Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Why does it surprise you that I can dream up my own recipes?

I pulled the idea for this recipe out of thin air one day while shopping at Glen’s Marketplace. My sister and her boyfriend were surprised. My dad wanted to know if my mother taught me how to cook. No, in our house if you wanted to survive, you needed to fend for yourself!

First pour a marinate made of 3 parts olive oil, 1 part balsamic and black pepper into the portabella caps and let them sit for a few minutes…

Put the portabellas in a ziploc bag and turn them over a few times to let the marinate get all over them…

Cook a cup of long grain brown rice and steam a couple of cubed sweet potatoes…

Mash the sweet potatoes, mix in about 3/4 of the rice and a cup to a cup and a half of dried cranberries (depends on you)… drizzle in a tablespoon of organic blue agave (or not)… let this mixture cool for about 30 minutes..

Fold in 2 to 3 egg whites to help bind the mixture and put in muffin tin that has a slight spray of olive oil applied.

Pre-heat oven to 375 and bake for 30 – 40 minutes… turn your portabellas over so excess marinate drains out of the caps. Get out your George Foreman grill, or in my case Calphalon and heat that baby up to grill the portabellas. Use a little olive oil spray if necessary.

Loosen the edges of the baked stuffing mixture with a knife around the edges. Turn the muffin tin upside down on a cooking sheet and tap, if necessary to get the sweet potato mixture to release.

Place sweet potato/ric/cranberry mixture on top of portabella mushrooms.

Enjoy or at the very least don’t email me to complain – I made all of this up, but it hasn’t sent anyone to the hospital – yet!

John

This Petoskey Garden is Ready for Bed

Spent the last several days spreading the compost on top of the garden and today went and rented a beast of a rototiller to work the compost into the garden.

It was great to see all the worms in the soil. I know they will appreciate all of the organic matter to chew on next Spring.

What gardener doesn’t love the gloriuos worm?

Oh Wiggly, squiggly, squirming worm,
Most brilliant of creatures under terra-firm,
Builder of tunnels exquisitely round
Creator of dirt so deliciously ground
Engineer-builder without college degree
You eat up your work–
and do it for free. – Author Unknown

John

Downtown Petowkey’s 1st Green Home Renovation

On Saturday, I stopped by 514 Elizabeth Street to attend the first in a series of Green Home Seminars being offered by Northern Michigan Energy. Owners John Plichta & Elias Amash were on hand to showcase Petoskey’s first green home renovation and talk about what and what not to do when upgrading an older home for energy savings.

We spoke with John in an earlier post about this green home in Petoskey and have a couple of videos of him on green building.

Do you know about the 70/60 equation in home energy use? 70% is what a Green Energy Renovation can save on the average monthly heating bill. 60% is what you can save on energy costs with simple behavioral modifications. Air leakage is the number one cause of energy inefficiency in a home.

What’s the quality of the air in your home?

There were a dozen people attending the green home seminar Many questions were asked and one woman was brave enough to take a smell of “the Box” – which contained the contents of part of one of the 135-year 0ld walls when it was opened up for renovation. It was only after they unveiled it, that she saw the dead mouse and spider!

John

From the Garden to the Soup Pot

Are we having a great Fall in Petoskey – or what?

I’ve been working in the garden the last couple of weeks – pulling out the harvest, cleaning it up, spreading this year’s compost for next year’s vegetables. I think I’ll be ready to rototill the compost in by next weekend and put the garden to bed for the winter.

I’ll be putting raised beds in the garden next year – looking forward to that – is it Spring yet? I guess I’ll have to live through a few months of dark and cold before that happens Up North here in Petoskey.

Onions, beets and carrots were the last to leave the garden. I took some over to the Twisted Olive and Julienne Tomatoes. Julienne Tomatoes roasted the beets and made up a bunch of borscht. I had a cup of it today with a Rueben sandwich, both were delicious.

I’m talking to Stuckman’s and David Firman about removing a couple of trees before winter sets in. I want more sun for the garden and the trees are too close to the house and are pushing on the fences.

It was a great year for landscaping and gardening – until next year, sleep well green thumb.

John

Kids in School, Tourists Missing in Petoskey MI

It’s a quiet Monday morning in Petoskey – the sun rising over Lake Street after a good rain last night. Petoskey is settling into it’s fall quiet time as the kids are back in school and the tourists have departed for home. The sunbirds will be here for another couple of months and the

North Central Michigan College‎ students are doing their part for the local economy.

My sister and her boyfriend just returned from a 5-day hike up on Isle Royale. In addition to new pictures of the Hudson, my new nephew, I’ll be receiving lots of pics via email of boot tracks and berries.

Things still remain rather batty at Roast and Toast as the midnight fliers huddle up during the day.

Had a great time at Sage on Saturday night – crab cakes, salad and Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley. My buddy, Steve, once again provided exceptional service.

John

Noggin Room Dancing in Petoskey, MI

Dad, 85 years old, was dancing up a storm at the Noggin Room last night with daughter, Christine, and granddaughter, Kristina, the birthday girl.

Chris Koury played nonstop. As usual, the Noggin Room was packed on Friday night.

John

Northern Michigan Fish & Kids Manning the Cannon

Here’s a picture of the one that got away – oops, looks like he didn’t. You never know what you’re going to run into in Petoskey and Northern Michigan from yard art to whale tales to kids riding the City Park cannon. It’s nice to have a smart phone to snap quick pics of daily delights in life.

John

Kicking Back in Petoskey with the Neighbors

The landscaping project is 95% done, so it was time to stock up on burgers, dogs, wine and beer – and invite the neighbors over.

We had abo9ut 40 people drop by for the “It’s Wine Time” party. Tom had a great idea for keeping the drinks cold – buy a toddlers swimming pool and fill it with ice. Exactly what I did. I picked one up for about $12 at KMart and filled it up with 8 large bags of ice from Glen’s North. Putting the pool on the tailgate of the truck made it convenient for everyone.

Past experience led me to believe that there would be a least one person who wanted to stay until the last beer was popped, but that was not the case. The last to leave were the kids from next door who were playing cards and board games.

Speaking of the kids next door – Kendall (7) and Makayla (9) – they brought over abo9ut 10 tomato plants from their deck which gets too much shade and we found a sunny spot in the garden to transplant them. We should be able to make enough salsa to feed the town for a month or so.

Block parties are a great way to keep connected with the neighbors. We’ll probably do another after Labor Day.

John

Congratulations to Northern Express’ Choices for Best of Petoskey

Northern Michigan’s free weekly publication – Northern Express – published the results for 2011′s Reader’s Choice awards. Not, surprisingly, some of the places and people we have written about made the list.

Our friend and yoga instructor, Tiffany Lenau of Yoga Roots, won best yoga instructor along with a 3-column article in the Northern Express. Way to go Tiffany! Sorry I haven’t been into Yoga Roots for quite a while – too much traveling.

Twisted Olive was chosen for best breakfast and best new restaurant.

Restaurants owned and operated by our friends Mary & Bob Keedy, Patrick Faylor, and John Norman – the Wineguys – are very popular. City Park Grill was chosen as the best family restaurant, best pasta, and they shared top billing for best salad with Roast & Toast. Palette Bistro, the newest Wineguys restaurant in Petoskey was chosen for best appetizers – maybe word about the margherita pizza is getting out. Park City Grill and Roast & Toast were the favored all-around hang out places – that must explain why I spend so much time between them. City Park was also noted as the best place to meet singles – I think this must be for the under 35 crowd on those $2 draft Tuesdays.

Tom & Julie over at Julienne Tomatoes got another 5 vine ripe tomatoes for best lunch spot in Petoskey, MI.

Odawa Casino Resort was chosen for best restaurant staff. I think my friend Steve, a waiter at Sage, had something to do with that.

Symons Wine Cellar was an obvious choice for best wine tasting destination. Where else can you sip and be surrounded by so much fine wine? And, if you want cheese with that wine, it’s only one flight of stairs away!

Jose’s Authentic Mexican was chosen for best authentic Mexican food, the same conclusion I came to in my post on the disappointing dinner four of us had at El Ranchero Restaurant which generated quite a bit of controversy (some of which could not be printed due to foul language).

I’m not sure the people’s choice awards really reflect the best of anything as the choices made are dependent upon people actually taking the time to vote, but then again, raving fans who take the time to vote are a business’ best friends and word of mouth marketing continues to be the most powerful even in Petoskey, MI.

John