Crayons

"Crayon." It's a term we locals use for the tourists who cross the ice, sometimes just assuming it's safe because they saw a video on YouTube, in droves once word gets out that the Straits have frozen over.  Often their colorful, branded gear matches their snowmobile - hence the name "Crayon." You can usually spot the locals by our mismatched, non-snowmobile specific gear, and our scratched up helmets. Hauling kids or supplies in a sled behind the machine? Definitely a local. Our snowmobiles are like our cars - we use them on a daily basis to get to and from work, to take kids to school, and haul trash out to the dump. Crayons often have special gear they only use for recreational snowmobiling. 

When I say "droves," I mean it. This was the pool table at the Mustang during lunch today. (We had a half day of school so a fellow teacher and I went out for lunch.)  This was Astor St, looking up the street from the Mustang door,

and this was looking down the street in the other direction. 

I do not mean to insult them! I promise I explained the lovely folks in the first picture why I wanted to photograph them. Tourists are great for business, but they do make getting a table as a local a bit challenging. 

The "Real" World

Michigan's Upper Peninsula isn't really known for its shopping. I'm ok with that - I'd rather be surrounded by beautiful landscapes and the Great Lakes than be close to big box stores. That said, when I am in the neighborhood of these stores, I take advantage of  what's available. Sometimes though, I'm a bit overwhelmed at their sheer size!  I wonder who thought a person might need to pick up vitamins, pajamas, and an entire frozen lamb in a single stop. For the record, the lamb did not come home with us; and we're not going to discuss how much I spent at Costco. Let's just say my sister-in-law is looking forward to her cash back check.

What we can discuss is the cheese isle at Kroger (or "Krogers," as we Michiganders say.) Walmart's cheese selection is abysmal, but Kroger's was amazing! I'm glad I took the time to look at the choices, because their marketing person is hilarious.

Click on the picture to make the text larger; trust me, it's worth your time. The d'Affinois sign made my day; whoever wrote those signs definitely deserves a raise. While I didn't see it quiver, it it did beckon and it was creamy and delicious.

Visiting

I've taught on Mackinac Island for 32 years now. (Dear Lord, how can I be old enough to say that?!) I worked with Karen for about fifteen of those years, until she retired and moved to Florida. Now, every summer she and her family return to Mackinac for a week or two.

Each summer we make a point to meet at the Watercolor Cafe, at least once, for a cup of coffee and a poppie. We spent several hours enjoying the breeze and catching up. It was a lovely way to spend a morning! One of our favorite things about the Watercolor Cafe is it was started by one of our former students. One of the best parts of my job is getting to see former students leading happy, successful lives.

I Wonder...

Just how much sugar does it take to make a pound of Mackinac Island fudge? (There's 500 pounds (about 225 kg) of it in that picture, and they get deliveries twice a week.)

Birthday

A very special somebody had a birthday this week. Nothing fancy, just a low-key evening with family and pie. A pistachio pie, made with this recipe. It wasn't the most amazing desert in the universe, but it was good. I really appreciated that the crust didn't get mushy, even after several days.

So if you see Allen out and about, be sure to wish him a very happy birthday!

Link: https://dancearoundthekitchen.com/pistachio-pie

2024 Christmas Cookies

December kind of snuck up on me this year, so I have been a cookie-making machine lately. This year's varieties include: zimtsterne, zitronenherzen, caramel springerle,  Nurnberger, spritzgeback, Scottish shortbread, ginger, stamped chocolate, Oreo truffles, peanut butter blossoms, and pretzel turtles. 

I just love making Christmas cookies. OK, who am I kidding? I enjoy making Christmas cookies, but I love eating Christmas cookies!

My kids, both home for the holidays, love eating them, too. Hopefully they will read my note so I'll have enough to pack into the cookie tins I give away.

This year I had a custom cookie mold made. The maker did an amazing job - I was a little worried about those tiny spots in the top of the bridge, but the springerle mold worked beautifully with both the springerle and chocolate dough.

Thankful

I am so thankful to have this husband. He singlehandedly planned and cooked Thanksgiving dinner for nine. All I had to do was make desert (cheesecake and pecan pie, if you're wondering.) And yes, his cooking is delicious! 

Unbelievable

We have had the most amazing fall in northern Michigan. The weather has been incredible! Today, Allen and I ate dinner outside, without coats, because it was 67 degrees! Later, while I was scrolling on Facebook, I was reminded that eleven years ago on October 22, Mackinac already had snow. We're supposed to get cooler weather later in the week, but for now we are happily soaking up these warm days.

Yum Yum

 

Store made pizza in January may not be a big deal to you, but to those of us living on Mackinac Island this winter, it's a huge deal! Being able to get hot, fresh, not-made-at-home pizza in January is a real treat! Island Slice has never stayed open in the winter, but I'm guessing they decided to this year due to the numerous building projects going on. We'll see what they decide to do if / when the boats quit running, but until then my daughter and I are going to get pizza once a week just because we can.

The Jury is Still Out

My daughter and I were at BC Pizza in St. Ignace recently, and we had the opportunity to try their dill pickle pizza. I would have never, ever ordered a whole one to try, but since we were enjoying the buffet lunch, I decided to give it a try. And while it definitely wasn't a new favorite, it wasn't awful either. 

Banner Year

After three years of virtually no blueberries, Mother Nature made up for it this summer. We discovered a new picking spot that was just loaded with berries. There were so, so, so many berries! Three of us picked for about two and a half hours and brought home 28 pounds (12.7 kg) of blueberries. (That was the weight after cleaning.) I'm not going to have time this week to make jam, so they all got frozen. We debated going back again to pick more, but our freezer is packed full!

Allen is hoping I can make blueberry cream cheese galette for him, but if you've got any other blueberry recipes you love, send them my way!

Today's the Day

This afternoon was out first read through of the script. I am so excited to be a part of this. Everyone involved is so incredibly talented; I just hope I am worthy of being included.

Deliciousness

Due to a few scheduling constraints, my family and I weren't able to get together for our annual Christmas Cookie Baking Extravaganza. Which, to be honest, was a huge letdown. So much of the fun of that weekend is spending time with a few lovely people I rarely see, and, of course, there are cookies...

Since I couldn't get together with them, I was determined to make cookies myself - so I started early. Of course, I made the family favorites: zimtstern (cinnamon stars), zitronenherzen (lemon hearts), Nurnberger (roll out sugar cookies) spritzgeback (cookies made with a press, Mandlebarge (almond mountains) Scottish shortbread, and springerle (this year with orange essence and dipped in chocolate.)

I also made a few others including Linzer (jam sandwiches), ginger cookies (because we love them), glazed chocolate shortbread cookies (to try out some new cookie stamps), Earl Grey Cookies (because they sounded amazing),  and pretzel turtles (made with Rolo candies.)

Some changes I plan on making for next year:

1. I reduced the amount of cocoa in the chocolate cookies (as per the recipe's instructions) but I will decrease it even more next year. Instead of adding in flour to offset the decrease in cocoa, I will try using powdered sugar instead - at least for half of the flour. I will probably also add in a small amount of baker's ammonia to see how that changes the texture. They also need to bake for a bit more time than given in the recipe..
2.  I will add even more tea to the Earl Grey cookies. (I also glazed them with a glaze made from strong tea and powdered sugar.) Next year we are also going to try making a batch with Constant Comment tea.

In case you are wondering why the names of some of the cookies are capitalized: 

I wasn't sure about capitalizing the names of the German cookies with names derived from cities so I Googled what to do, here is the reason  I chose to capitalize them.

So Many Cookies!

So many cookies to make. So little time. 

Working full time has been getting in the way of my baking -  which is probably a good thing. I mean, how many different kinds of cookies does one family really need? Really. I'm asking for a friend...

It's That Time of Year

This view might not look very special to you - but I love it. At first glance it just looks like a random forest, but if you look a little closer you will see something special - blueberries! 

Sometimes, when the crop is good, you can actually see patches of blue from the car. The picking wasn't that good this year, but I still got to spend the day in my happy place. If you know where (and when) to look, you can find lots of wild blueberries in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. There are "You Pick" farms, but we prefer to pick wild berries on state forest land. It's a perfect day - we're outdoors, spending time as a family, and the berries are free.

The picking wasn't as good as it was back in 2019, but the four of us working together managed to pick six pounds (2.7 kg) on this trip. Not great, but it's still enough for a batch of jam,

and one of these:

Blueberry pie! After I make the jam, I hope I have just enough left for a batch of these. I made them with dried cherries and they were amazing. 

My Favorite Things

One of my favorite things abut summer is fruit salad! So sweet and delicious. I love to get myself a bowl and enjoy it outside in the shade. It's the perfect summer afternoon treat.

Coffee, Scones & Conversation

My good friend, Stephanie, just arrived back on the Island from wintering in California, so we've started getting together, once a week, for coffee. I hosted this week, which was the prefect occasion to use all those things I have in my china cabinet yet rarely use. (I'm trying to be better about that. I'm also trying to note where things came from so I can pass that knowledge on to my kids - if they choose to keep my treasures.)

• The lilac china belonged to my Great Aunt Ruth. Neither of her kids wanted it and I thought it would be perfect for Mackinac Island.
• The Arklow cream and sugar set were purchased by my mom when we visited Ireland in 1985.
• The Dirigold cutlery belonged my Grandmothers. (They both had it and I consolidated it into one.)
• I bought the Dirigold platter for myself. I found it at a thrift shop for a steal and since it matched what I got from my Grandmothers, it made sense to me to nab it.

Stephanie's visit also gave me an excuse to bake. Ever since I made homemade clotted cream, I've wanted to make scones.  They're so easy, I'm not sure why I've never made them. They were so easy I made two different varieties: sweetened cream cheese and dried cherry. Hands down my family preferred the cherry ones (topped with homemade strawberry jam.) Follow this link for the recipe to make your own. You won't regret it, though one batch only makes six scones - that's why I made two.

Birthday Surprise

This year a one of my students' parents sent in a birthday treat for me! So so sweet - and I'm not talking about the cupcakes, though they were absolutely delicious (and gorgeous!) 

Baking Again...

Orange meringue pie this time...

Our neighbors had some friends up to visit, and as is common on Mackinac, those friends brought presents. People realize it's a little more complicated to get things on the island, so when they're coming to visit they usually offer to bring up anything we might need. (When our friends ask, we generally request cases of caffeine-free diet coke, if you're wondering.)

Their friends brought two bags of oranges and our neighbors didn't think they could eat all of them before they spoiled, so they gifted a bag to us. We weren't going to get through our bag before they spoiled either, so I used fresh squeezed orange juice to make the pie.

Not the best picture, but trust me it was delicious! Although if I make it again, I will substitute the lemon juice the recipe calls for with more orange juice.

Bakewell

During quarantine this spring I discovered The Great British Baking Show. It's right up my alley - chock full of delicious sweets and British humor. Of course, I've had to try a few things. This week it was the classic Bakewell Tart, which to be honest, I had never heard of. Though the kids and I do think we ate one in Iceland last summer. (We didn't know what it was really called because when  Google translated the Icelandic into English it came up as "Chum.")

It was delicious! (And not overly complicated - though you do need almond flour.) The crust was very similar to the crust in a treacle tart. Instead of making the raspberry jam the recipe called for, I used blueberry jam I made last summer. This was so good and so easy - I see more of these in our future. I just need to get a bigger tart pan!