Labor Day 2012 in the Northwoods

           A view of the lake (Big Twin Lake) WAY WAY up in the Northwoods!


My In-Laws own a fantastically quaint Northwoods property.  It was once a barn and it was transformed into a nice cabin.  We have some Wave Runners and Snow Mobiles and ATV's and his parents also own a pontoon boat so there is ALWAYS something to do up there.  Its on Summit Lake which is nestled between Antigo and Rhinelander.  Its WAY up there!  If you've been up there with us you can attest to its beauty and guaranteed fun.  Our favorite things to do up there aside from enjoying the lake or trails is to Eat and Drink.

 Stopping at Nueskes in Wittenberg is always a pretty solid must.  You can't have a weekend at the cabin without enjoying some Nueskes bacon.  We also like to frequent the 'local' bars and get some broasted chicken.  I don't know what the deal is with broasted chicken but it is almost non existent until you pass the Oskkosh area heading north.  One thing at a time though!
 Nueskes is an applewood smokehouse.  They serve an assortment of meats prepared in a variety of ways, for example beef jerky, thick cut bacon, homemade sausage links and even racks of ribs or good sized steaks/pork chops.  They also serve an assortment of Wisconsin cheeses and other boutique foods from around the State.  Its all quite fantastic.  We always get a pound or two (or 5) of bacon.  It really is a must stop when traveling up to the Northwoods.  Check out their website for sure!  I think you can order some stuff online.  http://www.nueskes.com/
One thing I forgot!  They have homemade root beer in this barrel in the corner of their store.  Its soo good and they give free samples!!  It's so creamy, just like A&W's.

 

Now for the broasted chicken!  There aren't many RESTAURANTS in the northwoods.  It is mostly bars that serve a good assortment of fried food and a limited assortment of beer.  Its fun, trust me.  This Labor Day we made it known we wanted to have "the best broasted chicken in the northwoods" and were invited to come to a restaurant called The Lighthouse in Gleason, WI.  It was quite a hike from Summit Lake to Gleason especially for some fried food but I sure am glad we made the drive.
Broasted chicken is deep fried in a pressure cooker kinda device.  It leaves the chicken super juicy with a nice crispy crust.  This particular chicken had an amazingly flavored crust and was incredibly juicy.  Definitely the best broasted chiecken I've had in the northwoods. 
They also offered a good assortment of appetizers, sandwiches and dinners.  Of course being in Wisconsin they had a fish fry but Aaron and I both don't like ANY seafood.  They also had a lot of sides....  crinkle cut french fries, french fries with skins on, sweet potato fries, double baked sweet potato or a regular baked potato.  They also offered a Bok Choy salad, coleslaw or a cranberry relish. 
For appetizers we got fried pickles and cheese curds.  I don't like pickles but they were fried pickle spears.  They were lightly breaded and crisp, consensus was that they were homemade.  The cheese curds were just ok, breaded and fried, I like battered ones better.
They had just a few beers on tap, Miller Light and Miller High Life, Bud Light a Wisconsin Amber and also Root Beer.  Super cheap beers! We ordered 3 beers and 1 soda and it cost $2.00, no joke. The food was also pretty cheap.  I think that 5 of us ate and drank for $60.  Not bad!!
We all ordered broasted chicken just in various sizes with mixtures of the sides.  I included 3 of our meals just so you can see the size portions and the different sides.  

Its always an experience in any bar in the northwoods.  We sure love it.

Locally Famous - Saz's

Saz's has been my favorite restaurant for quite some time now.  Its located at 5539 W. State Street in Milwaukee.  It's very well known locally because they are at almost all of our summer festivals including but not limited to (World Famous) Summerfest and other fests at the grounds, State Fair and even some church festivals and small town festivals like Tosa Fest.  Their food is consistently good and the atmosphere is great.  Family friendly/sports bar-y I guess is how I would explain it.  Our biggest complaint with Saz's is the service.  We have our 2 or so favorite servers and if you don't get one of those two you could be in for some seriously questionable service.  We once sat in the bar, ordered our drinks and food at the same time and our food came out before our drinks and before our salads!!  It was horrible.  When we brought this to the attention of the server and asked them to put our food back in the kitchen under a warmer or something so we could eat our salads and enjoy a drink they looked at us like we were CRAZY.  They compensated us by buying us a round of drinks.... not quite appropriate in my opinion considering we're relative regulars, frequenting the restaurant about 1x/month.  But really that's the worse we've had I guess.  The other service is just not as attentive as I appreciate. 
The food though is fantastic.  Homemade sauces for the pulled pork/chicken sandwiches and ribs etc. homemade chips with flavors that change weekly.  The best sour cream and chive fries and the absolute best Mozzarella Sticks in the world (See photo above). Remember, I'm from Wisconsin and I know my cheese! 
I usually eat one of two things, a pulled pork sandwich or the Chicken Parmesan and at this visit I went with the Chicken Parmesan.  Its always super hot and perfectly crispy.  It comes on a bed of penne pasta and is topped with shaved parmesan.  Aaron always orders the same thing, a rack of ribs.  He said the ribs are always consistently cooked well and is never too saucey which he appreciates but sometimes his sides come a little cooler than he likes.  We also always get an order of Mozzarella Sticks which come out fast and hot.  The pulled pork sandwich is fantastic and the best part is, it comes with sour cream and chive fries.  They have a fairly extensive bar.  Aaron enjoys trying new beers when we come here.  At this particular visit he had a beer called Nude Beach which is a Point Beer.  He liked it a lot, even asked for it at another restaurant we went to this last weekend!  I highly recommend Saz's.  I know I said some iffy things about the service but since we come so regularly we expect a lot when we go.  Also, next time we go I will get the names of our favorite servers and if its a little slower maybe you could request them, something we never think to do! Check out their website too!  http://www.sazs.com/

Delicious, Fast and Inexpensive Mexican Food

When Aaron and I are super hungry and want a quick, cheap meal that is DELICIOUS we head to Senor Sol in West Allis on 8129 W. Greenfield Avenue.  From the time you walk in and order, eat and pay only 25 minutes may have passed.  It sounds like that wouldn't necessarily be good, but it IS!  This is another place Aaron and I frequent and don't even need a menu.  The service isn't always very personal but you aren't coming here for the service.  Not to say the service is bad, just that its no Carnevor.  This is my favorite Mexican Restaurant.  I ordered a chicken taco, a ground beef chimichanga and an order of rice.  Of course they bring unlimited chips and salsa to the tables also.  Try this Mexican Restaurant and let me know how it compares to your favorite.
Check out the website:  http://senorsol.com/

Joey Gerard's - Another Bartolotta Experience

We went to the soft opening of Joey Gerard's in Greenfield on 5601 Broad Street.  To the Joey Gerard's Website.  It is the new Bartolotta's restaurant which is supposed to be more affordable and based on the old Supper Clubs that used to be all over Milwaukee.  They really went all out, the decor and the food, even the staff was wearing the traditional butcher type jackets.  It was a lot of fun.  Keep in mind that this was the soft opening, it was also day 1 (of 2) of the soft opening so they certainly have some kinks to work out and they will work them out, I am sure of that.  You walk in the front door directly to the bar which is totally modern.  Comfy seats, corner booths, dark woods and mood lighting.  Once we were greeted by the wonderfully eccentric and friendly hostess she took us straight to our booth in 1 of 3 dining rooms (this place was HUGE).  The carpets were fabulous, brought me back to Las Vegas with the palm leaf design.  I wanted to take a picture but I felt incredibly silly taking pictures of the carpet at a restaurant, especially with the Bartolotta's big shots wandering around.  The dining room we sat in had fabulous lamps and hanging lights and the chairs and booths were very cool.  My husband thought the booths needed to be broken in a little, but for all we know we were the first to sit in a newly upholstered booth.  The table we had was quite wobbly too.  We were in one of those 'U' booths and the table is quite long.  An easy fix I'm sure. We sat down and were given our menus and some comment/suggestion cards to fill out as our night progressed.  One of the members of our party is a vegetarian and was struggling to find any vegetarian options.  The three of us on the other hand are meat lovers and were in heaven at all the options.  We accidentally ended up ordering the same main course, all 3 of us.... whoops!  We got Filets cooked medium.

I got a Baked French Onion Soup for an appetizer and Macaroni and Cheese for my side.  It wasn't my favorite soup, I actually probably won't order it again, I'll definitely go with a salad next time.  I didn't like the crouton and though the flavor had too much sweetness or citrus-y flavor. 

My steak was over cooked, my husband and sister-in-laws steaks were also over cooked.  This information went directly on our comment cards.  Despite it being cooked more medium well to well than medium the meat still had a lot of good flavor.  It had just the right amount of char on it and I got mine with a cracked pepper brandy sauce with was delicious.  Seriously I would have spooned it into my mouth if that wasn't completely inappropriate. The macaroni and cheese side was also amazing.  It was made with traditional elbow noodles, topped with a panko seasoning mix and was perfectly cheesy.  It wasn't too think or too soupy you know, it was perfect!  Believe me, I know cheese.  My brother-in-law, the vegetarian also ordered the macaroni and cheese and he also ordered french fries, both of which were served cold.  He picked at it but said it was too cold to even enjoy.  Amanda, my sister-in-law got a Red Snapper Soup and said it was amazing!

 Aaron ordered french fries with his steak and also said they were cold.  After dinner we ordered french silk pie and shaum torte.  The french silk pie was pretty basic but was comforting.  Good crust and smooth texture.  The shaum torte was also comforting, just like I remembered it.  They garnished both with strawberries and we weren't disappointed with either dessert. To top off our night we ordered two adult ice cream drinks.  I can't remember the names, but if you head there I recommend them!  Ours tasted like tiramisu!   Bartolotta's holds itself to a very high standard and all these bugs, big and small with be fixed before the opening.  All in all we liked it.  I know the fact that they cooked our steaks too far seems like a major problem but they did have amazing flavor and as far as the food that came out too cold that is an easy fix.  The staff was great, very friendly and incredibly excited to open.  The drinks were very fairly priced and the food is more affordable than at other Bartolotta restaurants.  Aaron and I both can't wait to come back with Amanda and Jon.  We plan to sit in the bar next time because the atmosphere there was just so cool and comfortable.

P.S. The drinks were flowing.

Homemade Beef Jerky

Aaron and I have had an ongoing love affair with beef jerky.  It is quite expensive to buy from the store and we had been talking for weeks and weeks about making it ourselves.  Then miraculously early this summer we acquired my moms old dehydrator (which she acquired from her mother, its quite old).  We dehydrated all sorts of fruits and fruit spreads and decided to just go for it with the beef jerky. 

We went to a local butcher and got 3 lbs of eye of round and had the butcher slice it REALLY thin.  The butcher should know how thin when you tell them its for beef jerky.  When we were at the local butcher we also bought a starter "Jerky Making Kit" that contained a few varieties of seasoning and Cure. For our first batch we decided the starter was the way to go.  This beef wasn't cheap and we weren't trying to waste it all trying to make our own Cure or ruining the seasoning etc. 


So the first thing we did when we got home was separate the meat into two sections to make two different flavors.  We made a cracked pepper and garlic batch and a mesquite bbq batch. We mixed the beef in the cure and seasoning mixture along with a little bit of water and let it marinade over night in the refridgerator.  Then, quite simply in the morning we loaded it onto the trays and rotated the trays every hour or so and we'd also flip the beef on the top tray after each rotation. It will take about 4-6 hours depending on the dehydrator and the thickness of the beef.  Also it will depend on how tough or chewy you like it. 










We ended up with some fantastic jerky.  Next time we hope to weight it before and after so we know what we're yielding as far as price per pound of jerky and also I wasn't huge on the flavors and I like the 'original' flavored jerky and want to try a batch without any seasonings.  I know there are methods of doing this without a dehydrator so if you don't have one and try making your own beef jerky let me know how it works.

Chili

I know its summer, but its been an incredibly, unbearably hot summer and when it finally 'cooled' down to a mere 75 degrees I was totally ready for chili.  I particularly like chili because its so versatile.  Add or subtract whatever you'd like, make it your own!  Here is my basic chili recipe for four people, or two people with left overs for tomorrow!

Ingredients:
1 lb. cooked ground beef
1 medium red pepper
1 medium green pepper
1 small to medium onion
15 fl ounces tomato sauce
15 fl ounces water
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 beef bouillon cube
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (I always add more)
2 heaping tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt and pepper
pinch of garlic
diced dried jalapenos to taste




I start by browning the meat in a large, deep pot.  The pot should be big enough to hold all the ingredients.  While the meat is browning I chop up the vegetables, red and green peppers and onions.  I like to chop my veggies large but do what you like.  Once the meat is browned add the veggies, I do it this way so that I don't have to drain the beef and can cook the veggies in the meat fat.  After the veggies get a good start in the fat I add the tomato sauce and water and mix it up.  Then I simply add all the spices at once, stir it, cover it, bring it to a boil and then simmer on low for 2 hours or more.  We like ours spicy so I always add more red pepper and jalapenos.  The longer it simmers the more flavor and spice it gets. 

A few side notes: We cook the noodles separately and store them separately from our chili in the fridge just so they don't get too soggy (and also frying up left over noodles the next day with a little butter, parmesan and pepper is delicious).

Wisconsin State Fair 2012

State Fair in Wisconsin is all about Beer, Cheese and deep frying things, like beer and cheese... I really do love it here!  Aaron and I head to the fair to eat, people watch and eat.  And we are not alone.  They have something called "Crazy Grazin Day" which is awesome.  They will have a large group of vendors pick an item or two to feature on their menu at a reduced price.  It really is a great way to sample the fair food for a little cheaper.  They had everything this year ranging from 4 pieces of chocolate covered licorice for $1.00 to Spaghetti and Meatballs on a stick for $2.75 or even a fresh lemonade for $3.00. 

Unfortunately Aaron and I did not make it on Grazin Day. We did not leave hungry though.  We started off the fair this year the same way we do every year, with cheese curds. They are battered and fried and served hot and fresh.  I don't know if it is white cheddar cheese or if its mozzarella cheese but they are fantastic.




 It was a little warm this day at the fair so with cheese curds in hand we headed to get a root beer and walk the Expo Center.  This year at the fair they decided to rent little motorized scooters to people which was just great for people watching.  While walking the Expo center we hit up our favorite beef jerky stand where we got a stick of mild buffalo jerky and just minutes before Aaron grabbed a GIANT pickle from a similar stand (side note, I HATE pickels). 







After exiting the expo we made our way to the Wisconsin Products Pavilion with a quick stop at the Roasted Corn stand where Aaron enjoyed an amazing ear of corn!! Once in the Products Pavilion we had a baked potato loaded with butter, cheese, sour cream and bacon bits.  After that we needed something sweet so I got an Apple Doughnut and Aaron got an Apple Cider.  The apple doughnuts are very cake-y and rolled in cinnamon sugar.  Reminds me of fall at an apple farm in Wisconsin which makes me sooo excited for the summer to wind down!  It was a nice break from all the fried, cheesy food we ate thus far! With our apple products in hand we headed to the Coliseum to enjoy the Donkey Hitches.  This was a first for the Fair this year and I'm not so sure it will be coming back.  We didn't stay to long and continued the food journey.



We got a pork chop sandwich from the PORK stand which is always amazing.  The pork was so juicy!!  We headed out for dessert after that where I enjoyed a deep fried peanut butter and jelly on a stick which is simply a deed fried uncrustable.  It is something I look forward to every year!  Aaron got his yearly cream puff which is a HUGE fair staple for many.  The cream filling is so wonderful!  The last thing we hit up was the milk stand.  Like 6 or 8 oz of flavored milk for only 25 cents!!!  There was Strawberry, Chocolate, Vanilla, Maple.... maybe Banana idk lots off good stuff!  At least we got our exercise in that day with all the fair walking!!  If you're in town or close to town next year hit up the Wisconsin State Fair 2013 August 1st-11th!