Fishing in Canada, good friends, good food

Fishing In Canada has always been a thrill for me. I have been going there to the same fly-in resort since 1989 with my good friend Gordy Larsen. This time we brought along my friend Ted Sexton and we spent a week together at Art Latto's Wilderness Cabins on Churchill Lake. He has four of these outposts and I have been to all of them over the years. The fishing is so good that if I described it you probably would not believe me. Let's just say that 200 Walleyes a day is not out of the question! True story! The resort is about 400 miles North of Duluth to the base camp and then a 50 mile flight into Churchill Lake, which is probably about 4 or 5 times the size of Island Lake near Duluth. At any one time there are only about 12 to 14 people on the entire lake and a population of millions of Walleyes!
I was the cook for the week and our menu consisted of fish every other day with some various other dishes on the other days. Here was our menu:
Sunday--Grilled Rib eye Steaks with Home Fries and a Bourbon Mushroom Cream Sauce and Sweet Corn on the cob.
Monday-- Beer Battered Walleye with Deep Browned Potatoes, Caesar Salad and French Style Green Beans
Tuesday--Pecan Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Merlot Cream Sauce, Wild Rice Pilaf with Bacon, Sauteed Onions and Craisins
Wednesday--Walleye Cakes over White Rice Pilaf and Sweet Corn on the cob
Thursday--Burgers with various toppings; Mushroom and Swiss, Caramelized Onions, Tomatoes, etc., Onion Rings and deep fried Pickles (Claussen's).
Friday--Pork Chops with Caramel Apple Sauce over Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and some Green Beans.
That was the dinner menu and the breakfasts were hearty as well. One that I like to make is Stuffed French Toast: English Muffin Bread, two slices, with softened Cream Cheese and Honey mixed together and spread between the slices, then dipped in egg and then dipped in crushed Special K cereal and fried in butter. Slather on some syrup and you've got some good eats!
I also introduced my friends to some good Grits. I make them using Quick Grits, Heavy Cream, Bacon bits, Fried Onions, Salt and Pepper and then cook a Basted Egg and serve it over the top and a few rashers of Thick Sliced Bacon along side for good measure.
All of that and some good Colombian Coffee in the morning is a fine way to start a day of fishing in Canada.
Let the great adventure continue!
Tim

New Restaurant, G.B.Schneider &Co.

The day after I got back from an adventure in Canada, Teresa and I went out for lunch after church and decided to see if the restaurant we had heard about in the old Grandma's location at 46th Ave. West had opened yet. I was excited to see that it was open! We had met Gary Schneider, the chef/owner at the Chef's Club Brunch back in March and he told us he was hoping to be opening a new restaurant by about June 5th. He was close at June 8th.
The decor is very nice and reflects the location in West Duluth very well with some great artwork depicting the landmarks of the area. He has opened the space up better so it doesn't seem small and has a separate dining room from the bar area, which is also nicely decorated.
The best part, however, was the food! I ordered an Italian sausage sandwich with sauteed onions and peppers with some marinara sauce and mozzarella; fantastic! Teresa had a Triple Grilled Cheese sandwich with Tomato Soup; Also fantastic! The sandwich had Asiago, Parmesan and Fontina cheeses and the Tomato Soup was wonderful with just the right spices and a hint of Basil, not too much, and a touch of cream and some tomato chunks as well. As we were looking over the menu it was hard to decide because most everything looked great.
Gary came out of the kitchen and said hello and told us he had opened on a Tuesday and the folowing weekend the place was packed on both Friday night and Saturday. He said that one lady had been back three times in those days. I think that speaks volumes. Honestly, I can't wait to go back. The dinner specials sounded marvelous; his mom's Pot Roast,Chicken Pot Pie, Short Ribs,etc, etc. The signs on the door say welcome to some serious comfort food. It was and we're going back as soon as possible. I wish Gary the best and if you have a chance, get there as soon as you can too!
Enjoy some comfort,
Tim

Cooking demos

It has been far too long since I have posted here and I have to catch up from some past events. A while back(May 22) I did some cooking demonstrations at The Vineyard church in Duluth. My mission there was to cook foods that were available in the food shelf and show people how to make good dishes that were tasty and not too difficult for them using the ingredients available. It turned out o be an excellent time with a good number attending and lots of good questions from the audience relating to their particular situation. We ended up doing one less demo than expected because the people didn't arrive as soon as we expected but that was just fine. We did a couple of breakfast demos with Baking Powder Biscuits and Sausage Gravy and those went over very well. next was the prepping of a whole chicken for roasting and preparing chicken stock from the leftover carcass to be used in soups, gravies and other dishes that require chicken stock. We roasted the chicken and prepared a Rice Pilaf using white rice, bacon and onions and our final demo was Bread Pudding using the Powdered Non-Fat Dry Milk, eggs and sugar as well as a bit of Vanilla and some patience. It was well received. I look forward to doing one of these per month for the Fruit Of The Vine food shelf on Tuesday evenings to highlight some of the food available in the food shelf and a few ways of cooking it.
Go out and serve mankind,
Tim

Cooking demos

Hello friends! It has been a while since I wrote on this page. My last cooking adventure was a series of demonstrations at the Vineyard Church back on May 22. It turned out to be an absolute blast! I had help from some very helpful friends and I thank them for it. We started out a little late because there weren't many people there right away, so we started a little later with breakfast and some biscuits and gravy made with powdered milk. They turned out very well and the gravy, made with the same ingredients turned out just as well. We browned some sausage links and cut them up into the gravy and it was a very good response with several questions from the audience. Next, we did a Roasted Whole Chicken, some stock, and a rice pilaf, using the stock made from the Roasted Chicken and some added accouterments.Our final demo was to make a bread pudding using the powdered milk and eggs and a few strips of real bacon for the remainder of the meal. The response was very good and I hope to repeat the whole process about once a month or so.
Tim