Door County weekend part 2

You gotta love people who go to this much trouble to entertain travelers!

My last post was about the first part of our trip to a wedding in Door County, Wisconsin. Since we lived in Wisconsin for such a long time before moving to Seattle last August, this was a very nostalgic visit for us, and we savored every moment. I was hoping for some of the hot, sunny weather the Midwest had been enjoying but instead we seemed to bring the Seattle rain with us, but even the rain couldn't ruin the weekend. Saturday was all about the wedding, but Sunday was our day to do some hiking and exploring. We visited four ( yup, FOUR) parks plus the town of Fish Creek! In one day. Our day started at 8:30 a.m. with breakfast at the wedding hotel. I had fruit and granola with soymilk (cleverly brought by our friends, Claire and Alan). When the Madison folks had to take off for the drive home, Mr. EV and I hit the road, too, in search of natural beauty and exercise. We also had a couple of restaurants on our list but we found them closed. More about that later.

It wasn't far to our first stop, The Ridges Sanctuary, a very southern remnant of a boreal forest. The first National Natural Landmark in Wisconsin, The Ridges is 1,600 acres of bog, swamp, dune and wildflowers in their natural habitat.

25 native Wisconsin orchids are found there as well as one of the largest concentrations of rare plants in the Midwest. And mosquitoes. Did I mention mosquitoes? Although I miss Wisconsin dearly, I DO NOT miss the mosquitoes.

Can anyone identify this fern?

There was another, beautifully colored dragonfly next to this creature, but it didn't wish to be photographed.

We wandered in blissful solitude for a couple of hours, until the mosquitoes finally wore me down, and I kind of freaked out.

Our next destination was Cave Point County Park. The water-worn limestone cliffs overlooking the lake are beautiful, and the rocky beach is a great place for contemplation.

I have a thing for rocks, and I've always loved this park. We walked along the cliffs and watched the water crash into the rocks below. For some reason I failed to take photos from the high points, concentrating instead on the rocky beach.

It was hard to get Mr.EV off the rocks, but we had a lot to do in only one day. Normally when we vacation we tend to explore broadly in a limited area, but this was a different circumstance, and I was itching to cover a lot of ground in a short time.

Our next destination was Whitefish Dunes State Park, where we hiked for about two hours through the dark, damp, ethereal woods before making our way to the beautiful beach.

I could have spent hours staring at the lake. It looks just like an ocean, (though it's missing the ocean-y smell of fresh salt air), and the sand dunes, with their sunlit blowing grasses, offer a peaceful visual respite. We were pretty surprised to see people swimming since the air temperature was cool, and I can only imagine the uninviting temperature of the water. Brrr is all I can say. Besides, I'm a real wimp when it comes to possibly dangerous swimming conditions and the emphatic rip tide warnings would have scared me too much.

After all that hiking we were starving, and planned to pass through Egg Harbor for lunch on our way North. There were a couple of restaurant possibilities that were supposed to be vegan friendly, but unfortunately, both were closed, so we visited Greens 'N' Grains yet again, for wraps, and a few other items in case we ended up eating dinner at the hotel. The wraps got devoured quickly and unceremoniously in the car, then we headed to Fish Creek.

Mr. EV is befuddled by an extreme collection of things on sticks.

It had been years since we'd been in this little town, and seeing it didn't even jog my memory. I think I had confused it in my mind with Minoqua, a town in Northern Wisconsin. Fish Creek is a small, picturesque village on Lake Michigan, and is home to a large community of artists and craftspeople. The fabulous Peninsula State Park is also located here. We spent our visit to Fish Creek wandering in and out of the many shops, and enjoying a little sunshine that had finally appeared. I spotted a tiny, hidden, smoothie and organic food shop but it was closed so we couldn't take advantage of their offerings.

Our fourth and last park visit was to beautiful Newport State Park, Wisconsin’s only formally designated wilderness park, with 2,373 acres and 11 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. It was getting late, and we were feeling tired from the long day, so we only did a short hike before heading to the lovely beach to stare at Lake Michigan, yet again. We were really lucky that Sunday was a state park open-house day, and admission to all the parks was free! (Cave Point is a county park and is always free.) Of course, our whirlwind tour didn't do justice to any of the parks we visited, any of which deserves at least several days or more of exploration. But it was still exhilarating to have spent time in so many inspiring natural areas.

The day had turned to early evening and we were thinking about food again. We knew the two casual restaurants we had picked out back in Egg Harbor were closed, and dressed in hiking clothes, grubby and exhausted from a day of hiking and wandering, we couldn't really show up at a "fine-dining" establishment without a reservation (and a shower), so we headed back to our hotel with the emergency provisions we'd bought earlier, and decided to eat in.

We had purchased a huge bag of local, organic mixed salad greens, raw sunflower seed dip and a carton of butternut squash soup at the natural foods store in Egg Harbor. In the little kitchenette in our huge room, we assembled giant salads with dressing made from the sunny dip, and heated bowls of soup in the microwave. I loved the dip (Mr. EV said it upset his stomach) and even ate it on crackers for breakfast the next day. The soup was OK. It had a powdered ginger aftertaste that I wasn't so fond of, but it served its purpose well, and I'd be willing to eat it again under similar circumstances. I was also happy that it contained much less sodium than similar choices. Just want to mention that the "washed and ready to eat" greens contained a few things you might not want to eat, like a live ant. Remind me to wash my greens!

Monday was our departure day, and we didn't have much planned, but a necklace I'd admired and passed up in Fish Creek the day before, was weighing on my mind. Both Mr. EV and I suspected this would happen, though I really did try to resist, so we packed up, checked out of our hotel, and headed back to Fish Creek. I had no idea which shop it had been in but Mr. EV recognized exactly which one it was, Bath, Body and Soul Essentials, and the necklace became mine. I really do love it.

We continued on to the Green Bay airport for the first leg of our return flight. The trip home was easy and uneventful. We had barely enough time in the Minneapolis airport to rush to our favorite airport eatery (French Meadow Bakery) to grab two Spa Salads to take onto the plane, for lunch. These salads contain an enormous amount of organic greens topped with tofu, olives, edamame, carrots and more, and the creamy vegan dressing comes on the side, just the way I like it.

When we finally arrived home Monday evening, we were tired, hungry and facing an empty refrigerator so decided to do take-out from a neighborhood restaurant. We
chose Janjay, a vegetarian Thai restaurant a few blocks from our house.


When we tell the staff at Janjay we're vegan, they know exactly what we mean, and make sure the food we order is what we expect it to be. For example, the peanut sauce that comes with spring rolls contains dairy, so they offered a substitute sauce. We got spring rolls, scallion flatbread, and a broccoli lovers entree. We also ordered a clear soup with vegetables that was really filled with veggies.

We had a great time on our four-day getaway but we both agreed it felt like we'd been gone for a month!

Long weekend in Door County, Wis. to attend a wedding, part 1

Roadside art — not the bride and groom.

At 6:20 a.m. Friday morning we left for the airport to begin a four-day weekend on the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin to attend a wedding. After a long day in planes and airports, we landed in Green Bay and drove 1-1/2 hours to our hotel, Baileys Harbor Yacht Club, in Baileys Harbor. The wedding ceremony was Saturday afternoon, and the reception Saturday evening. We've known the groom and his family for more than 22 years. Other good friends who we haven't seen since we left Wisconsin last year were also there, making for a great weekend. It was a beautiful event and we're so glad we made the trip!

The evening we arrived we stopped at Greens 'N' Grains Natural Foods Store in downtown Egg Harbor before heading to our hotel. Housed in a charming late 18th century building, this is the only full-service natural foods store in Door County. In addition to a full line of natural foods, Greens 'N' Grains has a vegetarian and raw food deli. We hadn't been to Door County in a very long time but we still remembered how hard it was to be vegetarian there, let alone vegan. Picking up a few items for dinner just seemed like the easiest thing for two tired travelers to do. We got wraps, cabbage salad, crackers, strawberries and a small tub of hummus to stash in our refrigerator. We were so tired that we ate our little supper before I even thought of the camera.

On Saturday morning our friends Claire and Alan, who were staying nearby, brought breakfast over to our hotel room. We had a kitchenette, which we were pleased to discover had dishes and flatware along with a small fridge and microwave. We also had a table and chairs in our extravagantly large room. They had driven up the night before from Madison with a food-filled cooler, and had brought home-made granola and soymilk. We added organic strawberries we'd bought the night before on our way to the hotel.

Claire uses the granola recipe from the old, vegetarian cookbook, Deaf Smith Country Cookbook, and the classic breakfast treat tastes as good as it looks.

After breakfast, which lasted a pretty long time, Claire and Alan went back to their hotel to get ready for the wedding. When we picked them up to drive to the church in Ellison Bay, Claire pointed out the bumper stickers on the hotel owners' SUV. Sheesh. Spread a little love, why don't you.

As a point of comparison, I photographed the bumper stickers on Claire and Alan's car.

The wedding ceremony was unconventional but meaningful. It took place in a beautiful white church but was non-religious — in the church but not of the church, so to speak. After the ceremony we had a couple of hours to hang out before the festivities began again at 4:30 with a cocktail reception and then dinner.

At this point, I want to offer a bit of advice, especially for new vegans, about what to do when you're invited to an event where food will be served. Rule number one is never take anything for granted. Let people know in advance what your restrictions are. Everyone will be happier if you are not sitting at the table with an empty plate. I followed the first rule (even though the groom's parents are vegetarian, and the groom, while not vegetarian now, was raised as a vegetarian), but because of a misunderstanding, there wasn't anything at the dinner other than a small salad, that a vegan could eat. I had e-mailed in advance, and the groom sent me a list of buffet foods Joe, the food and beverage director, said were vegan. In addition, he said that Joe would let the chef know we were vegan. He also sent me Joe's contact information in case I had any further questions. I hate to make a pest of myself, and it really sounded like everything was arranged, but because pesto (not usually vegan) was on the "vegan" list, I decided to follow rule number two. Rule number two is follow up on your request to make sure the caterer understands. I sent Joe an email. He didn't reply but it was so close to the date I didn't try to contact him again.

At the dinner, the salad came with cheese and a creamy dressing, and I thought "uh-oh." I requested, and received, a plain one. We went to the buffet line and I took the foods that had been on the list, but I was suspicious. I found Joe and asked if the food had butter, and guess what — everything including the green beans, carrots and vegetarian pasta with mushrooms was made with butter. The chef graciously offered (insisted, actually) to make something for the three vegans, and he created a pasta, green bean, spinach, garlic and olive oil dish that was absolutely delicious. Apparently, Joe expected me to call, and when I didn't, he'd assumed I'd changed my mind about requesting special food. He didn't receive my e-mail, and speculated it went to his junk mail. I was supposed to call him but I didn't know that. It was a misunderstanding. It all ended well but was awkward, and had I followed rule number two with a little more gusto, the situation could have been avoided. (I would have just made due with the salad had not the staff insisted on cooking something.)

With the wedding taking most of Saturday, and a full day planned for Sunday, there wsn't much sitting-around time, but here's Mr. EV pretending to relax by the lake. You can see he's wearing a sweatshirt because it was pretty chilly most of the weekend, but at least it had stopped raining.

And here's the sun setting over the lake. Most of the time we were there the sunsets were rained out, so we were pretty happy to have at least one sunset we could actually see. After all, we paid extra for a lake-view room!

Last but not least, here are a few signs we saw tacked to trees on someone's property. There were more, but I'll spare you.

Door County Weekend Part 2

Rhubarb-banana tart | synchronicity

This time last year I was living in our house in Wisconsin, plundering our ever-willing rhubarb plant, and happily making muffins, crisps, sauces and tarts. That plant was like a whole welcoming committee to the new season of warmth after a long winter, and I miss its tasty, ruby stalks. So here it is, early June again, the season of rhubarb and TV reruns, and I'm about to dabble in blog reruns, re-posting a recipe from last year in honor of my lovely rhubarb plant, but also you'll see, because I must. I am compelled. Read on.

Now remember, the dish I'm posting appeared on the blog a whole year ago, and I'm sure many (most?) of the current readers of this blog weren't even reading back then. And everyone else has probably forgotten the post anyway. Seriously, even I had forgotten about it, delicious as it was, until this very strange event occurred. Dare I call it an incident of synchronicity?

My friend Claire was attending the Annual Burrito Dinner and silent auction fund raiser sponsored by Alliance for Animals, in Wisconsin. (I attended this same dinner with her last year but, alas, I'm living in Seattle at the moment, and was unable to attend this year.) She was doing some tabling with one of the event coordinators (I'll call her EC). EC was talking to Claire about rhubarb, and telling her about a recipe she had just made that she'd found through a Google search. Then, the organizer of the amazing vegetarian meetup group I used to attend, and which Claire still attends (I'll call him Dave) came over and said to Claire, "aren't you Andrea's friend?" At some point Dave started talking about this blog, and suddenly EC put it together that this was where she'd found the tart recipe! Now how weird is that? And how small is the Universe? I HAD to re-post it, if only so I could tell this story!

Rhubarb-banana tart (11" tart pan)

Filling ingredients

• 4-5 heaping cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1" pieces
• 2 level tablespoons coconut flour (this is for thickening the rhubarb juices. Coconut flour is very absorbent so measure carefully. You don't want to soak up ALL the juice.)
• 1/2 cup Sucanot (more if you like it sweeter or if your rhubarb is extremely sour) or other sweetener (I almost used maple syrup, until I remembered how expensive it was.) I like my rhubarb tart to actually be a little tart. Maybe I should call it a tart tart.
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened, dried coconut (optional but I think you should use it)

Pressed pastry ingredients

• 1/2 cup walnuts, raw or toasted
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons sucanot
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 4-6 tablespoons cold water

Directions

1. Pulse the oats and walnuts in a food processor until they look like cornmeal.
2. Add the flour, salt and sugar, and pulse a couple of times to combine.
3. Add the oil and pulse to incorporate. (I'm talking quick buzz buzz.)
4. Add 4 tablespoons of water and pulse a few times. Continue adding water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture is still crumbly but sticks together when you press it with a finger.
5. Lightly spray the pan with oil and, with floured hands, start pressing the crust into the bottom of the pan. You want a thin but not too thin, even crust. When the pan bottom is covered, nudge the remaining mixture onto the sides with the backs of your fingers. At this point I start to worry that there won't be enough, but there always is! When the crust is complete, place the pan into the fridge (or freezer, if you have room).
6. Toss the rhubarb with the coconut flour, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.
7. Mash the bananas. If you mush them up a bit with your fingers while still in the skin, they will mash right up when the skin is removed. Mix the bananas and raisins into the rhubarb, taking care to incorporate completely. Arrange the filling in the crust.
8. Bake in a preheated 450˚F oven for 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350˚F and remove the pan from the oven so you can sprinkle the top with coconut. Return the pan to the oven and bake 20 minutes or until rhubarb is tender but still holding its shape.
9. Cool. Eat. I like my tart chilled.

The tart before it was baked.

Find the original post here. (It's much more interesting than this one.) And then head on over to Ricki's blog for the June S.O.S challenge; it's rhubarb, of course.