To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Those of you who live in a place in which you are allowed to having cooking appliances like grills and such...please allow me to say that I hope dearly that you love and cherish those  things right now.  Do it for me, please. If I had access to a grill right now, this is what I'd do: This is a wood-grilled ground sirloin steak (think glorified hamburger, really).  It's lying (laying?  who cares right now?) atop a crouton that has been smeared in ... wait for it, horseradish sauce. *Collective Sigh* Now.  Here's where the fun begins.  The dish would have been delicious as is; I ordered my meat medium rare, and that is exactly what I got.  The horseradish sauce was strong and tangy and the crouton provided a nice, carby base. But Mary's Bistro here in Mackinac Island goes above and beyond.  With grilled bananas. I know what you're thinking: What. The. Hell. I was skeptical as well.  Then I tasted it.  And it blew my mind....

For the last three days, the Detroit Regional Chamber group has been here on the island.  They do a lot of networking and conferencing...two things that require a lot of bandwidth, you know. The Internets have been shut off for the employees of the Grand Hotel, and when that happens, I go my Plan B - The Mackinac Island Public Library. Today was an exhausting day.  The season is nearly here, and that means every day (practically) from here on out will be much like today. I did eat my fancy-pants meal at a place called Mary's Bistro ...and I have every intention of telling you all about it tomorrow.  But today...just pictures. Beautiful weather prevails here on the Island these days.  It makes one's heart and spirit happy. Kites near the Round Island Lighthouse Just Beachy here near the library.

So.  Part of my responsibilities at work include plating the dessert.  It's fairly simple - we have an apple pie, a cheesecake (two different kinds), and the Grand Pecan Ball (see my birthday post - 4/26/14). The pie and cheesecakes are baked up at the Grand Hotel, so I don't have that to worry about. Again, basically, I'm in charge of plating.  And the chef is really not too picky about how it's plated, as long as it's quick. And here's where I wish I would have taken more initiative during my bakery classes.  Artistic decorating is not my forte.  At all.  Not even if my life depended on it.  This is what's standard for me here at the restaurant... And up till now, I've settled for this.  But then, I got on the Internets, and found some new ideas... Courtesy of realsimple.com Courtesy of theauberginehef.com Courtesy of Martin Desserts To my master artiste decorating friends out there, I realize this is basic.  Chi...

I watched this movie once.  It was okay.  I'm not much into horses or Tobey Maguire. But I have to admit, it takes a lot of guts to name a restaurant after that movie, knowing people will be expecting an over-the-top horse racing theme.  For goodness' sake, the tagline at The Seabiscuit Café is: Bet On A Good Time.  An interior with wrought-iron horses, check.  Larger than life horse racing posters, check.  Huge TV in corner that plays the movie Seabiscuit on a loop, check.  However, what seems like chintzy and over the top is tempered by the classy brick red and black color scheme.  Elegant without being pompous.  And as I entered the eatery last night, there were a lot of kids eating with their parents...so family-friendly too, I guess. But one place the horsey theme gets carried away is on the menu.  Categories like The Winner's Circle, Run for the Roses, Betting on the Favorites - I just didn't get it (although The Starting G...

One month down.  Five to go.  It seems to have flown by, while other times I wonder if I'm doing a life sentence. There are worse places I could be, I guess.  Like, Alcatraz.  Or Robben Island.  Or the damn well where Baby Jessica was trapped. It's time to take a moment to remind myself that this blog is called To Thine Own Self, Be Food.  Not To Thine Own Self, Find The Cheapest Gin-and-Tonic On Island or To Thine Own Self, Try To Make Friends At Work. It's time to step back and refocus.  I have not talked about food much here lately...well, some, I guess, but not enough.  I suppose that's because I feel there's not much excitingness about black bean dip or basil cream sauce. Even worse, I have not thought much about food while I've been here.  I haven't read much about it and I haven't tried much of it.  I had every grand idea about coming here and having the time to read and learn and think about food. And well, confession t...

And I've never felt this way before. I lasted two weeks, folks.  Two weeks of walking the three-quarters of a mile to work, not to mention hoofing it anywhere else I wanted to go...rain, snow, or shine. This here is Stella Isla, Spanish for 'Island Star'.  I've had her for about a week, and I love her very much.  As much as a person could sanely love an inanimate object, that is.  She's one year old, and she's German.  She comes with a sweet detachable basket, good for holding my backpack, my uniform, my bottles of Grenache... With Stella, anything is possible here now.  Like... These are all pictures of where I live.  Mackinac Island is 3.8 square miles, and is ringed by an 8-mile highway, which is perfect for walking (uh, no) or biking (please).  The only thing I lament is that Stella is classified as a "cruiser" and many of the gorgeous rugged trails here are for mountain bikes only.  I suspect I may have to walk a little...

I have minced enough jalapeños for one day.  We'll just leave it at that. In deliberating over today's blog post topic, I thought it was high time I talk about food.  Since...after all, I am here in a culinary capacity. What I am eating, and what I am serving at the restaurant I work at are two TOTALLY different things. I work with Jamaicans, mostly...and when they fix lunch (which is just about everyday), they fix red beans and rice and some kind of seasoned (jerk, adobo, etc.) chicken (that's been stewing all day).  Because it's been so slow, they've also taken to making breakfast this week as well.  So, I've been having porridge in the morning.  And it is good, stick-to-the-bones stuff.  Oatmeal, milk, plantain, peanuts, nutmeg and other stuff cooked down and pureed together.  It's very thick and sustaining. It is best when served warm.  I learned this today when I ate mine cold...distracted by having to make a pico de gallo.  ...

About once a week, I get a Facebook message from the husband, in which he lists off the activities he and the kids have for the week.  This list seems quite extensive...golf practice, bowling, Boy & Cub Scouts, soccer practice and games, Drama Awards banquet, and on and on and on. That's a lot of running and driving and eating on the fly for my family in Iowa. And then...there's my schedule.  Considerably slower: work, walk, shower, read, explore the island, eat.  Repeat for five and a half more months. You don't have to tell me who's got the more difficult, stressful job.  I wake up every morning, grateful for the support system I've got in place.  Most people here on the island are shocked when I tell them I have a spouse and three kids back home...who miss me (enough as I miss them, though?)  But I am incredibly lucky.  Incredibly. I have no TV in my room and I don't have a great working Internet.  At first, that was rough.  I'...

--> Mackinac Island, Michigan is a beautiful place.  You should all come here. But, not right now.  It is still unseasonably cold and rainy, and many of the attractions are still closed. It’s still beautiful...but in that gray, cold, uncomfortably Gothic kind of way. This is my most favorite place here right now. Yes.  It really is that color.  And you can’t tell from the picture, but its windows and doors open onto a lovely little stretch of sandy beach, seconds from the water.  (No swimming, allowed, though - dangerous currents!) This library has a small collection, just the right size for its small population.  But, it also has a nice variety from local periodicals (the Mackinac Island Town Crier) to the big names (Better Homes and Gardens) to even the speciality (Bon Appetit). For the cost of $10 (as an out-of-stater), I quickly procured a library card and checked out a book on the sights and ...

--> How many of you can recall the literature you read in high school?  That you were required to read, that is?  Those lines have blurred for me over the years.  I have trouble remembering which reading was required by high school teachers, which reading I did for my own enjoyment, and which reading I did later on in college.  And then I get further mixed up because I was an English teacher for over a decade, after all.  And that’s more books! Naturally, I recall Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade.  I want to say Lord of the Flies is in there somewhere, but I also taught that book.  The Great Gatsby, I can’t remember if that was high school or college.  I know I did Macbeth and Hamlet in high school, along with Grapes of Wrath, Cold Sassy Tree, 1984, and Brave New World. Ah, Brave New World.   Who else remembers that one?  Aldous Huxley did dystopian long before it became the in-thing (i.e. Hunger Games and Divergent ...