Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Summertime.....

Wow - I have been cooking but it seems like the same stuff over and over…. grill grill grill. I did make some YUM sweet potato fries the other day though:

3 large sweet potatoes cut into fries
2 T olive oil
1+ t Chili 3000 (or your favorite chili powder)

The timing was kind of odd because I was cooking other stuff at the same time. I think if you did these at 400 for about 45 minutes - stirring about every 15 minutes - it would approximate what I did. MAN were these good!

My latest obsession is Cherry Republic. We recently returned from Leland, MI and this was one of the highlights of the trip. It's a lovely compound full of blooming flowers and contains a café, a store, a fudge shop and a wine shop. The store was paradise for my children. Seemingly every item they sell was out in sample form. I got the cherry pepper jelly and the cherry salsa. Maya got a cherry soda and the kids both got candy. We got a big bag of dark chocolate covered cherries for Scott and he has, I'm pretty sure, hidden them away so he can enjoy them by himself! The wine shop has continuous tastings of both wine and cherry sodas. I think we will be ordering cherry peanut butter and lots more jellies and salsas. The barbeque sauces were very tasty too!

If you ever find yourself in NW Michigan, do yourself a favor and head to Cherry Republic. Afterwards, toddle down the street to Art's Tavern and treat yourself to a whitefish burger and onion rings for lunch.

Happy Travels!!!