The Vagabond Kitchen: Introduction
Figuring It All Out
In the two years since I stepped away from my old life and into a world full of new choices, it feels like every inane and sage saying or bit of wisdom about “taking control of one’s own life” has circled through my mind like the maddening lyrics of the latest pop song over gas […]
The MARQ: The Restaurant Marquette’s Been Waiting For
Gourmet Farm To Table Food At The Marq!
We all wanted a restaurant like The Marq for Marquette. I’ve participated in countless conversations with Marquette locals where we discussed the growing local food scene and how we wished our restaurants reflected the farm trend. And now, that’s happening. Full disclosure: my sister works for The Marq. We’ve both waitressed since we were teenagers […]
Spices Improvising
It’s possible to learn cooking techniques from the oversights of others. My parents, the people who taught me about seasonal eating, food preservation, and instilled within me seeds of passion for culinary consciousness, didn’t teach me about spices. They both cooked wonderful meals, ordered bulk spices from the local food co-op (five pounds of bay […]
Wisdom Sauce
The wind today doesn’t blow, it swirls in eddying leafy gusts. Trees dance naked in southern drafts, green tipped spring growth colors the horizon for the first time in months. Early May in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula runs the weather spectrum—from humid days overshadowed by big bellied storm clouds to bursts of snow flurries that keep […]
Recipe Lines
I’ve been cared for by almost every permanent neighbor within a square mile of my parents’ home on the north shore of Big Manistique Lake, and many other country “neighbors”. As a result, my early culinary background was diverse: Campbell’s Bean with Bacon soup at the Saunders’, sliced hotdogs on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese at […]
The Pasty: A Recipe Wrapped In Memories
Growing up in the Upper Peninsula, pasties become a part of your national identity—the food linked with wooded hills cradled in the arms of three great lakes. It’s the food that came with miners who forever altered the craggy, ancient, almost-mountains as they dug for copper, iron, and even gold. Cornish miners, communities with half-lives […]
Antlers and Meat
A TASTE OF DEER HUNTING CULTURE IN THE U.P.
The cold December night is silvered and silent. No wind stirs the empty tree branches at field’s edge. Deer creep from forest to clearing on hushed, cloven hooves. When clouds unveil the moon, their breath makes ghostly puffs. Delicate white hairs framing black button noses rime with frost. A thick pink tongue protrudes, licking away […]
A Northern Harvest
BLUEBERRY PICKING IN THE U.P. Marquette, MI – Bend and kneel. Feel grains of sand, pointed-pine needles, and sticky aspen chafe dig into wrinkled knee skin. The sandy two-track, edged in jack pines and quivering poplars, bakes in full sun, but the road-side is comfortably shaded. The berries grow best where sun and shade meet, […]
Tastes of Autumn
FRESH APPLE CIDER MINGLES WITH THE FEELINGS OF FALL IN THE U.P.
Sipping cider, tart cold rush against tongue and pallet, waves of gratefulness washed through me. I had touched, even for just a moment, each apple crushed to make this cider, flavoring it with memory. I did another mental inventory of our foodstuffs for the weekend: the last two packages of the previous fall’s frozen venison, […]
Writing Summer Camp For Kids
KIDS FIND THEIR VOICES AT THE AUTHOR QUEST WRITING CAMP
Wolverine, Michigan – The air, heavy and yellow with pollen, brushes across my skin like a ghostly caress. Green leaves shush and flutter—a sound I’m still appreciating after almost seven months of winter. The little creek that flows into the pond, beneath the lodge, and into the forest across Mackinaw Trail Road, chuckles and burbles […]
