Door County Eats

 Just got back from the majestic Door County, WI.!

It's been a tradition of ours for the last 4 falls to visit this amazing place and we plan to continue to take this annual trip for years to come.
There are a few major vacation spots in WI. (that we have been to) Hudson, Lake Geneva, Bayfield, WI Dells, Milwaukee.  I would definitely say that Door County is the best out of all all these places and I have visited all of them several times.
Door county is a peninsula off upper WI. it is town after town filled with wonderful shops, restaurants and things to do. We drive all day taking in the absolutely breathtaking views, stopping in to fun shops and picking new places to grab a bite to eat.
So here is a little bit about the places we stopped at this last trip.

My favorite place to get a quick bite is in Ellison Bay, way at the tip of the peninsula.  The Shoreline Restaurant, they have the best smoked whitefish dip!!!

Now let's talk cheese. I mean we are in Wisconsin!  And it's me we are talking about, I love cheese!

We have to stop at Wisconsin Cheese Masters, their cheese is amazing.  You get in line and  get a few samples of the wonderful cheeses they are showcasing that day.  This visit I picked up cheese from Saxon Creamery, Winter Seasonal Milk Cheese, Butterkase Style, it is amazing & just melts in your mouth!! Also, bonus there is a wine shop right next door, free tastings!  

One more cheese shop!  Door County Creamery.  It is a wonderful little shop with gifts, tasty cheeses and a little deli. Located in Sister Bay.

Speaking of Sister Bay, the best burger is made at Husby's Food And Spirits.  I did a review in them a couple years ago, and the burgers are still great!

Let's take a break from the food for a minute to take in some DC beauty.

There is a gorgeous horse farm among rolling acres that is just breathtaking.

Or how about this sight.  It was a rainy day and that just made the trees colors pop.

Ok back to the grub.  There is an Irish pub in Sturgeon Bay named Kitty O'Reilly's, great food and drinks.  This visit we got the Loaded Tachos, so good!  

One day we stopped for a cup of soup at a place named Coyote Roadhouse, we almost passed by this place it looked like a home.  It was a really happenin' little place, very busy.  Looked like a fun place to hang out.  But we were not there very long.

This is a bowl (tortilla) of chilli, very good.

There are tons of wineries and little shops that do wine tasting.  Also a distillery in Door County.  

But finally a brewery! Door County Brewing Co. Hubbie grabbed a growler of beer from them, at that point of the day that we stopped there, it was a little to early for the drinking for us.  But people were having a pretty good time.  I really liked the interior.  It was a little on the small side.  I can't imagine what an evening there would be like.  Oh and the funny thing is, the connecting parking lot is the cop shop.

There is just so much to do & see.  Everytown has it's only little vibe, tons of shops, wineries, places to eat, coffee shops and more.

The views are amazing.

This coming summer I hope to come back to visit the lavender fields on Washington Island, you have to take a ferry to get there.

Door County always has some sort of festival going on, never a dull moment.

I could go on and on telling you about festivals we have been to and other places we ate or had a drink, but you just need to trust me and put Door County on your lists of places to vacation you will not be sorry.

Needless to say we will be back Door County!

 

Honey BBQ Chicken Dip

Another chicken recipe?!  Yes sir this is happening!
I have a few different chicken dip recipes on my blog.
With my overall favorite being this classic Chicken Dip.
This Honey BBQ Chicken Dip has got a nice zip to it.  Warm dips in the cooler months are just what the Dr. called for!
For years I have been watching YouTube videos, and I came across this dip and just knew I needed to try it.
Now I have changed it up a bit to make it my own, I seem to do that a lot.

This is what you need:
1 8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup blue cheese dressing
1/2 cup honey bbq sauce ( I used Sweet Baby Rays)
1 tsp hot sauce
1 Cup cheddar cheese, shredded
5 green onions, chopped
A sprinkle of salt & pepper

How to make it:
Easy-peasy!
Preheat your oven to 450
Mix it all together and bake for 18 minutes
When it's done make a little design with the BBQ sauce on the top for a little Va-Va- Voom!

Serve with chips or crackers.

Hope you like it!

*where I got the idea - Cooked By Julie

Restaurant Review Updates

(Door County, WI.)

I'm in a rut lately with restaurant reviews people!  Believe me I'd like to do a write up on places we eat but they are just not worth the time or it's that we keeping visiting with same places we love, I mean how many times can I write about the same place 2,3,4 times?!
No I can't do that.
So hopefully we will venture out to some new places.
In the meantime I will give you a little recap on some date nights

I will start with the most hysterical evening (well at least for me).
I said to the hubbie lets go somewhere different, I wanted to check out this place called George and the Dragon in Minneapolis or is it Edina?  humm...
Well anyhow the wait was 4 hours!  Nope, better plan ahead when I want to go there.
Hubbie says lets try David Fongs, we never go out for Chinese.  I was pretty shocked that my burger addicted husband wanted Chinese and especially from a dive.  LOL
It's been around a long time maybe the 50's, pretty popular with the elderly in the area, I felt like I was at a nursing home having dinner haha and I know how that feels cause I used to work at one!
No offence elderly people, I love you!
I have not been here to eat in at least 9 years because the last time we went there the elderly woman next to us was choking, no one was doing anything.  So I stepped in and gave her the heimlich maneuver.  I have never done this to a person before just practiced on a dumbie.  I was so shocked I ran out of there! Well after I finished saving her life and was applauded by everyone there.
I know what a strange reaction I had right!?
Now you know me better!
Ok back to the food, we started with cream cheese puffs, really dry and egg rolls very good!
I ordered vegetable lo-mein and rice, very dry.
And what did hubbie order at the Chinese restaurant!?  A BURGER! HAHAHA!  It looked so bad but he said it was good.  Go figure.

Other places we have been recently Blue Door Pub, always good!  They gave us a free basket of fried pickles, and I won a super rockin' t-shirt!
Sports Page our local dive with dirt cheap food that tastes great.

That's about it.
It is restaurant week in the Twin Cities this week, but we will not be going out, because we are headed out of town for a fews days to the gorgeous Door County, WI!
The colors will be amazing, I'm sure I will have some places to write about from our visit!

Have a great day!

Graveyard Dip

Fail?  You be the judge. I do think it's pretty cool looking!
I've seen around pictures of people making desserts or dips into a graveyard theme for Halloween.
Let me tell you, I can only multi task up to a certain point.  I was trying to make 4 appetizers at once for a recent football party, and something had to fail.
And it was the layered taco dip I was making into a graveyard.
Now, I would not all this a complete fail.  Personally I just think it was a little to rich and was missing a couple flavors I usually like in my taco dip.

Here is what you need:
1 8oz cream cheese block, softened
8 oz sour cream
1 Cup shredded cheese (taco, cheddar, monterey jack whatever you like)
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning
2 avocados, mashed
1 2.25 jar sliced black olives
4 green onions, chopped
2 cups, black tortilla chips, smashed
1 flour or corn tortilla


How to make it:
Pretty simple!
Preheat your oven to 350
Mix your cream cheese with the sour cream and seasoning, spread into a serving dish at least 2 inches deep.
Mash your avocados and spread over the layer of cream cheese
Shred the cheese of your choice and layer that on top of the avocados
Sprinkle with the chopped onions and sliced olives
I took a freezer bag and put a couple fistfulls of black (blue) tortilla chips, sealed the bag and using my hands smashed the chips.
Now sprinkle that as your final layer onto the dip.
Take a corn or flour tortilla and using a knife cut out shapes of tombstones, place them onto a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes now flip them and bake another few minutes, you're going to want them browned and stiff.
Once those are finished gently place the tombstones into the taco dip.
Use tortilla chips for dipping.

***So what I did was, accidently leave out chopped tomatoes and diced jalapenos.  I think it would have been a lot better!

Also just a note, the crumbled black chips on the top got a little soggy by the next day , still edible but not the same as the first day.

Hope you like it & add what you like.  Make it your own!

Sports Page

I have learned that sometimes a dive has the best food around!  

And that is what we have here at a little hole in the wall, in a tacky little strip mall sits Sports Page.

They have been around for a long time, changed owners, chefs and remodeled.  

Right now they have a real good thing going on.

The remodeled section is our favorite spot to hang out, in the warm months they have a garage door that opens to let fresh air in.

The servers are really good and friendly, they know us pretty well so well that we wouldn't have to order they know exactly what we want.

If we bring the little man with us he always wants to get the cheese curds, they are good!  Oh and a root beer or 2.

Us on the other hand love the jalapeno poppers with blue cheese for dipping.  (salivating thinking about them!)

Hubbie likes the mushroom cheese burger with a side of jalapenos, that comes with fries and those fries are perfect!

I like to get the grilled cheese and sometimes Ill add grilled onions to that.  It's amazing!  And get this!!  It is under $4!!!!  I am not kidding you!

Such a cheap date night.

They usually only carry 1 IPA that's what the hubbie likes.  But, only over on the new addition side.

There are a couple of pool tables, I believe a dart board, a couple video games and one of those games that you use the claw to get the stuffed animal.

And people Love the buy pull tabs here!  Maybe I should try buying a few one of these days I mean someones gotta win right?!

Wednesday night they have trivia and Thursdays is karaoke, we usually have to leave before that starts but I bet it's fun!

People watching is pretty good here too :)

So hope to see you up at "The Page" sometime!!

*photo above I borrowed from Yelp 

Pumpkin Spiced Chex Mix

I might be in the 5%  of people who do not go insane this time of year and flip out over pumpkin spiced everything.
The only way I like pumpkin is if it is carved on Halloween or as a scent in a candle.
Until I came up with this nummy fall snack, that I have made a bunch of times the old school way but , this my friends is all pumpkined up for Autumn!
I usually make Chex Mix around the holidays and my boys love for me to send them along with an old ice cream pail full for them to chow on while they are camping.

What you will need:

Sauce:
1 1/4 Stick unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice ( I bet you could use 2 Tablespoons!)
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion salt
1 Tablespoon seasoned salt (Lawrys)

Cereal Mix:
6 Cups of your favorite Chex cereal
2 Cups pretzels
8 oz cashews or your favorite nut


How to make it:
PreHeat oven to 275 degrees
Melt 1 1/4 sticks of unsalted butter
Mix into the butter your seasonings, like I said above that you could use 2 Tablespoons of pumpkin spice seasoning, I used 1 but I do not that that 2 would be overwhelming at all - so if you love pumpkin I say go for it!
Lay out a deep baking sheet, casserole pan or maybe even a roasting pan!
Dump into the pan the Chex cereal, pretzels and cashews
Drizzle and mix well the seasoned butter into the cereal mix.
Bake for 1 1/2 hours
Stirring every 30 minutes.

Your home is going to smell absolutely amazing!
It's going to be hard to resist but you're going to want to let this cool off a bit before you eat it, those hot nuts burn the roof of your mouth.
Being a girl who doesn't like pumpkin, this stuff is awesome!

ENJOY!!!

Top 5 Appetizers Loved By You!

This will just be a quick post today so you can be on your way!
Drumroll please!
These are the most viewed appetizers by all of you!
Click on each name and it will bring you to the recipe!

#5 Stuffed Banana Pepper
#4 "Ree Drummonds" Best Spinach Artichoke Dip
#3 Spam Bites
#2 Wild Rice- Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers
#1 Bacon Puff Corn

Thank you all for sticking around and reading my blog whether it be my appetizer recipes or a restaurant review!

Have a wonderful day and I hope you continue to read!