Lots of Smiles at Twisted Olive Cafe in Petoskey

Kirsten O’Keefe, owner of the Twisted Olive Cafe in Petoskey, was named entrepreneur of the year by the Petoskey Chamber of Commerce. As you can see, she is all smiles, but no one had to ask her to say cheese… because -

She has been saying it a lot lately – The Twisted Olive now sells gourmet cheeses, olives, crackers, etc.

Pam Peterson, formerly of Symons General Store, has brought her extensive knowledge of cheeses to the Twisted Olive Cafe.

3rd Annual Benefit for Brother Dan’s Food Pantry

Valentine’s Benefit Event to Support Brother Dan’s. Enjoy local entertainment at its best in a festive setting. Hors d’oeuvres, drinks, a silent auction, 50-50 raffle. Great for the whole family throughout the day … and evening!

DATE: Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012
TIME: Noon-11 p.m.
PLACE: Emmet County Fairgrounds, Community Building (Eppler Road entrance)
COST: $10 each/$25 immediate family

Price includes entertainment & hors d’oeuvres. Cash bar available for pop, water, beer & wine.

Want to do more? Please consider bringing nonperishable canned goods and boxed foods, which will be collected at the door for donations locally.

The Entertainers

• Holly Keller & Friends
• JUSDUIT
• Michelle Chenard & Pete Kehoe
• Northern Nites
• The Jelly Roll Blues Band
• The Craig Cottrill Band
• Sundogs
• James Greenway Band
• Atwood Green Band
• Born Suspect

Special Message from: Mary Moellering, Director of Brother Dan’s Food Pantry in Petoskey, Michigan

We are a ministry of St. Francis Xavier Parish, and our funding comes strictly from donations and fund raising. The last two year’s benefits reached far beyond our expectations in attendance! Everyone just had a wonderful time!

With your financial support, silent auction items or food items, you will be helping us to make the “2012 Have A Heart Benefit” event another huge success!

One hundred percent of the volunteers that work at our pantry do so without any pay, including myself as Pantry Director. Monies raised simply filter back to the community. Brother Dan’s Food Pantry serves food weekly, to anyone in need in the Petoskey area. Your support is greatly appreciated, and goes a long way in helping us keep food on the table  for those who are so much in need.

Please Help Us Promote this Event: Share it on Facebook & Twitter…

Print this flyer and post it around town

Baked Squash for a Cool Day in Northern Michigan

The other day when I was buying ingredients for my stuffed portabella mushrooms, I saw some acorn squash that were pleading to be stuffed and consumed. I’ve never cooked acorn squash. Mother did the standard butter & brown sugar thing, but I wanted something more…

• 2 Acorn Squash – halved
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped salted pecans
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 chopped Granny Smith apple
• 1 8 oz. can of pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice
• 3 tbsps pure maple syrup

Mix it all up, put a pat of butter in each half and then add the mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour with the acorn squash covered with foil. Remove foil and bake another 5 to 15 minutes. Eat ‘em up.

My sister and I think that some finely chopped jalapeno pepper might be a great addition to this sweet treat.

Christmas Parade Downtown Petoskey

The sky wasn’t blue in Petoskey yesterday, but it wasn’t raining either. There wasn’t snow on the ground and it was warm… a great day for a parade. Standing on the street by the Clothes Post, I shot some clips of this year’s Christmas/Holiday Parade.

Petoskey Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Why does it surprise you that I can dream up my own recipes?

I pulled the idea for this recipe out of thin air one day while shopping at Glen’s Marketplace. My sister and her boyfriend were surprised. My dad wanted to know if my mother taught me how to cook. No, in our house if you wanted to survive, you needed to fend for yourself!

First pour a marinate made of 3 parts olive oil, 1 part balsamic and black pepper into the portabella caps and let them sit for a few minutes…

Put the portabellas in a ziploc bag and turn them over a few times to let the marinate get all over them…

Cook a cup of long grain brown rice and steam a couple of cubed sweet potatoes…

Mash the sweet potatoes, mix in about 3/4 of the rice and a cup to a cup and a half of dried cranberries (depends on you)… drizzle in a tablespoon of organic blue agave (or not)… let this mixture cool for about 30 minutes..

Fold in 2 to 3 egg whites to help bind the mixture and put in muffin tin that has a slight spray of olive oil applied.

Pre-heat oven to 375 and bake for 30 – 40 minutes… turn your portabellas over so excess marinate drains out of the caps. Get out your George Foreman grill, or in my case Calphalon and heat that baby up to grill the portabellas. Use a little olive oil spray if necessary.

Loosen the edges of the baked stuffing mixture with a knife around the edges. Turn the muffin tin upside down on a cooking sheet and tap, if necessary to get the sweet potato mixture to release.

Place sweet potato/ric/cranberry mixture on top of portabella mushrooms.

Enjoy or at the very least don’t email me to complain – I made all of this up, but it hasn’t sent anyone to the hospital – yet!

Manna Project 19th Annual Empty Bowls

I met my sister and friends at the Perry Hotel today for a lunch of soup and bread. It was the Manna Project’s 19th annual Empty Bowl fundraiser – $20 for an empty bowl of your choice produced by local potters. The Perry Hotel then gave you a choice of  tomato basil or chicken noodle soup along with bread and butter.

There must have been several hundred people enjoying soup, each others’ company and raising money to help the Mana Project feed the 3400 families in the area that find themselves in need of food donations.

The staff of the Perry Hotel was assisted by volunteers from the Crooked Tree Arts Center and what appeared to be a couple of dozen street urchins straight out of a Dicken’s novel – perfect for the holiday season.

This Petoskey Garden is Ready for Bed

Spent the last several days spreading the compost on top of the garden and today went and rented a beast of a rototiller to work the compost into the garden.

It was great to see all the worms in the soil. I know they will appreciate all of the organic matter to chew on next Spring.

What gardener doesn’t love the gloriuos worm?

Oh Wiggly, squiggly, squirming worm,
Most brilliant of creatures under terra-firm,
Builder of tunnels exquisitely round
Creator of dirt so deliciously ground
Engineer-builder without college degree
You eat up your work–
and do it for free. – Author Unknown

Downtown Petowkey’s 1st Green Home Renovation

On Saturday, I stopped by 514 Elizabeth Street to attend the first in a series of Green Home Seminars being offered by Northern Michigan Energy. Owners John Plichta & Elias Amash were on hand to showcase Petoskey’s first green home renovation and talk about what and what not to do when upgrading an older home for energy savings.

We spoke with John in an earlier post about this green home in Petoskey and have a couple of videos of him on green building.

Do you know about the 70/60 equation in home energy use? 70% is what a Green Energy Renovation can save on the average monthly heating bill. 60% is what you can save on energy costs with simple behavioral modifications. Air leakage is the number one cause of energy inefficiency in a home.

What’s the quality of the air in your home?

There were a dozen people attending the green home seminar Many questions were asked and one woman was brave enough to take a smell of “the Box” – which contained the contents of part of one of the 135-year 0ld walls when it was opened up for renovation. It was only after they unveiled it, that she saw the dead mouse and spider!

From the Garden to the Soup Pot

Are we having a great Fall in Petoskey – or what?

I’ve been working in the garden the last couple of weeks – pulling out the harvest, cleaning it up, spreading this year’s compost for next year’s vegetables. I think I’ll be ready to rototill the compost in by next weekend and put the garden to bed for the winter.

I’ll be putting raised beds in the garden next year – looking forward to that – is it Spring yet? I guess I’ll have to live through a few months of dark and cold before that happens Up North here in Petoskey.

Onions, beets and carrots were the last to leave the garden. I took some over to the Twisted Olive and Julienne Tomatoes. Julienne Tomatoes roasted the beets and made up a bunch of borscht. I had a cup of it today with a Rueben sandwich, both were delicious.

I’m talking to Stuckman’s and David Firman about removing a couple of trees before winter sets in. I want more sun for the garden and the trees are too close to the house and are pushing on the fences.

It was a great year for landscaping and gardening – until next year, sleep well green thumb.

Petoskey MI Mexican Food Restaurant

Last night I took dad out to El Ranchero Authentic Mexican Food Restaurant at 2160 Anderson Road, near Lowes. We hadn’t been there since December of 2010 when they opened. Our first experience at El Ranchero was disappointing and I noted so in a post that drew a lot of comments both in support of and objecting to my review.

I’m happy to report that our experience last night was 180 degrees different from our first experience. Dad, the vegan, had the vegetable fajitas and I had the chicken fajitas. We were both pleased with meal and the service, courtesy of Sergio, was outstanding.

One great thing about El Ranchero is their interior space – lots of room and color. There were a couple of moments when communicating was challenging, but we all managed to work through it and get to the serious part of the evening – eating Mexican food.

AS I think back on that first review, I think it was probably a little premature and I will take this experience into consideration in the future – wait a week or two for a restaurant to work out the kinks before expecting them to perform at 100%. Given our pleasant evening at El Ranchero last night, I have deleted my earlier review and am also updating the review I’d posted on Yelp.

I’d give El Ranchero in Petoskey, Mi 3 1/2 to 4 stars out of five – more toward 4 if I give more weight to the service provided by Sergio.