A Day at Traverse City, Michigan

Michigan’s spring is finally here, hooray!  Last weekend was sunny and warm.  We spent a day in Traverse city.

It was less than 3 hour drive.  When we got there, the farmer market was still crowded.  So we stopped by to check it out.  I scored several yellow tomato plants and guess what, a Goji berry plant!  Goji plant tips are a special treat in my hometown.  I have seen it for years after I came to America.  I bought one and planted it in my vegetable garden, hoping it will grow bigger and bring me back my childhood memory too.

We were planning to have lunch at an Italian restaurant with good reviews. But when we got the front door only to find out that no one was eating inside the restaurant...  Not a good sign at all.  So we switched to another restaurant, Bubba’s. 

It was not a big restaurant and quite crowed.  We waited for about 15 minutes for our table.  The staff here was very nice.  That made good first impression.

When we were waiting, we went over the menu.  So we ordered as soon as the waitress came to our table, who by the way was also super sweet and nice young lady.

Appetizing snacks. 

I ordered steak fajitas, medium rare.

The taste was good.  The steak was a little bit overdone for medium rare.  And the vegetable was a bit too salty for my taste.

The steak came with another large plate and tortillas. 

I made myself a couple delicious steak tacos.

He ordered Bubba’s tacos.  One was steak and the other one was shrimp.  Good flavor and taste. 

What impressed us the most was the service.  Everyone we met in the restaurant was nice and kind. We will definitely go back there again. O(_)O~
Food ★★★★☆
Service★★★★★
Ambience ★★★☆☆

We decided to do a winery tour on old mission peninsula.  There are many acres of cherry trees there. It was about to be the peak time for cherry blossoms. 

Guess what?  Turned out my guessing was right.  Thousands of cherry trees were blooming.  It was so beautiful!

I wonder why people don’t rush to Traverse City to see cherry blossoms just like cherry festival.  It is like a post card from any angles. 

There are eight or nine wineries on old mission peninsula.  We have 3 to 4 favorites.

First, we stopped by peninsula cellars.

The tasting room was crowded.  And our bartender was very impatient.  Ok, let’s move on to next one. 

We saw a newly opened sign for Bonobo winery.  Got to check it out!

The interior design is very comforting, modern and bright all at the same time.  I liked it already by the first look.  The bartender was very nice and entertaining.  He introduced with very detailed and educating information every single wine he poured for us, which is so awesome!

One of our favorites is Chateau Chantal. 

We bought wine by glasses here.

A glass of tonight for me.  It is very crispy and bubbly.

A glass of Pinot Grigio for him.

Another glass of Pinot Noir.

Well, their glasses are really small。。。。

The best part of this winery is that there is a huge deck just right outside the tasting room.  You can get a beautiful overlook of the hills and Grand Traverse Bay.

We spent most of the afternoon on the deck.  It felt really good to just relax and enjoy the wine and view.

When we got hungry again, we drove back to downtown to have dinner. Earlier I had my eyes on a little street corner surrounded by several food trucks.  We went there directly.

He bought pulled pork tacos from this food truck. 

The taste was good but the pulled pork at the bottom was too dried out.  Vegetable toppings were awesome.

I bought chicken wings in BBQ sauce from this food truck. 

After a really big bite, the chicken wings turned out to be still raw inside.  I took them back and they made me a new batch of chicken wings.

The taste was good.  

We just walked along the streets in downtown area.  Traverse City downtown is quite neat and clean.  The streets are crowded with all kinds of restaurants, coffee shops, and cute little shops. 

We went into a coffee shop round the corner.

I ordered a cup of cappuccino.  He ordered a latte. 

To be honest, the coffees were not good.  Even I can do much better than that. 

On our way home, we parked in a lakeside park to

 enjoy this gorgeous sunset. What a perfect ending it is for such a perfect day!

Macaroons

中文:马卡龙

More macaroons!  I do love making these little sweet treats. 

I have posted the recipe several times before.  Here we go again.  I add some super fine ground coffee to half of the batch.  That is why some of them are darker color. 

Ingredients:

2 large egg whites

110g powder sugar
24g granulated sugar
60g almond flour (available at Meijer)

Direction:

Combine powder sugar and almond flour.  Pour the mixture into food processor.  Run the processor for about 10 seconds.  And then shift the flour mixture.  Discard any big almond pieces.

Beat the egg white with an electric whisk at medium speed for a couple minutes.  Add sugar when beating, little by little.  Stop beating when the stiff peak forms.

Fold the shifted almond flour mixture into egg whites. Fold it gently until the batter can fall smoothly like a silky ribbon.

Prepare a medium/large size pastry bag and NO. 12 tip.

Line a cookie pan with silicone baking mat.

Fill the pastry bag with almond batter.  Squeeze a dollar coin size batter onto the silicone mat, about a quarter inch in height.   Repeat it until all the batter is finished.  You should be able to get 18 to 22 ones. 

Tap the bottom of the cookie pan when done to smooth the cookie dough tops.

Let the pan sit on countertop until the surface becomes dry to touch.  It might take 30 to 60 minutes depending on the humidity around.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Bake in the oven for 12 to 14 minutes.  DO NOT open the oven to check cookies when baking.

Let cookies cool down on silicone mat a bit before transferring to a cooling rack.

Use any filling of your choice: jam, chocolate, cheese, nutella……….  Be creative! 

Lettuce Salad

中文: 生菜沙拉

I haven’t been cooking and posting as much as I used to because we eat like a rabbit most of the time recently.  O(∩_∩)O~

I love to make all kinds of salads and make them as colorful and appetizing as I can.  Well, it is true that you eat with your eyes first.  The salad showed in the picture is my portion.  It looks good, taste good and healthy.

Ingredients

Lettuce (I use Boston lettuce and romaine lettuce
2 mini cucumbers
1 hard-boiled egg
1/2 avocado
1/2 red bell pepper
1 tomato
2 to 3 radishes
dried cranberries
almond
sunflower seeds
crumbled bacon
feta cheese

 

Balsamic vinaigrette dressing

1 teaspoon honey
2 to 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

 

Directions

Combine the honey, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, olive oil, and salt in a bowl.  Whisk like crazy until they are all well combined.

Rinse the lettuces and spin them in a salad spinner. Cut or tear into bite sizes.  Rinse the radishes and cucumbers and then thinly slice them. 

Spoon out avocado fresh; cut into bite sizes.  Do the same to hardboiled egg, tomato and bell pepper.

Add lettuces, tomato, cucumber, radish, avocado, bell pepper and egg to a large salad bowl.  Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette dressing; sprinkle with dried cranberries, almond, sunflower seeds, crumbled bacon and feta cheese. 

Time to enjoy! O(_)O~

Cappuccino Coffee

Since we bought the espresso machine (this one from Amazon) last year, I have becoming so obsessed with coffee and making espresso drinks at home.  Top three popular coffees in the house are Americano, latte and cappuccino.

Ingredients:

1 shot of espresso
6 oz whole milk (it will make your coffee taste much better than the one made with non-fat milk)
a pinch of coco powder (optional)

All above are all small/regular size cappuccino.  Sometimes I find it not strong enough.  So I would use double shots of espresso, plus 8 to 10 oz whole milk to make a large one.

Make the espresso with espresso machine. 

With the steam wand, froth the milk until it is creamy and full of micro bubbles. If you are using a thermometer, stop when it reaches 140F/60°C to 150F/ 66°C.  Or, with some practice, you can always tell whether the milk is ready by the touching the milk pitcher.  

Frothed milk for cappuccino should contain more micro bubbles because more air is introduced to the milk.  It is also stiffer.

Pour frothed milk into freshly made espresso.  Sprinkle with a pinch of coco powder. 

Look how creamy and smooth it is! O(_)O~ 

Turkey Taco

 中文:火鸡肉TACO

I have a large piece of grilled turkey breast leftover, a avocado, tomatoes and cilantro in the refrigerator.  So, I guess we are meant to have tacos tonight! O(_)O~

Ingredients

6 crispy taco shells
1 large piece of grilled turkey breast
2 medium tomatoes
1 avocado
1/2  lime
1 teaspoon honey
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
chopped cilantro
chopped jalapeño
shredded cheese

 

Directions:

Dice the grilled turkey and tomatoes.  Squeeze out the lime juice.

Slice avocado into halves.  Remove the seed with a knife or spoon.  Spoon the avocado flesh into a bowl.  Smash it with a fork. Whisk in lime juice, honey, black pepper and salt.  

Add a layer of diced turkey to taco shells, and then 1 or 2 tablespoons guacamole; sprinkle with chopped jalapeno, cilantro and tomatoes; and then top with shredded cheese. 

It is indeed fast and simple, and delicious! O(_)O~