Journey to Green Bay, Door County, WI:

This is a repeat post from when my blog whent down so forgive the past tense speaking. So this week I didnt make any meals I was treated to fine dining in Wisconsin instead. So the journey begins with a drive to Green Bay,Wisconsin to stay at the Aloft Hotel which is a new hotel opened by the Starwood development group. This hotel did not dissapoint it was exactly what I was hoping it would be, a cheaper way to stay but whith the ameneties that I am accustomed to having in my own home and at more expensive hotels. First of all it is not kid friendly for all those families out there, this place caters to the modern adult. The Aloft Hotel is open 24 hours a day and that includes the shuttle which is just a long Ford (cute little thing though). The bar, the lounge, the snack area, gym and the front desk is allways at your access 24/7. The rooms are equiped with a 42 inch LCD television on the wall, a wide walk in shower, a comfortable bed and free high speed internet. There is also a kiosk check in and check out machine for those of you who are not personable. For a view (which you must pay extra for) you get to see the Fox river and a bridge with traffic but its not noisy like you would expect from a room next to an expressway.


For dinner we whent to the Republic Chophouse where we recieved a great ending to a suprisingly great day. We started with an apetizer called Negamaki, which is thinly sliced pieces of Certified Angus beef wrapped aroung green onions seared and served with a Sesame Soy sauce, and It was amazing. For dinner my husband had the 12oz Australian Lobster tail and it was so sweet and juicy that it did not even need butter for flavor. Me myself I like a little more red to my meat so I ordered the charred Lamb Rib Chops but they themselves did not live up to the rest of the meal unfortunately. They were cooked perfectly and there was no dryness at all but there was also no flavor, just a burnt taste. I asked for a sauce (oh how I hate drowning my meat in sauce) and they gave me two great sauces. One sauce was a mint jelly and the other one was a bernaisse sauce, they made up for the lack of seasoning but did not fix my damper on the Lamb Rib Chops.

The next day we drove up and around Door County, WI where there were alot of local Farms that sell there goods and as I said before in my previous post I love helping the local Farmers. I bought dried Cherries and pure Maple sugar from Grandma Tommy's Country Store. I was also able to pick my own semi sweet tart cherries from a fruit farmers vineyard so I can bake myself an apple pie this weekend. I stopped at a local farmers market and got a fresh piece of backed cherry pie and this was one of the best cherry pies I ever had. The crust was thick and amazing with sugar on top, the cherries were sweet and tart not overwhelming with either flavor at all. Although I didnt get something from every farmer, but I stopped at every farm because it was just an amazing thing to see. The cherries, the corn, the peaches all so fresh and ready for picking, and the different kinds of Maple syrups all from farms located in Door County. That night for dinner we where not that hungry but you cant got to Green Bay withought visiting Brett Farves restaurant at least once, so thats where we whent for dinner. We oredered Oysters in a half shell on ice and Oysters Rockefeller which was a bit different than what im used to. There Oysters were not as sandy as you get from some places and were quite large. The Oyster rockefeller was baked to perfection but with a twist it included pieces of bacon in it, and it was great.

Well this was how my short trip went and now its back to achool and cooking next week so no more being treated for a while, but I will have alot more recipes and pictures coming up soon.

posted Sep 28, 2009