Door County Fish Boil

Mmmmmmm. Fish Boil!


If you have ever been to Door County, Wisconsin, and participated in a fish boil, you know what I mean. The first time I went to Door County, I was NOT a fish eater (I have since had a change in taste). However, I thought I better give it a chance and I actually liked it. The fish is cooked with potatoes, onions, and carrots, in big black kettles over a fire:










My kids were not really thrilled with eating it, but they LOVED watching the men cook it. Here is one of them examing the raw fish. "Ewwww.":












The most exciting part of the fish boil is when they yell "Boil Over" and throw kerosene (I think) on the fire and it just goes "kaboom":

Whoooo baby! Just look at that cloud! They warned us to stand back and they weren't kidding. It gets REALLY hot. My face was so hot I thought I'd have red skin afterwards:

Then the water boils over, which pushes all of the fish oil/fat off the top of the water:

Then we all sit down and wait to be served. The fish was incredibly tender and moist and was served with lots of butter (or margarine if you prefer). The only downside, I think, is that you have to pick the bones out of the fish. Sometimes you miss them, so you really have to be careful.

Here is my favorite picture:

This dog was hanging out while it's people ate the fish boil. It was a very well behaved dog. Plus, it was so COOL! Would you believe, that when the person tried to remove the sunglasses the dog started whining? Then they put them back on the dog and it calmed down.

Tips for people who haven't been to a Door County fish boil:

1. Get reservations ahead of time, especially if you want to go on a specific night.

2. Try to forget how much it costs (you are on vacation).

3. Ask a friend or someone who lives in Door County where to go for a good fish boil. A few years ago we went to one that was just awful.

And that is all from this food critic. :-)

Ciao for now!

Ghost Hunting

It doesn't look haunted does it?

We just returned from our vacation in Door County. During our trip we took a candlelight tour of the Alexander Noble House in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. I wasn't sure if the kids would be scared, but they reeeeeaaalllly wanted to go. So we took a chance and said yes. We were given candles (the kind with a light bulb and battery) and told to go inside. It was VERY DARK and a bit creepy. We had to use the candles to look around the living room. The home was occupied by the same family up until 1990. The house and everything in it was purchased by the Historical (hysterical) society. Everything inside was authentic. For this particular season, they were doing a funeral theme. They dressed the house they way it used to be done when someone died. The man giving the tour was dressed in period clothes and looked a little bit like the original owner of the house. He told us the story of the family and showed us pictures. I learned something very interesting. Do you know who was called to take care of the body when someone died? The midwife! Thats how they got the name MIDwife--they dealt with birth AND death. I never knew that. They had creepy pictures--people in coffins and stuff. They had pictures of children and babies--creepy. He explained that people took those photos, to prove that they ever had a child. The child mortality rate used to be very high, so often this was the only picture they had of their child. It still creeps me out. Then, he showed us pictures that visitors had taken in and of the house over the years. There has been a tendency to have images in the upstairs middle window. For example, faces when no one is in the house.

Nothing creepy in my photo. Is there?

I thought I better check out the side windows too.

There were several pictures that people took of mirrors in the house and they ended up having images in them when they got developed. During our tour, since the house was dressed for mourning, the mirrors were covered in black. I was kind of glad, because I didn't really want to see anything creepy.

One of the interesting things about the history of the house, is that the last person to live in the house was the first woman doctor in Wisconsin. She was the granddaughter of the original owner. She apparently dropped the infant mortality rate in Wisconsin in half! Her white doctor's coat was hanging in the closet.

The girls being "scared" in front of the house.

Actually, the girls were amazingly brave in the house. I don't think I could have done the tour at their age. Especially in the dark! These pictures were taken the next day, when it was light out.

So, how do you answer your child when they ask you, "Do you believe in ghosts?" or "Are there really ghosts?" They asked me those questions several times. I tried to evade the question, but they demanded answers. I just said, "No, there's no ghosts." What I was thinking in my head was, "Well, I used to not believe in them. . .until I saw one." But I really don't want them to have bad dreams. I'll have to blog about that next time. . .

Ciao for now!