Harbor Fish Market & Grille is putting on a beautiful and tasty way to celebrate!

Christmas Day Buffet In Door County

Reservations:  10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Serving Up:  Oven Roasted Turkey with Old Fashioned Stuffing, Apple Cider Glazed Pit Ham, Chef Carved Slow, Roasted Prime Rib, Baked Alaskan Salmon with Chunky Cucumber Dill Sauce, Montrachet Whipped Potatoes, Rich Turkey Gravy, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli Au Gratin, Scalloped Potatoes, Sweet Garden Carrots with Brown Sugar and much more!

 $18.95 per person, $8.95 for children under age 11 Reservations Encouraged

8080 Hwy 57 Baileys Harbor, WI 54202 920-839-9999

The English Inn is serving up its beloved full menu both Christmas Eve from 12pm-7pm and New Year’s Eve from 3pm-11pm. Join the crowd for all of the favorite festivities.

3713 Hwy 42 Fish Creek, WI 54212 920.868.3076

The Waterfront in Sister Bay is offering a special Four Course Menu and a Light Menu on New Year’s Eve. You must order by 6pm .

If you are looking for a place to stay, have no fear. We have checked around and found all the best holiday specials for you to get the most for your money. Check out Door County Lodging for all these specials as well as things to do while you are up here. Our newest website Door County Guide has featured “Things To Do” members including taking a Sleigh Ride with Mayberry’s Carriages, renting motor cycles from Young Automotive, and getting a massage from the amazing people at Lavender Spa.

Red Quinoa Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing

1 cup red quinoa, rinsed, drained

¼ cup packed chopped mint

¼ cup tarragon vinegar

2 ½ tsp smoked paprika

½ cup olive oil

½ cup thinly sliced patty pan squash

½ cup roasted beets, cut into wedges

¼ cup sliced green onions

½ cup halved red cherry tomatoes

½ cup halved yellow cherry tomatoes

3-4 cups mixed greens

¼ cup crumbled feta

Place quinoa in a large saucepan, add water to cover quinoa by one inch, salt to taste. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. Drain. Chill until cool.

To make the dressing, whisk mint, vinegar and smoked paprika in small bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Combine patty pan squash, roasted beets, green onions, and cherry tomatoes in a bowl. Add quinoa and toss to blend. Pour dressing to taste over salad, toss to coat. Place mixed greens on plates, top with vegetable/quinoa mixture, and sprinkle with feta.

Recipe serves four.

The Cookery•920–868–3634•4135 Hwy 42•Fish Creek, WI 54212

We have a solution for that… DoorCountyChefs.com/winter-restaurant-guide. It’s always a good idea to call and confirm, as things do change here, especially as we move into the shoulder seasons, but we have worked hard to collect a general reference… but with no guarantees please.

When Jon Jarosh, the Communications & PR Director from the Door County Visitor Bureau noticed that Governor Scott Walker was Tweeting @GovWalker for possible ideas on a wager he might use to challenge the Governor of Illinois over this weekend’s Packer vs Bear game, Jon immediately thought of Door County cherries!

Nothing beats the taste of a fresh-baked Door County Cherry Sweetie Pie!

“I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to offer up some of our delicious Door County cherry pies as part of the Wisconsin side of the wager,” Jarosh said Wednesday. “So I tweeted back and said we’d be happy to put up some Door County cherry pies. The next day we got a call from the Governor’s office asking to take us up on our offer.”

According to a press release issued by the governor’s office, the loser of the bet will volunteer in a food pantry in the winner’s state wearing a t-shirt of the opposing team while distributing the food from the wager. Wisconsin cranberry products, bratwurst, custard and honey will join Door County cherry pies in the friendly wager by Governor Walker. In addition, the loser must also fly the opposing team’s flag in his governor’s office for a day before the Super Bowl.

“I received many tweets offering some of Wisconsin’s most famous foods as a wager,” Governor Walker said in a statement released Wednesday. “I’m grateful that win or lose, those food producers have committed to donating food to the pantry at which the losing Governor volunteers. I look forward to hosting Governor Quinn in Wisconsin after a 28-24 Packer victory,” he said.

Jarosh said ten Door County cherry pies from Sweetie Pies in Fish Creek will be sent to a yet-to-be-determined location selected by the governor’s office following the game, and that hopefully it will be in Wisconsin. He was excited for Door County and the Visitor Bureau to be a part of the wager between Governors, and looked forward to the county’s popular red fruit helping carry the green and gold to victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

With so many talented local people here in Door County who know the ins and outs of running a business, we believe they would benefit in numerous ways if they found a local resident chef to head their operations. And we feel that spending locally in Door County also means hiring locally…

“We are looking for an enthusiastic, creative and industrious Chef seeking summer employment for 2011 and hopefully summers beyond. This 50 seat restaurant and bar will serve traditional Spanish small plates as well as some locally inspired fare. Our goal is to be the most unique and happening place in all of Door County,” says their January 7, 2011 listing.

“The ideal candidate would be someone who can lead a lean operation by example. The ideal Chef would also have the drive to set the bar high in an up-and-coming dining scene. He or she would also be someone who values his or her freedom in the off-season to pursue other gigs or travel. We are hoping this could be the beginning of a long a beautiful arrangement.”

See the craigslist job listing and reply via that email address.

The Chicago couple encourages you to be spontaneous: “You can skip the stuffy cover letter and let your personality show in the email.”

Dorothy Scott

The event included an evening of talented entertainment  donated by local musicians including Lynn Gudmundsen, Julian Hagen, David Hatch, Rich Higdon, Ben Larsen, Patrick Palmer, Marise and Lia Redmann, George Sawyn, Dorothy Scott, Pete Thelen and Jay Whitney.

The English Inn put forth a lavish buffet that included their famous chocolate dessert fountain. More than $3,000 in prizes were placed up for bid in a variety of silent auctions and raffle items donated by local business supporters.

“It was a night of delicious food, great music and so much more,” says Alicia Mulliken, PAA Board President. “In order to even begin to thank the special musicians and all of the arts and business people who contributed and friends who attended,  I must start with expressions of gratitude to Jon Massad who took this idea and made it happen. He had the incredible and deft help of Brynn Swanson who dotted every “I” and crossed every “T.”

The event was generously supported by the following businesses:

American Folklore Theatre, Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik, Alaniz Gallery, Azure Menswear, Bath, Body & Soul, Carol Wuollett Pinkalla, Cheesecake Etc., Curt’s Oilerie, DesignWise Studios, DeWitt Jewelry, Door Shakespeare, Edge Salon, Elliot’s Mercantile, Ellison Bay Pottery, Fine Line Classics by David Hatch, Fine Line Design Gallery, Four Seasons Tree Service, Gage, GM Bentley Hand Engraver, Gibraltar Grille, Gills Rock Stoneware, Glow Salon, Greens N Grains, Hands On Art Studio, Hat Head, Hide Side Corner Store, Karen Henriksen, Karin Miller Knutson, Karsten Topelmann, Lavendar Spa, Main Street Market, New Leaf Acupuncture, Orchard Country Winery, PC Junction, Peninsula Music Festival, Popelka Trenchard Glass, Purple Feet Wines, Quilter’s Quest, Scaturo’s, Sonny’s Fish Creek, Spielman’s Kid Works, Steel Bridge Songfest, Tannenbaum Holiday Shop, The Massage Studio, Vartanian & Sons, Waddell & Reed Financial Advisors and The Wild Tomato.

Including thanks to the more than a hundred guests who attended, we’d all like to thank Ginny Olson, owner of the Sand Bay Lane B&B who decided to create her own silent auction item – a house concert featuring some of the entertainers performing that evening. Then she bid $1,000 to win it! This has been one of the most successful fundraisers ever held for the PAA, raising more than $3000 for grant funding initiatives to Door County artists. Thanks to Stephen Kastner of DesignWise Studios of Door County for handling the PR and social media marketing of the event hosted by Door County Chefs and Door County Style online magazines and the Door County Lodging guide.

Our own taste tester was recently on the spot at T. Ashwell’s restaurant in Ellison Bay to sample two new menu “preludes” made with St. Paul Flatbread.

Vegetarian Flat Bread Roulade – St. Paul Flatbread Company’s flat bread, spread with a basil pesto mascarpone cheese, baby spinach and dried currants rolled and sliced with Door County strawberry and balsamic honey “salad” $7

Lebanese Pizza – St. Paul Flatbread Company’s flat bread, topped with tomato, pine nuts, red onion, feta cheese and lamb kibbi pieces (ground lamb, bulghar wheat, cumin and coriander) $8

Find T. Ashwell’s on Facebook

Hot Bacon and Cherry Hot Bacon Dressings made in Door County

“We have been serving our homemade Hot Bacon Dressing on our spinach salads since we opened in 2005,” says Lisa Daubner. “It was loved by so many people who wanted to take some home with them that we started sending it out with our guests in plastic containers.”

The continual requests coming from dining room patrons that wanted to give the dressing to friends as a gift or simply to take south with them for the winter convinced Randy and Lisa Daubner to start bottling it and putting a proper label on the outside.

Lisa says, “Randy has always made it himself. He started with a few different base recipes that he continually tweaked until he came up with our own English Inn recipe. Its’ one of the few recipes he does not give out.”

The bottling process started in the winter of 2008. Randy and Toni Stich went to the Algoma Certified Shared Kitchen to get The English Inn’s kitchen certified for commercial canning and bottling and to learn the process. They obtained all the licensing and permits required to begin bottling by spring of 2008.

Now you can buy16 oz. jars of dressing at The English Inn or you can call 920.868.3076 to place an order by phone. They ship anywhere in the United States through US Postal Service at whatever rate the post office charges to send to your location.

This year they added a second variety, Cherry Hot Bacon Dressing since everyone in Door County loves things made with cherries. A 16 oz. container of Hot Bacon Dressing costs $8.95 and the same size of Cherry Hot Bacon sells for $9.50.

Along with their own in-house favorite uses for the dressings like on spinach salad, some of the English Inn patrons have shared their favorite ways to use them, including as a basting sauce for chicken or ham, in German potato salad and as a dipping sauce for snacks.

If you want to learn more or place an order, please contact Lisa Daubner via email at: finedining@theenglishinn.com or phone 920.868.3076.

Life is Sweet by Tim Nyberg

Tim Nyberg reminisced about an ice cream parlor in White Bear Lake, Minnesota that he used to visit as a child, “There were high ceilings with beautifully rendered Maxfield Parish-esque peach-tinted clouds all around tops of the walls. Those paintings really made it a magical place.”

Tim mentioned what an asset the high ceilings were. He suggested that Terry could make good use of the tall ceilings by hanging appropriately-themed paintings in the  areas above the merchandise. Terry, wishing to reinvent and update the popular confectionery with its move, agreed it would be a good idea.

In two days, Tim walked over with a large five by six foot canvas titled, “Candy Store Kids” and asked Terry if he would “store it for him.” Terry loved the painting and was thrilled to oblige.

In a few days, Ullman walked across the street to Tim’s Gallery 42 and asked about creating four more paintings to be used as signs above the specific food and merchandise areas. A quick check for the appropriate canvas size and Tim went to work on four more whimsical, colorful paintings.

Never one to miss an opportunity to update and improve a corporate image, the graphic designer side of Nyberg went to work creating a new branding for the confectionery – based on their web site, Door County Candy.com. He also fashioned a whimsical treatment of Terry’s “Life is Sweet” tag to be used on apparel and other merchandise.

Next time you walk into Terry’s confectionery you will not only be greeted by friendly staff, the wonderful smells of freshly popped corn and the colorful array of candies and merchandise, you’ll also have your eyes and spirits lifted by Tim Nyberg’s whimsical paintings.

More of Tim Nyberg’s art may be viewed at g42 (Gallery 42) in Sturgeon Bay, at J. Jeffrey Taylor in Fish Creek, and online at g42art.com.

The announcement came this afternoon during the DCEDC annual investors meeting at Stone Harbor Resort & Conference Center in Sturgeon Bay.

J.J.'s & La Puerta Restaurant in Sister Bay

Offering everything from burgers and Mexican cuisine to fine dining, JJ and Kristine Johnson are the owners of JJs/La Puerta and the Waterfront in Sister Bay, and their newest venture, JJ’s of Jacksonport (“Triple J’s”). Over the past thirty years, this year’s award winners have created many successful businesses, including retail t-shirt shops and three busy restaurants in Northern Door County, catering not only to seasonal residents and vacationers, but also to very loyal local Door County patrons.

These entrepreneurs have survived and overcome more than the usual share of obstacles faced by business owners. Just last year, their signature location in Sister Bay suffered a devastating fire that forced them to close the restaurant’s doors for six months. At the same time, they were being challenged by the process of opening their third location.

They employ fifteen people year round in Northern Door, which is significant for an area with a seasonally fluctuating economy. That number historically climbs to between forty and fifty during the busy summer months. The number is likely to go up even more in 2010, as this will be the first summer they will have all three restaurants open for business. They also contribute to the community through quiet but very steady and generous support of a number of local charitable causes.

“It is our pleasure to recognize JJ and Kris with the Entrepreneur of the Year award,” says DCEDC Executive Director Bill Chaudoir. “They have built a strong reputation in Door County, based on their desire to serve people quality food and provide a great environment. Their contributions to our economy and our community are almost incalculable. We wish them nothing but continued success.”

The Entrepreneur of the Year Award celebrates those individuals who have taken the initiative to start and grow a successful small business in Door County. Eligible businesses include those with fewer than 50 employees, exhibiting exciting growth potential and that have at least three years of successful business experience. Last year’s winner was Roger Utnehmer, President and CEO of Nicolet Broadcasting and the radio stations of DoorCountyDailyNews.com.

The Door County Economic Development Corporation is a public/private partnership dedicated to improving the economic vitality of the county and its residents. Founded in 1989, DCEDC has been successful in helping existing businesses create and retain thousands of jobs through a myriad of programs and initiatives. Additionally, DCEDC places strong emphasis on fostering entrepreneurial instincts in county residents as well as those who vacation on the Door County Peninsula. Door County Economic Development Corporation offices are located within the small business incubator DCEDC founded in 1997 at 185 East Walnut Street in the Sturgeon Bay Industrial Park.