columns & stuff

Trout Fest Shall Go On

Plans are moving ahead for this year’s National Trout Festival, according to Kalkaska village president and festival board member Harley Wales.

Wales reposted a message about trout fest on Facebook: “Wake the neighbors and call your kids! We’ve got big news! While things are going to look a bit different this year, the NTF Board of Directors decided this evening to continue planning for the 2021 National Trout Festival!”

Thought has been put into what activities can happen and which ones should get shelved over concern about the pandemic.

Tentative plans for events expected to go on include the Skerbeck Family Carnival, the Grand Royal Parade, the flea market, the car show, and concerts.

Organizers said they need more volunteers in order to be able to hold the Shady Belle event and the kids fishing contest.

The festival is scheduled to take place April 22 through 24.

High Tea Returns to the Applesauce Inn

Ladies, gather your girlfriends and ready your pinkies: The Applesauce Inn’s weekly High Tea event is done steeping and returns Feb. 3, with plans to run 1pm–2:30pm every Wednesday through April. The traditional high tea — think: a three-tiered service of freshly baked scones, fresh fruit, savory tea sandwiches, an assortment of miniature desserts, and many steaming pots of Earl Grey tea — is inspired by Anna Russel, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, who is said to have been the first to request some light food and a pot of tea each afternoon to soothe her hungry stomach as it awaited the evening meal — an event typically held after 8pm among England’s higher classes. Duchess Anna’s private tea ritual soon became a social occasion, one that proved so popular, it was eventually adopted throughout England, ultimately making its way to the United States and, these days, to a charming bed and breakfast tucked among the snowy hills of Bellaire. Tickets, $25 per person, can be reserved by calling (231) 533-6448.

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Stuff we love A Second Serving of Insta-Dinners

This week, Ruthy Kirwan — Traverse City native and 2003 graduate of the Great Lakes Culinary Institute — is dropping her second cookbook, “Easy Sheet Pan Cookbook: 65 Fuss-Free Recipes for One-Pan Meals,” and we couldn’t more excited. Her first cookbook (2018’s “The Healthy Sheet Pan Cookbook”) found a place on northern Michigan bookstores’ bestseller lists as well as several bestseller categories on Amazon. Her latest again showcases her passion for the humble sheet pan, a kitchen tool she says is far too often overlooked.

“You can do so much with it, especially at dinnertime,” she tells Northern Express. “And it requires very little ‘babysitting’ while cooking, plus — unlike the Instant Pot or the slow cooker — you don’t have to plan out a meal ahead of time to allow for long cook times. You can just throw some ingredients on a pan and be done in under an hour, usually much less.”

A working mother of two, New York-based Kirwan is the founder of percolatekitchen.com, a site of recipes, tutorials, and products dedicated to making weeknight cooking easier for busy parents. The new book ($11.99) — which includes recipes for cheesesteak sandwiches, moo-shu mushrooms with homemade Chinese-style pancakes, spiced butternut squash with pistachios and lemon-whipped goat cheese, gremolata salmon with warm red onion and cherry tomato salad, and more — will be available at local bookstores like Brilliant Books and Horizon Books in Traverse City, as well as Amazon and percolatekitchen.com.

STAY SAFE. STAY CONNECTED.

9AM • JOIN US ONLINE • 11AM tccentralumc.org/sermons | facebook.com/cumctc bottoms up firefly’s Wildflower Martini

January’s mild temps notwithstanding, who Up North couldn’t use just a nip of springtime now and again? On a recent gray day, we slipped into one of Firefly’s toasty little greenhouses — literally toasty; a small space heater in the back enabled us to slip off all our winter gear and sit quite comfortably — and found, to our delight, a Wildflower Martini ($12) on the menu. Even more delightful was its taste: fresh and snappy but none too sweet, thanks to an emphasis on the tart flavors and essences of grapefruit juice, lemon, and an orange citrus twist. The addition of pretty much any cocktail’s best friend, Pama Liqueur, and a foundation of Firefly’s own house-infused basil vodka — an unexpected infusion we suspect makes this cocktail so singularly superb — did some infusing of its own, with a little spring into our step. Woolen hats off for this one, indeed. Find it at Firefly, 310 N. Cass St., in Traverse City. (231) 932-1310, tcfirefly.com