The second annual Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour is history—and everyone involved from the tour-goers to the designers agree it was historically fabulous. I was able to make it to 10 kitchens between Traverse City and Charlevoix and at each kitchen I overheard exclamations about how much fun people were having.
It was so energizing to see so many folks finding their way to these kitchens scattered from Manistee to Petoskey. I was able to make it to ten kitchens from Traverse City to Charlevoix.…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on October 26, 2009 at 8:39am —
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The second annual
Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour is history—and everyone involved from the tour-goers to the designers agree it was historically fabulous. I was able to make it to 10 kitchens between Traverse City and Charlevoix and at each kitchen I overheard exclamations about how much fun people were having.
It was so energizing to see so many folks finding their way to these kitchens scattered f…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on October 26, 2009 at 8:30am —
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Indulge me in a little story that illustrates why I love tile and why I’m thrilled that the Traverse City tile store
TileCraft is a sponsor of the
2009 Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour.
When I was 6 years old, in 1964, I went with my family to the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. My father was a University of Michigan doctoral student and we’d been…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on September 25, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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News that Michael Moore is in Bellaire doesn’t usually elicit a whole lot more attention from locals than the beer du jour at Short’s Brewing Co. on North Bridge Street (fyi: dark cherry porter last Saturday).
Folks who live in this storybook town (population around a thousand and please, pronounce it B’laire) nestled in Northern Michigan’s gemlike Chain of Lakes where Moore lives, have gotten used to spotting the controversial award-wining filmmaker in what has been his hometown since 2004.
N…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on September 20, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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Good business is a gift. I got that message, literally, when I returned from a vacation last week and found a box on my chair from
Amway Global, the Gold Sponsors of our 2009
Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, October 24.
I’m always game fo…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on September 14, 2009 at 4:00pm —
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Put this date on your calendar: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, October 24—the day of the
Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour when 25 professionally designed kitchens from Manistee to Harbor Springs open their doors to tour goers. Got that one down? Now add this footnote: plan your day of kitchen touring so that you end up at the brand new
Wooden Hammer Annex in the Ca…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on August 26, 2009 at 4:00pm —
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From our office we can look across Front Street and into the glass storefront of
Fustini’s Oil & Vinegars, owned by
Jim and Lane Milligan. Several times a day I drift toward the windows and strain for a peek of those gleaming stainless vats of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars that line the wall at this fabulous boutique, elevating downtown Traverse City’s bloss…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on August 19, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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Iraq and Afghanistan seem a universe away from this Northern Michigan summer that has us gorging on fat cherries and lolling by lapis colored water. But for the 1,500
Michigan Army National Guard soldiers training at Camp Grayling the past two weeks, many of whom are deploying to the wars in those countries, those parts of the world are ominously close. I had a taste—small as it was—of what the soldiers are feeling when my friend Sgt. Michelle Rudzitis…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on July 30, 2009 at 2:41pm —
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Friday evening was a zenith of this Leelanau County summer. The stars—and the wine, the harvest, the cuisine, the landscape and two Polish egg-laying hens housed in a scrolled metal cage—aligned to show off the good life lived on this Lake Michigan Peninsula.
It happened at
Cherry Basket Farm in Northport where chefs Cammie Buehler and Andy Schudlich operate
Epicure Catering. Cammie and Andy use the dramatical…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on July 27, 2009 at 4:00pm —
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We've been following the Omena home designed by architect and Discovery Channel celeb Danny Forster for over a year now. You can watch the videos on the home's construction on
MyNorth and read about it in the August issue of
Northern Home & Cottage (find it in the August
Traverse.)
I'd visited the house when it was under construction. But last week I got to see it finished, furnished and ou…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on July 20, 2009 at 4:49pm —
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My husband snapped this photo of Friends of the
Traverse City Film Festival lining up this afternoon to buy tickets for the festival. This year's festival runs from July 18 to August 2. The photo doesn't do the crowd justice. The line of smiling, happy film buffs wound down the block.
…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on July 12, 2009 at 6:16pm —
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When I was invited to attend the Harbor Springs Historical Society’s gala event, I jumped at the chance to go. Any opportunity to drive to this sweet resort hamlet on Little Traverse Bay is a treat, but when the occasion was a 1920’s Great Gatsby-themed party, who could resist?
I rounded up a black, fringed flapper dress and a pair of fishnet stockings and last night my husband and I took off from our home in Glen Arbor for the Birchwood Farms Golf and Country Club in Harbor Springs.
The driv…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on July 12, 2009 at 5:30pm —
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I can't believe it, but the second annual Ultimate Up North Kitchen Tour is rolling around again. Mark it on your calendar: Saturday, October 24.
The
first tour was an incredible success. After spending the day yesterday reviewing photos and designer statements for this year's 25 kitchens, I can tell you to expect another spectacular tour.
These kitchens, located from Manistee to Petoskey, represent th…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on July 9, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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One of the best-kept secrets in the North is the intimate patio at upscale
blu restaurant in Glen Arbor. Take a seat at one of the bistro tables and you are practically on the beach of Sleeping Bear Bay. While owners Randy and Mari Chamberlain prefer that people make reservations for eating inside the restaurant, they don’t take reservations for porch dining because of the…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on June 25, 2009 at 5:00pm —
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Eric Hughes of Image Designs LLC recently told me about a home he designed in Paw Paw, Michigan, that is proving that all the energy a home needs can come from the sun—even in Michigan. In fact, when the sun really starts shining in Michigan this summer, the owners expect to be making more energy than they need in which case they'll be able to sell it back to their electric company—called net metering. Hughes calls the house the Net-Zero Home.
Our readers might remember that we wrote about a Hu…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on May 29, 2009 at 12:41pm —
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Ah Leelanau County! You were in bloom this weekend from your lacy cherry blossoms in the north to your little green-coneheads of asparagus shooting up from the sandy soils of the south. I took my own blossom tour driving to and from my son’s soccer game in Northport, then continued on down to Empire (the little village on M-22 in the heart of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore) for the Asparagus Festival.
When the village’s homespun marketeers launched the Asparagus Festival several yea…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on May 17, 2009 at 9:30pm —
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If you’re a Northern Michigan foodie and you don’t know Martha Ryan, owner and chef at Martha’s Leelanau table in Suttons Bay, it’s time to meet her. I had my opportunity earlier this week when my husband and I gathered with seven of our closest friends at one of Martha’s cooking classes. It was on a weeknight and I have to say: What a way to close a workday!
The drive from my office in Traverse City to Suttons Bay was that glorious strip of M-22 that parallels Lake Michigan’s West Grand Traver…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on May 15, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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In the beginning there are gazillions of brown, rumpled leaves. Daps of decaying cellulose that cover the forest floor as far as your eye can see. Then morel season dawns and you wonder, What do just-born morels look like minutes after they poke their cone-shaped heads through compost to greet the light? Are they born 2 inches high and ready for the skillet? Do they come out with porous, craggy skin, or is it smooth as, you know, a baby's behind?
This evening I found out. It was on a hike with…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on April 29, 2009 at 8:21pm —
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The leeks are up and my 12-year-old son and his friends have already brought home bags full. Their harvest has been so bountiful we turned our videographer Jeffrey Morgan on them. The boys (we're starting to call them the Wild Food Dudes) did a great job--and so did Jeff. Hopefully, this video will inspire kids of all ages to get out into the Northern woods this weekend.
P.S. I have checked and double-checked: it is legal to dig leeks in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore provided they…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on April 24, 2009 at 4:15pm —
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What a way to spend a lunch hour! The folks at Interlochen Center for the Arts rolled out the proverbial red carpet for their 2009 Summer Arts Festival with a beautiful media luncheon at the City Opera House in Traverse City. As usual, the lineup is filled with gotta-see-them and gotta-go-to-that entertainment. The lineup features some newbie acts to the festival: the 1970's rock band Styx; the bluegrassy sounds of Cherryholmes; comedienne Paula Poundstone; Steve Miller Band (c'mon do I have to…
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on April 23, 2009 at 2:53pm —
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