Gravel and Dine is turning 10 on July 11. I cannot believe that a DECADE has gone by since Tory and started the blog. It seems like a lifetime ago. These 10 years have allowed me to preserve some of our favorite family recipes (although I have many more to go), try to recreate more of my favorite dishes and generally try new foods and cooking techniques. It’s been a fun journey!
To celebrate, Tory & I are going look back over the past 10 years and share some of our favorites over the next 10 days, culminating with the top 10 most popular recipes on our anniversary.
We’ll start with my favorite recipes in a variety of categories – focusing on the savory. We’ll get to sweets in a few days.
First though I need to start with a disclaimer or I’ll be writing this next to each recipe. I have a really, really, really hard time making small decisions in life. Like choosing what to order for dinner or in this case picking a favorite. I could have written under every single recipe I chose below what I almost chose instead. So I’ll save that and write it once, there were some tough choices out there! Sometimes I picked by the recipe that I make the most, sometimes by the one I crave and think about the most, sometimes the one that has the most good memories for me and once or twice I excluded from consideration a recipe I knew was coming up in the next few days – it’s not cheating, I make the rules. And if you made me make this list again, I might swap out a few of those “I almost picked this one” recipes.
Let’s get to it!
Favorite Appetizer: Fig and Apple Bruschetta
This appetizer is almost not a recipe, it’s more a method of putting things together and the flavor combinations. Salty prosciutto, creamy ricotta, rich and sweet fig jam and sweet crunchy apple all on top of a toasted baguette. This became and still is one of my favorite flavor combinations.
Favorite Drink – Non-Alcoholic: Blueberry Limeade
Just look at the color of this limeade – that’s 100% natural from the fresh blueberries in it. Limeades are a great sweet tart treat in the summertime and since I have a habit of hording blueberries in the freeze it happens to be one of my favorite ways to flavor it.
Favorite Drink – Adult Beverage: Grilled Lemonade Cocktails – Two Ways
Lemonade is one of my favorite drinks to make in the summertime and just lends itself to being spiked. I like this both for how easy it easy to make (once you have the lemonade) and how refreshing the drink is. Exactly what I want on a hot day. AND it’s perfect if you have non-drinkers in your group or young kids because you already have a version available for them in the lemonade.
Favorite Breakfast: Stuffed Hashbrowns
I chose this for my favorite breakfast because it’s probably the one we make the most and it definitely qualifies as a lumberjack breakfast, which means one that we can make and then get to work without worrying about being hungry again right away. We also love to make it in the summertime on our propane cooker right next to the lake – there is something about making it outside that reminds me of camping and just makes you feel like you’re on vacation.
Favorite Side or Veggie: Grilled Potato Wedges
This is my go to summer side (that I will also make in the winter in my air fryer). You get to pick it up, dip it in a sauce and eat it like a fry next to a burger or sammy or season it with some fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme and eat it with a fork next to some dressed up BBQ chicken. I always have potatoes of some sort around, most varieties will work and with a quick start in the microwave they don’t take long at all to make – as long as you have space on the grill!
Favorite Soup: Mom’s Chicken Dumpling Soup
This soup for me is like Chicken Noodle, it’s comforting and heartwarming and reminds me of growing up. My mom used to make it whenever we roasted a whole chicken (specifically a Zup’s stuffed chicken!) and I think when I saw chicken for dinner at night I got more excited about the next day! The dumplings are my favorite part, pillowy soft bites that after time will soak up a little bit of the broth. Yum!
Favorite Grilled Recipe: Barbecue Chicken Thighs
This recipe is more about the barbecue sauce than it is about the type of chicken you use or even if you use chicken at all. We also love this sauce on ribs. During the summer my mom always had this barbecue sauce around and we ate a lot of grilled chicken. The beauty of the sauce is it’s high sugar content so it caramelizes (or as my dad likes to say “burns on”) as you grill it.
Favorite Sandwich, Wrap or Burger: Chicken Gyros
When I added this category to our favorites I was convinced I would pick a burger or a panini because I have posted so many and we make them a lot. But my heart just made me pick the chicken gyro, I love the marinated grilled (at least this time of year I grill it) chicken and most of all the tzatziki sauce. These aren’t flavors I grew up with but they are flavors that I have definitely grown to love.
Favorite Meal Salad: Mexican Chopped Salad with Honey-Lime Jalapeno Vinaigrette
While I struggled to pick favorites in some other categories this salad is hands down my favorite salad that I’ve ever made and continue to make. I just love the fresh dressing with the lime and cilantro and all of the fresh veggies, salty cotija cheese and how they all play together in this salad. I’ve taken it without chicken to potlucks and mix in the dressing when I get there and always get rave reviews. At home we always serve it with chicken for some protein.
Favorite Main Dish: Walleye Fish Fry
This happens to be the first recipe we ever posted on the blog. It’s not something that I make often because we only ever make it with fresh caught walleye (or sometimes the same method but with blue gill) but it really is one of those recipes where once I start eating it you just one to go back for another bite and another until there is no more fish left. The flaky Townhouse cracker crumbs are a great buttery crust but our secret is the dried onions and a sprinkle of Nature’s Seasoning at the end. We’ve made this recipe camping in the boundary waters, in the winter at Christmas if we had a bumper year and walleye to freeze, but where we do it the most these days is right down by the lake – like you see in this picture!
Frying walleye by the lake
Favorite Pasta: Spicy Shrimp and Sun Dried Tomato with Tortellini in a White Wine Butter Sauce
This recipe was one of those happy accidents that you make again and again. I love it because we often have everything you need to make it on hand except maybe the fresh parsley in the winter time.
Favorite Comfort Food: Tuna Casserole
I’d be willing to bet that Tory posts Goulash for her favorite comfort food, certainly if I picked “casserole” for this she would have. Yes, Tory & I are Minnesotans but we say Casserole not Hot Dish – I blame it on being raised on the Iron Range. We also say “Duck, Duck, Goose”. I really think my favorite part about tuna casserole is that I eat it with chips as my utensils – only Old Dutch Rip-L-Chips allowed! But there is also something about it that is just comforting to me that I can’t explain beyond nostalgia and being a childhood favorite. Who knows how noodles, cream of mushroom soup, tuna and peas can combine into something so soul-warming but they do!
Favorite Wild Game: Slow Cooker Mango Peach Goose Rice Bowls
The recipes that go over the best at hunting camp are the meals that allow you to “make it your own” so we eat a lot of salads, rice bowls and tacos. Slow cooker meals also work out really well for us because they allow us to have a hot meal waiting when we get back from hunting without a lot of work. This rice bowl nice tender shredded goose paired with cilantro lime rice and a fresh salsa.
Favorite Wild Card – From the Garden: Grilled Summer Veggie Hash
We do various variations on this grilled veggie hash based on what’s ripe in our garden at any given time. It makes a great side dish to go with grilled sausage or brats, or on it’s own as a vegetarian meal over rice with a drizzle of garlic aioli. There are no hard and fast rules with this dish making it easily customizable based on the veggies you have or seasonings you’re craving.
Favorite Wild Card – Make-Ahead: Grandma Nan’s Lasagna
This is my signature meal when a friend is having a baby or someone I know is sick or the occasion calls for filling someone’s freezer – that also includes mine sometimes as I never made less than a double batch! I won’t pretend this recipe is authentically Italian, it was given to me by Derek’s Grandmother with ethnic ties to all kinds of European countries but Italy wasn’t one of them. A thick rich meat sauce with extra umami from pepperoni and cottage cheese instead of ricotta for the filling. I always have a 2 serving pan of this in my freezer.
There you go, those are some of my favorite non-dessert recipes!
[…] really wanted to include this recipe in my Favorites post under the Wild Game category for our 10 year anniversary but unfortunately I hadn’t posted it […]