5 Things- Volume 12

We are nearing the end of the year, we are dusting off our ugly Christmas sweaters and we are making spare room for all of the seconds, thirds and fourths we will be having at our family gatherings. But before we reach that magical time of the year, we're keeping our dancing shoes on and we will continue to party and enjoy the amazing camaraderie that exists and the Smokehaus.

So with that said, let's cue the Adventure Time theme song (it's okay if you don't know it you can sing along).

"Adventure Time,
C'mon grab your friends,
We're going to very distant lands.
With Jake [the smoker] and
Finn [the sandwich],
The fun will never end,
It's Adventure Time!" 

This week was full of adventure:
1- THE FLOOD

At 6:30AM on Friday our basement started flooding. Water was flowing in from every crack it could find but our wonderful crew hiked up there pants, changed their plans and grabbed a squeegee. Friday felt like the scene in Hercules where he cuts the dragon's head off and three heads grow back. Shouts to our wonderful team for stepping in and helping us stay afloat! 

This week was also full of spoooooky tiiiimess:

2-Rocky Horror Red Mountain ft Chelsy from Vikre!

Our friend Steve Sola is letting us use this video that he took of a local favorite band in Duluth, Red Mountain. Our delivery-daredevil and basement-badass Jeremy Ehlert SLAYS guitar in this band. You can't see him but you can hear him shred. (We love you, Jeremy!)

Not pictured but also important to mention: Ned's band Alamode & Jacob's band the Social Disaster also played on Halloween night at the Rex Bar. Did we mention they were all born on October 11st!? 

Have you hugged a carnivore this week?

3- Halloween in the shop 

Harrison Cross is the man of many costumes. He's known for killer dance moves, exceptional puns, and going all out on Holiday extravaganza. This year he really raised the bar on his costume game and expressed his carnivore lifestyle more visually and larger than life. We also had a visitor from the New Yorker giving us advice on what kind of beans to purchase for our Chemex (Thanks, Cam)!

This week was full of cute liver caskets!

4- Are you a be-liver? 

Extra! Extra! Find these in the Grab-n-Go in our Deli soon! We will be packaging these cuties up and selling them 1/3 lb for your party convenience. Country Paté lovers unite!

And every week we're all about Awesome Burgers

5- Can you say onion rings? 

The Restaurant does burger Mondays and this weeks special burger looked like a dang good time. Stop in next Monday to see what chef James cooked up for ya!

Andouille Stuffing Recipe

Kick the heat just a notch up with adding some Andouille to your super secret family recipe or maybe try ours out this Holiday Season.

Andouille Stuffing Recipe

• 1 lb Andouille Sausage, diced

• 3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter plus more for baking dish

• 1 lb of good-quality day-old white bread, rye bread, cornbread, or a mix, torn into 1" pieces (about 10 cups)

• 1 1/2 cups of fine-diced shallot

• 1 1/2 cups 1/4" medium-dice celery, with leaves

• 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

• 2 T chopped fresh sage

• 1 T chopped fresh rosemary

• 1 T chopped fresh thyme

• 1 ts salt

• 1 ts freshly ground pepper

• 2 1/2 cups broth of your choice, divided

• 2 large eggs

 Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 250F. Butter a 13x9x2 inch baking fish and set aside. Scatter bread(s) in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until dried out, about 1 hour. Let cool; transfer to a large bowl.

2. Meanwhile, melt 3/4 cup butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; sauté Andouille until browned and crisped and remove from heat.

3. In the same pan, throw shallots and celery. Sauté until golden, about 10 minutes. Add to bowl with bread; stir in herbs, salt, and pepper.Pour in 1 1/4 cups broth and toss. Let cool.

4. Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk 1 1/4 cups broth and eggs in a small bowl. Add to bread mixture; fold gently until thoroughly combined. Transfer to prepared dish, cover with foil, and bake about 40 minutes.

5. Bake dressing, uncovered, until set and top is browned and crisp, 40-45 minutes longer (if chilled, add 10-15 minutes).

5 Things- Vol. 11

HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN!

We hope you're also listening to Werewolf Bar Mitzvah over and over again. If not... maybe you should start??

5 Things: Here We Go

1- It's test time!

We sent out several of our Delivery, Catering and Mail Order and Deli manager(s) to get their Serve Safe Certification on Monday, October 23rd. Here are some highlights from Dungeon-Master and Iron Man, Harry-boi.

Food Safety Class Hour One:

Things I've Learned:

-Jeff, our instructor, could shoot a wing off a jet in an A-10 Warthog.
-Allergies are more common now because we're "...not eating enough boogers".
-Scrapbooking is for "gals".

Hmmm... We do not suggest boogers as a source of protein. But to each their own? (read: ew).

2-Purchasing

Mamma Kath is teaching Deli Manager TK how to be the master of inventory. Every week we receive orders from many local and regional vendors. It takes a great finesse and extraordinary organizational skills to keep all departments orders on track. Orders come in, they are put away, laughs are shared with our great delivery drivers and snacks are had.

Shout out to Jodi from Classic Provisions for being the kindest delivery driver ever. 

3- Mail Order Meat Madness

Once the Holidays season begins it's pretty hard to stay ahead of the game without feeling a little frantic. So we start getting ready earlier in the year in order to be able to send out our 2,000 boxes around Thanksgiving and Christmas season. This week we sliced 63 lb of Turkey, 49 lb of Andouille, 46 lb of Pancetta and 74 lb of Pork Loin!!!!

4- NEW STICKERS!!!

After probably 10+ years of having our oval stickers we upgraded to these sharp circle cuties! Thanks, Stephen!

5- LOOK MORTY

While our oval stickers where in absence, we used a lot of different stickers to keep your fish, meats, salumi and sandwiches from escaping the butcher paper. It was a busy and confusing summer. Cajun Finns were getting marked "German Brats", "Italian Style" and/or "Whitefish Sausage" and many other items were also (for a bit) mislabeled. So after dealing with weeks and weeks of back and forth emailing with our sticker vendor, we ordered some "just in case" green circles from Uline.Oh the fun that has been had with these simple and amazing vessels for creativity. Let's just say someone around the Smokehaus has been drawing Ricks (from the Adult Swim Show Rick & Morty) all over the place.  We hope some of you enjoy the "LOOK MORTY I TURNED MYSELF INTO A DOOR". 

5 Things - Vol. 10

What a week! Only 5 things? JUST 5 things? Ok. Have it your way. Here we go:

1 / Local Food Fare

 Stephen and I went to The College of Saint Scholastica last Friday for their first ever Local Food Day representing Northern Waters Restaurant. It was THE BEST time!   We hit 'em with some S.W.A.G. (Stuff We All Get), served maple sambal ribs with kimchi and an assortment of sandwich samples while those ravenous collegians lost their damn minds! We made sure to collect some email addresses to offer them further deals in the future before they went completely bonkers. Thanks to our pal Jordon Moses for setting the event up!

 2 / Meat & Greet

Smokehausers Flo and TK are the principals at Prove Gallery in Duluth; a fantastic and inclusive pillar of the arts community here, and 10/18 brought their annual Meat Raffle Fundraiser! Not familiar with the Meat Raffle concept? Buy one of 12 chances for a cut of meat and wait for the wheel to land on your number. If it does, you get meated handsomely! Prove managed to get Pete and Sam from NW Restaurant to emcee and sell tickets respectively, while Ned from the Smokehaus DJ'd. Plenty of our coworkers from both the restaurant and the Smokehaus got in on the gamble for meat as well as a pretty great silent auction. The whole event was a huge success and also just a lot of fun.

3 / Photo Frenzy

 Stephen and Flo continue to work on photographing our many products in preparation for mail order season, and the composition of these photos has really been coming together beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that it drives our thoughts towards doing a cookbook. Seriously, wouldn't that be fantastic?

4 / Pop Up Restaurant at Hoops!

At Northern Waters Restaurant, we always try to keep it poppin'; the beautiful plates we send out, our chic decor, actual delicious soda pop... It's a thing for us, ok? So how excited are we that our pals at Hoops Brewing have invited us to come and do a pop up restaurant at their place? Pretty dang excited to say the least. We haven't firmed up a date yet, but look for that coming soon. Pop in and say hi! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

5 / Listen Up!

 Jams! Not the kind you eat with your mouth, but the kind you eat with your ears! It's called 'listening'! Up at the restaurant, we begin our days by sweeping, mopping and kicking out the sweetest jams possible. Afrobeat, DJ Earl and Steely Dan have been in heavy rotation recently, but it's really anyone's guess as to what will get heavy play next. We think that this whole 'eareating' thing is going to catch on big-time.