A food column by Sue Turpen
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He was getting away from the barbeque grill that was sure to find him before the summer was over.
Summer is grill time, we all know that. And, in Michigan, most of us try to make the most of this precious time of cooking and eating outdoors, especially in the final month.
I am one that will even stand in two feet of snow during the winter to enjoy the wonderful flavor of grilled foods, but that is not the case for most.
Chicken is surely the most grilled meat, and most of us probably buy boneless chicken breasts to throw on the grill for a tasty and quick outdoor meal (marinated or not). However, the boundaries are limitless.
Really, de-boned chicken breasts can be flavorless and a bit rubbery; and I have long wondered, for the amount of chicken breasts available, what happened to the other parts? Is someone out there just raising breasts of chickens?
A favorite for me these days is what many call ‘beer can chicken.? Start with a can of beer that is half full (what you do with the other half is none of my business, but you only need half of the beer in the can for the recipe). Some, I have heard, use root beer, but I would stick with the beer, if possible.
After cleaning the whole chicken, flavor the inside with garlic salt, lemon pepper, etc. Rub the same herbs onto the outside of the chicken. You might want to begin with just a bit of olive oil or butter rubbed over the outside to hold the herbal mixture.
Now comes the complicated part? Balance the chicken over the beer can, set it on a small tin foil pan, and set that on a grill heated to about 350-400 degrees. Close the grill and cook about 50 minutes to an hour.
When finished the chicken should be golden brown. Carefully remove the hot pan from the grill and remove the embedded beer can from the poor chicken.
Carve up the chicken and enjoy. This is the moistest chicken you will have ever tasted. Easy as can be and so much more flavor and juiciness than the silly old boneless breasts, to boot!
I buy a fryer, but you could use a roasting chicken. Allow more time for the larger roasting chickens.
I recently learned of a farm in Durand, called Earthshine Farms, breeding, by their words, pastured heirloom chickens raised in a conscientious manner. Owners Frank and Laura Kay Jones say they work zealously and downright humanely at raising the most delicious chicken you have ever tasted.
The chickens are being used at some very fine eating establishments and their testimonies are available on the Earthshine Farms website.
One journalist says, ‘It should not even be called chicken,? which I take to mean it must taste better than chicken! I am committed now to make the trek to Durand and buy one. But, they are not cheap – $4.95 a pound.
However, I am sure they are, at the very least, very flavorful and probably a lot like the ones I grew up with on the farm many years ago.
Speaking again of chicken, right here in Orion Township we have Casey’s Chicken, voted the third best chicken in the state. The other two are chains with a national formula.
I visited with Casey Barnard and he had already prepared 500 pieces of chicken that day. It was not even 3 p.m.
Casey makes broasted chicken, a deep fried chicken cooked under pressure and seared on the outside so the inside cooks in its own juices. Yum! Yum!
Casey said he does tons of parties, tailgates, funerals and the like. He makes his own barbeque sauce from scratch and I will say his barbecued chicken is a favorite here at my home.
Broasted chicken takes a few minutes to prepare, so build that into your visit or be sure to call ahead.
Casey’s is located on S. Lapeer Road, across from the Home Depot (or is the Home Depot across from Casey’s Chicken?). Order some for your family soon. It truly is a taste of Orion!

A food column — By Sue Turpen
Confucius said, ‘the path to your friend’s heart and soul begins with cooking,? and I do believe that. And, that is one phrase you have not heard from Matt Lauer or Meredith Vieira from Beijing and the 2008 Olympics.
However, it is just the right time to talk about and experiment with Chinese recipes, as we learned so much the past few weeks about the country of billions of people that is such a rising power in the world.
The art of Chinese cooking does not, contrary to popular belief, present any real difficulty. All the ingredients, including the fresh vegetables and meat used, water chestnuts, sesame oil, soy sauce, bean sprouts, etc. are available at our supermarkets. Chinese food exudes color, aroma, and flavor, and the best thing is, it is so nutritious.
There is a great difference between the food in China and the Chinese food served here at home. I think that is because Chinese cooks, upon first coming to this country, had to adapt their recipes to the things they could find here. Stir frying is a very important method of cooking there, as here. Sweet and sour pork, the ever-popular American Chinese dish, would not be on any of the menus in China. Four years ago, I traveled to China and Tibet with Professor Richard Stamps, of Oakland University. It was an experience and trip of a lifetime. Professor Stamps is an anthropologist and a specialist in the cultural anthropology of China.
Beijing and Shanghai are absolutely amazing cities and have changed dramatically since my trip. All of our meals were served in hotels. Our tour group, as with all visiting groups, had a number, and the Chinese government knows where visitors are at every minute. So, there was no opportunity to eat the food sold or served on the street that looks so good, but maybe in the long run would not be a good thing for your digestive system. Reservations for group meals are made ahead of time, and there was never any ordering involved. We sat at big round tables with large lazy Susans in the middle. The food was delivered and we ate. It was simple and stir fried, with lots of vegetables, and we ate with chopsticks! Eating with chopsticks at the level of expertise I had at the beginning is a great way to diet. Three bean sprouts and an occasional piece of chicken or fish works better than Jenny Craig any day. However, no fear; I became quite good. The servings were very ample, but again did not resemble anything we have on our Chinese menus.
I am going to suggest a very, very simple recipe, with a Chinese flair — certain to remind you of evenings spent watching the competition in Beijing.
Honey Chicken Wings begin with two lbs. of drumettes. Make a marinade of ? c. sugar, ? c. soy sauce, ? c. oil, ? c. honey, ? c. of sherry, one clove of garlic, minced, one T ground ginger. Combine all ingredients, add chicken, marinate three to four hours, or overnight. Arrange in baking dish and bake 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the marinade.
Simple, delicious, and a place to start!
However, you might just rather order Chinese, or better yet dine in at Carrie Lee’s in Orion Township on Baldwin Rd. and Waldon Rd. Carrie Lee’s just reopened seven weeks ago, after a fire damaged the restaurant. The restaurant serves Cantonese dishes, the ones most familiar to most of us, but also serves spicy dishes from the Szechuan province of China, and Thai dishes.
Ann Allos, owner of Carrie Lee’s, told me the most popular items on the menu are the Sweet and Sour Chicken and General Tso’s Chicken, a spicy battered chicken dish. The restaurant is open seven days a week and now cocktails are available.
The servings are very ample and begin with a choice of soups, won ton being my favorite; two won ton dumplings with greens in a delicate broth. Next a crispy egg roll with soy sauce and sweet and sour sauce is served. The entr’e comes with white or fried rice, and brown rice is available upon request. Also on the table are ubiquitous crunchy fried won tons to nibble on! And, of course, good hot tea is served throughout the dinner.
I chose Moo Shu Pork, a Szechuan dish, a combination of stir fried vegetables in a hoisin sauce, served with Chinese pancakes. The Moo Shu Pork is spooned into the pancake and rolled up and picked up and eaten in your hands. Once a waiter at an Asian restaurant told me, ‘it is Chinese taco!? And that is just what it is, and tasty too. Carrie Lee’s does a fine job and I brought too much of it home.
Thank you, Confucius, for one more bit of your wisdom. Cooking, learning others? ways of cooking, and enjoying others? ways of cooking is an expanding thing for all of us’and I did not mean just our waistlines!

By Sue Turpen
——and the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye, and it looks like it is climbing clear up the sky’And as it goes, it gifts us with the sweetest of kernels on its cobs.
-Ah! Summer in Michigan!
Late July and August bring to Michigan the nectar of the gods: delicious, fragile, sweet, delectable, crisp, juicy sweet corn. There really is nothing quite like it!
Each year I savor this time. Of course, we have beautiful tomatoes and other vegetables coming on too but my, oh my, that sweet corn. Sweet corn is available in our groceries really all year round, but like so many other bits of produce, it is sent from other parts of the country and although some may feel it is good, it does not compare.
You just have to make your way to a local farm, and buy it the very day or hour it is picked and have it on the table within hours. That is when it is at its very best.
Two of the farms I frequent often this time of year are Fogler’s, a large farm market on the corner of Rochester and Gunn Road, and Eichelbergs in Linden. Both have worked hard to produce the finest varieties of sweet corn, and if you will notice, when shopping these farms, the varieties change every few days as the summer progresses. I visited with Joe Fogler the other day as I selected my dozen ears. At that time they were featuring Trinity. They have about seven or eight varieties of corn throughout the summer and harvest about an acre a day.
There is no need, and it is not mannerly, to peel back the shuck to see what you have. These varieties are very specialized and all ears are uniform and tasty sweet. The Eichelbergs, at 11141 S. Linden Road in Linden, plant about the same number of varieties, and when I was there last week picking up three dozen ears, they were featuring their Super Sweet, and I will tell you that it was.
I grew up on a farm in southeastern Genesee County, Linden to be exact. Summer brought many delights and challenges and lots and lots of hard work.
My boy cousins arrived to spend the summer with Uncle Russ and work themselves to the bone. It was only when my own sons were teenagers that I realized what a great thing working on a farm in the summer can be. It keeps you from all sorts of crazy notions.
However, one of the best parts of being on the farm in summer was the bounty of vegetables, and most importantly’delightful sweet corn. The crop probably did not last two weeks and we ate it at least twice a day, and when the crop was finished it never passed our lips until the next August. I pretty much have stuck to that edict.
I will admit to a couple of ears in the last couple of years in Florida in winter. Guilty as charged! But nothing can compare to our sweet and delicious Michigan sweet corn’so precious at this time of year.
My grandson, Jack, will say to me, ‘Granny, are we having corn tonight??? And he did not grow up on the farm, but still understands and enjoys those sweet luscious morsels that bring a smile to all at the table.
I suggest a couple of recipes for sweet corn. Although enjoying this whole grain source of potassium, steamed with a little butter, or none, is so hard to beat.
Grilling corn can be a bit of variation. Start by peeling the corn shucks back, but leaving it on the cobs. Remove all the silk. Spray a bit of cooking spray on the corn and pull the shucks back up over the corn. Put on a hot grill for 10 to 12 minutes or until the husks are charred.
Prepare a flavored butter with ? cup of butter, 2 oz. of sun dried tomatoes that have been softened in boiling water, drained and chopped, 2 T of Italian parsley, chopped and 2 T of basil, chopped. Blend these ingredients, shape in a log, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for a couple of hours.
Bring back to room temperature and serve with the hot grilled corn. I think you will enjoy!
Make the most of these precious summer days and include in them delicious, delightful Michigan sweet corn!