Mary Drew had us traipsing through the U.P. woods earlier in the week - - looking at flowers and Isle Royale - - so I figured I'd continue the woodsy theme with this shot of a partridge in 'drumming mode'. Tom Cook is the lucky photographer to have captured this spring and sometimes fall ritual. These feathered friends are sometimes called drummers, ruffs, ruffled grouse, or if you live in the New England states: "pah-tridge". The male of the species drums while perched on his favorite log and has been compared to an old one-cylinder tractor starting up slowly, then increasing in speed. It's all created by rapid wing flapping and is a mini-version of a sonic boom! Always a welcomed sound when traversing in the bush.

Good morning from troll land.

I was never much of a hunter but was startled many times while walking thru the woods up above Hubbell near the Hungarian Dam. They were known to us kids as "pats" and would fly out from under the trees as we passed by. Nice weekend here in southern Michigan and hope to get back "up home" in 3 weeks.

There is only one time during the year when the public is invited to go out between the locks to see closer how they operate. While sitting here planning my trip to the SOO for Engineers Day celebration on June 25 I saw this book that may be of interest to anyone interested in great lakes shipping. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20216&item=2249016248

Good afternoon, great pic. We always called 'em Pats. Man, that guy could never get his tractor running right -- every few minutes he'd get it slowly started, get it running good and fast, then it'd die out. He spent more time trying to get it running that he did cuttin' wood!! Waidmannsheil, Dom.

Airport web-cam not working today? Can't get a look at the sky there today...

What a great photo! Wish I were there walking through the woods, enjoying nature.

My Grandpa Beanie used to make a (Bouya)with Partridge,rabbit,& squirrel meat all in it from the small game that was harvested in the Fall of course.Yooper's know what Vension Bouya is and smells like.Would someone explain to those out there that will be asking what Bouya is other then a soup? Cause i'am not sure myself anymore.And how to pronouce it,and do i have it spelled right?

Good morning from Portland,it is rainy and cooler today. To the other Jeff in Eugene who asked me yesterday if I have found any pasty's in Portland, no not yet but I'm still on the search.

Great picture! Have seen Ruffed Grouse, have heard them, but have never seen one booming. By the way, they are as far south as the GA mountains.

Let's be nice to one another today, eh?

Why just today? :->

From: Bill and Cat
Subject: Bouya
Date: 2 Feb 2000 13:28:59 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes


This dish came from Poland and has been a part of Central Minnesota's
tradition since the depression when churches began serving it, partly to
make a little money and partly to help feed people well and cheaply. The
original Bouja required long slow cooking of the meat and vegetables and
that used to be done over wood fires. Today's home ( or grocery store)
canned and frozen vegetables speeds this up a lot. My source for this
recipe is The Minneapolis Star: Wed. April 19, 1972 : Bouja is Bouja.

RIEDER'S [ POLISH ] BOUJA (Makes 10 Gallons)

2 (6 to 7 lb) hens
6-8 lb boiling beef
2 stalks celery, cut up
1 head cabbage ( about 2 lb) cut up
8 onions cut up
6 ( 12oz ) paks frozen beans, corn, peas, carrots, etc
2 ( 15 oz ) cans rutabagas
2 ( 15 oz ) cans lima beans
2 ( 15 oz ) cans cut yellow beans
2 Large ( 28 oz ) cans whole,peeled tomatoes crushed
salt and pepper to taste
1 oz dry picking spice

Boil chicken and beef in a heavy kettle until tender. Use enough water to
cover. Remove meat and cut into small bite-sized chucks. Discard fat and
skin. To broth, add celery, cabbage, onions and boil until almost tender.
Add remaining vegetables according to taste and desired thickness.

After vegetables have cooked a short time together add meat and simmer
until meat breaks apart. Stir occasionally with a wooden paddle. Salt and
pepper to taste. Put ( VERY IMPORTANT) dry pickling spice in a strong
cloth bag and tie firmly with string so it won't come apart. Drop the
bag into simmering bouja plunging it in and out after a shot time,
tasting as you go until it tastes right..

Bill Hilbrich
Student of Humanity and
Nasty Protector of White Swans

WHAT IS THAT??? : Just got to your favorite search engine (YAHOO, GOOGLE, ETC) and type in the word or subject that you are interested in and Click on It - you will receive at least a dozen search sites but carefully pick out the one you think is appropriate and sooner or later you should find the answer you desire. Good Luck!

To Jeff from Portland,OR...where are you from in the UP?

Dave H,I remember your Grandpa Beanie. Years ago when I was little several families from $ Bay would go down to the lake via Mosquito road and have Bouya's. Their's were chicken with vegetables.It was an inexpensive outing.I am sure each family contributed a part of the meal. Some of the families that were there were the Cadeau's,Gestel's,Verdian's,Sawyers, and our familiy.I have a picture somewhere of all of them I'll see if I can find it.

My French-Canadian family would come to our cottage in Bootjack with Chicken Bouya and it had fluffy dumplings on top....I know it had onion and celery and not too much more than maybe peas or green beans in a thick gravy. It was so good!!.....Does anyone out there know how they made "French-Chicken-Bouya"?? There was another French-dish.....nothing more than a large piece of pork and fresh green beans slowly-simmered together..maybe with onion....drained, seasoned and served. It sounds yucky but it is wonderful. Don't know what they called this dish...

Awesome picture. I would like to see a German Shorthair locked in place pointing it.

My Aunt Dorie used to make chicken bouja when I was growing up. She made it with stewing chicken,(from old hens, not like the chicken we use today)potatoes, celery, and onion. She'd simmer it quite awhile and then make dumplings on top of it. Boy, did I enjoy it! She'd invite me over everytime she made it. Now I make it but it sure doesn't compare to hers.

I'm telling ya.....we need a recipe page...this site makes me soooo hungry ! LOL

camwatcher, I agree... maybe a Pasty.com visitors
cookbook?

My late mother made partridge pot pie and it was so delicious! Cousin Antti used to give her his
partridge to freeze till she had enough to make pies for him too.

Reference partridge and favorite stews, pot pies, etc., last week a beautiful partridge flew into my bedroom window, fell to the ground, and died. He was still warm when we found him. I felt really bad but I expect his demise was sudden--perhaps a broken neck. Didn't cook him, however, because I was unsure about the health of a bird who died flying into my window. When we were kids, our Dad used to shoot several and roast them for supper. I can still envision in my mind the perfectly roasted, absolutely delicious scrawny birds resting in the speckled blue enamel roaster. Oh, how we hated having to be so careful when eating them because of the possibility of buckshot embedded in the meat.

This site certainly brings back untold memories stored for so many umpteen years in the nether reaches of my brain. Thanks for the memories and best wishes to all contributor Yoopers, displaced Yoopers, and wannabees from your newest YOOPER from Sedar Bay.

Hey gang.......don't forget to watch "Smarty Jones" run the Belmont Stakes today....Channel 34 has a pre-race show on right now......I think "Smarty Jones" has a lot of Yooper-type qualities.....lots of heart..spirt and smarts....guess it is "SISU"....He sure has given a badly needed boost to America. Go, Smarty Jones take the triple crown!!

To Jeff Portland & Jeff Eugene,
Try QFC saw them in Vancouver WA some time back.

Ron, are they Angus 's Pasties? They're not bad.
I think the Ship Inn in Astoria has pasties, too.

Thank's Whiskey Creek down the road in NC.for posting the info on Bouja along with the 10 gallon recipe.I was sure it would stirr up some conversation and bring memories like many remember the Bouya being stirred by family or friends.
Fran, the chickens Beanie used to raise also,and I bet everthing else came out Sam's garden.I remember all the names you wrote except the Verdain's. Sure would like to see that pic you have.

Mary Lou, Channel 6, is out on tv. They are supposed to cary the race. Any body else have a problem?

God bless America and a special thanks to president reagan for doing a superb job.he will be missed....

nice picture of a pat. used to walk right up to them in the woods when they were druming nice expriences i remain walter p

I wish president reagan had come to Laurium to honor the Gipper ..while in the White House at one time he said he wanted to

If a cookbook was to be made, maybe some of the profits could benefit a Yooper cause like an animal shelter or some place in need? These are just thoughts in my head, that big pasty on my shoulders.

Why not a cookbook for the benefit of Stillwaters? That's what this site is all about.

Did r. reagan die? The last I heard on the radio he had just taken a "turn for the worse". What's the scoop?

Yes, The "Gipper" passed away...

Charie and all
we need a recipe book of regional items from your residents and from the recently closed restaraunts too..seems some of the viewers of this site know some restaraunt secrets too.profits would go to Stillwater of course.

twincitypackfan, from minn. Ditto!! A great man left this earth today. May he rest in peace.
From another new yooper that was once a yooper long ago come home.

To Dave of Laurium: Per my post of June 3 about my dad. Maija says it was the Kearsarge Mine, not the Osceola mine, as she seems to remember the incident. I just know how angry I have become as I get older, how C & H treated my Mom after the death of my dad, and how hard she struggled to make ends meet.

To need to know how to make nisu: Some of my best sources for such ethnic recipes are the Bootjack Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary, Bootjack, Michigan, and The Ladies Aide of the Apostolic Lutheran Church, Laurium, Michigan. I have many of their books. Happy Hunting

The Friday shot of Ripley shows alot of damage to the area, vegatation gone and erosion, bare earth. This needs to be corrected.

There is a French dish very similar to what you are talking about. Just pronounced a little different. I imagine all of the European countries had similar versions of this dish.
Nice picture, when I was a kid up there all we knew them as was pats or partridge, didn't know until I grew up that their real name was Ruffed Grouse.

Sorry to see one of our greatest presidents, President Reagan, depart this earth, but glad to see he has been released from his suffering from the terrible disease of Alzheimers. May our Lord comfort his family and friends. And may God bless them and America forever.

Can't remember ever making "pork pie" but it was one of mom's family receipes from Grandma Slattery (nee Burnette)who was French-Canadian. Would love to give copy of receipe to any cookbook organized in Copper Country. It was delicious, ALMOST as wonderful as pasties. Did everybody have a beautiful day today like we had.? Sorry to hear of President Reagan's passing. We just came home from dinner in Dixon where he spent his youth. He is fondly remembered by folks around here. Even if I didn't always agree with his policies, he was a good man.Peace be with you, Mr. President.

Pork pie anyone???http://www.low-carb-recipes.ws/Tourtiere_French_Canadian_Pork_Pie_.html

My aunt-in-laws make meat pie for special occasions, always for New Year's Day. They are French-Canadian from the Saginaw Valley. It is soooo good, I tell my husband it's thier version of the pasty!

To Need to Know:

Email me--I have a recipe already in email form for nisu mixed in a bread machine (or you could be a purist).

Ms Katie, I just love Pork Pie!! It was rich but oh so good.I grew up eating foods that came from many different nationalities. In an old Copper Country cookbook they have sections for each nationality.

My son is going to try and send the picture of the people that were at the bouya. I also found a couple of some C& H buildings that I will send
later.

Dave, since this was in the depression yrs and If I remember right they all participated.My Dad and Mrs Gestel raised chickens also and had gardens so I am not sure who gave what.My Mom had said that it was cheap way to have fun. Verdeans were related to Gestels.

The way my relatives made pork pie was with ground pork,a little ground beef, an onion a grated raw potato, salt, pepper, sage and water. Some people use some ground cloves in it. You simmered it for a couple of hours til most liquid had simmered down. Put it in a pie crust and bake it. My Grandma made a tough pie crust so it would hold(absurb the liquid). I came from generations of great cooks and bakers in my family. I'd be for having cookbooks printed for this site. I'd be able to share quite a few recipes. Has anyone heard of Easter sausage? Would like to get a recipe for that, I lost mine. It's like a bread stuffing in a casing that is simmered. You slice it and eat it. It has eggs,ham,green onion and bread in it.

re: bill ball comment: Can anyone give further info on the public day at Soo Locks, or a website where we could get it. Sounds fascinating. Thanks in advance.

Try here: Soo Locks Festival

The French-Canadian community in Lake Linden traditionally had French-pork pie,,,,"Tourtiere"...(took-iere) after mid-night Mass at St Joseph's Church on Christmas eve....Families and friends would gather at a home after Mass and start the holiday celebration...often the menu included head-cheese and condiments like crab-apples, pickles cranberry sauce and fruitcake & other sweets. There was wine and brandy, beer as well as soft drinks. They would celebrate till the wee hours Christmas morning. On New Years morning the father of the family would give a small-gift to the first child who wished him a Happy New Year. My mother was the youngest of 7 daughters of Jacques Pierre Boudreau and her goal was to try to be the first to kiss his cheek on New Years Day. The rest of New Years Day, after Mass, was spent going from house to house...always kissing your family member, wishing them health and good fortune........& eating pork-pie and toasting to the New Year.......Happy Days!!

To Lowell, MO
I may have you beat. I did not know that partridge was really ruffed grouse until reading it in this column today! I am 73 1/2 and ate many partridge (whoops, ruffed grouse) over the years. Let's go with a cook-book of old recipes. I am a purist that does not use any mixes or easy way to cook or bake but often make up my own recipes.

rt,mi I believe thats the Tech ski hill your looking at, not erosion.

Am I in a time warp, or is today still Saturday?

Beam me up Scottie, or is it Scotty?

my observation: so? Only cause it's a ski hill doesn't mean it is not erosion. E. is the process, no matter by what it is triggered or accelerated. On the pic it does appear like modest to heavy ski hill erosion to me, but a closer look might prove otherwise.

Thank you for the BOUJA recipe!!!!
I have wanted to make it since my youth --growing up in Minnesota at least once a summer the whole neighborhood would meet in the park for Bouja. I tell people about it now and they think I'am crazy---when I try to tell them what was in it. Thank you.

Barb from Chicago

Well, you are certainly welcome, Barb...

Just because I was too lazy to do the morning dishes, I decided to Google my name, and found that recipes that I have been posting for years are now scattered all over the place. And it is always a good feeling to know that I have somehow helped to make someones day a little brighter.

Bill ( who actually grew up in Glenview, ILL.)