I think I said last summer when we were in this area, it was one where my extended family lived and we visited often. There were memories made which are still very much alive even today.
My husband had an extra week of vacation he needed to use after the holidays this year. We didn't plan to go anywhere but decided to take advantage of a couple good weather days to make a quick trip north. We always love to get away but we had a purpose to this trip. We needed porketta's! If you've never had one, it's a pork loin rubbed with a peppery spice mixture that was often served at Italian weddings and funerals. My Aunt Gen would feed it to us when we came to visit. She'd toss it in the slow cooker with onion and a small amount of broth or water, cook it, cool it and slice it up for sandwiches. It was wonderfully memorable. We brought some home this summer and found that many of my cousins had the same memory of this delightful meal and wanted some of their own. We needed more so we decided to put out a call and promised we'd arrange it. I think the small town, struggling, food store that we'd gotten them from when Aunt Gen made them, was surprised when I called and told them I had an order for 24 porketta's 3-5 pounds each. I'm also sure they were pleased to fill the order.
Being that it was a 5 hour ride we opted to stay the night and take in some of the winter scenes in the area. It was beautiful albeit cold. It was so cold in fact that the ski hill closed for the two days we were there as wind chills went as steep as -30+ ºF. Still we enjoyed the crisp, clear, air and nature in the area. Under the sun it didn't feel so bad.
We stopped in Iron Mountain a couple years ago on our way from Copper Harbor to Chicago.We were there during the summer, so I love seeing it covered in snow! I really wanted to take the mine tour, but we didn't have enough time. I've never heard of a porketta, but it sounds delicious!
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