Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food

Wisconsin Families Making Maple Syrup Signals Spring Is Back! Tour The Sugar Bushes

Spring is back in Wisconsin! Wisconsin maple syrup producers are tapping the trees! Wisconsin is dappled with maple syrup family farms, called Sugar Bushes. And while cows snooze, Wisconsin families are in the woods collecting buckets of sap which they will boil into pure maple syrup. Accept no substitutions! Leave that maple-flavored corn syrup on the grocery-store shelf! Pour REAL maple syrup on your pancakes and you'll taste REAL Wisconsin.

You can tour some Wisconsin sugar bushes and see the whole maple syrup producing process. The Maple Sweet Dairy in DePere, WI is holding the next open house on March 21st. Keep reading for more Wisconsin signs of spring and a real buttermilk pancake recipe.

Playing With Food In Wisconsin: Winter Fun With Kids, Sleds And Summer Sausages

What do Wisconsin kids like to do in winter? SLED! And what Wisconsin food do kids love to eat? SUMMER SAUSAGES! And how do Wisconsin kids play with their food in winter? RACE THEIR SUMMER SAUSAGES ON SLEDS!  Put it all together and we've got winter fun in Wisconsin.

Was sledding with summer sausages my kids idea? Heavens no. They're not so clever yet. My children still require some adult direction on how to really have fun in winter. My friends at work and I were the geniuses behind summer-sausage sledding races. Inspired by Milwaukee's sausage races at Brewers' games, we mused about how Wisconsin sausages have fun in winter. Being the biologist, I wondered how summer sausages made from different species would compete once the advantage of long-leggedness had been removed. Normally, the long-legged elk would out-run the short-legged buffalo, the steer, and even the deer. But, with legs removed, which species would win? Curious? Click on the clip. 

To find out about the contestants, keep reading.

Cooking Dinners For Picky-Eaters: Baked Pork Chop Recipe For Picky Parents

Normally my cooking acrobatics revolve around getting my picky-eater children to eat the nutritious dinners I serve them. Yes, I've molded meatloaf into animal shapes, concealed vegetables under pasta and potatoes, or doused everything with a hearty helping of melted cheese. But sometimes the tables turn, usually when I'm cooking pork.

You see, when it comes to pork, I'm the picky-eater. There's something about cooked pork, maybe the dense texture, likely the flavor, that I just don't enjoy. To me pork is tasty when I can't taste it. That means it's been baked or barbecued for hours beneath a barbecue sauce and all I'm really tasting is the sauce. The one baked pork chop recipe I really like is the result of my own picky-eater ingestion-inducing tactic; I bake pork chops smothered in cream of mushroom soup and French-style green beans. My mother came up with that pork chop recipe and now I bake it for my kids. Why? -because I'm doomed to have kids who like pork. And pork, compared to other meat, is highly affordable. So when the grocer had pork chops on sale for $1.99/lb, into the basket they went. But what to do with them?

I tried a new recipe that I thought I might like. The pork chops are baked in a sweetened tomato sauce spiked with beer. This pork recipe I figured I could stomach. Keep reading for this kid-friendly, easy baked pork chop recipe.

Rewarding Kids With Healthy Cranberry Oatmeal Chip Cookies; Is Training Kids With Treats OK?

Last weekend I baked healthy dog treats with which to reward my puppy at his dog training class. My children asked for some of the treats but I refused them. That was stupid. Those dog treats were healthier than most of the food I give my children. I just got hung up on the fact that the recipe came from a doggie treat cookbook. But I did promise my kids that I'd bake them some "human" oatmeal cookies. And last night I made good on my promise.

I followed an exceptionally healthy recipe for cranberry oatmeal chip cookies. And I used dark chocolate chips to boot! My kids loved them. I loved them. They're chewy and sweet and tart and chocolaty - all the right good stuff! But the question remains in my mind. Should I use these healthy treats to train my children? I've had marvelous success training my dogs with treats. But is it okay to train children using food? Keep reading for my musings and the great recipe.

Homemade Dog Biscuit Recipe For Easy Dog Training; Healthy Treats Help In Puppy Agility Class

Today's guest post-writer is Tao, a 10-month old German Shepherd dog.

Here I am running the puppy agility class course at Badger Kennel Club. It's the last dog training class of the session and I'm showing my stuff. These hoops, these tunnels, these weaving poles are a piece of cake for SUPER DOG! Here's a picture of me with the agility class instructor. He thinks I'm listening to him. I'm thinking about the homemade dog biscuit he's holding. Keep reading for more of the story, more pics, and a recipe for healthy treats made with whole oats, wheat germ and cinnamon. YUM!

Pot of Gold Cookies and Cake Make Decorative Centerpiece for St. Patrick's Day Party Table

We love celebrating St. Patrick's Day because it's the first holiday of spring! And in Wisconsin, spring is definitely worthy of grand celebration! St. Patrick's Day and the Irish lore of "the little people" give the kids and me lots of magical themes for creative cooking. We also have a large, cast-iron cooking pot that invites play. This year we're testing out table centerpieces for our St. Patrick's Day party by creating a pot of gold cake and cookies.    

Our edible centerpiece was super-easy to make and looks fun, but the very best part is the cookies. I got this Scotch scone recipe from Mrs. Sweeney. I don't know why they're called Scotch scones; they don't look like scones and there's no scotch in them. But Mrs. Sweeney isn't Irish either, - her husband is the Chicago Irishman. But some of my very best Irish recipes have come from Mrs. Sweeney. It's Mrs. Sweeney's corned beef recipe that I make every St. Patrick''s Day. It's the very best! But keep reading for her Scotch scone cookie recipe.

Wisconsin-Winter Food Dreams: Cucumber Salad Recipe Defies Ice Dam

Jimmy the Ground Hog in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin said spring would come early in Wisconsin. And it is. Lately, we've had days of 33 degrees on which kids descend coat-less from the school bus exclaiming, "It's so WARM!" A few birds are tentatively singing. And when the snow falls, some of it even melts. But this melting is not all good at the end of this Wisconsin winter. Melting means that the snow which melted into water must now go somewhere. And when the snow on the roof melts, where will this new rooftop river run when the gutters remain packed with 9" of ice? This ice dam is too high for the water to surmount, so instead that water flows through the roof and runs down the inside walls of the house. A waterfall right in the house. Such is the stuff of dreams.

Time for a food dream, - a summer food dream. It's the only path past winter frustration. Must dream of food symbolizing summer. Must make summer salads. Must make herbed Greek salad with cucumbers! Read on for the recipe.

How To Roast A Chicken: Lazy Cook's Stuffing An Accidental Success For Sunday Dinner

Lazy Sunday afternoons require effort. All those household chores must be actively ignored. Exhaustion helps the would-be lazy mom and dad, as well as demands of bored children crying, "Play with me!" This Sunday I heeded their pleas, and we played games inside and out. But then what to do about dinner?

I had a whole chicken which at 1:30 I popped into the oven after seasoning it on the outside and stuffing it on the inside. If I hadn't been lazy, I would have followed recipes for roast chicken stuffing created by real chefs. In the past I've done so and have been pleased with delicious results. Keep reading for the onion and sage stuffing recipe of one such Wisconsin chef.

But this Sunday I was so lazy I just sprinkled not-so-random spices on top of the washed bird. I sprinkled parsley, red pepper, paprika, and then a mix of spices called Bavarian spices. Not sure what's in that but I like it. You can get it at Penzy's in Madison. As an after-thought I brushed the chicken with olive oil.

But should I stuff the chicken? Kids like stuffing. I like stuffing. I had a half-used bag of Pepperidge Farm stuffing in the cupboard. All signs said, "Yes, stuff the chicken". But I'd already put the chicken on a rack sprayed with non-stick olive oil spray in the pan. And I certainly was too lazy to pull out a skillet and make Pepperidge Farm stuffing according to the package instructions. So instead I chose to continue experimenting with microwave cooking. Read on for my new, fast easy stuffing recipe that made that roast chicken super-moist. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but laziness can be the genius behind accidental success.

The Stamm House Restaurant Serves Wisconsin State History Along With Great Wisconsin Food

Recently my family enjoyed a delicious dinner at one of Madison, Wisconsin's oldest restaurants: The Stamm House. The limestone and wood restaurant on Madison's west-side was built in 1847 to serve as a stagecoach stop for weary travelers journeying from the Wisconsin state capital. The restaurant's second floor, now seating area, then was a large partitioned room in which travelers slept the night. Below floorboards of the ground floor, in an oval, limestone-walled, storage space, different travelers rested during the day before they continued their night passage along our country's famous Underground Railroad. This small room was refuge to groups of run-away slaves. A large hole, cut into the limestone, opened to a tunnel through which these fugitives could flee to the Pheasant Branch creek should pursuing mercenaries and their dogs come too closely.

Back To Eating Healthy Foods Again; Recipe For Cauliflower Broccoli Salad With Apples And Cranberries

Valentine's Day is past. Mardis Gras is over. The last of my chocolate cakes have been eaten. Time to get back to eating healthy foods again. It's the boom and bust cycle of affluent eating. We can afford to eat fattening, tasty foods so we do. Then we regret that we did so we resolve to eat healthy foods... again. A lot of us made this resolution on January 1st. But by February 1st, we'd slipped. Yet how could we help it? Valentine's Day is a whole day dedicated to eating chocolate. Mardis Gras is a whole night dedicated to eating in excess absolutely everything we want. The holidays and advertisers conspire against us...And now, here's Lent. For Christian believers, Lent is 40 days of back on the wagon of healthy living. But not to despair, chocolate Easter bunnies are coming. In the meantime however, we need healthy foods that also taste good.

My first contribution to this post-Mardis Gras season is this recipe for cauliflower broccoli salad with apples and raisins, except as usual, I substituted cranberries for the raisins. Cranberries are a super-food that's super healthy. But more to the point, I love cranberries. Keep reading for the recipe.