Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food

Leap Year - Making and Fixing Mistakes in Calendars, Cooking, and Marriage

I mistakenly thought that leap year existed because ancient Romans couldn't figure out how to make an accurate calendar, and that they inserted February 29th to fix their mistake. But a quick look on Wikipedia told me that our wobbling planet spinning through its elliptical orbit cannot be pinned down to an immutable measure of a day or a year by anyone. A year is only approximately 365.24219 days. The influence of these last decimal points compounds like interest. Thus, throughout time, expert astronomers of many cultures have contrived fudge factors to deal with it.

In a way, this news is heartening. As all recipes say, 'cooking time may vary'. The test of a good cook is not that h/she never errs in the kitchen, but that any error can be remedied. In other words, you make lemonade out of lemons, and your guests never know unless you tell them. For advice on fixing some common cooking mistakes, check out Michael Pollick's cooking tips. 

I make lots of cooking mistakes, and they usually have to do with proportions. For instance, when I bought the round steak last week to make sauerbraten, I asked the butcher for a 1 1/2 pound piece sliced 3 1/4" thick when I should have asked for a 3 1/4" pound piece sliced 1 1/2" thick. He told me he couldn't give me a piece that thick and that light, so I said "do what you can" and I went home with 7 1/2 pounds of round steak cut 3 1/4" thick. So what? I cut it in half and froze the rest. But this was one of my minor mistakes. Want to read more? Check out my posts on cooking game and turkey.

Sauerbraten: This German Pot Roast is a Recipe for Wisconsin Comfort Food Fit for Company Dinners

"Kiss the cook - she's German!" says a magnet on my mom's refrigerator. Thirty-five years ago her German father gave her a recipe for sauerbraten (German pot roast)used by the once-famous German restaurant, Luchow's, in New York City. Now, I know Wisconsin is over-run with sauerbraten recipes, -but this one is REALLY GOOD! Unlike typical American pot roast that dries up into strings of beef in the oven, this sauerbraten simmers in a marinade for three hours on the stove. It is tender and juicy and served with a comforting, light brown gravy that balances sweet with sour, and carrot, onion and ginger flavors. Plus, - It's EASY to cook! I'm posting the recipe on the side page, Comfort Foods - Wisconsin Style.

I don't make this sauerbraten as often as I should for two reasons. One, despite its soothing goodness, it is only craved when temperatures are below 50 degrees, - not really a problem in Wisconsin. But second, the beef must be specially cut by the butcher and then marinate in the refrigerator for three days. Thus, this sauerbraten cannot be served on a whim. True to its heritage, it exacts planning from the organized cook. (And now I've lost most of my readers.) But still - it IS easy to fix!

I especially like to serve sauerbraten when company's coming for dinner. Most people have never tasted sauerbraten this delicious, so it is a new treat for them. But, more importantly for a company dinner, the sauerbraten doesn't require attention when the guests arrive, and it can hang out on the stove until everybody feels like eating. In other words, this sauerbraten is laid-back and flexible, like the cook would like to be.

Healthy Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies Kids Crave

My daughter's school is nearly fanatical about forbidding fattening foods in the classroom. The school's restrictions on permitted snacks suggest that each eight-year old suffers from advanced heart disease and diabetes due to obesity. I agree with limiting sugar-intake in children. Like a hawk, I scrutinize what my children eat. (And I'm just amazed at how much sugar they can consume in one sitting.) Unlike the once-a-year penny-candy stick Laura Ingalls Wilder received in the Little House On The Prairie, sugar treats are continually dispensed in our modern world. My kids' hairdresser rewards them with Tootsie rolls. The pet shop clerk offers them Mounds bars. Our wonderful neighbors send over cookies and candies to show their affection. Thus, I applaud the school's attempt to put the brakes on sugar ingestion, despite the feeble impact these rules may have. At least the rules counter-balance our cultural practice.

But as any veteran dieter will tell you, one good binge undoes weeks of progress. So it was on Valentine's Day. Lauren returned from school with a sack-full of candy. No longer do children simply exchange tiny Valentine's cards, most also pass out candy. All the well-intentioned rules were ignored, except by Ryan's mother.

Ryan's valentine came in a baggy with a cookie and a printed recipe. Lauren announced that these were "The BEST COOKIES EVER!" "Can't we make them, Mom? PLEASE!!!"

The recipe surprised me. It both conformed to the school's regulations about sugar and fat content, AND Lauren liked it. The cookies were mostly oats, cranberries, and apricots, - foods that Lauren typically disdains. The sugar and flour content was minimal. But they were laced with mini-chocolate chips, so maybe that's why she deemed them beyond acceptable.

Thus, when it was time to celebrate "C-Day" we chose to make these Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies. Once a week Lauren and Dave and I celebrate a letter in the alphabet. (We're trying to ready Dave for kindergarten.) I bake something that starts with the special letter, while Lauren and Dave write the letter and paste it on the door. Then Dave collects things around the house that begin with the letter and places them in our special alphabet box.

Sings of Spring - Wisconsin Farmers Prepare for Farmers Markets

Wisconsin farmers are truly optimistic visionaries! Unlike the rest of us cowering inside complaining about single-digit temps and 5' snow drifts, Wisconsin farmers are readying for the summer growing season. They're busily fixing machinery and ordering supplies. They're convinced that winter will end.

Yesterday I caught their spring fever when I opened the letter from farmers Dan and Catherine Kleiber of Anisoptera Acres. (Even the name, Anisoptera, is hopeful. Anisoptera is the sub-order of insects that includes dragonflies - some of the first insects to take to the skies millions of years ago!) Catherine and Dan are putting out the word that they're ordering the chickens, ducks, hogs, and steers which they'll be raising this spring and summer for the Hilldale Farmers' Market. They're giving their regular customers a chance to put in orders for their free-range, natural meats. I appreciate this heads-up because last year their meats were so popular that they sold out.

Dan and Catherine Kleiber typify the Wisconsin farmers who sell high-quality meats at the farmers markets. The young animals they raise are hatched or born down the road on neighboring farms. The chicks come to the Kleiber farm when they're a day old; the hogs and steers arrive after they're weaned. Then the animals live out their lives in 5 acres of open pasture. The combination of fresh-air, exercise, and eating field vegetation supplemented with an all-natural livestock feed produces healthy animals, (which are probably pretty happy too!) Wisconsin farmers and their customers swear by the superior flavor of these home-raised meats. And these meats are typically leaner and contain the essential omega-3 fatty acids which are not naturally found in purely grain-fed animals. (Click here to read about the health benefits of grass-fed livestock.)

Locally-raised meats are becoming ever-more available at Wisconsin's farmers markets, - so move over fruits and veggies! In addition to chicken, beef, and pork, some farmers are selling duck, goose, turkey, trout, buffalo, venison, lamb, and even goat meat. (My daughter won't touch fillet mignon, but she LOVES Dan's ground goat meat! It sounds funny to hear her plead, "Please Mom can't we have goat tonight?" My friends ask "How do you cook 'goat?" I tell them to treat it like ground beef.)

Every summer day, somewhere in Wisconsin a farmers market is happening. Many of them begin in late-April and continue through October. Madison residents love their Capitol Square Farmers Market so much that the market keeps going through the winter (inside of course, - we're not crazy).

Warming up with hot breakfast drinks keeps the ice at bay

Warming Water

The air is too frigid to feel the sun. Tree branches glazed with ice look like glass. Icicles cling to rooftops. Out our window, the frozen beauty envelopes us.

But inside, we're heating water until steam streaks from the kettle. The whistle announces it's time to pour boiling water over tea leaves and coffee grounds. Meanwhile, milk, sweetened with sugar and cocoa, warms on the stove.

We sip our steaming breakfast drinks to warm our bodies, and prepare our spirits to wait for the bus outside in the bitter cold. All done, lest our hearts and minds become as ice.

We each have our favorite, soul-nourishing beverages. My husband favors tea; these days he's appreciating green teas. My children ask for peppermint tea with honey when they wake, and for hot chocolate after playing outside. My essential beverage is coffee, - rich, dark-roasted coffee, freshly-ground and freshly-brewed. I can take on the world if I'm sipping coffee.

But these are our favorites. I know other folks start their morning with colas or chais, lattes, or juices. I'm curious, beer-for-breakfast aside, is there a breakfast beverage that typifies Wisconsin? Or do we again show our independent spirit by the diversity of drinks which we select to begin our days?  What do you think? What do you drink?

Is it true that the fast-paced lifestyle of Americans drives us to grab more easily portable breakfast drinks like bottles of soda? Are the high-caffeine energy drinks replacing tea and coffee because they travel more conveniently and give a powerful jump-start to the day?

And what are our teenagers choosing to drink for breakfast? Do they choose differently when they transform into adults? In other words, will steaming hot breakfast beverages fade into the past as we rush to the future?

What do you think? What do you drink?

Nuts to Comfort Food and Wisconsin Snow - Electing Fruit-ful Change Now!

YUCK! I have had my LAST peanut butter sandwich! I have maxed-out, no - correction! - I have OVER-maxed-out on peanut butter sandwiches.  You may remember in a previous post I extolled the soothing powers of the All-American comfort food, the Peanut Butter Sandwich.  Well, today I renounce the peanut-butter sandwich-comfort myth. Any comfort it gives is brief and shallow. Peanut butter on wheat bread does not go the distance.  It's only mid-February and we've broken the Wisconsin record for annual snow fall! It still snows, and March, our snowiest month, is yet to come.

But will I cower inside nibbling some decadent, fattening food that my hips will display at the beach in July? No! I defy high-calorie tranquillization. Action, - action and change are what I want.

Tomorrow Wisconsites will vote in the presidential primaries. Like me, the democrats call for CHANGE! - But what change, we Wisconsinites wonder? I say - How about changing the weather?! To clarify a possible misunderstanding, I'll explain that when Wisconsinites bemoan climate change, we're referring to climate change in the tropics and the arctic.  Naturally, we feel sorry for the polar bears! But admit it fellow Wisconsinites - don't deny our secret whisperings. It's true confession time, - more Wisconsinites than is politically posh to admit, embrace climate change. There, I said our dark secret. Shorter, milder winters? We say, why wait decades? Barak and Hillary, - if you want to bring meaningful change to Wisconsin - bring SUMMER! 

But we Wisconsities are known for our independent spirit, our grass-roots activism.  We don't bide our time waiting for government crumbs. We act locally, and change globally. Therefore, as a Wisconsinite, if summer won't come to me, I'm going to summer. I'm going to the local fruit market where I will purchase papaya and limes, oranges, berries, bananas, cherries, melons, plums, and anything else that grows in zone 9.

Feeding Our Feathered and Furry Friends - Food Fun For Animal Lovers

Just a heads up: If you're thinking of placing an order today with Wisconsinmade.com I recommend placing it on-line rather than by phone. For you see, Nina is participating in this weekend's Great Backyard Bird Count. I'll be birding with her as soon as I finish this post. To attract birds, we've been keeping the feeders full. (Nina stresses when the feeder is out of seed. I reassure her that mine down the road is always full. Not to worry, these birds won't go hungry.) Chickadees, goldfinches, nuthatches, and northern juncos are our regular visitors. We get excited when a flicker flies past the window which makes Katie and Vicki look up from their computers. We have so much fun feeding animals! It's better than just watching them, giving them food is a way of interacting with them. It makes us matter to them, which is satisfying because they definitely matter to us.

I used to matter to a family of crows. When we lived in Madison, every morning I put out food in my backyard, and watched three crows come for breakfast. It didn't matter much what I put out, they weren't too particular. They really liked hot dogs, but would eat noodle kugel. Despite being Wisconsin crows, they didn't enjoy cheese. Instead they favored our meat industry. Boy, were they excited about the Thanksgiving-turkey carcass and the leftover, St. Patrick's Day corned beef!

Over time, they lost their hesitation to try unusual-looking foods (as long as the food was in my backyard, of course.) My young daughter suffered from their boldness one Easter. I hid the brightly-colored eggs in the yard and hours later each egg Lauren found was pecked open and mostly eaten. Yes, I had noticed the crows sitting on the phone wires watching me when I hid the eggs. But I thought, 'No, they wouldn't....'

Wisconsin Wonder Food! - Grown and Raised in Wisconsin, Cooked and Served at the Roxbury Tavern!

The Wonders of Wisconsin committee is asking folks to nominate the best small towns in our wonderful state of Wisconsin. A town can be nominated in one or more of 21 different categories. I nominated Roxbury, Wisconsin because it is home to one of our family's favorite restaurants, the Roxbury Tavern. (Roxbury is a town so small that its mail goes to Prairie du Sac.)

In a low-key, family-friendly atmosphere, The Roxbury Tavern serves up homemade, locally-produced food (and I mean local - the fresh meats, cheese, and beer are produced within and around Dane County). Owner Tom Gresser makes up his own garlic ketchup for the BEST HOMEMADE french fries. Homemade pickles garnish the tables. Read Jeanne Carpenter's interview with Tom for a taste of the tavern's history and community involvement.

We like to hear the local bands play on Sunday afternoons.  The kids color and eat their favorite grilled cheese sandwiches, while John and I sip Lake Louie beer on tap and eat Roxburgers. A relaxing place to hang out. We also go for their Sunday brunch because we love the pancakes. While we wait, the kids play with toys piled on shelves in a corner.

Valentine's Day Main Dishes - What to Serve BEFORE the Dessert?

Valentine's Day arrives in 3.5 days! Sidetracked by an early Mardi Gras, we're short-changing Lincoln's birthday, and racing to the heart of planning a Valentine's Day party. My husband is more prepared for Valentine's Day than I am. This weekend he bought each of the kids a heart-shaped box that has a Looney Tunes character on the cover and contains 4 chocolate candies. Last year they loved it, but preferred eating the high-quality chocolates he bought for me. Today the kids and I will plaster white and red heart-shaped paper doilies on the kitchen windows and cabinets, and hang them from the light fixtures. But what to cook for the main dish - our "good food"?

Clueless, I asked my office mates how they'll celebrate Valentine's Day. Their answers ranged from, "Don't know; maybe I'll wear a red shirt" to "I already bought myself a box of chocolates and ate it" to "Well, we have kids, so I'll probably order a heart-shaped pizza and make a chocolate dessert." This last response was the most promising so I followed up with, "Will you decorate the house?"

"No." Renee said, "Not this year, we're remodeling. But normally I put out my Valentine's Day plate and we hang Valentine's Day window clings." Renee is definitely working at my speed.

So, heart-shaped pizza. Is that all there is for a main dish? What can I make that meets these three requirements in this order?

1. "good food" my kids will eat
2. easy to prepare
3. festive for Valentine's Day

How about...

'B' is for Blessed By Bland Banana Bread - or: One Child's Treat is Mother's Tasteless Calories

Last weekend I baked banana bread.  I used the recipe from my decades-old, standard issue, cooking bible. You probably have it. It's the internationally acclaimed manual on how to cook anything. But in this post, I think it best to withhold the book's identity. However, maybe the book warrants its reputation because my kids and the neighbor kids declared the banana bread the Very Best Banana Bread they'd ever eaten! "Make it again, Mommy!" they cried. "When pigs fly," I muttered.

The bread had a decent banana taste because I super-maxed the banana content with my over-abundance of overly-ripe bananas. Otherwise, the bread tasted like white flour. Admittedly, I used only 2/3 of the white sugar called for (I always reduce the sugar proportion in baked goods). But even if I had added the extra 1/3 cup of sugar, it just would have tasted like semi-sweetened white flour, nuanced with banana.

The recipe was minimalistic - flour, soda, shortening, eggs, sugar, banana, and only enough salt so a cardiac arrest patient wouldn't feel completely deprived. It didn't even call for vanilla extract. To be fair, the recipe suggested additions of apricots and walnuts, but I knew these would elicit disgusted exclamations of "Eeewwww!" from my children. When I realized it would taste as bland as milk toast, I tried to salvage it by sprinkling cinnamon on the top right before I popped it into the oven. The cinnamon's effect was purely aesthetic.

But the kids LOVED it! They ate it for snacks and breakfast. They were thrilled to learn that a second loaf waited in the freezer. (Yes, I had bananas enough for two loaves.) As I anticipate having age-spotted bananas in the future, I send out this request to you, dear readers, for a banana-bread recipe that BOTH children and adults enjoy.

Please don't take my grumbling too seriously however, because the making of the banana bread accomplished a higher purpose.