Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food

Recipe for Comforting Sick Children - Homemade Macaroni and Cheese Casserole

Sunday, Lauren (8) came down with strep throat. For the first 36 hours, she consumed only sporadic tablespoons of jello. Yesterday, she tentatively began eating again. This noon, she requested macaroni and cheese. Relief dropped my shoulders back below my ears. Her health is returning. Eager to please, I went for the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese box, - a staple in the cupboard.

"Oh no, Mom. Please not Kraft," she said in a plaintiff voice. "Won't you make it like you did before? -Homemade macaroni and cheese?!"

I looked at her blankly. I had no clue how I had made "homemade" macaroni and cheese before. I said I didn't remember how to make it.

"But Mom, that was the best macaroni and cheese EVER! You know how! - You do!" She insisted.

I admit a vague remembrance of tossing odd amounts of cheese into...was it butter and milk? Did I use olive oil? Did I do it in a double boiler? I was at a loss. Typical, that night I must have been just tossing and stirring food into pots while my mind tended to household mail, kid homework, 'ow-ies', sibling squabbles, and all the rest that goes into a normal, healthy life. And that night I made "the best macaroni and cheese ever? Hmh, I paused. It's not that I'm a great cook, mind you. It's just that that night I must have gotten lucky, and they ate what I made.

"Please Mom, won't you make it?" she repeated her plea. What could I say to those fever-glazed eyes? My daughter had just returned from a mother's-imagined death's door. Somehow I had to whip up a cheese sauce. So what did I do?..I punted.

I remembered seeing a macaroni and cheese recipe in The Cancer Survival Cookbook, in the section "Easy Lunches". (Seemed appropriate at the moment.) The recipe is slightly more elaborate than a Kraft mock-up. It is actually a casserole in which the macaroni and cheese get baked with seasonings beneath a bread crumb/parsley/cheese topping.  So I made it. And I'm posting the recipe on the side page Comfort Foods - Wisconsin Style.

I mostly followed the ingredients list. I had already dumped pasta in water, so I wasn't sure the pasta proportion was exactly 10 ounces like the recipe called for. And I didn't use elbow macaroni, - but both my substitutes (from previously opened boxes) were rippled or twisted. I didn't have shredded American cheese, - I used shredded Mozzarella. But Weihofen and Marino, the cookbook's authors, say to try the recipe with cheddar and Swiss, so I guess they're flexible about cheese too.

The upshot? - We both liked the baked macaroni and cheese...

Gifts of the Garden: Flowers, Spices, and Beer for a Happy Mother's Day!

With spring comes Mother's Day! Two weeks before Mother's Day is when we start thinking about what to send my husband's mother in Rhode Island. She is an avid gardener so a garden-related gift is always appreciated - except if it's a gardening tool; she already has lots of those.

My mom also loved gardening. In fact, when I was a kid, her standard Mother's Day gift from my brother and me was one day's labor in the garden. We raked out the flower beds and did the early weeding. I don't remember doing it as joy but rather as a duty. Of course, our one day's labor was really only a half day. Mom always let us off after a couple of hours.

When I got my own home, our Mother's Day gift arrangement changed. On or near Mother's Day, Mom and I would go together to a garden center. I would buy her a flowering plant for Mother's Day, and she would buy me flowering plants for my birthday. Notice that her gift to me was in the plural. Mothers are like that.

Regarding special Mother's Day foods that we fixed Mom, I only remember the comical 'breakfasts in bed' we tried to serve her when we we very young. She would express effusive appreciation and try to conceal her worry that we were about to spill coffee and juice all over her bed.

On our birthdays, Mom would let us choose the dinner menu. I can tell you the favorites she fixed me, my brother, and my dad. But, honesty, I don't recall what she ate on her birthday. I guess we went out, but I don't remember what she ordered.

Last spring, Mom passed away from cancer. And now I sit wondering what she would eat on Mother's Day. The only foods I can come up with are Chinese food and foods containing lemons. I'm not much of a chef in Chinese cuisine. But I've got this great recipe for ginger bread with lemon sauce, which I figure could be more than an acceptable compromise. In addition, both the bread and the sauce call for a cup of beer, - so now we're talking celebrating Mother's Day Wisconsin style!

I'm posting the recipe on the side page MORE recipes with brats, beer, and cheese! But click for more below, and I'll tell you my little improvisation on Ginger Bread and Lemon Sauce.   

Hungry Happy Hippo Hotdogs - Preschooler Plays with Food and Learns the Alphabet!

Last night second-grader Lauren, preschooler Dave, and I constructed hungry happy hippo hotdogs for dinner. This fun food project was one installment in our weekly attempt to teach Dave the alphabet and ready him for kindergarten. Last night's letter of the week was 'H'. Dave drew upper and lower case 'H's and we all made exaggerated 'h' sounds in numerous words beginning with 'H'.

I admit to an ulterior motive for creating this game of hungry happy hippos out of hotdogs. Years ago, when I was a dog trainer, one strategy we used to stop unwanted canine behavior was to train the dog to perform the behavior on command, and once mastered, we would never give the command. Last night I decided to apply this tactic to stopping the 'G' for Gross table manners of my children. To train them not to play with their food, last night I attempted to put it on command.

I told them that after they ate their zucchini, they could make their own hungry happy hippos. As they ate, they watched me cut a bun-length hotdog in half cross-wise. I set aside one half for the body; the other half I cut into equal size pieces. The rounded end I used for the head. The other pieces I sliced length-wise and used one slice for each leg. To attach the legs and head to the body, I then broke toothpicks in half and used a half-toothpick to connect the head and each leg into the body. 

Eating Healthy in Wisconsin with Nutritious Sauerkraut Pork Chops

So you don't like sauerkraut? Is this because you didn't eat it as a child or because you did? Have you tried it baked with apples and brown sugar? Have you had it in a seasoned wine sauce? Did you ever try it mixed with hickory-smoked bacon and served smothered over pork chops? The following recipe combines all of these delicious flavors into one dish, humbly named: Sauerkraut Pork Chops. It comes from the cookbook, Foods That Made Wisconsin Famous, by Richard J. Baumann.

• 1/4 pound bacon (hickory smoked recommended)
• 6 loin pork chops about 1 inch thick
• 2 pounds sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
• 1 jar (15 ounces) chunky applesauce (regular is OK, but chunky is preferred)
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 cup dry white wine (or champagne)
• Dash pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

Dice bacon and saute until crisp; drain on absorbent paper. Saute pork chops separately until golden brown on both sides. Mix diced bacon, sauerkraut, applesauce, brown sugar, dry mustard, wine, and pepper. Place 1/2 of the sauerkraut mixture in bottom of shallow 9x12 -inch casserole. Place pork chops on top of mixture and cover chops with remaining sauerkraut mixture. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

So you like the other ingredients in this recipe, but you're still skeptical about the sauerkraut. "Why risk mucking up the pork with sauerkraut?" you ask. "Aren't green beans a safer bet?" I do have a wonderful recipe for pork chops and green beans which someday I'll post. But that recipe is not nearly as nutritious as this one.

Nutritiondata.com gives sauerkraut a 4+ star nutrition rating. Sauerkraut is low in cholesterol and fat, and a good source of calcium, magnesium, vitamins: C, K, B6 and folate, and minerals: iron, potassium, copper and manganese. It is also an excellent source of dietary fiber. Wikipedia describes how the fermentation process of cabbage works to produce sauerkraut rich in lactobacilli. Lactobacilli are beneficial bacteria found in yogurt and are often prescribed to combat harmful bacterial infections.

Because of its nutrition and long shelf-life, sauerkraut has been a staple food of peoples in northern climates for centuries. From Germany to northern China our ancestors survived and prospered with fermented cabbage.

But beyond nutrition, let's get practical. A jar of sauerkraut is every harried cook's standby veggie.

Race Weekend in Wisconsin! - Run Faster with this Recipe for Spaghetti Pie!

This weekend starting guns fire and Wisconsinites will run exuberantly, recklessly, euphorically outside! Wisconsin's warm-weather season begins! The jolly spring giant has finally poked the ant mound that is Wisconsin, and we Wisconsinites will frantically pour out of our protective shelters, rushing helter-skelter in all directions, to take it on! This weekend's events calendar on TravelWisconsin.com links to:

• 3 foot-races, -one of which is the Madison Crazylegs 8K run, 2 mile walk, and wheelchair race
• 3 motorcycle and ATV races
• 3 canoe races
• 2 fishing tournaments
• And an alpaca competition!

And for those Wisconsinites who'd rather stroll than compete, garden expos abound and nature areas lift up their gates! Yes, Wisconsinites are on the move! We're moving OUTSIDE! And this weekend a lot of us are movin' FAST!

Being the author of a food blog, I predictably asked, "What are the best foods for a racer to eat?" I Googled the question, "What to eat before, during, and after a race?" and got over 250 appropriate links. So obviously not only Wisconsin, but the rest of the world is running around just for the joy of it too! On the Run Events.com (the first hit) recommends carbs like spaghetti the night before the race, and carbs such pancakes or toast the morning of. I found a runners' chat on the question, and the consensus seemed to endorse oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast. "Avoid the dried fruit!" they warned. (It's a fiber-timing thing. I understand this. I once went on a back-packing trip and supplied all of my companions with copious quantities of dried fruit. I imagine the moose found that mountain especially lush the next year.)

So in the spirit of this race weekend, I looked through my cookbooks for spaghetti recipes. I found one that fits my cooking style - easy, nutritious, fast-to-make, and, best of all, can be prepared ahead of time. It also can easily be brought to pot-lucks! The recipe is spaghetti and Italian sausage pie, and I'm posting it on the side page Everyday dinners easy enough to cook every day. The recipe comes from Wisconsin nutritionist Donna Weihofen, R.D.'s cookbook, Mom's Updated Quick Meals Recipe Box: 250 Family Favorites in Thirty Minutes or Less.

Recipe for Aztec Chicken - Flexible, Accomodating, Spicy and Comforting - Just like the Cook!

It's 4:30 in the afternoon. The kids typically eat between 5:30 and 6:00. "What's for dinner?" they ask. "What's on hand?" I silently wonder. Perusing the 'fridge I find most of the ingredients for Aztec Chicken. I like this recipe; it's flexible. I consider it one of those template recipes. The basic way to make it stays the same, but ingredients and proportions can vary. The recipe accommodates the cook rather than the other way around. A secondary plus is that servings of the same Aztec Chicken meal can be either spicy or bland. Thus, it can simultaneously be comfort food for both kids and adults. Third, because the flavors blend together over time, the left-overs can taste even better than the original servings. (And tasty left-overs are important given my cooking strategy.)

I found the recipe in The Blue Plate Diner Cookbook and re-posted it (with permission) on my side page Everyday dinners easy enough to cook every day. But I'll describe the quick gist of it here. Briefly saute sliced onion and sweet red and green peppers in olive oil. (I added pressed garlic). Season the mixture with chili powder and cumin. (You could add or substitute other seasonings. I added salt.) Meanwhile, pound 4 boneless chicken breasts to make them thin and easy to roll. Spread a piece of foil for each breast on the counter, and on each place one 10-inch, flour tortilla. (You can use corn if you prefer). On each tortilla place one breast. (I only had 6-inch tortillas, so I cut the chicken breasts in half and put each half on a smaller tortilla.) Then spoon the pepper mixture over the chicken breasts. (I didn't put the spicy peppers on the kids' chicken.) On top of the peppers and chicken, place a slice of Swiss or Provolone cheese. (I had neither, so I substituted shredded mozzarella.) Wrap the tortilla around the chicken, peppers, and cheese, and roll it all up in the foil. (Cristie rolls MORE food!) Put the foil packets in a pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

I served it with steamed asparagus, which the adults enjoyed and the kids didn't. But everyone liked the Aztec Chicken. 

Teaching Kids the Alphabet and Table Manners - Getting from Gross to Good to Great!

To ready my pre-schooler for kindergarten, we play a weekly alphabet game in which we feature the phonics and writing of a particular letter. We're up to 'G', and I'm supposed to cook something that begins with 'G'. My kids like to eat Goat, but it's out of season, (meaning the farmer I get it from is currently sold out). I'll post my goat recipe on the side page: Everyday dinners easy enough to cook everyday. Instead, I fixed green beans, and was pleased to see my pre-schooler eat them...Let me re-phrase that. I was pleased he ingested them, but the sight of him eating green beans was 'g' for gross.

Like his napkin and fork earlier, the green bean was held like a gun and aimed at his dinner partners. When finally consumed, the whole bean was smashed into his open mouth. Meanwhile, my eight-year-old daughter was scrutinizing a single bean held high on her fork. With the suspicious scowl expected of an FDA inspector, her fingers began picking out the tiny peas within the long bean. And here I'm just reporting on how they ate the green beans! The whole dinner story is much less appetizing.

So how do I teach my kids table manners? How do we transform gross into great, or at least, into good? Continual correction is back-firing on me. When at last in exasperation, I told Lauren, "You are about to break the world record for most bad manners at a single meal," she impishly squealed, "You mean I could break a record?!" and she promptly plastered her hand into her mashed potatoes. Uproarious laughter erupted from my five-year-old. "What a game! We got Mom's goat!" they thought.

In frustration, I am re-examining my tactics, and therefore also re-evaluating my expectations. Exactly what are 'Great' table manners? And moving down from there, what are 'good' manners which can be reasonably expected of school-age children? My dad says his mother taught him table manners in the spirit of readying him 'to meet the queen'. I tell my kids that I want their table manners to be so automatic that when they are THE guest of honor at a White House dinner they can revel in the adulation rather than worry that their hair is in their food or their arms are sprawled on the table about to spill their drink. So how does one dine with the queen and president?

Women in Agriculture at UW-Madison - From Wisconsin Family Farms to International Agricultural Industry

If you want people to gather in friendship, put out food. That's what the AWA, - Association of Women in Agriculture, did this weekend at the stock pavilion at UW-Madison.  'Breakfast on the Farm' is the AWA's annual fund-raiser.  And these college women served up pancakes, eggs, sausages, hot coffee, Wisconsin cheese samples, and Babcock ice cream sundaes to a long line of hungry Wisconsinites.

They also delivered hearty helpings of entertainment on an outdoor stage set up in front of the folks enjoying breakfast. Inside the pavilion, children petted baby farm animals and pretended to gather eggs from chickens, drive tractors, and tend a vegetable stand at the farmer's market. This event highlighted some of the essential contributions women make on today's farms. At the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at UW-Madison, these women and their male classmates are learning to apply today's scientific research to future agricultural practice.

Some Wisconsin Family Farm Facts:  Most members of the Association of Women in Agriculture grew up on Wisconsin farms. Like their mothers, they know the long, hard work of raising and preserving fruits and vegetables for summer sale and year-round home consumption. They've been responsible for the care, and sometimes the breeding, of the livestock. They've likely helped in the corn, soybean, and hay fields during planting and harvest seasons. If they return to farm-life after college, they'll probably assume management of farm finances. If they accept office jobs, their employment will likely remain in the agricultural industry. They'll work to integrate Wisconsin farm products and workers with food research, production, and distribution on national and international scales. And most of them will do all this while maintaining a house and caring for children. You see, Wisconsin women in agriculture not only raise food for the world, they raise the next generation of food producers.

The nostalgic images of a relaxed, bucolic life on a Wisconsin dairy farm may attract tourists, but they're foreign to Wisconsin farmers. Wisconsin's vibrant agricultural industry is changing fast to produce more food, more safely, for more more people, and in more sustainable, environmentally-responsible ways. Hold on to your hats, women in agriculture, - you're in for a wild ride! And thank you for all that you do.

Click here for more images of Breakfast on the Farm...   

What to Do When Everyone at a Sit-down Family Dinner Won't Sit Down: -Transforming Left-over Roast Chicken into Chicken Salad

Far too often, I menu plan, shop, and prepare a meal to find out at the last minute that someone in the family won't be at the table. Outside commitments, busy work schedules, and even the "I'm not hungry, I had a late lunch'" are the primary saboteurs to our sit-down, family dinners. OK, so tomorrow we have left-overs, no biggie, right?

Unfortunately, wrong. You see, I'd already planned for left-overs. My cooking strategy has been to cook new dinners on nights #1 and #2, and then serve their left-overs on night #3. But if we have left-over left-overs, we then have night #4's dinner and, inevitably, disgruntled eaters. What to do?

I've started being a bit more creative. More frequently, I'm cooking plain ham or chicken which will return in the future either disguised in a sauce or infiltrating a casserole. (I have to be careful with casseroles, however. If too many disparate foods touch each other I get the "Ewwww!" response from my scrutinizing children.)

So here's my latest left-over re-creation: chicken salad. Tuesday night's (and Thursday night's) left-over roast chicken is now Friday's chicken salad. But I am heartened to say, it is not any old chicken salad. I made it according to the Chicken Almond Salad recipe from The Ovens of Brittany Cookbook written by Madison chef, Terese Allen.

(Notice in the picture the left-over deviled eggs... Waste not, want not.)

Deviled Eggs and French Toast - Teaching a Pre-Kindergartner his Alphabet with Food Party Games

Sometimes I advance in life by fits and spurts rather than sustained, steady progress. To be sure, when I set out on a path, I always intend diligent, scheduled progress toward the goal. But then, natural interruptions impose, and when I get back on track, I'm running to make-up lost ground. And this is exactly what happened with our family alphabet game.

In January, we decided to ready 5-year old Dave for kindergarten by having a weekly party for each letter of the alphabet. In our party game, Lauren (8) and Dave write the 'Letter of the Week' and post it on the door; they put items beginning with the letter in a special alphabet box, and I bake something that begins with the letter. We got up to 'D' by baking dog biscuits for the dog. But after the biscuits gave the kids tummy aches, the game stalled. However, kindergarten looms!

So, yesterday we had a re-do for 'D' and finished off 'E' and 'F'! While the kids argued over who got to put Elmo in the box, I made Deviled Eggs and French Toast. (No, I'm not going to claim we covered 'T'.)

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I didn't want to make ordinary deviled eggs, despite my kids' preference for mayonnaise and yolks mixed together and slapped back into egg whites. Instead, I created deviled eggs that I would be proud to serve at an adult party. In a relative wink, I mixed up Lou's Deviled Eggs.

The recipe comes from one of my new favorite cookbooks, Seasons in a Country Kitchen Cookbook. The book is Darlene Kronschnabel's compilation of Wisconsin farm recipes and stories. Keep reading for this recipe and a wonderful recipe for Baked Orange French Toast from Donna Weihofen's book: Mom's Updated Recipe Box: 250 Family Favorites Made Quick and Healthy. The orange flavor makes Donna's french toast recipe a twist on the standard favorite. Plus it can be partially prepared ahead of time and later baked in the oven, which makes it a contender for a festive adult brunch.

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