Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food

When Is Playing With Food An Extreme Sport? - The Controversy over Pig Contests.

Monday, May 26, Jeanne Carpenter of the Cheese Underground reported on the Gloucestershire, England race in which adults run down an extremely steep hill trying to catch a rolling wheel of Double Gloucester cheese. The winner gets to keep the cheese. This year's winner also got a new neck brace before he was carried away on a stretcher. 19 other contestants suffered injuries. No reports indicated harm to the cheese. Jeanne suggests we take up this sport in Wisconsin. That's because Jeanne LOVES cheese.

Perhaps Wisconsinites will adopt cheese rolling as a new extreme sport, but we already have fun playing with food. We wrestle hogs. The game is conceptually simple. A hog is let loose in a large, muddy pen and teams of four people compete to see which team can catch and carry the hog to a padded barrel fastest. Don't believe me? See the pictures at the Eldorado, WI Community Website, or the Caldron Falls Bar and Grill in Twin Bridge, WI. 

We also just chase pigs. Throughout the summer, in various locales, Wisconsinites, young and old, will run around a pen trying to catch a pig smeared in lard or olive oil. To check it out, visit the festivals in Elmwood, WI in July or El Paso, WI in August.

But we Wisconsinites are not unusual in this sport. Enthusiasts can attend greased pig contests in other states: Pinedale, WY  and North Dakota State Fair for example. Brandon Frank, winner of Draper, Utah's greased pig contest described his winning strategy.

Of course controversy clouds the sport. Opponents claim greased pig contests injure the pigs. Last summer, the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida pressured the organizers of the Pioneer Days Festival in Dade City, FL to cancel their contest.

Pig farmers disagree that the contests harm the pigs. "We're always chasing pigs." said a woman who grew up on an Iowa pig farm and wishes to remain anonymous. "The only way to get them from one pen to another is to catch them. They don't get hurt." I asked her if she had ever participated in a greased pig contest. "No," she admitted, "but when I was 10 I guessed a hog's weight at the fair and won the hog! It was the only thing I've ever won in my life. I suppose I was good at guessing hog weights because I used to help my dad decide when the hogs were ready for market."

So, there are more passive, less controversial ways for Wisconsinites to play with their pigs. Previously on this blog, I reported Wisconsin and Illinois children playing hide-and-seek with a pig. No harm came to either the children or the pig. However, the pig had already met its demise,- the children were playing find-the-ham.

Keep reading for the answer to Wednesday's song lyric question.

Drink Your Big Black Cow! - Having Fun with Calcium!

"DRINK YOUR BIG BLACK COW AND GET OUT OF HERE!"

What famous duo sings this lyric in which classic song? Hint: The group played at Milwaukee's 2007 Summer Fest.

Wisconsin 2008 Memorial Day = perfect! - Weather gorgeous! Food and fun had by all at the World's Largest Brat Fest. Summer's first night christened with BIG BLACK COW'S on the deck in the evening.

BLACK COWS: Folks in different parts of the country call 'em by different names. But old, young, and every age in-between loves 'em. I grew up calling them Root Beer Floats. Perhaps professional soda fountains concoct them differently. But I make Black Cows out of a  high quality root beer and pour it over the creamiest vanilla ice cream I can get. I stir a little so the cream cuts the root beer's slight bitterness, sip or spoon it on to my tongue, and my taste buds swoon. Can a person treat a tongue any better?

"Not the tongue," you admit, "but what about the rest of the body, eh? Those big black cows are no health food!"

Well, true, they should be taken in moderation; just like vitamins. But remember, - ice cream has calcium in it - lots of it! And calcium is not only essential for increasing and maintaining bone density, but confers numerous additional health benefits such as lowering cholesterol, decreasing blood pressure, helping prevent colon cancer, and regulating hormones which affect mood, metabolism, and sleep.

That's why I'm entering our Big Black Cows in Susan's Food Blogga Event. The blogging event features foods rich in calcium and raises awareness of the bone disease, osteoporosis. Are you achieving optimal calcium intake?

So here you go, Susan: Two Big Black Cows from America's Dairyland!

Summer Starts in Wisconsin with Memorial Day's Bratwurst Festival!

It's official! - SUMMER STARTS TODAY!

WISCONSIN CELEBRATES MEMORIAL DAY BY GRILLING BRATWURSTS TO SUPPPORT WISCONSIN CHARITIES!

(Yes, your southern Wisconsin thermometer only read 49 degrees this morning. So what? - mercury is hazadous and close contact should be avoided.) Instead, HEED THE REAL SIGN OF SUMMER: BRAT FEST! The world's largest bratwurst festival STARTS TODAY - in Madison, Wisconsin! Beginning at 11:00 am, Friday, May 23 and going through Memorial Day, Wisconsinites and their neighbors will support Wisconsin charities by consuming as many bratwursts as possible! Every $1.50 brat consumed sends money to numerous local charities.

So buy a bag of brats and slap on the condiments.(You know you're in Wisconsin when the keepers of the condiment bars have to keep re-stocking the sauerkraut!)

Not everyone in the family wants a brat? - No problem. Hot dogs and Boca Vegetarian brats are $1.50 also. And of course there will be plenty of Capitol Brewery beer and soda to wash all that good food down.

Madison's bratwurst festival has grown since it began in the Metcalfe Sentry parking lot at the Hilldale Mall. Now, spreading out on the Alliant Energy Center grounds, the bratwurst grills and picnic tables are surrounded by games and rides for the kids, and stages for live music acts.

Come join the fun and help your neighbors too!

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Click on 'continue reading' for more pics of the fair.

How to Make an Edible Centerpiece, Teach Pre-schoolers the Alphabet, and Clean Out the Cupboards - SIMULTANEOUSLY!

Trumpets sound! The crowd cheers! Enter KING LINGONBERRY! A royal centerpiece constructed by one mom, decorated by one 8-year-old, and motived by one pre-schooler who needs to learn his alphabet by fall for kindergarten. King Lingonberry is a regal coffee cake, - an edible centerpiece, - a noble regent ready to reside over a grand table.

Tell us, Your Majesty, King Lingonberry, how did you ascend to your place of honor on the table?

"Mine were humble beginnings," explained the king. "I come from a box of Bisquick and a jar of Lingonberries. But the twinkle in the proverbial eye belonged to a five-year old who's dear mother fretted that he didn't know his letters 'K' and 'L'. Yes, the noble woman and her kind daughter play a weekly alphabet game to teach their pre-schooler the alphabet.

It was the mother who rummaged through her recipe file and recovered my ancestral record, -a generations-old, Scandinavian recipe, once archived in Open House Imports, - that wonderful, wee shop in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.

In accord with the recipe's instructions, the mother hardly toiled mixing bananas, berries, and Bisquick." (The Open House Imports recipe is posted on the page: Cookies 'n Cakes - Festive 'n Fun! Click on 'continue reading... for instructions on how to 'build a king'.)

As she cooked, the children gathered toys beginning with the letters 'K' and 'L' and placed them into their celebrated alphabet box. The girl's name happens to be Lucky Lauren, and so is pictured here beside the box.

Kids Raise Food on the Farm in Wisconsin 4-H Clubs

"What are your kids doing for the summer?" -that's the current question we parents are asking each other. It's part of the research project parents do every May. For the past 10 days I have been comparing schedules, prices, and activities of various summer camps. I put this question to my friend, Jane Griswold, who works at Wisconsin's Hoard's Dairyman, and has three school-age children. Jane said that for the past several years, her kids have enjoyed the Cross Plains 4-H Club activities.

4-H clubs began forming throughout the United States in the early 1900's. Their original purpose was to educate youth in research-based, agricultural practices and technologies. Today's clubs emphasize leadership and problem-solving as they guide kids in hands-on projects ranging from the Arts and Communication, to Animal Sciences, Mechanical Sciences, Natural Resources, Plant and Soil Sciences, Family, Home and Health, and Community Involvement. Central to the 4-H mission is development of the good citizen. Today, 6.5 million young people pledge: "my HEAD to clearer thinking, my HEART to greater loyalty, my HANDS to larger service, and my HEALTH to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world." And does participation in 4-H clubs foster self-confident, independent, successful citizens? National research studies say 'Yes'.

For their 4-H summer projects, the Griswold children will be raising livestock which they will show at the Wisconsin, Dane County Fair in July. Jane explained that she and her husband, Tim, grew up on Wisconsin farms. They bought a small farm so their children will learn the valuable lessons farm-life teaches, - lessons learned from being responsible for the care of other creatures, whether these creatures be animals or plants. Accepting responsibility for another life-form teaches life's lessons of hard-work, self-discipline, independence, problem-solving, and self-lessness. As all care-givers learn, "it's not about you! - It's about the one who needs you." Or, put another way, "Love isn't how you feel about someone; it's how you treat them no matter how you feel."

Jane and Tim want their children, Kate (14), Sara (12), and James (9), to understand their place in the natural cycles of life, - particularly, life's most essential cycle, -the cycle of food. By nourishing plants and animals, we people sustain ourselves. Some of the most prevalent lifeforms on this planet: corn, beans, rice, cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens, are those which nourish humans and are therefore nourished by humans. We need each other. And out of this mutual need, grows respect. How does a parent teach a child to respect the planet? - one life at a time.

The animals come to the Griswold barn after they are weaned. Then each child assumes care of one or more animals, although the siblings routinely help each other. Kate cares for 5 pigs, - Lollipop, Skittles, Reeses, Snickers, and Twix. Her banner at the fair will read, "Pork is a sweet deal!"  Kate also cares for and will show some ewes (female sheep) at the fair. Sara is responsible for Angel, a gentle but rambunctious, jersey dairy cow. Next year, Angel will have a calf and join a dairy herd. James cares for Rocket, a Black Angus steer who presently outweighs James by roughly 900 pounds. Rocket is so named because "he must grow like a rocket to make weight for the fair." He gains about 2-3 pounds per day from the roughly 30 pounds/day of food James feeds him.   

Got Celiac Disease? Wisconsin's Holly Beach Offers Gifts of Gluten-Free Breads, Pastas and Beer!

Gift-giving flourishes in this season of Mother's and Father's Days. But ever get a gift that reflected the giver's personality more than yours, - such as a hot wheels car from your son, a stuffed animal from your daughter, or a CD that just happens to be by your spouse's new favorite band? It's not that they don't love you, it's just that thoughtful gift-giving requires just that - thought. Coming up with ideas for gifts that the recipient actually needs and desires can be difficult. It takes seeing the world through the recipient's eyes. And this usually requires actively investigating someone else's interest or need of which you currently know very little. Thoughtful investigation is the story behind Holly Beach's gifts of gluten-free breads to people suffering from celiac disease.

Celiac disease is a genetic digestive disorder that affects approximately 1 out of every 133 Americans. It is classified as an auto-immune disease because ingestion of the protein, gluten, causes the body's immune cells to attack and damage the villi of the small intestine. Villi are the millions of microscopic, finger-like projections that line the small intestine and absorb newly-digested nutrients into the blood stream. Without villi, a well-fed person literally starves to death because food in the intestine never reaches the rest of the body. The only cure for celiac disease is a gluten-free diet. And this diet's difficulty is where all the trouble lay.

You see, most of the breads, cereals, pastas, beer, and processed foods that comprise the average American's diet contain gluten. Bakers love gluten because this protein makes baked goods rise and gives them elasticity and chewiness. It's a textured taste we all love. Baking foods without gluten that people actually want to eat is a real challenge.

This challenge was dropped on Holly Beach's door of her Rochester, MN bakery. Holly's bakery was frequented by staff and patients at the Mayo Clinic. A surprising number of bakery visitors asked Holly for gluten-free bread. They told Holly what gluten did to them, describing their symptoms such as stomach cramps, diarrhea, chronic fatigue, rashes, depression, irritability, and joint pain. Rather than turn them away, Holly set herself to creating bread recipes that used alternative flours, - flours such as amaranth, rice, and montina, - flours not easily amenable to fluffy, chewy bread. Batch after batch Holly fiddled with ingredients and proportions. Finally her effort paid off in a variety of gluten-free, delicious breads and baked goods which she then sold in her bakery and directly to the Mayo Clinic.

Most Mayo clinic patients live outside Minnesota, and when they returned home they'd call Holly and ask her to send them her bread. That's when Holly entered the bakery mail-order business. She now sells her baked goods through the web distributor, Wisconsinmade.com. Wisconsinmade.com sells only artisanal products made in Wisconsin.

So how did Holly get to Wisconsin? In 2004, she agreed to split a truck-load of wheat with the owners of Madison's Bread Barn Bakery located at 7866 Mineral Point Rd. About a year later, she bought the Bread Barn, moved to Madison, and now, under Holly and her husband, Miguel's, management, her Silly Yak (for celi ac) Bakery and the Bread Barn share bakers, oven-space, and customers.

But man does not live by bread alone. Sufferers of celiac disease need more than just gluten-free bread. So Holly and Miguel also offer gluten-free pastas, cereals, and beer. YES! - BEER! After all, the Silly Yak Bakery is in WISCONSIN. And among the varieties of gluten-free beers in the bakery's cooler is Wisconsin's own, Lakefront Brewery's Grist Beer - a gold medal winner at the 2006 Great American Beer Festival!

But when I met Holly and Miguel, they weren't relaxing with brewskies. They were busy selling breads - with and without gluten - at the Middleton Farmer's Market. It was Thursday. On Saturday, they'll be at the Dane County Farmers' Market on the Square.

Odd Ingredients on Cupboard Shelf Enjoyed Over Pasta

Sometimes odd ingredients, snagged in a whim off a grocery store shelf, take up prolonged residence in the home cupboard for weeks, months, or (in my house) years. I know this is true. Once I heard Prairie Home Companion's Garrison Keillor refer to water chestnuts purchased in such moments, and consumed only by house-bound Minnesotans during prolonged blizzards. Yes, on the very night I heard his monologue, I noticed my own resident water chestnuts. I also have a 1/2-decade old jar of pureed, roasted eggplant, a jar of Thai peanut sauce, a jar of curried corn relish, a package of miso soup...well my list could continue, but you get the idea.

So if you have a jar of Calamata olives and a package of pine nuts which you no longer recall why you bought, I have the recipe for you. It's a pasta recipe, and it is so good that I am entering it in the food-blogging event: Vegetables, Beautiful Vegetables 2008.

Of course, you'll need a few other ingredients to make it, but not many. As long as your olives are already pitted, the recipe is easy and fairly quick to make. I got the recipe from my mom. She didn't make it often because back-in-the-day she had to de-pit the olives. Once she gave me that job, and I learned the first secret of a top chef: delegate the prep-work.

So here's the recipe for Pasta with Olives and Tomatoes:

• 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 4 large garlic cloves, chopped fine or pressed
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 25 Greek olives, chopped (I buy Calamata, pitted olives)
• sprigs of fresh basil, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon (or 1 cube) of chicken or vegetable bouillon dissolved in 3/4 cup boiling water
• 5 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced

While cooking enough angel hair or thin spaghetti pasta for 3-4 people, heat olive oil in a skillet. To the heated oil, add garlic, pine nuts, and red pepper flakes. Saute a few minutes. Add basil, broth, salt and pepper. Cook about 1-2 minutes. Add olives. Drain pasta. Turn off heat under skillet and add the tomatoes. Toss the tomatoes in the skillet mixture to warm them up. Pour the sauce over the pasta and serve.

Mothers and Daughters - Baking Cakes and Growing Up Together in Wisconsin

The best Mother's Day gift is a growing daughter, - far more enjoyable than a flowering plant, though admittedly a bit more work. My eight-year-old daughter, Lauren, is a budding chef who this past Mother's Day longed to express her giant love with a sweet gift of food. Last week, she began begging me to make Lazy Daisy cake with her. She said we had to make it for Mother's Day because "Mothers like daisies and they're never lazy!"

She found the recipe in my cookbook, Mom's Updated Recipe Box: 250 Family Favorites Made Quick and Healthy. I think she picked it because the author, Donna Weihofen, wrote, "This is the first cake my friend Mary made when she was about eight years old. She got the recipe from her grandmother's cookbook. It is a wonderful dessert but it is also lovely served for a morning brunch or afternoon tea."

Initially, Lauren wanted me to make the Lazy Daisy Cake. But life was busy and I kept putting it off. Undeterred, yesterday afternoon (Mother's Day) Lauren said she wanted to make it herself. After all, the little girl mentioned in the cookbook had been 8-years-old. At that moment, however, I was about to leave for a walk with a close friend, -a weekly mental-health walk necessary for maintaining this mother's sanity. I didn't want Lauren using the stove by herself. Precociously persuasive, Lauren talked her Dad into helping, which meant her 5-year-old brother, Dave, had to help too. Dave didn't fit into Lauren's ideal plan, but she accepted and resolved to manage around him, -and thus her maturity develops.

When I returned, the yellow cake was topped with a brown sugar and coconut icing. Lauren and I LOVE coconut, though Dave remains ambivalent about it. We all quickly ate our dinner in anticipation of dessert. Lauren beamed when I served her cake. To show my appreciation I ate two pieces, something I rarely let them do. This made Lauren even more proud!

Lauren wanted to know if this was my best Mother's Day ever! I told her it was because I knew it certainly was for her. It was the first year that her gift to me had not been store-bought by her dad or fabricated by a school-teacher. She put the energy of her heart into her hands to create a gift to nourish a soul. Now if that's not a person in full bloom, I can't imagine what is. Thank you, Lauren.

For the Lazy Daisy Cake recipe, click on 'continue reading...'

REAL Physical Therapy: Walleye Fishing and Vacationing with Rhinelander's Hodag in Wisconsin's Northwoods

A couple of days ago, the receptionist at the sports medicine/physical therapy clinic was telling me about her great weekend fishing on a northern Wisconsin lake. "I caught 18 walleye," she beamed. "And one of them was...." I don't remember the exact weight she said, but it was heavy enough that eyes widened and jaws dropped in the waiting room.

I asked her, "Did you get to fry it up that day? There's nothing better than fresh-cooked walleye."

"Oh no," she said, "We were fishing for (a charity benefit whose name I didn't catch and which her tone assumed I knew of). "All the fish went to the fund-raiser And we're going to go up next weekend and do it again!" I marveled. How cool was that! Anglers helping out their Wisconsin neighbors by doing what they love most, - fishing! "And it was so cheap!" she continued. "All it cost me was gas money plus $30 for the cabin rental. Can you believe it, - a weekend of fun for $66!" I was impressed too.

As the physical therapist greeted me, he asked me about the travel guide I was carrying, Wisconsin with Kids, by Kristin Visser and Jerry Minnich. I said I was looking for a vacation destination that would be fun for the kids and easy on the wallet. "Rhinelander, - in the northwoods," he said, emphatically. "It's Wisconsin's best kept secret. It has lakes for fishing and boating; great hiking trails through miles of woods. It's beautiful up there. The resorts are reasonably priced. A cabin on a lake won't set you back much. And if you want all the tourist stuff you can go a few miles down the road to Minocqua. Minocqua gets all the press, but resorts there are pricier. Better to stay in Rhinelander and just day-trip into Minocqua. Check out Rhinelander's Chamber of Commerce, - you'll see."

"Do you vacation up there?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm from Rhinelander." That explains the enthusiasm, I thought. "I grew up there. I'm an outdoors guy. I like to hunt and fish and camp."

"What brings you to Madison?" I asked.

"My wife's job. I could get a job in Rhinelander, no problem. But for now we're here...You've got to visit Rhinelander."

OK, I thought. Yesterday I started investigating Rhinelander. I learned Rhinelander is Hodag country. The Hodag is a large, red-eyed, white-spiked, tusked, and scary, but smiling, green monster that lurks about and of which residents report sightings. An outdoor, life-size hodag statue greets visitors. "You see kids! The monster's not under your bed - it's in Rhinelander!"

This weekend, the Holiday Acres resort in Rhinelander is having its Mother's Day Weekend of Jazz. Unfortunately we won't get up there for that. Nonetheless, Rhinelander stays on the short list of Wisconsin places to see.

But back to fish, - and cooking with walleye. Now, most Wisconsinites just lightly batter fish and quick fry it in a skillet. This ages-old, versatile method has been done on stoves, grills, and camp-fires, and suits this blog because I typically rave about fast, easy-to-cook family fare. For variety's sake however, it's time I reported an extra-fancy, for-entertaining-only, challenging-to-prepare, requiring-special-equipment, but well-worth-all the-effort recipe. It's an appetizer recipe that will be years before I make and looks extraordinarily yummy right now. Someone should make it and invite me over.

Click on 'continue reading...' for the recipe: Walleye and Crayfish Mousseline. It comes from the cookbook, The Northwoods Table: Natural Cuisine Featuring Native Foods.

Ice Cream Islands in Blue Jello are a Fun, Easy-to-Make Party Dessert for Kids Learning the Alphabet!

Ice cream islands in Caribbean, blue Jello are a fun, easy-to-make party treat for children! Yesterday the kids and I played another round of our weekly alphabet game. It's Lauren (8) and my way of teaching Dave (5) his alphabet to ready him for kindergarten. Yesterday's special letters were I and J, so we celebrated by making and eating Ice cream Islands in blue Jello.

I got the idea from the 'Fish Tank' recipe in The Blue Plate Diner Cookbook. It's super easy to make. Just follow the package directions on 'Berry Blue' Jell-O mix. After the jello has set half-way, mix in some gummy fish. Let the jello finish setting. The fish look like they're swimming in the Caribbean.

To make the ice cream islands, I placed a scoop of French vanilla ice cream in the center of each plate. Then I spooned jello and fish around each island. I stuck a cocktail umbrella in the ice cream to give it that festive look. This party dessert couldn't be faster or simpler to make, and the kids thought it great fun! It would be perfect for a luau party!