In the ABC World News Made in America Christmas series, Diane Sawyer reported that if every American spent $64 on made in America gifts this holiday, businesses could create 200,000 jobs in the United States. Watch the video here:
At Wisconsinmade.com we've always been advocates of supporting local businesses. Not only do 250 Wisconsin businesses sell their gifts on Wisconsinmade.com, but the website is a small business in itself. The site was started in 1999 by Linda Remeschatis, and 12 years later, she employs eight people here in Wisconsin. Wisconsinmade.com is proof that buying American-made gifts can create local jobs.
Every gift on Wisconsinmade.com is made in Wisconsin, so as long as you shop with us, you know you're keeping dollars in America. Here are a few food gift ideas that will meet the $64 mark. Also, all of our customer service representatives are based in our Wisconsin office, so no calling overseas for order assistance.
Wisconsin-made Gift Ideas That Cost Around $64
Bacon Gift Assortment- My fellow bacon lovers, if you have not tried Nueske bacon, what are you waiting for? Applewood smoked by experts in Wittenberg, Wisconsin, this bacon puts the grocery store varieties to shame. I prefer the super thick cut, but my coworker Marilyn prefers the thin sliced. Try all five varieties to find your favorite and as a bonus, enjoy some bacon scones and bacon cheese spread for $64.95 + shipping.
Cheesehead Gift Basket- The Pack is undefeated so show your green and gold pride with this cheesehead gift basket. The famous foam cheesehead is filled with game day snacks like pretzels, peanuts, crackers and of course, three kinds of Wisconsin cheese. $67.50 + shipping.
Christmas Gift Box- A rustic wooden Christmas box filled with cranberries, pretzels, mustard, gingerbread cookies and more. A popular gift to send to friends, family members and business associates. $68.50 + shipping.
Mad Grad Medley Ice Cream and Cherry Pie Combo- Wisconsin's best dairy experts train at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Babcock Hall. Taste the fruit of their labors (literally) with Babock Hall Ice Cream. Mad Grad Medley is a flavor creation of a UW-Madison grad that combines vanilla, chocolate shavings and Door County cherries. Add a Wisconsin-made cherry pie and you have a cherry lover's delight. $64.90 with shipping included.
$64 Wisconsinmade.com Gift Card- In honor of the Made in America Christmas special, we created a $64 gift card so your gift recipient can select their favorite Wisconsin-made treats. The gift card is available via e-mail (great for last minute gifts!) or in the traditional plastic version.
For the most part, I'm all for pigging out around the holidays, but sometimes it's better to give a healthy holiday treat. Maybe you have a family member that is trying to stay healthy and you don't want to derail them with a box of cookies, or maybe giving a cheese and sausage gift basket to your running buddy seems counter productive. Whatever the reason, there are plenty of healthy yet delicious holiday food gifts around. Believe it or not, some of them even come from Wisconsin. The state that is famous for cheese and bratwurst is also known for cranberries, cherries and other healthy holiday treats.
Cranberries- Cranberries are a ruby in the Wisconsin agricultural crown. Studies suggest that cranberry rich diets have the potential to prevent heart disease, ulcers and certain types of cancer. If you enjoy dried cranberries, try Curbanies. This sweet snack is similar to a dried cranberry, but goes through a special drying process so they retain some moisture. For an even sweeter cranberry treat try some dark chocolate covered cranberries.
Popcorn- An extra large bag of movie popcorn can contain thousands of calories, but it's the butter that's to blame, not the popcorn. The gourmet popcorn varieties grown in Wisconsin have plenty of flavor without all the extra toppings. You can even taste the difference between the types of kernels. Dieters love popcorn for the satisfying crunch without the calories and fat of other salty snacks. Not sure how to pop kernels without the bag? Check out this blog post with stove-top popping instructions.
When you serve a bacon burger at your Packer game day party or Badger tailgate, notice as your friends peek under the bun and say "where's the bacon?". It tastes like applewood smoked bacon, but there are no bacon strips to be found. The secret is the bacon hidden in the meat.
If you are a fan of the Nueske bacon burger like I am, you will be saddened to know Nueske will no longer be making the bacon burger. Pork lovers of the world need not despair however, because I, your local Wisconsin food enthusiast, can tell you how to make your own bacon burgers at home. Click "continue reading" to see the shockingly simple recipe.
It's that time of year where graduates begin the next chapter in their lives. Don't worry parents, your baby won't starve, and with a few tidbits of food advice to the graduate, your kids might even have a healthy and enjoyable food experience.
For the graduate with kitchen access:
Call your parents for recipes and cooking tips. If you live away from home, your Mom and Dad are probably missing you anyway so don't be hesitant to call them for a tuna casserole recipe or instructions on how to bake a potato.
No need to buy cookbooks, take advantage of free recipes. From the cooking impaired to the food obsessed, you are sure to find a recipe that fits your taste and skill level. Most of the recipes in the Edible Antics recipe section are easy enough to cook on a weeknight after class, or check the links on the right for other recipe resources.
Cook for your roommates. Most cooks, myself included, are more likely to cook for a crowd than just one person, so make dinner for your roommates. They probably miss home-cooked meals!
For the graduate with no kitchen access, a high school grad living in college dorms, for example:
Dining hall grub is actually pretty tasty these days. When my parents went to college, there was only one dining hall on the whole campus. My alma mater, a medium-sized university, had enough dining halls for me to eat at a different one each day of the week. The food was outstanding, one buffet style dining hall had fresh baked pita bread and hummus, another had Thanksgiving food all the time, and we even had a sit down restaurant with waiters and menus! With so much delicious food- please take into account the next tip.
Eat smart in the dining hall. At most universities the swipe of a meal card grants access to unlimited french fries, soda, soft serve ice cream and much more right at your finger tips, every meal of the day (even breakfast!). Make the salad bar your first stop and practice portion control on the other goodies.
Explore the town. Some campuses like little cities and students don't feel the need to venture out, but there are a ton of restaurants to explore. Many of these restaurants will give ID carrying students a decent discount, so take advantage!
For me, good coffee is hard to come by, I confess I am a big coffee snob. During the week I grab a quick cup on the way out the door but on the weekends the snobbery is in full force. I grind my own beans, use a French press instead of a drip coffee maker and slowly slurp while I contemplate the acidity and earthiness of my coffee. See, I told you I was a snob! Coffee is a hobby for me. There are so many ways to make it, so many varieties to try and making a cup of good coffee is an adventure! If you want to discover the wonderful world of coffee, here are a few tips to get you started. The tips get progressively harder and more time consuming so start with number 1and work your way up to 5!
1. Make sure you use the right amount of grounds. Not enough grounds will make your coffee taste bitter. Make sure you use 2 heaping tablespoons for 6 ounces of water. A coffee scoop that holds 2 tablespoons (like the one pictured above) will make it easy to get the right amount each time.
2. Find the variety that you like. I didn't like coffee for the longest time and then I started to realize I enjoyed certain types of coffee. I prefer coffee with less acidity and an earthy flavor. Many people prefer more acidic coffees and some people think that "earthy" coffee tastes like feet. Everyone has a different preference so find the coffee that's right for you. Try a coffee sampler gift basket with many small bags of different varieties, or join a coffee of the month club to have different types of good coffee delivered to your door each month. You'll discover a favorite in no time.
3. Buy whole beans and grind your own. Once the coffee beans are ground they start to lose flavor so it is best to grind your coffee right before you start to brew. Coffee grinders come in many different sizes and price ranges, and you can usually find a small one that will do the job for $20 or less. Just make sure to use your grinder for coffee only! Grinding spices in your coffee grinder will change the flavor of the coffee. If you don't have a grinder, grind it at the grocery store or have a coffee shop do it for you.
4. Try using a French press. A French press is a carafe that you can make coffee in. You just add the grounds, pour in boiling water, let the coffee sit for 4 minutes and then press down a plunger that holds the grounds at the bottom so they don't end up in your cup. This takes more time than a drip coffee maker so it isn't very practical for the grab-and-go coffee drinker, but makes a great weekend treat. The French press method allows for more of the oils in the grounds to get into the coffee, making it taste much better than the drip version.
5. Roasting your own beans. This is the next step in coffee snobbery for me. Wisconsinmade.com offers a coffee roaster and bags of un-roasted beans for roasting your own coffee in your oven at home. I haven't tried this yet, but so far the lesson I learned is the more time you put into your coffee the better it tastes! I will definitely be trying this soon so check back for more blog posts about coffee.
I talk a good game with all of my cooking and baking tips, but the truth is I've had some major kitchen disasters. There have been awesome triumphs too, but the failures are more fun to talk about. The story of how I made perfect muffins is WAY less interesting than the time I made a bleeding cake. Yep, that's right, a bleeding cake.
I grew up in the south and one day I discovered the joy of red velvet cake. This is what a red velvet cake is suppose to look like:
I bought some red velvet cake mix so I could try it at home. I baked up two layers and anxiously awaited my delicious cake. I was so excited that I couldn't wait to put the icing on and dig in. I thought the cake was "cool enough" and started icing. This is when I discovered that red velvet cake mix is just chocolate cake mix with some red food dye. The still hot cake caused the red dye to turn the white icing red, and this created creepy blood like red drops running down the side of the cake as the icing melted- not very appetizing. I was so embarrassed at the time I didn't take a picture so please enjoy the Microsoft Paint rendering of the event:
Ok, maybe my amateur sketch is a little exaggerated.... the cake didn't have red eyes and angry eye brows, but you get the idea. So the moral of the story?
Christmas Day is like death and taxes, no escape. How to re-frame the inevitable and reduce holiday stress:
Christmas day is coming...fast. I'm busy shopping, decorating, and baking. At work, my Wisconsinmade.com co-workers and I are busy helping others shop for gifts and helping Wisconsin artisans deliver all those gifts by Christmas day. We're in the Christmas rush.
Christmas Day is our looming deadline. It's a lot like tax day. Everyone knows taxes are due April 15. But sure enough, most of us scramble in the hours before to get them done. It's not as if April 15th is a surprise. But come April 1st, impending tax day feels a shock none-the-less. Like death, it waits for no one.
I've had nearly a year to prepare for Christmas Day. Am I ready? Are Wisconsin cows purple?
Whenever I get stressed out, I try to calm myself by shifting my perspective. I persuade myself that the situation is other than I perceive it to be. Is this self-deception? Only when it's not wisdom. Keep reading for my latest Christmas Day con.
Christmas traditions - Advice from a Christmas traditions reformer:
Have Christmas traditions. - They create happy memories and secure childhoods.
Christmas traditions can be extremely simple. - Capitalize on this.
Never start a Christmas tradition you can't finish. - Think long term.
I love Christmas traditions. Seasonal repetitions of small acts heralding happy times are must-haves in life. Christmas traditions are celebratory routines. They give children a sense that life is stable, predictable, - and wonderful. They reinforce the important lesson that despite life's challenges and sorrows, life continues and good things happen. Make sure you build Christmas traditions into your holidays.
Having said this, don't go overboard creating Christmas traditions. You don't need many. In fact, the fewer you have, the more special they become. I asked my daughter what her favorite Christmas traditions are and her first answer was, "Hanging up the cloth advent calendar Grandma gave me." Who knew? It doesn't get simpler than that.
I know some women who make themselves frantic enacting too many Christmas traditions. Their traditions have become to-do lists that end up stressing out the whole family. Practice too many traditions and you're sure to get your offspring running for the hills.
So choose wisely. New parents, think now what Christmas traditions you'll practice and consider if you can go the distance with them as your children grow. Keep reading for my own family's informative story...and yes, there will be food.
Cancer survivors, well, survivors of all kinds, tell stories steeped in lessons.
In my life are cancer survivors, and in my heart are those who didn't survive. Despite differences in outcome, their stories of the fight are the same. Last week I listened to a different kind of survivor's story, and was struck by its similarities to cancer survivors'.
This story was told by a woman who had survived six years as a hostage, held by militants in a South American jungle. She lived in a small cage with others, deprived of food and a latrine. She was beaten regularly to amuse her captors. Even dying wasn't permitted. What kept her going?
Like cancer survivors and other sufferers, she had to turn inward and find her way through her own spiritual resources. And in a small way, her dreams of food helped. Keep reading for more of the story.
