Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food

Wisconsin State Fair Exhibits The Best Foods, Products, Crafts, Art, and Animals Of Wisconsin!

"Have a cream puff for me!" was Katie's send-off as I left our Wisconsinmade office on Friday. Wisconsin cream puffs are perhaps THE signature item at the annual Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee. Lauren (8), Dave (5), Grandfather, and I easily found the cream puffs - they had their own pavilion. The purchase line was 50 people long, but moved fast in front of windows revealing smiling cream puff chefs sporting Holstein cow-patterned caps and squirting delicious white mounds of whipped cream on to sliced pastry puffs. We waved to them and they waved back, showing off their work. Every one was caught up in the excitement of this yearly Wisconsin tradition! 

Entering the huge Wisconsin Products Pavilion, we saw row after row of display booths showing off all the different kinds of foods Wisconsinites produce. We saw Wisconsin cranberries, cherries, honey, maple syrup, nuts, cheeses, ice cream, pizzas, sausages, meats, potatoes, candy, and more. Alice in Dairyland held center stage, quizzing her audience on which products came from which Wisconsin region.

In the Wisconsin Horticulture, Craft, and Culinary Pavilion we saw the fruits of Wisconsin hobbyists having fun. Amateurs pitted their talents against one another to compete for prizes in baking, cake decorating, gardening, sewing, quilting, leather-crafting, and wood-working. Truth be told, we saw nothing amateurish in their results. The creative ingenuity and skill demonstrated in each craft amazed us.

The competitions continued in the 6 livestock barns. Exotic and farm animals looked their best for the crowds and judges. Our family enjoyed the Rabbit and Poultry Palace. The children 'oohed' and 'aahed' over the velvety soft, cuddly rabbits. The exquisitely plumaged roosters, hens, turkeys, and doves impressed us too. The colorful patterns of feathers on these domestic birds made woodland birds look drab. So why do children's books feature poultry in such plain, solid colors? Let their illustrators go to the fair and they might depict animal characters in their true-life glory. These impressive animals were a tribute to Wisconsin breeders working with the myriad varieties of forms and colors nature offers.

And of course, we couldn't resist watching Wisconsinites play with their animals as well. No pig wrestling this time, but pig racing! And duck racing too! The crowd cheered for their favorites and rooted for the piglet swimming across the pool.   

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.

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.

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.

Small-town Wisconsin Cheese-makers Win Big in the World Championship Cheese Contest! - Tour the Winners' Factory-Farms for a Fun, Wisconsin Day-trip!

Last week the World Championship Cheese Contest happened in Madison, Wisconsin where Wisconsin cheese makers won 72 awards (31.2 %). Twenty-seven of these were for Best in Class! Check out The Cheese Underground for descriptions of the contest, and read Wisdairy.com's list of the winners.

An enjoyable, Wisconsin day-trip which entertains both kids and visiting relatives is a tour of a local cheese factory. Our family has had great fun touring the Roth Kase Company in Monroe, Wisconsin and the Cedar Grove Cheese factory in Plain, Wisconsin. Our tour guides, who were actually the cheese-makers themselves taking a break to talk with us, showed us step-by-step how they transform milk into the many different kinds of cheeses. Then of course we ate fresh samples of all the delicious varieties. 

Now I read that these companies won Best in Class awards in THE international cheese competition. I'm not surprised, I know their cheeses are excellent. But, it's a bit like learning that your neighbor just won a beauty contest. You always knew she was a knock-out, but...well, she's your neighbor. I think I've under-appreciated our local talent.

It's time to wake up and taste the cheese!

So as we begin to plan fun summer get-aways, we've added artisan cheese factories to our list of sites to visit. I've ordered a free map from Wisdairy.com that shows the location of the artisan cheese makers in Wisconsin. Wisconline.com lists all the cheese makers that give tours. And with our van packed with healthy travel snacks we'll be ready to go! - as soon as the snow melts.

Meanwhile, I'll be cooking with cheese. Madison's Eldorado Grill is one of our favorite restaurants. It brings back tastes and memories from our years lived in Colorado. The Eldorado Grill's Four Cheese Chiles Rellenos are excellent! I'm posting this rellenos recipe on the side-page MORE Recipes with Brats, Beer, and Cheese.

Wisconsin Goes to the Superbowl, but as a Bratwurst Sausage

Don't these brats look scrumptious?  Don't they conjure up images of mouth-watering satisfaction, good times with friends, and of hot, sunny days grilling outside?  Don't they shout out all that is right with the world?  YES! YES! GIVE ME BRATS! they scream, which is why the marketing department of the New England Patriots has chosen them to be the team's official game food.  In a move to reap more profits from loyal fans, the Patriots are sponsoring their "own" line of meats - "four lines of bratwurst, three of sausage, and two of hot dogs", as reported in the Boston Globe. But where does New England get these wonder meats from? - You guessed it, WISCONSIN!!! Now that's a kicker.  Our Packers didn't make it to the Superbowl, but our brats sure did!

The Patriots' marketing staff taste-tested 10 varieties of brats from meat suppliers throughout the U.S.  They report that, "the new line immediately stood out, said David Wheeler, executive director of food and beverage for Gillette Stadium. "I remember thinking that I loved the flavor," he said, "It was juicy."

These flavorful, juicy brats have been made 'the Old World Way' in Milwaukee, Wisconsin since 1954.  Brewers and Bucks fans enjoy them at every game in Miller Park and the Bradley Center.  They are even the exclusive sausages sold at the Minnesota Twins baseball games!

And now these brats have been adopted as 'their own' by the New England Patriots.  The Patriots will be chowing down on them at their training facility, and their fans will be enjoying them in Gillette Stadium. You can get these brats and other meats made the Old World way from Wisconsinmade.com. Then even though Wisconsin's Packers won't be at your Superbowl party, the taste of Wisconsin will be there.