Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food

Wisconsin Cheese Apple Pie - Recipe From Apples Everything!

Has this happened to you? It's a warm, blue-sky beautiful, autumn Saturday and in a momentary delirium you resolve to seize the day in that good, old-fashioned way. You decide you're going to take the kids apple-picking! Your young children look at you quizzically, but they're game for it.

You spend the car ride to the orchard adamantly denying to your children that you are lost. You declare you're taking the scenic route and they should look out the window, at which they immediately direct their complete attention to their game boys and DS's. Good. Now you can look at the map undistracted.

An hour later you arrive at the apple orchard down the road. Your children catapult from the car, and you all go to the "starting station". While you stuff handfuls of those deceptively-tiny plastic bags into your pockets, your children argue over who gets to pull the cute, little, red wagon. A few moments later, your skillfully, negotiated settlement is moot because they have run off into the trees, abandoning the wagon and leaving you to pull it uphill into the orchard.

Just as your delirious vision showed, your children are delighted with picking apples. They pick as quickly as they can, only pausing to take a large bite out of the most exceptional apples, which, when you arrive with the wagon, they hand to you because they're "through with them". Fearing the orchard proprietors who strictly forbid tasting and wasting, you eat the apple evidence. Row after row, the scenario repeats itself with the only difference being that your once empty stomach and wagon are filling up with apples.

Those tiny plastic bags have ballooned and now hold thirty pounds of apples each. Your once-bouncy wagon refuses to steer out of muddy ruts and over grassy hillocks. You're wrestling a cantankerous mule rather than the idyllic symbol of fall, family fun. You declare that it's time to check out. By the time you get down the hill, a few more bags have been loaded on. You drive home with the delicious scent of fresh apples over-powering that of the dog. What fun.

Now the work begins. What will you do with 120 pounds of apples? Fast-forward to present day. It's mid-November and you've made apple pie, apple cake, apple muffins, apple bread, baked apples, and apple crisp. The children now refuse apples in their lunch. You've got thirty more pounds of apples to go and they are looking as weary as you. You are tempted to let them rot in the basement like you did last year. But with one last effort you make apple sauce. Now you've got jars and plastic containers filled with applesauce.

Now what do you do with the applesauce? Here's a suggestion offered by Jean Hill and Jody Littler, authors of Apples Everything, who no doubt have been in your situation so many times that they wrote a cookbook about all the different possible ways to cook apples. Apples Everything has over 500 recipes and is where I found this recipe for Wisconsin Cheese Apple Pie. It uses up 4 1/2 cups of apple sauce, -not much, but a good start.

Click on 'Continue reading...' for the recipe:

Wild Rice and Barley Pilaf - Will This Colorful Autumn Sidedish Make It To The Thanksgiving Table?

Some people select side-dishes to serve at Thanksgiving based on taste and tradition. I have more stringent criteria. I'll caste tradition aside if a vegetable side-dish meets the following standards:

1. delicious flavor 

2. relatively simple to make

3. won't deteriorate in appearance or taste if it must wait for the rest of the food and family to be ready to eat

Additional criteria which improve a side-dish's chances of being chosen, but won't disqualify it if not met are:

1. Uses colorful ingredients reminiscent of an autumn landscape
2. Can be prepared ahead of time

With these criteria in mind, I prepared Wild Rice and Barley Pilaf in a test run for the Thanksgiving table. I found the recipe in the cookbook: Recipes for Sweetened Dried Cranberries.

I was looking for a rice dish because I wanted an alternative to Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. I know the kids love them, but I can't help associating them with ready-mix concrete. I shovel them into my mouth. They plop down my throat. They land in my stomach and proceed to harden into a single, heavy-weighted mass. A belly full of mashed potatoes is like wearing concrete shoes on the inside. Don't get me wrong - their flavor is terrific, but there must be something just as tasty but lighter in effect. That's why I was looking to rice.

I knew that the mix of russet cranberries, brown raisins, charcoal-gray wild rice and cream-colored barley would give this side-dish an interesting and autumn-colored appearance. The pilaf would provide appealing contrast to white turkey.

Preparing the pilaf was extremely simple, - my kind of cooking. No, I didn't simply open cans and combine their contents as I've written about in past posts. For this recipe, I opened packages. Here are the ingredients:

• 3/4 cup uncooked wild rice
• 3 cups chicken broth (I got Swanson's chicken broth in the box)
• 1/2 cup pearl barley (I used medium grain)
• 1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted  

Then I followed the instructions:

Thanksgiving - Thanks for the Recipes, Thanks for the Fun! Here Are Some Great Wisconsin Cookbooks In Return

Thanks for one year of food fun! Yes, Edible Antics is a year old. Who knew I'd be cooking in public? Some people shouldn't; I'm one of them. But I get paid to do it, and as you know, anyone can have blog.

So instead of telling you the latest story of what I've burned  or what questionably-edible concoction I've forced on my family, I want to thank the food bloggers and cookbook writers who've definitely improved my cooking over this past year.

First, the food bloggers. Google shows 52,600,000 food blogs in the blogosphere. Can't say I've been to all of them. And most of the ones I've visited I don't leave comments on. It's not that I'm not thankful for the delicious recipes and professional-styled food pics I see, it's just that I have nothing especially interesting to say that other commenters haven't already written. But just so I don't appear a rude voyeur, to all of you 52,599,000 other food bloggers out there: "WOW! YOUR FOOD LOOKS YUMMY! THANKS FOR THE RECIPE!"

But a special thanks goes to the food bloggers who go to the extra trouble to hold recipe round-ups. I enjoy participating in them. They get me thinking about food as art rather than quick, family fuel. Sharing a cooking theme with others is a lot more fun than cooking alone. So thank you. Listed in alphabetical order are the bloggers whose round-ups I've enjoyed:

Adventures in Gluttony

Art You Eat

Coffee and Vanilla

Food Blogga

Lucullian Delights - An Italian Experience

Ruth's Kitchen Experiment

Sweet and Simple Bakes Recipes

Wild Yeast

Winos and Foodies And a special thanks to Barbara who has used her Winos and Foodies blog to bring encouragement and financial support to people suffering from cancer. Barbara is again fighting her own cancer battle.She's losing the strength to cook and write. Her appetite is fading. But the joy of life bubbling in her blog posts and pictures is always alive in the perennial blogosphere. Barbara's enthusiasm for the good life has drawn reader after reader to her site. And now they write back, offering support. At my last look, 72 people have commented on her most recent post, wishing her well.

And that's the incredible thing about blogs. We write them alone; we read them alone. But we do it because we are not alone. We help each other cook; we help each other laugh; we help each other hang in there.

It's sort of a speeded-up version of what traditional cookbooks have always done. The cookbooks I've enjoyed most are those in which the author tells stories about cooking food. The stories bring alive the special people who created the recipes, and the loved ones with whom they shared it at family celebrations.

Here are some of my favorites in no particular order:

Fire In The Oven! - How to make Sushi, Kimbob, Kimbap So You Won't Notice

We ate so much sushi that the bread caught fire in the oven. It was an impressive blaze; the whole inside of the oven was leaping orange. I'd never had a fire in the oven before, on the stove top of course, but never in the oven. How did this happen?

At the time, my family and dinner guests were enjoying sushi, baked chicken, and salad in the dining room. The oven began emitting strange beeps, louder than its usual timer beeps, and slightly more urgent sounding. I had to refill the children's milk glasses anyway, so I got up to investigate. I opened the oven door and shouted, "FIRE!" I'd never done that before. I've certainly been around many fires before, but I've never shouted at one.

My neighbor, Bonnie, led the charge into the kitchen, followed by her husband, Jim, and my children. I marveled at how fast adults can run when they hear "Fire!". Bonnie and Jim out-paced the kids. I stood with the oven door open and said, "What do I do?"

"Close the door!," shouted Bonnie. "Get baking soda! Do you have a fire extinguisher?!" Of course, I had a fire extinguisher. It was in the garage. It came with the house when we moved in four years ago. The mice had pretty much left it alone, and so had I.

I got the baking soda. Bonnie threw two handfuls into the oven, slammed the door, and the excitement ended. (Yesterday another friend informed me that baking soda emits carbon dioxide when burned, thus in addition to covering the fire, it denies the fire the oxygen needed to burn.)

"Feew," I thought. "I am so glad I cleaned the oven two days ago." I mean, what's the chance of dinner guests actually looking inside your oven? Pretty slim. But earlier in the week, cheese had dripped off the baking pizza, burned, and filled the house with smoke. I'd tried to cook in the oven again, but because the charred cheese remained and the oven kept spewing smoke, I decided to clean it instead. As I set the oven controls to 'CLEAN', my mother's reproach sounded in my head, "Cristie, a dirty, self-cleaning oven is the height of laziness!" And boy, am I glad I got off my duff and pressed those buttons because now we all stood in the kitchen staring inside my oven. Beneath that blanket of baking soda was one clean oven! I was proud.

So, how did the fire start? I blame it on the sushi. Well, I'm not sure it was sushi. My family calls it 'kimbob' because that's what our South Korean friend, Kyong a, who taught me how to make it calls it. But if you look it up in a cook book, it's called 'kimbap'. And if you tell your guests what they're having for dinner, it's easier to say, 'sushi' because that's what they've heard of.

Sushi/kimbob/kimbap is a fabulously delicious snack/appetizer/meal that my five-year-old, Dave, and I love. My Lauren (9) will eat the rice only. Jim and Bonnie enjoy Asian food, and Jim cooks it often. So sushi/kimbob/kimbap was the right accompaniment to the baked, soy sauce chicken.

Earlier, I'd bought the pickled, daikon radish, the pickled burdock root, and the cucumber. Kyong a had sent me the seaweed, and the rice was ready in the rice cooker. The only glitch was I'd forgotten to make the sushi/kimbob/kimbap before Jim and Bonnie arrived.

No matter, we all stood around the kitchen talking and drinking Jim's super-delicious homemade wine while I rolled the sushi/kimbob/kimbap. It's production was our entertainment, -before the fire that is. If you want low-cost, party entertainment click on 'Continue reading...' for the instructions on how to make sushi/kimbob/kimbap. 

Recipe fo Ham, Broccoli and Wisconsin Cheddar Quiche - Nutritious, Entertaining Way to Multi-Task

Preparing this recipe for ham, broccoli and Wisconsin cheddar quiche is one way to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously. If you're a whiz at driving kids to school, holding a conference call, applying cosmetics, and eating breakfast simultaneously, all while you're planning the night's dinner, you'll appreciate how this recipe lets you do several tasks at once. Here's what making ham, broccoli and cheddar quiche let me do:

1. Prepare nutritious family dinner, -one that they'll actually eat. Major challenge.
2. Use up left-over ham and 1/2 an onion.
3. Prepare for upcoming holiday entertaining by digging out recipes that people over 20 enjoy, are attractive, and which can be made ahead of time.
4. Join blogosphere buzz about having fun cooking and eating great food.
5. Cheer on Wisconsin cheddar cheeses!!!!!

Cheering on Wisconsin cheddar cheese is the easiest of the 5. Wisconsin cheese makers won first place in 5 out of 7 categories for cheddar cheese at the World Championship Cheese Competition held in Madison, Wisconsin this year. Wisconsin is the Dairyland State. People come here for cheese like they visit France for pastries and Italy for wine. Our lush grass, happy cows, and dedicated cheese masters are appreciated the world over. The new, artisanal cheeses produced on small Wisconsin farms have gourmet lips smacking for more. Check out the Cheese Underground for news on the latest finds.

So when I read that Adventures in Gluttony is celebrating cheddar cheese this month, my Wisconsin cheese loyalty insisted I participate. This recipe for ham, broccoli, and Wisconsin cheddar quiche is my entry. Here's the link for the blog's cheese of the month challenge.

I chose this particular recipe to participate because it's a way to get my kids to eat the left-over ham and half an onion occupying the refrigerator.  As 9-year-old Lauren said when she saw the quiche appear from the oven, "I can't wait to eat it!" Yes, my kids like this quiche! Lauren explained to 5-year-old Dave, "It's good for you. It's got vegetables, cheese, meat, and grains in it." Dave was unimpressed, but I felt happy that Lauren had been listening to at least some of my frequent talks on nutrition.

I like to make this quiche when entertaining company for brunch. I also make it when I have house guests, and I want to feed them something besides cold cereal for breakfast and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. These are our daily fare, but I don't like to push them on company. I typically make two quiches at a time because I want left-overs. This left-over quiche tastes good after it's re-heated in the microwave.

Click on 'Continue reading" for the recipe:

Hot To Get Rich With Roots - Tasting The Good Life With Gourmet Food!

Here's how to get rich with gourmet food. I'm not advocating selling gourmet roots nor growing them. I propose EATING ROOTS! Yes, I refer to those dirty tubers that your great-great-great grandmother dug up in the old country and boiled relentlessly for her indigent family. Economic strife was her way of life. But for us? - well, we are only in a temporary downturn. This too shall pass. Meanwhile we can taste sweetness in the good life because we can transform roots into gourmet food!

And here are some reasons why we should:

• Roots are healthy for us! Yes, they obviously contain lots of fiber, (perhaps you groan). But beyond that, they contain many important phytochemicals, -such as the carotenoids in orange roots like carrots and sweet potatoes.
• Roots are cheap! The price of a potato, carrot, or onion is still written with that increasingly scarce cent sign. Perhaps you've seen it? - the C with the vertical line through it.
• Roots can taste delicious! Yes, innovations in the culinary arts have educated us in new cooking techniques. They have elevated the flavors of those underground foods to new gastronomical heights. Gourmet chefs in expensive restaurants now impress our table with colorful, seasoned, and roasted roots.

So how can you get rich with roots? Follow this recipe for Roasted Root Au Gratin. Beyond serving your family delicious, nutritious, heart-healthy, and inexpensive vegetables, you will be saving money by eating at home, and by not joining that exercise class. You won't need it, - all that root chopping, walking around the kitchen, and hauling those economy-sized tuber sacs will melt the pounds from the waistline.

Alas, you remain discouraged and unmotivated. You counter my optimism with sad resignation that should you make root au gratin, you would still, ultimately, be eating roots, - the classic staple of the poor man. Yes, roots can help you get rich, but you want to feel rich too.

Okay, let's address the psychology of wealth. We'll throw in a chicken. In my great-grandmother's day, a chicken dinner was a luxury reserved for company and Sundays. Our prosperous 20th century expanded chicken meals to the lunch counter and even the basement vending machines. Yes, we are lucky! So what if skinless, boneless breasts of chicken are rising in price?! We can season and bake a whole chicken that will please any gourmet. And I've got just the recipe: Chicken with Mediterranean Olives.

I've chosen this recipe because I'm on an olive kick. My friends and I so loved the Stump's hot olives in the chili I made, that I ordered Stump's Mediterranean Olives. Stump, aka. Jim Haakinson and his wife, Roberta,  gave this chicken recipe to Wisconsinmade.com and I got it off of the store's recipe page. "What?" you object, "You save money with a whole chicken and then spend it on gourmet olives? - How's that helping the bottom line?" Aaah, you are right. Gourmet olives seem a frivolity I cannot afford.

But you see, that's just where the psychology of economizing plays its role. Frugality is like dieting. It works for a day or so, then I begin to feel deprived. I start feeling sorry for myself that I can't have the things I want. I feel sooo sorry, that soon I recklessly grab the very thing I've responsibly shunned. So, just like dieting, my trick to staying on a budget is to splurge (well, I call it splurging) on little things. Things special enough that I feel rich, but not expensive enough to break my piggy bank. Regarding food, I've found this strategy works. When I spend a little bit more on a special seasoning or ingredient then I can make my home-cooked food taste superior to restaurant food. As I learn to make better tasting food, I WANT to eat my own cooking. Thus, in the not-too-long run, I'm saving money rather than spending it on restaurants and the gas to get to them.

My new, stricter budgetary confinements make me feel a little like the exotic monkey that zoologist, Gerald Durrell, wrote about. Following capture and in transport to the zoo, the poor monkey became so despondent about losing its freedom, that it gave up eating. Fearing it would soon die, Durrell fed a bright red, candied cherry to the woeful animal. The little monkey had never before experienced such exquisite flavor. A momentary joy revived the tiny animal's spirits. Encouraged that this new life could hold wonderful benefits, the little monkey decided to eat its monkey chow. Every day, Durrell fed the monkey a candied cherry, and the two of them became good friends. Yes, so if I splurge on some olives, know that my gourmet treat is sustaining my spirit through these troublesome times.

And we all can create the good life, right here at home.

click on "Continue reading..." for the recipes for Roasted Root Au Gratin and for Chicken with Mediterranean Olives.

Stump's Hot Hot Chili Recipe - Spicy and Delicious!

What do you get when you combine?

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 Habanero pepper, diced
• 2  14-oz cans hot chili beans
• 1 large jar of salsa
• 1/2 - 1 bottle of beer
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 small jar of green chilies, diced
• 10 - 12 Stump's Hot Olives, finely chopped
• 1 Tbs chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• salt to taste

You get Stump's Hot Hot Chili!!!!!- The BEST CHILI I'VE EVER MADE!

For 30 years, I liked the chili I made. It's a basic chop and dump chili, - I chop some things and dump in cans of other things. And Stump's Hot Hot Chili is in this same category, which makes it super easy to fix. But it tastes so much better! In fact, it's better than the chili my gourmet husband once devoted an entire afternoon to preparing. He fire-roasted chilies and garlic; he peeled tomatoes; he pressed vegetables and simmered the sauce. Yes, his was exceptionally tasty. But STUMPS' HOT HOT CHILI IS BETTER!

For this chili recipe, just brown the hamburger in 1/4 cup of the hot olive juice, drain excess grease, add the remaining ingredients and then simmer the chili for 2 hours. Super Easy!

The flavor packed into one mouthful emerges in multiple stages. At first you taste a richly complex mix of flavors, - saucy meat, fresh chilies and onion, seasoned chili beans. The texture is thick and saucy, not watery! It feels luxurious on the tongue, - a bit like creamy ice cream. Then the chili heat lights up the tongue. It fills the mouth and opens the senses. You smile, lay down your spoon, and sip some beer. Aah! - the flavor!

The heat was just right on the capsicum scale for me. I served the chili to my good friends who share my love of spicy food. They too raved about the chili! Only Eric, - "man with Teflon mouth", thought that a second habanero pepper could be added. But Eric suggested that the secret ingredient to the chili's popularity was the addition of Stump's hot olives. I'd put out a dish of these spicy hot olives as an appetizer. They were new to Eric, and he became an instant fan. He'd pop the spicy hot olives into his mouth and not even sip his beer afterward. This man has a high capsicum tolerance. So when Eric tasted the chili which contains 12 of these olives, he identified their flavor and approved, -(high kudos because Eric himself is a superb cook!)

We all agreed that the chili's wonderful flavor resulted from the complexity inherent within each of its ingredients. As well as the Stump"s hot olives, the recipe calls for cans of chili beans preserved in their own spicy sauce. Several companies offer spicy chili beans. The brand you select likely impacts the chili's final flavor. Never having bought beans pre-spiced, I rather randomly chose Bush's spicy chili beans and Joan of Arc's. The sauce of each brand differed, but the combination worked. I also had never tried Mrs. Renfro's salsas. (Eric had and definitely likes them!) Her smokey roasted salsa sounded tasty so I bought it, and lucked out again. Her salsa fit right in with the spicy bean flavors.

Next was picking the beer. Julia Child says, "Never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink". But the corollary of this is "Never cook with a beer you want to drink." So I didn't use my new favorite beer, Hopalicious from Madison, WI's Ale Asylum Brewery. Instead I used Sam Adams Octoberfest. I like the Sam Adams beers a lot, so I did abide by Julia's rule. I also like Pinot Noir wine and used it in the chili. Regarding the proportions, I mis-read the recipe and added a full bottle of beer instead of a half. Whether the error improved or compromised the chili, I have no clue, which means that this recipe is definitely forgiving. And I'm sure that Joanie Steckart who wrote the cookbook "Drink Your Beer and Eat It Too!" would assure me that adding a full bottle of beer was "just fine".   

Pass the Pork Chops and Green Beans, - Easy Recipe for a Pot-luck Culture

Here's a recipe that won't win any contests. It's a recipe for simple honest food that satisfies the belly, comforts cold limbs, and most people like - including people under twelve. The recipe is probably as old as the hills. And if you're old enough, you've probably made some version of it or another. I found it in my battered, old recipe box and the bottom of the recipe card reads 'From the kitchen of ... Mom.'

Yes, my mom made this recipe for Pork Chops and Green Beans regularly when I was growing up. And I know why. The recipe is easy plus fool-proof. Whether it's made ahead of time or served late, it'll taste pretty much the same, which means good in many respects. True, if kept warm too long, a wrinkled skin will form over the casserole's top. But a quick stir eliminates that. So let's not worry about wrinkles.

So is it a casserole? You could call it that. The pork chops and string beans all cook together in a creamy, soupy sauce. But it lacks the starch filler common to casseroles. So I generally serve it with rice. Mom accompanied it with baked potato. But a simple hard roll will do just as well.

Is it bland? Usually, but if I were cooking only for me and my friends who love spicy food I'd substitute chilies for thyme. However, it's seasoned enough that nobody complains and most come back for seconds. All of which make it a very congenial food to bring to pot-lucks. It travels well and won't mind sitting or being kept warm in a crock-pot.

Pot-lucks were on my mind this weekend because our church was having a pot-luck lunch to kick-off the fall season. No, I didn't bring pork chops and string beans - it was hot out so I brought a pepper salad. But the idea of a pot-luck joined my other ruminations about giving and sharing. If you're interested and have got the time, click on 'continue reading...', otherwise, click here for the recipe for pork chops and green beans.

Zucchini Bread Recipe - Or Diving Into Food Fun By Giving Away So Gosh Darn Much Zucchini!

'Every harvest, every farm woman I know says the same thing: 'Next year, I'm not planting so gosh darn much zucchini!' But spring comes; the garden gets plowed; the warm, black soil is sprawled out under the sunshine; and sure enough - in goes the same amount of zucchini. Then when harvest comes, recipe after recipe is dragged out and tried; neighbors are busy on the phone giving zucchini away to neighbors." - That's how Wisconsin farm woman turned restaurant owner, Helen Myhre, introduces her recipe for 'Mad Zucchini Bread' in her cookbook Farm Recipes and Food Secrets from the Norske Nook. 

Helen's recipe for zucchini bread turns the common garden fruit into a breakfast delicacy. I've never met anyone who didn't rave about Helen's zucchini bread. And like Helen I suppose, the recipe is very flexible and forgiving.

When I lack sufficient zucchini, compensating with carrots adds extra texture, sweetness, and color. When the vanilla went AWOL from the cupboard, almond extract stepped in and is now my preferred extract flavoring. I even once completely left out all the oil and we still liked it, - the neighbors did too! I admit however, that my sweet-tooth is not as large as Helen's restaurant customers'. I routinely use less sugar than Helen's recipes call for. But it's O.K. - people rave about my zucchini bread too.

And although our family's alphabet game has finished, and I need not cook more 'Z'-foods, today I'm baking mad zucchini bread because of its end-of-summer abundance. Like Helen and the folks in Osseo, Wisconsin, neighbors here have been giving away zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and whatever other vegetables over-grew their gardens.

In some work-places, employees bring in zucchinis and put them on the break-room table as a free offering to others. Their mind set is 'better to share than to waste'. As soon as one person starts this practice, other gardeners join in and sometimes a break-room table can resemble a farm stand. Non-gardeners, having enjoyed their co-workers fresh produce, periodically reciprocate with bagels, baked goods, and candies. And this wonderful, bountiful break-room table is why we all get fat and very, very happy.

But the hurdle to establishing this break-room sharing is getting someone to be the first to give. Being the first is the scary part. An empty break-room table is just that, - empty. For the gardener contemplating laying down the first zucchini, no sweet reward is at hand ready to be picked up in return. Nor is any promise of future reciprocity ensured. The gardener holding zucchini must decide whether to release them to the table, or take them home and make zucchini bread, - which by the way freezes very well. The weight of this decision, the uncertainty of the answer to the question: 'If I give up something now, will I later be in need?' creates anxiety.

I once knew a man completely unfettered by such anxious thoughts. I met him at college. I think he had graduated, but I'm not sure. Anyway, he hadn't left the alma mater, and instead frequented the co-ed fraternity to which I briefly belonged. I'll call him J. J. was quiet, low-key, easy-going. Guys generally liked him, and I guess girls did too, -although his out-of-the-corner-of-the-eye leer made girls and animals nervous. A psychologist might say J. had trouble with boundaries. If he recognized them, he didn't always observe them.

Grilled Bratwurst on Labor Day Weekend - A Madison, Wisconsin Tradition!

Eating grilled bratwursts on Labor Day weekend has been a Madison, Wisconsin tradition at least since 1983 when the first Bratfest charity fund-raiser took place in Hilldale's Metcalfe Sentry parking lot. In the 80's and 90's, the three-day bratfest was held twice a year, - over Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. Thus, Bratfest signified Madison's start and finish of our all too brief, Wisconsin summer. The charity event grew so popular it recently had to be relocated to the spacious grounds of Madison's Alliant Energy Center. Kid games and carnival rides joined the live bands and brats to make Bratfest a hugely successful festival. But making A LOT of something great takes A LOT of behind-the scenes work, -too much work in fact to do twice a year. So now Bratfest only rings in the summer on Memorial Day. If Wisconsinites want to party with their bratwursts they have to throw their own end-of-summer bashes. And that's just what we do.

Our family kicked-off Labor Day weekend early. Last night we grilled Klement's bratwursts. Yes, this is the brand of brats served at the 2008 Super Bowl. Our Green Bay Packers didn't make it to Gillete Stadium, but our brats did!  Recipes and methods for cooking bratwursts abound. And I chose the recipe out of the cookbook Drink Your Beer and Eat It Too!  Click on "Continued reading..." for the recipe.