A recent trip to Minnesota to visit good friends included a bit of cooking, as any trip to visit good friends should. A later post will address a wonderful dining experience we enjoyed at a local restaurant, but for now we'll focus on some of the dishes we created together. A bountiful harvest of pheasant [...]
Category: Tastes
In Praise of Pumpkins – Soup, Pierogis, and Pancakes
Pumpkins are simply a uniquely identifiable type of winter squash, indigenous to America, and now a globally recognized symbol of autumn. The flavors of winter squash can vary from relatively bland to rich and buttery. They can also take on vegetal qualities similar to summer squashes, such as zucchini. Pureed or roasted, they provide a [...]
The Humble Hamburger
The hamburger origin dispute is fun. The effort made to claim the invention of the hamburger is in stark contrast to effort needed to make one. There is one claim by Carlie Nagreen of Hortonville, WI, who claimed to serve them first at the Seymour County Fair in 1885. There are also claims for invention [...]
A Celebration of Wisconsin Cheeses
Due to a fortuitous turn of events, we found ourselves with an overabundance of beautiful, Wisconsin cheeses. A quick consult of the composed cheese courses Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook provided inspiration as well as past courses created with my good friend, Tom. In sequence of how they were served, here they are: Oven roasted beets [...]
In Praise of Rhubarb
Rhubarb means summer. Summer in the 12 year-old, off-of-school, complete freedom sense. Summer in the sleep-in, wake-to-warm-sunshine, go-play-in-the-field sort of way. When I was 12, we lived on forty acres of prairie grasses and wild flowers, bordered on two sides by a slow flowing river, which would sparkle like gold in the setting sun. We [...]
Great Lakes Cuisine 