Wisconsin Restaurants Share Their Recipes In Madison Originals Cookbook

Madison, Wisconsin is increasingly becoming the place to dine when visiting the Upper Midwest. The capital city offers an extensive variety of ethnic and gourmet foods. While some Madison restaurants exemplify the latest in gourmet trends, others serve traditional Wisconsin fare that preserves and enhances Wisconsin's culinary heritage.
Now the Madison Originals Cookbook has been created to promote the Madison-area's diversity of restaurants and Wisconsin's vibrant culture. The cookbook features 101 recipes from 24 landmark restaurants. Each restaurant is independently-owned and contributes a unique culinary expression to the dining landscape. The cookbook's beautiful colorful photographs showcase the artistic care in which these restaurants create their signature dishes. Madison Originals offers recipes to please the full gamut of tastes. It contains recipes for gourmet cuisine served at Madison's up-scale dining establishments such as L'Etoile, The Harvest, Restaurant Muramoto, and Madison's premier seafood restaurant, The Blue Marlin. The book includes recipes from many family-favorite restaurants such as The Old Fashioned, Mexicali Rose, Lombardino's, and the Imperial Garden West, which has been voted Madison's Best Chinese Restaurant for the past 25 years. Madison Originals guides Madison newcomers to the finest local flavors in the city, and lets them re-create their dining experiences at home. With Madison Originals packed in their suitcases, out-of-town visitors returning home can continue to enjoy the tastes of Madison.

For a sample recipe from Madison's Admiralty Room at The Edgewater, visit Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food.

Smoked Gouda - US Championship Cheeses in My Gourmet Wisconsin Cupboard

Yesterday afternoon the United States Cheese Championship results were announced in Green Bay, Wisconsin. And Wisconsin cheese-makers did it again! Of the 64 categories, Wisconsin won 41 blue ribbons. First place went to SarVecchio, a Parmesan cheese created by John Griffith at Sartori Foods in Antigo, Wisconsin. See all the results at the US Cheese Championship homepage.
With all the exquisite cheeses hand-crafted throughout the US, the championship judges must have had a difficult time deciding the winners. Even within a certain class, cheeses can vary greatly. I imagine that judges' individual flavor-preferences weigh heavily in the decision-making process. Or maybe they don't, and that's why those folks get picked to be judges.

But we all have our favorites, and mine is smoked Gouda. I've loved smoked Gouda cheese for years, and my new favorite is the smoked Gouda made by Marieke Penterman at her family's dairy in Thorpe, WI. I checked the smoked Gouda results and Marieke's smoked Gouda placed 7th out of 36. Joe Miner III of Empire Cheese Inc. in NY took first for his smoked provolone; Monroe, WI's Roth Kase Team Gran Cru won second for their Moody Blue, and Scott Ness of Old Europe Cheese, Inc. from Michigan won third for his smoked Gouda. But so far, I can't buy any of these prize-winners to try them out. Sure, Roth Kase sells a lot of award-winning cheese around here. I can get their past-year champions, but their new winner, Moody Blue, may take some time to hit Wisconsin shelves. When it does, I'll be sure to try it.

But for now, I am very happy to continue nibbling Marieke's smoked Gouda which I CAN get. Last year I gave rounds of it for Christmas presents. I serve it as an appetizer. But mostly, I enjoy it as a healthy snack. I could get fancy like the fine restaurants in the news lately which have begun to offer after-dinner cheese platters. These dessert platters showcase fine cheeses served with nuts and fruits. They are becoming very popular. And what a simple dessert to prepare! Gourmet Wisconsin cheeses, nuts, and fruits are easy to get and keep in any gourmet's cupboard. So when my guests come for dinner, I can present my own gourmet cheese-platter. I'll pour the wine, and live like the RICH! - (because I am rich - I'm eating some of the finest cheese the world has to offer).

Guarantee an End to Winter: Party With a Kringle

"Spring officially begins..."Oh who cares when spring OFFICIALLY begins? Wisconsinites want spring NOW! Even if you're out-of-state, you probably heard groaning from us Wisconsinites a few days ago when our meteorologists said we'd be back in the deep-freeze this week. "Well, good news," they said today. "Today... TODAY!!!" they said, "is the last day of frigid cold. Starting tomorrow temps will reach the 30's and we'll all really start to thaw come the weekend!" Do you hear us cheering now? Ol'Jimmy the groundhog from Sun Prairie, WI said we'd have six more weeks of winter, and we did. But for this celebrated rodent to be truly correct, then our Wisconsin winter must be over by Tuesday. We're all rooting that Ol' Jimmy is smarter than he looks.
Well, I've got a secret trick to tip the scale in Jimmy's favor. Perhaps you'll say it's just superstition, but what are the desperate if not superstitious? I learned a way to shimmy past fate decades ago in a small apartment in Evanston, IL. Thank heavens we were moving out; that apartment had ROACHES! As we packed up, my husband packed a disgusting, squishy, large, rubber roach. My questioning eyes could not hide my disgust. He replied, "This will be the only roach we take to our new apartment." And he was right. It worked! No roaches at the new place, - or ever since.
So, where am I going with this? If we don't want Old Man Winter to follow us into spring, we need to carry a talisman (Webster's dictionary defines talisman as "an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune.") So what talisman will keep Old Man Winter back with his March lion and far away from our spring lambs? We must carry something "wintry". Or perhaps we should pretend to revel in something symbolizing the depths of winter.
But I've never been good at pretending to revel. I prefer actual revelry to virtual revelry. So I'm going all out. Time for a killer, end-of-winter party! We'll eat all the favorite winter foods that we won't want again until next November. And I know the perfect food to say winter: A Christmas tree made out of kringle. Yes, Wisconsinites, be they in-state or out-of-state, say Christmas with kringle. I know this because last December hundreds of people ordered kringles from Wisconsinmade.com to give as gifts and enjoy at home on Christmas day. People told me that this light flaky Danish pastry filled with fruit or nuts says winter celebration.
But looking at this kringle Christmas tree causes conflict within me. I do love kringle. I like it in almond flavor, pecan flavor, raspberry, blueberry, and apple. I like cherry cream cheese kringle, and just plain cheese kringle. As a friend said, "How can you have a bad kringle?" There is no such thing. So I think a party featuring kringle is a marvelous idea. But can I bring myself to follow my superstitious advice and eat a kringle Christmas tree? Fear of further winter urges me to try. What to do?
PUNT - eat both, eat all, eat kringle.

Pass The Springerle For An Old-Fashioned St. Patrick's Day Party

St. Patrick's Day is an OLD holiday. Not as old as Christmas and Easter of course, but the 5th-century missionary who made the Irish Catholic has prompted party-ing for over a millennium. The Catholic Church considers St. Patrick such an honorable fellow that if March 17th falls on a Lenten Friday, Irish bishops will lift the day's ban on meat-eating. Pass the Irish Stew - It's Party Time!
Given the extreme age of this feast day, I think it merits celebration with a highly-traditional food. Let's eat food with history older than corned beef and cabbage (which I think was first made in the U.S.) How about 14th-century Springerle cookies? Yes, Springerle cookies are the traditional way to send good wishes on St. Patrick's Day. They are anise and lemon-flavored cookies which are pressed into iron baking moulds, dried and then baked. The moulds give the cookies a raised surface which is then intricately hand-painted with decorative icings. Today we call this type of cookie embossed. Embossed Springerle cookies originated in Europe in the Middle Ages and were exchanged as we exchange holiday and greeting cards. (Out of paper? Send a cookie.) The scenes on these Medieval cookies depicted the seasons and symbols of the holiday celebrated.
Embossed Springerle cookies are gaining popularity in the gourmet food scene. The texture and flavor differ from today's typical cookies. And this edible artwork can be so impressive that if you want to save it for display you can. Just leave it out to dry and it will harden into a decorative ornament you can bring out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day for years to come.

Looking for more ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Check out my other blog, Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food. Be sure you say a prayer for the cook.