A Better Way To Give Mothers Breakfast On Mothers Day

One old Midwestern tradition that many mothers wish their children would forget is the Mothers Day tradition of serving mother breakfast in bed. My brother and I enjoyed this tradition and eagerly participated. We'd prepare toast, juice, coffee, and even eggs and bacon as we got older. Not that our mother actually ate those foods for breakfast, she preferred fruit. But our tradition didn't call for fruit so we didn't serve it. Instead, we'd place our idea of a grand Mothers Day breakfast on a large and cumbersome, wicker bed-tray, carefully carry the heavy tray upstairs, and then try to balance it on our mothers' legs. Naturally, coffee sloshed and juice spilled. Sometimes food toppled to the floor, but my brother and I were never overly-concerned since the dog was always under-foot, and the winter blankets would soon be sent out for spring cleaning. Our mother would make happy, exuberant comments of praise and thanks, but a discerning eye could detect the panic in her expression. My brother and I were so happy to serve our mother breakfast in bed.
As the years progressed, our mother rose earlier and earlier on Mothers Day. If we too didn't plan to rise extra early, she'd beat us to the kitchen. In retrospect, Mothers Day morning resembled a foot race. Eventually, the evening before Mothers Day we'd explicitly tell her to sleep in. But sure enough, there she'd be in the kitchen when we came down to make her coffee. We'd complain that she was ruining the tradition. She'd smile apologetically, but she wouldn't return to bed. Now as a mother myself who has cleaned up too many spills accidentally made by young children I understand why mom always sprinted to the kitchen on Mothers Day.
But just because a mother may be the earliest Sunday riser, doesn't mean she should cook her own breakfast, - especially on Mothers Day. The trick to pleasing a mother with breakfast is to give her something she actually wants to eat, and not make a mess of the kitchen in the process. To figure out what this magic Mothers Day breakfast is I've asked some Wisconsin folks who treat their moms to breakfast what they serve. I shouldn't have been surprised. I've seen it myself, although I've never been lucky enough to receive it. One of Wisconsin's most popular Mothers Day breakfast gifts is the Mother's Day Coffee Klotch Bakery Gift. This Mother's Day gift is delivered with a classic Danish almond kringle, pecan, angel food cookies, and a heavenly seven sisters coffee cake made with sweet almond paste and custard. The gift also includes an assortment of coffee packs. These delicious bakery treats are unique to Wisconsin. Plus, no cooking or prep is required. But what I hear that mothers like best about this gift is that there's plenty to share with family and friends, and sharing food is often what moms like to do best. So giving Mother a Coffee Klotch Bakery Gift has become a tradition in some Wisconsin families. I'm sure my mother would approve of this one.
Here's a link to more Mothers Day gift ideas. For more stories about Mothers Day giving read Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food .

Wisconsin Gourmets Participate In Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month

I'm passing on the news, - someone declared April is grilled cheese sandwich month. For this month only, preparing a grilled cheese sandwich is a national event. Cheese lovers are rushing to participate. Some will be grilling cheese in LA this Saturday at the 7th Annual National Grilled Cheese Invitational. Virtual participants with websites are sharing their designer-chef variations of the classic sandwich: American cheese melted between two pieces of fluffy, white bread. The nouveaux grilled cheese sandwiches are prepared with gourmet bakery breads, artisanal cheeses, and likely contain either fresh vegetables, a vegetable sauce, or both.
Possible variations are limited only by a chef's creativity.
Are YOU feeling creative? Want to join the fun? Ready to experiment? What grilled cheese creation can you concoct? Well, it all depends on what's in your cupboard. Here's what's in a Wisconsin gourmet's cupboard:
I'll start with the bread. No doubt, it's bakery fresh. Wisconsin gourmets like to choose breads with an ethnic character. For a grilled cheese sandwich, a likely choice is Swiss bread. It's a thick, crusty-crusted, white bread made with a hint of rye that is baked according to a traditional Swiss recipe. Swiss bread would give an appropriate nod to the grilled-cheese tradition while offering a hearty flavor and texture.
On to the cheese. Artisanal cheese for sure! Wisconsin has won so many national and international awards for its cheese over the past decades, that few Wisconsin gourmets regularly keep American cheese in their refrigerator crispers. More likely, they've got one or more prize-winning cheeses, any one of which would make an extraordinary grilled cheese sandwich. Which prize winning cheese you choose is just a matter of personal preference. For a mild flavor, a mild cheddar or colby or baby Swiss would be good. Colby blended with Monterey Jack adds some flavor complexity. One of my personal favorites is gouda cheese; it's slightly stronger flavor stands up well with its extra-rich creaminess. Of course, Havarti stands out in creaminess, and its delicious flavor would go well with the Swiss bread. Mozzarella cheese isn't used often in a grilled cheese sandwich, but how about award- winning goat milk mozzarella? Goat milk cheeses have a distinctly different flavor from cow milk cheeses, and have converted many a cow-milk cheese lover into a goat-milk cheese fan. Goat milk mozzarella makes an incredible veggie lasagna. Another championship cheese with bold flavor is buttermilk blue cheese. Some gourmets are pairing blue cheese with bacon in their grilled cheese sandwiches. Now that's a sandwich!
But to go the extra-creative mile, a Wisconsin gourmet will add some special sauce and veggies to a grilled cheese sandwich. Spinach artichoke dip or portabella mushroom salsa or dill mushrooms can make the traditional grilled cheese sandwich unrecognizable and elevate it from the kiddie menu to the wine bar's late-night menu.
With all these delicious possibilities we all may never eat American cheese on fluffy, white bread again. It's the passing of an era. On to the new American comfort food!
For the pulliest, cheesiest grilled cheese sandwich you can order at a restaurant, go to the Roxbury Tavern in Roxbury, Wisconsin.

Wisconsinites Select Bratwursts To Match Moods And Heritage

Now that grilling season has returned, Wisconsinites are carefully selecting among an amazingly large variety of bratwursts to grill. A brat is a brat, (or egad! -a very rude child) to the out-a-state'r, but Wisconsin gourmets are matching their bratwurst sausages to their moods. The bolder among us are going for Cajun, and jalapeno-spiced bratwursts. Those who savor the savory are choosing among apple, onion, and garlic-flavored bratwursts. The health-minded have chicken brats in mind, -considering both plain chicken and the tomato-basil chicken. Meanwhile, Wisconsin cheeseheads and Badgers are lured by brats mixed with Wisconsin cheeses, such as mushroom Swiss brats, cheddar brats, and bell pepper with mozzarella brats. And we who enjoy beer (aka, bratwash) in brats as well as with them are choosing the red lager beer brats and the smoked beer brats.
"All this variety is fine for nouveaux-Wisconsinites," traditionalists say, but they stand-by the tried-n-true bratwursts of Wisconsin's German heritage. Loyalties divide between Bavaria, and Sheboygan, America's self-proclaimed bratwurst capital. Sheboygan bratwursts, made with ground pork, beef, and traditional seasonings, go head-to-head with the flavor of Bavaria Kaiser brats made of beef, fine cuts of ham, Old World spices and are slowly smoked.
And lastly, there are those among us who go beyond the bratwurst. Sausage aficionados questing for the taste of Germany revel in Bavaria Munich weisswurst (a white sausage made of veal, and not a bratwurst at all). My Bavarian friend delights in these weisswursts and serves them warmed gently in water on the stove-top, (NEVER grilled which splits the casing and spills the flavorful juices into the fire!). A Wisconsinmade.com customer who buys our Nurnberg sausages (we call them brats, but they are really a type of sausage in a class all their own) wrote to us, "I love your bratwurst. I have been to many European markets since I left Germany, but I have finally found the true taste of Nurnberg! I lived in Nurnberg for 5 years and lived on bratwurst and sauerkraut. I live in N.Y. now, but I'm eating German again! Thank you very much!!"
Click on these instructions to learn how to grill, steam, fry, or broil Wisconsin's popular State Street brats.
Looking for more bratwurst recipes? Try these: Beer Mustard Bratwurst, and Bratwurst with braised, red cabbage. Also try Bratwurst strata which combines brats, cheese, and bread. It can be made ahead of time and served with beer at party time!

Read more about brats at Madison, Wisconsin's Memorial Day Weekend Brat Fest!

Wisconsin Gourmet Maple Syrup Producer Roth Sugar Bush Reports Above-Average Season

"This spring Wisconsin's maple trees have produced above-average quantities of syrup with above-average sweetness," reported Dawn Roth of Roth Sugar Bush. The Roth family in Cadott, Wisconsin has tapped maple trees since 1953 and produces some of the state's finest-quality maple syrups. When asked why this year's harvest was so outstanding, Dawn laughed that you could line up 10 different people who've been harvesting maple syrup for 70 years each and you'd get 10 different answers. "No one really knows why some years are better than others, but everybody's got a pet theory," she said.
The Roth family attributes this year's success to the heavy snowfall that fell in Wisconsin during November and December. Dawn believes that the several feet of snow which stayed on the ground through February protected the maple tree roots from January's below-zero temperatures. The ground frost didn't creep down as deeply this year as it has in the past. That meant the roots didn't take as long to thaw and were ready to produce sap as soon as day-time temperatures warmed. March's warm, day-time temperatures got the nutrient-rich sap running upwards fast from the roots to the tree buds. The freezing temperatures at night caused the sap to drop back down. This year's consistently-repeated, daily rise and fall of sap began early, -the Roths started tapping trees on March 1st, -and has lasted well into April, thus making the sap more abundant and the season longer.
The grade of syrup refers to the concentration of minerals within the sap. At the beginning of the season, the sap is more dilute and referred to as grade A light amber. The light amber is best for making candies and cremes. As the mineral concentration increases, the sap produces Grade A medium amber then dark amber syrups. The Roth family sells the grade A medium amber which is best for general baking and table use on pancakes and waffles. Now at the end of the season, the mineral concentration is highest and the resulting syrup is used as an industrial flavoring agent.
Dawn compared the 100% pure maple syrup produced by her family with mass-produced, cheaper maple syrups. The big, brand-named syrups will list pure maple syrup as an ingredient, however she's been told that these companies typically use one barrel of pure maple syrup to flavor a semi-truck full of corn syrup. The pure maple syrup produced by the Wisconsin families comprising the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association is truly 100% pure - NO additives, NO corn syrup, -nothing but maple sap boiled down into delicious maple syrup.
"As a result, an unopened, correctly-packaged bottle of pure maple syrup will never go bad," said Dawn. And that's why the Roth family can sell their pure maple syrup year round. "Once opened," Dawn added, "store the maple syrup in the refrigerator." Of course it's so good, that after a few hearty breakfasts, there may not be much left to store.

Easter Foods and Gifts- Decorate The Holiday Table With Symbols Of New Life

Easter's coming, and you're hosting Easter dinner. It will be a multi-generational celebration with very different meanings for the oldest and youngest generations. The holiday's religious solemnity will be prominent in the minds of the mature guests. Meanwhile, your younger guests will be bouncing-off-the-wall-crazy anticipating a stealth bunny hiding candy. Two moods, one meal, - your challenge: Serve holiday foods that speak to all. Here are some fun foods that decorate an Easter table with symbols of new life.

For the centerpiece, an edible basket of colorfully-decorated, chocolate bouncing bunnies makes a table decidedly adorable, especially if a chocolate peanut butter bunny sits at the head of each place setting.

Too frivolous, you wonder? Will your grandmother frown? Maybe you should go with the respectfully-tasteful milk chocolate crosses. Of course, you could always mix and match the party favors: kids get bunnies; adults get crosses. But maybe you figure that the kids will get enough chocolate in their Easter baskets.

What are your other options for decorative Easter foods? Something a little different is an Easter-decorated caramel apple. Not just a fall treat - caramel apples can be colorful and fun anytime of year. Go with elegant white chocolate for the adults and multi-colored sprinkled apples for the kids.

And don't forget the tried-and-true, never-fail, holiday standby: cookies. Colorful Easter cookies always make a table festive. Plus, cookies can come in all different shapes and styles. Children have great fun nibbling frosted sugar cookies shaped like baby animals and Easter eggs. Offered on a plate beside them can be attractive, sugar-cookie crosses and flowers. If you're really looking to please Grandma, I recommend the hand-decorated springerle cookies elegantly embossed with Christian images. People admire these hand-crafted cookies so much that instead of eating them they take them home, air dry them, and bring them back to decorate the table next year. Yes, these embossed springerle cookies can easily become holiday ornaments to pass down from one generation to the next.

And that's part of the joy of holidays, - creating and passing on family traditions. So make the Easter dinner easy, -order in a gourmet bone-in ham with specialty mustards, serve some colorful side-dishes, relax and enjoy. Happy Easter.