Waiting For March In Wisconsin By Eating Gourmet Specialty Foods

What do Wisconsinites do the last week of February? We wait for March. And what do we eat while waiting? We eat meat! Specialty meat! February is meat month at Wisconsinmade.com!!! Yes, we are loving those brats, those steaks, those bison snacks, those bacon slabs, and those summer sausages. Not to be missed, we're chasing those free-range chickens. We're snagging those rushing water trout and salmon. Yes, this time of year we crave massive amounts of nutritious protein to fortify our bodies for winter's last blasts of snow and ice.
Of course our scrumptious Wisconsin cheeses aid our efforts. We are melting award-winning cheeses on our burgers! We're doing all we can to forget the cold and that means eating deliciously warm, flavorful meats, fish, chicken, and cheeses.
Salads and fruits we long for you to adorn our summer tables. We crave your fresh, garden sweetness. But in the meantime, it's meat-time! Party On and we'll March toward May.

Today Children...AND Adults...Celebrate Halloween With Gifts of Treats

Children love Halloween...and more and more adults are celebrating it too. Spooky decorations, costumes, and Halloween parties are becoming increasingly elaborate. One sign of Halloween's acceptance as a 'Not-for-children-only holiday' is the growing practice of giving Halloween gifts. For the grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family friend who wants to say, "I care about you," Halloween offers a fun theme for gift-giving. Common gifts of food, clothing, and home-decor accessories become unique and festive when crafted in the Halloween spirit.
And while children love Halloween decorations, they love Halloween treats the most! A ghost-shaped cookie, a white-chocolate skeleton, caramel corn, and a caramel apple with black and orange sprinkles make children grin with Halloween glee. No ordinary cookie, chocolate or apple would be as fun.
Adults with gourmet palettes enjoy Halloween treats too, but the traditional corn syrup candy corn is out of fashion. Today's adult, gourmet ghosts and goblins crave gifts of pumpkin truffles and their caramel apples are dipped in Belgian chocolate and coated in pecans. Even serious adults smile like children when they open gift baskets brimming with gourmet bakery treats. Yes, Halloween is a very easy holiday for gift-giving. The possibilities are out-of-this-world.

National Ice Cream Day is July 19th! - New American Holiday

July 19th is National Ice Cream Day! Ronald Reagan designated the third Sunday in July to be National Ice Cream Day and encouraged Americans to honor this new American holiday by consuming copious quantities of ice cream. Whether or not dairy industry lobbyists had a hand in crafting this new American holiday is either an irrelevant issue or an example of genius. Ice cream has been a favorite American food since revolutionary times. George Washington stored blocks of winter's ice to make summer's ice cream. And today over 90% of all U.S. households eat ice cream fashioned into cones, bowls, parfait glasses, floats and even on sticks. Ice cream is one of the few desserts made for strolling in the park on a summer's night.
Vanilla remains the most favorite ice cream flavor, with chocolate a distant second. Wisconsinites favor blue moon ice cream. Exactly what that flavor is defies description, but it's good! Living in America's Dairyland makes Wisconsinites choosy about ice cream. We love extra-creamy, super-duper rich and delicious ice cream, (read in high-fat content). Walk around the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus during the summer and you're sure to see people happily enjoying Babcock Hall ice cream. Babcock Dairy is part of UW-Madison and creates the latest-greatest in ice cream innovations of taste. A rival to UW's Babcock Hall ice cream is Madison's Chocolate Shoppe ice cream. This ice cream too is extra-creamy and creative in flavors. Black licorice, dark chocolate, and Mackinac Island fudge are served up beside America's traditional favorites. So what's your favorite flavor? I bet you have one. I do, it just changes day to day. And this Sunday, on National Ice Cream Day, you can be sure I'll be showing my patriotism with a dish of ice cream made in Wisconsin.

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).