It’s that time of year again, when the crisp fall temperatures stir the hearts of Wisconsin’s Norwegian brethren. The aroma of rotting fish and rutabagas is in the air. At Lutheran churches and Son’s of Norway lodges all over southern Wisconsin the annual ritual of the lutefisk supper is upon us.

For as long as I can remember our family has been eating lutefisk and lefse around the holiday season. When I was young it was always at Grandma’s house, where she had spent days making lefse and soaking the lutefisk before the big dinner. Now that my Grandmother has passed away, my family still enjoys this ritual at one (or more if I am lucky) of the local churches around the area. The lutefisk dinner is a major fundraiser for those organizations that put it on. People come from all around for this once a year event. You purchase your tickets and then wait in the pews till your number is called. Seating is usually family style and you quickly make friends as your passing the pitchers of melted butter around the table. Members of the congregation are working hard preparing and serving the meal. For those who have yet to acquire a taste for lutefisk (or fish jello as my son likes to call it), there is usually ham or meatballs to satisfy. When you throw in the mash potatoes, Cole slaw and cranberries you have the makings of great meal. To top things off, there is always a slice of pie.

If you have never tried a lutefisk dinner, I encourage you to do so this season. Below is a list of the various dates and locations of lutefisk dinners in southern Wisconsin. I am not sure I have all of them listed so if you know of additions to this list, please be sure to comment below.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to pass the butter.

October 24, 2009

• Son’s of Norway Idun Lodge
  2262 Winnebago Street in Madison, WI
  (608) 837-8335
  11:00am – 6:00pm
  Meatballs (for the faint of heart) potatoes, rutabagas, lefse, sweet soup, and more. Adult (13 & up) $16, Youth (5 – 12) $7

November 6, 2009

• Lakeside Lutheren Church
  located at the corner of Mandrake Road and Northport Drive (WI Highway 113)
  (608)-244-6181
  serving the public from 11:00 am until 8:00 pm

November 7, 2009

• Bonnet Prairie Lutheran Church
  two miles south of Rio, N3694 Old F Road
  (920) 992-3200
• Western Koshkonong Lutheran Church
  2633 Church St, Cottage Grove, WI 53527-8616
  (608) 873-6744 or (608) 873-7148
  Serving Times 11:30AM 12:45PM 4:00PM 5:15PM & 6:30PM, Tickets $14.00 in advance and $15.00 for walk ups.
• Barneveld Lutheran Church
  505 Swiss Lane Barneveld 53537
  (608) 924-8621
  Serving: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Adults: $ 15.00 Children 12 & under: $ 7.00

November 14, 2009

• Son’s of Norway Nordland Lodge
  418 W. Milwaukee St., Janesville, WI 53511
  (608) 365-1369
  11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
• Christ Lutheran Church
  220 S. Main St., DeForest
  (608) 846-4719
  11 a.m. to 7 p.m., adults $15, $7 for children 6 to 12, under 6 free (2008 prices)

December 5, 2009

• St. Olaf Lutheran Church
  W653 Roosevelt Road, Rubicon, WI 53078
  (920) 474-7042
  Serving 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

 Wisconsin State Fair Food

It has been a very long time since I went to the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis. This annual August event draws people from all over Wisconsin and upper Illinois. There were the usual rides and midway attractions and of course the barns full of all kinds of animals. What I did not expect was the sheer volume of food available everywhere I turned. From the traditional carnival options to home grown Wisconsin specialties. The most notable being the Cream Puff, which of course was as far away from the entrance as you could get. So for your viewing pleasure is a photo tour of just a sampling of the food stands I encountered on my way from the entrance of the fair to the location to buy the famous Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puff.

Enjoy, more after the break…

Memorial Day weekend has special meaning in Madison, Wisconsin.  For the last several years, it has marked the weekend for Bratfest, the biggest Bratwurst-eating orgy in the World!  Thousands gather to buy bags of brats at bargain prices.  And that’s not all, there are major celebrities on hand, as shown below:

Yes, the Johnsonville Brat Truck and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is about as big as it gets in these parts.

This year a major World Record was set in the number of bratwurst consumed (191,712).  Here’s are some interesting facts from last year – when a record was not set!

There are MANY, MANY photos below. 

One of the side dishes that disappears fast at our Thanksgiving table is the Cheese Sauce.  In many ways, it is really a side of a side dish, served up alongside the broccoli and cauliflower, though I will note that in reality it gets poured over almost everything on the plates, very much like a gravy.  I make a lot of cheese sauce for Thanksgiving, using 1 cup of butter, 6 cups of milk, and over 13 cups of cheese.

I can already here the cries of “Holy Heart Attack, Batman, that’s a lot of dairy!”.  But I’ll point out the following:

1. There will be around 25 people for dinner.
2. We are from Wisconsin, after all.
3. I use chicken stock in addition to milk in a relatively futile effort to lighten the sauce up a bit.
4. There is usually some left over, which people fight over even more than the leftover turkey.
5. It is Thanksgiving… get over it.

Here’s the evidence:

Cheese sauce is a great dish to make in advance, which I did, stored in a crock pot, and put in the refrigerator.  On Thanksgiving it will be brought out and warmed in the same crockpot, which makes it an effortless and mindless thing to deal with in the uproar.

Recipe:

• 2 sticks butter (1 cup)
• 2 cups flour
• 6 cups milk
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 8 cups cheddar cheese
• 4 cups sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• powdered garlic, onion, mustard to taste
• salt, white pepper, paprika to taste

In a very large stockpot, melt the butter over low heat.  Add flour, a little at a time, whisking to avoid lumps.  Once well mixed, cook over low heat for several minutes to cook out the flour taste.

Slowly pour 2 cups milk into flour mixture, whisking constantly to ensure smoothness.  Once smooth, add the rest of the milk more rapidly, still whisking.  Add the cream cheese and allow to melt.  Continue to add the rest of the cheese, whisking as you add so that it melts consistently.  Once all the cheese is added and melted, use the chicken stock as needed to thin to the right thickness. 

Taste the sauce before adding salt, as the cheese can be salty.  Add all spices, to taste. 

A Cuisine Capers viewer pointed us in the direction of a very funny (and far too close to true) Wisconsin Gourmet video.

Take a look.  It is on target, right down to the picture of Brett Favre over the stove.  Thanks Chris!

From Crackle: Wisconsin Gourmet

Trader Joe’s has opened in Madison. But more about that harrowing tale in a moment…

The balmy Sunday weather (35 degrees and sunny!) encouraged me to go out early this morning and roam around a bit. I started out at the Monona Farmer’s Market. This is actually a routine Sunday morning stop. You might think that I go there for the produce. You would be wrong.

You see, there is a guy there who has a buffalo stand. And while his buffalo is excellent, that is not what I buy. I’m afraid that he’s got my dogs addicted to his buffalo cookies with liver chips. So I go there first thing every Sunday morning and I buy dog cookies. Or, to be more truthful, cat cookies. The Buffalo Guy confided in me early this summer that the cat cookies are the exact same thing as the dog cookies. The cat cookies just have some pre-made groves in them so that you can break them easier. I had to explain this to my Shiba Inus before I fed them the cat cookies, of course.

Then I headed to my neighborhood coffee shop, Cuppa Jo, on Monona Drive. Now, technically, this is no longer my neighborhood since I became a suburbanite 2 years ago. But I still head back to the ‘hood several times a week to indulge in both the coffee and the atmosphere. If you live in Madison and you have a chance to go there, skip the Starbucks and support the local shop. You won’t regret it, and it is the right thing to do.

And now begins the harrowing tale of my trek downtown to scope out the first Trader Joe’s to open not only in Madison but in Wisconsin.

I drove downtown, dodging street crews cleaning up barrels and barricades from the State Street Halloween party of the night before (I simply can not bring myself to call it “FreakFest”). Thankfully, there were no riots this year, and the place didn’t look too torn up. But I passed a playboy bunny, a court jester, and a rather drunken looking clown staggering down University Avenue in search of their apartments.

Making my way to Monroe Street, I naively assumed that I’d beat the crowd with an early Sunday morning excursion. What a mistake. Here’s my advice to you:

DO NOT GO. STAY AWAY. SAVE YOURSELVES!

The place was a train wreck. The parking was a nightmare, the people were insane, and some of the shelves were bare. For a neighborhood that prides itself on tolerance, I’m here to tell you that the crowd was rude, obnoxious, pushy and manic. I passed a man muttering disgustedly to himself and I said to him, in sympathy, “No kidding – why aren’t these people in church???”. He laughed and replied, “Think about the demographics when you ask yourself that!”.

I escaped the place with my life, somehow, and vowed that it will be a significantly long time before I go back. Whole Foods and Jenifer Street Market will do just fine, thank you very much.

I drove back downtown as I made my way back to the east side, passing a man dressed like a princess and 6 foot tall staggering box of condoms making their way down Regent Street.

Only in Madison! (But that is why I live here!)

I’ve figured out why I will never amass a fortune. I don’t act on my impulses and create obscure, targeted niche marketing products.

What caused this epiphany, you may ask? Well, there I was, wandering around Jenifer Street Market in Madison one day and lo and behold, what should I come across but one of my past contemplations staring me in the face!

Anyone who lives in Wisconsin and eats brats understands the need for sauerkraut. I’m quite certain I don’t need to explain that. But anyone who lives in Wisconsin, eats brats, but doesn’t feed a dozen people each time they grill also realizes how really annoying it is to throw away the extra sauerkraut that is leftover.

Compound that with the fact that I absolutely hate canned sauerkraut. It is tinny and the texture is not that great. So when I buy sauerkraut, I buy the “Bag-O-Kraut” that you can pick up in the meat case, by the pork. Well, at least you can pick up Bag-O-Kraut in Wisconsin. I make no guarantees about it’s availability in, say, Fresno.

But the Bag-O-Kraut is even bigger than a small can of kraut. So, even more waste.

All of this really does have a point. Really. As I was mentioning at the start of this post…

There I was, staring at the meat counter of Jenifer Street Market and there it was. My million dollar idea. “Packet-O-Kraut”. Just the perfect size for 2 or 3 brats. No waste. Good flavor and texture. Just what the world needed.

They stole my idea!

The fall season has special meaning here in Wisconsin. Changing colors, crisp evenings, football (Go Packers) and of course hunting. As a card carrying member of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals – Get your bumper stickers here and here),
I venture into the woods each fall looking to kill 4 legged creatures with sharp pointy sticks, or the occasional bullet. After a successful season comes the joy or preparing your harvest for consumption. There have been many years that my family has gone an entire year without eating beef. Why you say? Because the freezer is full of venison!

Venison tips over brown rice.

Being January in Wisconsin, it should come as no surprise to be snowed in on a Friday night, with 9+ inches of snow coming down. With no real ambition to cook an elaborate meal after a couple of really long weeks, I turned to the freezer for inspiration. Lo and behold, what should I find there but leftover pasta stuffing from New Years Eve. Thawed, thinned down with white wine, and mixed into a hot pan of pasta, the leftover stuffing proved to be pretty versatile, pulling double duty as a nice pasta sauce.

And the best thing about being snowed in on a Friday night (aside from the post-dinner glass of port in front of the toasty fire…)? A snow day was declared for our weekly Owner Humiliation class. Some people know this same class as puppy obedience school, but these people do not own a Shiba Inu, who considers obedience to be something left completely up to her own discretion.

I had mentioned in a previous entry that one of the perfect Christmas gifts is a Kringle from O & H Bakery. This year was a hectic year, as we moved into our new house and got settled in. I remembered a bit too late that I still needed to order the traditional Christmas Kringle.

But that’s ok. The UW Badgers were headed to a bowl game on New Years Day (let’s not revisit that, shall we?), and I was planning on doing some entertaining. Why not combine the Christmas Kringle with the bowl game and serve it up to the guests?

So I went on line and ordered 4 Kringles – pecan, cream cheese, apple, and chocolate. The Pecan Kringle disappeared before the first guest arrived. The day of the bowl game, I pulled out the cream cheese and the apple kringles and sliced them up. Because of the massive amounts of food that we had, it didn’t go nearly as fast as I had thought it would. I guess that is good and bad, given that we were perfectly capable of finishing the job up ourselves in the ensuing days.

I took the entire chocolate kringle into work after the holidays. It disappeared in less than 30 minutes. I think it was a hit.

So, if you are looking for a nice treat to serve for a gathering, or if you just want to order a kringle and savor it yourself for a few days, I simply can not recommend O & H enough.