FEED THE RESISTANCE: FARMERS' MARKET 2024!
Feed The Resistance: Farmers' Market 2024!
The Dane County Farmers' Market is back up on the Capitol Square for the summer...so today, we celebrate with a recipe from the Farmers' Market website - it's Linguine with Lemon, Spinach and Garlicky Breadcrumbs. I bought the spinach from the market on Saturday - and even this early in the season, the spinach was WONDERFUL!
Because the Farmers' Market is a summertime tradition - Dee went with another summertime tradition for this week's beer - Oberon American Wheat Ale from Bell's...and what a perfect pairing. Pass the sunscreen!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: GRILLED CHEESE-OFF 2024!
Feed The Resistance: Grilled Cheese-Off 2024!
In honor of the fact that today is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day, Dee and I held another "Grilled Cheese-off." Each of us made a grilled cheese sandwich, hers with blackberries and a little honey, and mine with home-made pimento cheese and whiskey-bacon jam! Both sandwiches turned out FANTASTIC - and we paired them both with the "Wisconsinitis" Cream Ale from 3 Sheeps Brewing Company. The sweetness of Dee's sandwich worked great with the creaminess of the beer...and the spiciness of the pimento cheese in my sandwich was mellowed a bit by the beer. Dee always teaches us to pair with either contrasting or similar flavors...this worked with both sandwiches, for opposite reasons - similar flavors with Dee's sandwich, and contrasting flavors with my sandwich.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: RAINY DAY TOMATO SOUP!
Feed The Resistance: Rainy Day Tomato Soup!
We all know the old saying... "April Showers bring May Flowers!" Well, April is here, so I thought we could get through it all with a good rainy-day meal. And what better for a rainy day, than a bowl of good Tomato Soup? I wanted to do something a little different with the tomato soup - so I pulled out an old recipe from Food & Wine Magazine, for "Creamy Tomato Soup with Shrimp and Jerk Spices!" This one comes together really easy, as it uses premade tomato soup, and premade jerk spices. Basically, all you do is melt a little butter, add a finely chopped onion and a little thyme and keep cooking for about 5 minutes, then add to that a quart of tomato soup (they suggest Pacific Natural Foods brand), and your jerk spices (they suggest WalkersWood jerk paste). Bring that to a boil and then let it simmer for about 5 minutes, and then add your shrimp and let it simmer for another 3 minutes, until the shrimp is pink and curled. Finish it off with thinly sliced scallions and serve it with rice and a lime wedge.
To go with the somewhat spicy soup, Dee served up "Unite The Clans" Scottish-style ale from Third Space Brewing in Milwaukee. The sweetness and the breadiness (is that a word?) of the beer went really well with the spiciness of the soup.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: CHEESE...WITH ALICE IN DAIRYLAND!
Feed The Resistance: Cheese...with Alice in Dairyland!
It seems like the whole world is mad about college basketball this time of year...but not Alice in Dairyland. Alice is mad about Wisconsin Cheese...and she's put together her very own Wisconsin Artisan Cheese Brackets, patterned after those basketball brackets we're all familiar with. The brackets started with 8 great Wisconsin cheeses, and through online voting, they are down to the final 2...Cheese Curds and Colby Jack. You can vote for your favorite on the Alice in Dairyland Facebook and Instagram pages.
This week, Dee and I had the opportunity to talk with Alice about the brackets and Wisconsin cheese! We also got to try some of the cheese, which Dee paired with a couple of great Wisconsin beers - "Contorter Porter" from Ale Asylum, and "Minnesconsin" from Hop & Barrel Brewing Company.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: TOP CHEF WISCONSIN!
Feed The Resistance: Top Chef Wisconsin!
The new season of Top Chef premiered earlier this week! The current season was shot here in Wisconsin, in Madison, Milwaukee and Door County. It's had foodies around the state guessing at what the challenges might be - obviously they'll do something with cheese, probably a Door County Fish Boil, and of course - something with the Dane County Farmers' Market! Top Chef Wisconsin features a new host, Kristen Kish, who is a former Top Chef champion! In honor of Top Chef coming to Wisconsin...and the new host, I made one of the recipes that Kristen made famous when she was a Top Chef contestant... "Apple Pie à la Mode Ice Cream Sandwiches!" Basically, it's an Ice Cream Sandwich, made with home-made sugar cookies, dipped in cinnamon sugar. The filling starts with vanilla ice cream, from there, you make a basic apple-pie filling and cook that to the point where it's starting to caramelize. Let the filling cool completely, mix it in with the ice cream and put it between two of those amazing cookies!
To pair with the ice cream sandwiches, Dee brought in a beer that she likes to use to make Beer Floats - Warsteiner Dunkel. The beer worked particularly well with the cinnamon sugar in the cookies...with the sweetness of the cookie complimenting the malts in the beer perfectly!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: ST. PATRICK'S DAY BREAD PUDDING!
Feed The Resistance: St. Patrick's Day Bread Pudding
With St. Patrick's Day coming up this weekend, I had to do two things...1) Invite Sean Patrick in to talk about the St. Patrick's Day Parade on Sunday around the Capitol Square, and 2) head to the Guinness website to find some good food to serve for St. Patrick's Day! So, this afternoon, we shared a little Guinness-infused Bread Pudding with Sean Patrick, who told us all about this weekend's festivities. The parade starts at 1:30 on the Capitol Square and benefits several local non-profit organizations, including The UW Carbone Cancer Center, The Jim Lemon Foundation, Gigi's Playhouse, and Logan's Hearts & Smiles. Make a donation to those beneficiaries at stpatsmadison.org.
To pair with the Guinness-infused Bread Pudding, Dee chose a Guinness 0.0. This is a beer that we had intended to try during "Dry January"...but never got around to it, so this seemed like the perfect time to give it a try. While the bread pudding is infused with real Guinness, the non-alcoholic version worked great for the pairing!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: GRILLED CHEESE W/TOMATO-COCONUT CHUTNEY!
Feed The Resistance: Grilled Cheese w/Tomato-Coconut Chutney!
The World Championship Cheese Contest was happening in Madison this week, so I had to do something with Cheese. O.K. - Grilled Cheese sandwiches for all! It's actually a grilled cheese sandwich with a little twist...a bit of Tomato-Coconut Chutney! The chutney recipe came from Food & Wine magazine, and they suggested that it's a great replacement for ketchup, and "superb with grilled cheese sandwiches" - so that's what I did! And they were right!
To pair with the sandwich, Dee loves pickles with her grilled cheese, so she chose a beer called "Pickle Friday" from Jukes Ale Works in Elkhorn, Nebraska. The first sip of beer was really heavy on the pickle flavor, but that mellowed considerably with a bit of the sandwich - especially when you got a little taste of the chutney.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: CAT-FISH CAKES!
Feed The Resistance: Cat-fish Cakes!
Tonight at The Tinsmith, it's "Wags & Whiskers - A Soiree for the Strays" - a benefit for Underdog Pet Rescue...and all the cats and dogs at Underdog, currently looking for their forever homes. So naturally, since the benefit is for CATS and DOGS - I made some Catfish today. The Cajun Catfish Cakes are similar to Crab Cakes, but made with Catfish instead of Crab.
To pair with the Catfish Cakes, Dee chose the Fuzzy Goat Hazy IPA from HOP Garden in Paoli, saying that the fruitiness of the hops in most IPAs works well with just about any seafood dish.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: ARTICHOKE HEARTS FOR HEART MONTH!
Feed The Resistance: Artichoke Hearts for Heart Month!
As the month of February comes to a close, so does American Heart Month. As I was thinking about American Heart Month, of course my mind went to "Heart Healthy" food...and then I quickly moved on...to ARTICHOKE HEARTS! Since we've had this weirdly warm winter, a nice summery pasta salad sounded good, so a made a really simple pasta salad with artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and black olives. That's really all there is to the salad - the dressing comes from the marinade that the artichokes were in, so you just cook up the pasta and add a jar of artichoke hearts, some cherry tomatoes and some black olives. Done! It's that simple.
To pair with the summery salad, Dee brought in a good summery beer - a Classic Lime Beer from Garage Beer! And as usual, she nailed it! The whole meal felt and tasted like SUMMER!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: ONE LOVE! COCONUT CURRY SQUASH SOUP!
Feed The Resistance: One Love! Coconut Curry Squash Soup!
"One Love" - the new movie about the life of Bob Marley opened on Valentine's Day! In honor of that, I thought we'd go with something a little Jamaican today, so I grabbed my copy of the Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook, and made up a batch of Coconut Curry Squash Soup!
To pair with the soup, Dee chose a beer from Youngblood's Saturday Beer collection - the Unfiltered Pilsner.
