FEED THE RESISTANCE: SPRING CELEBRATION!
Feed The Resistance: Spring Celebration!
Yesterday was the first day of SPRING! So we celebrate today with Spring Puttanesca Pasta! Lots of complex flavors in this one - with onions, garlic, anchovies, olives and Calabrian chiles. While there are a lot of different flavors all coming together, the dish itself comes together really simply - just cook up the pasta, and when it's almost done, drain it and add it, and some of the cooking liquid to the other ingredients that you have cooking on the side - give it a few more minutes...and your done!
To pair with the complex flavors of the pasta, Dee chose a beer with really simple flavor - "This Beer Is Niiice" from Surly Brewing Co. in Minneapolis - and as usual, she just nailed it! The simple flavor of the beer worked so well with the pasta!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!
Feed The Resistance: Happy St. Patrick's Day!
St. Patrick's Day is on Monday...and the 25th Annual Madison St. Patrick's Day Parade is on Sunday afternoon on the Capitol Square!
To get us ready for all of that - we brought in Joe Herr, aka, Sean Patrick - the St. Patrick's Day Parade Leprechaun! As for the food this week - keeping with the theme, I did a little (a lot of) cooking with Guinness. I made Jackfruit Sliders with Guinness BBQ Sauce, Guinness Caramelized Onions and Guinness Aioli.
Guess what beer Dee paired with all of that...
FEED THE RESISTANCE: MATCH MADNESS!
Feed The Resistance: Match Madness!
It's "Match Madness" time at The River Food Pantry. For Match Madness, an anonymous donor has pledged to match every dollar raised, dollar for dollar, up to $25,000! This year's Match Madness donations will be used to purchase breakfast cereal, so everyone can start the day with a good nutritious breakfast! Make your donations to The River Food Pantry here!
In honor of Match Madness…and the cereal drive…this week, I made “Breakfast for Dinner”…and did a little cooking with breakfast cereal. Of course the first thing that comes to mind when I say "Cooking with breakfast cereal" is "Rice Crispy Bars" - but I wanted to something a little different, and NOT make a dessert. So I went really old-school and found a recipe on the Betty Crocker website...Baked Honey-Mustard Chex Chicken Fingers! It's a really simple recipe - first dipping the chicken into a mix of mayonnaise, honey and mustard and then into some crushed up Chex cereal, and finally baking it in the oven. The dipping sauce for the chicken strips is a simple combination of equal parts honey and mustard.
Dee wasn't in today, so instead Helen Osborn-Senatus, the Director of Operations at The River joined me...and to pair with the chicken fingers, she served up Rogue Honey Kolsch.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: MARDI GRAS 2025!
Feed The Resistance: Mardi Gras 2025!
Tuesday is Mardi Gras - so we're getting ready for that, with a little Cajun cooking! The recipe that I made for today comes from bon appétit magazine, last year, right about Mardi Gras time...it's Cajun Shrimp Fried Rice! The note that I left myself last time I made this dish, is that it was a little too spicy, but DELICIOUS! So, this time I cut back on the spice just a bit - the recipe calls for 4 Tablespoons of cajun spice, I just used 3. It was still spicy, but much more manageable - especially when paired with the beer that Dee brought in - a Maibock from Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: GONE FISHIN'
Feed The Resistance: Gone Fishin'
The Wisconsin Fishing Expo is happening this weekend at the Alliant Energy Center, so I though we'd do a little fishing this week...and cook up our catch. My friend Kevin spends most days during the summertime fishing - and he saves up his catch all summer for a big fish-fry in the fall. This past year he had a bunch of leftover Bluegills, so I got those and started making Bluegill Po' Boys with them. What we did today is a bit of a twist on that, since I'm now out of Bluegills, we made Perch Po' Boys.
This boldest flavor in the sandwich is the remoulade sauce, which has a bit of a spice to it. To pair with that, Dee chose Juice Cloud, a New England IPA from Lion's Tail Brewing.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
Feed The Resistance: Happy Valentine's Day!
With today being Valentine's Day, I wanted to do something appropriate to the spirit of the day - so I went with HEARTS! In particular Artichoke Hearts! The dish that I made today comes from the Dooky Chase Cookbook by Leah Chase. Leah was an amazing chef in New Orleans, who brought the Dooky Chase Restaurant to fame. She was known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine. This particular dish is Baked Fish with Artichokes and Cheese. It's super-simple to make - I used Catfish, but there are several other types of fish that can be used. The Catfish is placed in a baking dish, then mashed up Artichoke Hearts go over the top of the fish, some Mayonnaise over the top of that, and then finally shredded Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheese. It's all baked in the oven for 30-45 minutes...and that's it, it's done...and DELICIOUS!
To pair with the fish, Dee chose a Citrus Saison from Door County Brewing, called "Idle Days" - and as usual Dee nails it...the perfect pairing!
FEED THE RESISTACE: A SUPER BOWL OF SOUP!
Feed The Resistance: A SUPER Bowl of Soup!
There's a big football game happening in New Orleans this weekend, so I wanted to cook up a SUPER bowl of soup! I was looking for some good Creole flavors to represent New Orleans - and what I came up with is a recipe that I have made several times over the years...Creole Whitefish in Brodo! I'm not sure it's really a soup - as the star of the dish is the fish. That fish is cooked with a nice blend of Creole seasonings and then laid out over a shallow bowl of broth - which is infused with the flavors of Pecorino or Parmesan Cheese.
To pair with the dish, Dee brought in a collab between Funkytown Brewery and Samuel Adams, called "1984." 1984 is a Pale Lager that paired very nicely with the dish - with the beer nicely complimenting the dish, and the dish nicely complimenting the beer.
FEED THE RESISTANCE: BEER TASTE TEST!
Feed The Resistance: Beer Taste Test!
This week, we're doing a beer taste test - pitting non-alcoholic brews against their traditional alcoholic counterparts. We tasted four beers from 2 different breweries - Pabst NA vs. the traditional Pabst Blue Ribbon...and Guinness 0 vs. the traditional Guinness. Both brands have done a really good job recreating their traditional beers as NA beers, but in the end, we were able to tell the difference when we tasted them side by side. The Pabst was a lighter color and a lighter taste and the Guinness, while it looked just like the traditional beer, tasted a bit sweeter.
As a palate-cleanser, I made up a Sweet and Spicy Pretzel and Nut Mix. Warning - this mix can be really addicting - I spent most of last night munching on this, so I barely had enough to serve today!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: I LOVE OLIVE SOUP!
Feed The Resistance: I Love Olive Soup!
It all started with a simple misunderstanding - I heard someone say "I Love Soup!"...but what I heard was..."Olive Soup!" That sent me searching for a recipe for Olive Soup! I found several, but the one that sounded the best to me was the recipe for Green Olive Soup on ExploringVegan.com. I tried it...and I LOVED it! The soup comes together fairly simply and quickly - it's onions, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, Castelvetrano olives, chickpeas, veggie broth, orzo and a few spices. It all cooks up together until the orzo is al dente...and then your ready to eat!
To pair with the soup - Dee brought in another THC drink, this time from Karben4 - the Lush Llama Lemonade with 5mg of THC per can. And as usual - Dee nailed it - they went perfectly together!
FEED THE RESISTANCE: SIMPLE PASTA...FEELS FANCY!
Feed The Resistance: Simple Pasta...Feels Fancy!
Every couple of weeks, for dinner, my wife and I enjoy what we call "Tinned Fish Night." It's usually Sardines, Anchovies and one or two more tinned fish, served with chips or hash-brown patties and a little Crème Fraîche. A couple of weeks ago, Smoked Oysters was one of the tinned fishes we were dining on - and we started talking about other ways we could serve them. What we came up with was Angel Hair Pasta with Brown Butter Sauce and Smoked Oysters. We made it. It was delicious. And the rest is history.
The most complex part of the dish is the Brown Butter Sauce - and that's pretty simple...
Melt one stick of butter in a pan until it starts to brown (about 4 minutes).
Add about six fresh sage leaves (be careful - it will splatter a bit when you add the leaves) - cook for another 2 minutes or so.
Add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg - stir it up good.
Add 1/2 cup of dry white wine - let that cook down a bit to make a nice sauce.
Finally - add one tin of smoked oysters in olive oil.
Serve over your favorite pasta (Angel Hair Pasta in this case).
We topped the whole thing with a little grated parmesan cheese, and some chili crisp (because people are putting chili crisp on EVERYTHING these days).
Ryan Richards from the "Beer, Cheese and Beyond Fest" joined us...and brought with him a West Coast Style non-alcoholic IPA from Untitled Art to pair with the pasta. The Beer, Cheese and Beyond Fest is on Saturday at the Alliant Energy Center!
