• food,  recipes

    The Great Chili Debate

    My foodie friend, Amy, and I have a debate that resurfaces every winter. She’s from Texas and believes with the zeal of a Bible-thumper that chili should be burn-your-mouth hot and consist of large chunks of steak-like stew meat. Beans, to her, are sacrilege, as are any kind of carbs in the chili. I grew up in Green Bay, where chili is made with ground beef, flavored with spices of the type that sell for $0.99 at the grocery store, and served with macaroni noodes. Where I’m from, chili is also relatively mild, to suit the Northern palate, though I always put Tabasco on the table for those who want…

  • cheese,  coffee,  green living,  local,  recipes,  restaurants,  writing

    A Winter Pick-Me-Up

    When I opened my February 2011 copy of Food & Wine magazine, an unusual picture caught my eye. A band of adults and kids, all of them clad in bright parkas and clutching broomsticks, were captured mid-sprint in a game of broomball on an ice-covered lake. The scene looked like a modern Norman Rockwell painting. It also looked vaguely familiar. As I turned to the article that went along with the photo, I realized it looked familiar because it was familiar. The article featured Madison’s own chef Tory Miller, of L’Etoile and Graze restaurants, and the photo was taken on Lake Mendota. As pointed out in the article, which was…

    Comments Off on A Winter Pick-Me-Up
  • farms,  food,  green living,  local,  recipes

    Celebrating Local Farmers

    Yesterday when I checked my mailbox, I saw the winter edition of Edible Madison magazine nestled among the usual holiday ads and credit card applications. I was excited not only to curl up with the magazine and feast on food-related articles, but also to take a peek at the finished product of the feature I wrote about John and Dorothy Priske of Fountain Prairie Inn and Farms. To write the article, I had a great time hanging out with the Priskes on a fall Saturday at the Dane County Farmer’s Market, where they sell grass-fed beef and pork. I also drove out to their beautiful farm in Fall River, Wisconsin,…

  • food,  holiday,  recipes

    Happy Thanksgiving…and a Recipe

    If you’ve ever had the honor (and the stress) of hosting Thanksgiving, you know how important it is to have at least some dishes you can make ahead of time and then just pop in the oven before dinner. When my husband and I hosted our first Thanksgiving, we had timelines taped up all over the kitchen as to what went into the oven (or, in the case of the turkey, the fryer in the backyard) at what times. Yeah, we’re both a little Type A. The following recipe has become a Thanksgiving favorite in my family and, as an added perk, it’s easy to make and can be prepared…