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Jul 20

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Tex Mex-style ground beef (aka homemade taco seasoning)

Being a person who not only loves food as much as I do but someone who does it more or less professionally, I’ve fielded quite a few questions over the last six months or so on how being pregnant has affected my diet, my tastebuds, my craving, my cooking activities, etc. etc. etc. There have been ups and downs as far as all elements have been concerned, but I will say as I head into my final month (final month! Okay, month-ish!) of carrying this tiny little human around that lately things in both the Cooking and General Accomplishments categories have been a bit touch and go. About six weeks back we started joking about how I could reasonably accomplish  just one thing each day – go to work OR run an errand OR cook a meal OR do something social OR do a couple of chores around the house – but soon enough that joke became reality, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say that Brett has taken on the vast majority of household tasks, including the shopping and cooking. Lucky me, he’s a pretty fantastic cook, so we’re still eating well. But in general my preferred diet has taken on characteristics similar to that of me as a nine-year-old, albeit with significant improvements in ingredients and process, so even when I am cooking it hasn’t been much of anything to share here.

But I’ve spent the entire weekend swooning over a rediscovery of a particular childhood favorite, so even with a bit of hesitation I’m going to share it all with you today. Blame the baby, if you must, for what I’m about to share may be seen as a giant betrayal among many – the ground beef hardshell taco.

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May 11

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‘Nduja focaccia rolls

I’d never hesitate to say we love living in Madison (aside from Brett’s desire to be closer to mountains). It’s no secret I’m meant to be in the Midwest, but I really do love this place in particular, for reasons chief among which is that the food scene here is incredible. I don’t mean the hipness of the restaurants or the caliber of the chefs (although in those arenas Madison certainly wins some points), but because of how many people here are so passionate about Wisconsin and everything it means – its slightly eccentric culinary traditions, its commitment to agriculture and small-scale production, and an endless joy to be taken in the enjoyment of good eats and drinks. (No one could deny the strong and pervasive German sense of gemütlichkeit in this place – no wonder we feel so at home here.) There’s a reason farmers’ markets are such a big occasion here in Madison, and why it’s natural for folks to turn it into a morning of activity, filled with eating and enjoying the space, not just picking up ingredients for that week’s meals.

And all of this is why I’m happy to feature local companies and their products on this site and in my recipes. I always try to source local products with a story when I teach my classes, and we certainly do it when we’re shopping for ourselves. So when a local company whose work I know and love asks if I’d like to put something together with their products, I don’t hesitate to say yes.

Nduja-focaccia-roll

And when someone from Underground Food Collective asks, there’s doubly no reason to say no.

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May 1

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Grilled fingerlings with bacon, ramps, and Dijon vinaigrette

Potatoes-ramps-bacon2

We’re getting into the thick of farmers’ market season, at least here in Wisconsin, and folks have started asking me about my strategies for shopping there and what to do with all the fresh produce. I always try to have a few things in mind beyond a simple “throw it on the grill,” and being a little inventive with potato salad-type creations is a nice way to feature interesting produce. “Potato salad” can mean just about anything and be as simple or complex as you like – you can add bacon, sausage, smoked or tinned fish, boiled or soft-cooked eggs, pickled items, fresh tomatoes or corn, creamy or vinegar-based dressings. It’s a nice base to think about using up items languishing in the back of your refrigerator or that you picked up at the market but don’t know what to do with. Read more

Apr 24

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Spätzle with ramps, mushrooms, and lemon

Spaetzle-ramps-mushrooms2

The start of spring comes with its own set of significant yearly milestones – the last bit of snow melting, the first 60+ degree day, the first walk without gloves, the first drive home with the windows open, the first dinner on the grill. And here in Wisconsin, there’s a particularly joyous spring milestone to mark the start of spring harvest – wild ramps. I wrote a bit about ramps last spring to a somewhat puzzled response from folks living elsewhere, but there’s somewhat of an introduction to them in that post should you need a bit of background. The best way to describe them is as tiny little wild leeks, with a sweet, onion-garlic sort of flavor. Like spring, really.

If you’re a culinary sort living in Wisconsin, you probably don’t need any introduction. You know why one of my favorite farm stands went through 1,200 bunches of ramps on the first day of the outdoor Capitol Square farmers’ market, and why we had to try a few grocery stores before finding one that still had them in stock. You know why all the restaurants in town scramble to get together their ramp specials, and how canning aficionados dust off their equipment to get some pickling done within ramps’ painfully short little harvest season.

I wanted to work ramps into our dinner plans this week, but we weren’t sure we’d be able to get our hands on any in this first harvest week, so I planned a side dish that would be good enough without them – tiny little spãtzle dumplings (a classic go-to side in our house) together with some lemony sauteed mushrooms. A perfect base for a bunch of ramps, or not.  Read more

Apr 14

Lemon-coconut salmon and asparagus grain bowls with pink rice

Between work, teaching, and all the various tasks that come along with expecting a new family member in, oh, four months, I haven’t had a lot of time lately to cook creatively and try out new recipes. Even this one isn’t particularly new – more like a new combination of things I make fairly regularly. But I’m feeling pretty inspired by the spring produce starting to trickle in, and I’ve been trying to eat more fish lately (baby, your brain is going to be so powerful!). When the seafood counter was out of my favorite lake trout fillets we decided to splurge on a piece of wild Sockeye and go with that instead, but I prepare trout and salmon pretty much interchangeably, so either would work in this recipe. All together it was a pretty perfect spring dinner, healthy and flavorful and reasonably quick. There are a few good cooking lessons to be learned here (especially in cooking the fish – my all-time favorite, go-to method), so I’ll take each component one at a time and add some helpful notes!

Lemon-coconut-salmon-grain-bowl

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