Category Archives: eating the opponent

October comes to a close

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The last outdoor market

The last outdoor market!

We didn’t do much stocking up this time. Today’s market, the final outdoor market of the downtown season, was more about watching little kids in their Halloween costumes trick-or-treating at the various vendors, picking up a few things for tonight’s supper, and just enjoying the fresh air one more time.

I did buy apples for my lunches, lettuce for several days of salads, and kettle corn just for fun. We picked up a little cheese and honey just because we could, and Chuck picked out Moroccan squash soup and curried chicken salad from the little deli we like so much.

But on the way home, we stopped at the corner meat market, where the head butcher has joined the Eating the Opponent project. He looked at the Packers schedule (at New Orleans on Sunday Night Football) and decided to put Andouille sausage on sale. We had gumbo for supper tonight. Look out, Drew Brees, we’ve got the neighborhood butcher on our side!

So on we go – out of the summer, and into the fall, and eventually, on to the cruel world we call Wisconsin Winter. Our family, at least, will be well fed.

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Eating the Opponent – Miami

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We made Cuban sandwiches a few seasons back. We joked about buying tuna not certified “dolphin safe.” I was ready to go with the Cuban again, but then I found something else.

And I have a staff meeting on Thursday after school.

How do these two go together? You might be surprised – or not. If I have supper in the crock pot on a staff meeting day, we’ll have something better than pizza delivery for supper. And this week, my friends, our Miami recipe works very well in a slow cooker.

Ropa Vieja, it’s called, and that translates literally as “Old Clothes.” When it’s done simmering for hours and hours, the end result resembles threads of old cloth. It’s much more descriptive than “beef simmered until it shreds.” Some recipes suggested serving on tortillas, but at least one said that it would not be authentic Cuban or Miami style on tortillas. Rice is the preferred side.

And so it goes – eating the opponent plus a staff meeting yields a good meal.

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Eating the Opponent and more

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Garden: progress is good. Tomatoes are in, whether green or slightly red, to ripen indoors. I pruned several plants and pulled several more. Peppers? Most will be frozen. I didn’t pull the plants yet because there are still tiny peppers on most of them! The straw bales may insulate the roots – will that be enough for another week?

Kitchen: Lots of plans, nothing really accomplished. Dear Sweet “Chuck” cooked all weekend. He’s amazingly awesome when it comes to the kitchen.

Planning ahead: I’m thinking Ropa Vieja for Eating the Opponent: Miami. It can be made in a crock pot and served over rice. Works for me!

It was a day full of close football games. I had to wait until all the OTs were over to record the totals in our weekly picks. Results: Buttercup the bunny is tied with Chuck for the lead with 8. I am one game behind them with 7 correct predictions, and Amigo trails with 4. All that is before Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football. Last Thursday? We all picked Green Bay, of course.

Pantry: I read an article titled 16 Indestructible Foods that would Outlast the Apocalypse. I don’t have corn syrup and Ramen noodles, and I don’t plan to buy any, but those are the exceptions. We have most of the rest. However, I’m still voting for Mary Burke for governor. I have no desire to experience any more Walker Apocalypse.

Oh, and laundry. All is clean, dry, and folded. Let the week begin!

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Eating the Opponent: Minnesota

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For newcomers: We have a fun culinary tradition in our family. During the NFL season, we look at the Packers schedule, see who they are playing, and then plan to “eat the opponent” by serving local fare – the other team’s local fare. It’s a little tougher for our North Division opponents because our Packers face them twice every year – three times if it happens again in the playoffs.

The Minnesota Vikings are probably settling in for a nice long nap downtown in my fair city right now as I’m blogging. Consider the following: It’s about a 45 minute drive from our downtown to Lambeau Field, Green Bay hotels often fill up as soon as the schedule is released in the spring, and what opponent wants to stay in Packerland City surrounded by cheeseheads, anyway? The jokes on them, really. We have as high a percentage of Cheeseheads as Green Bay itself. But I was talking about food.

My go-to default for Minnesota games is wild rice. I can cook it as a side dish, stir it into a hotdish, or just about anything. Wild rice is delicious. When former Packer Brett Favre donned the dreaded purple and played for the Vikings, we served turnovers for breakfast. Long time fans will understand. This time around, I was searching. Simply making wild rice on the side didn’t feel like enough.

I did a quick Internet search for Minnesota game – hunting game, that is. I printed a list of game animals that are hunted in Minnesota, tucked the list in my purse, and headed to a nearby corner meat market. Everyone should have a corner meat market. It’s just an awesome little place. But I was talking about Minnesota.

I bought a pound of ground elk meat. It was pricey, but can you put a price on a Packer victory? Never mind. Don’t answer that. I pondered the possibilities, and by the time I pulled in the driveway (5 minutes later) I’d decided: Elk chili.

At this moment, while the Vikings are staying in a hotel with a restaurant called Vince Lombardi’s Steakhouse, I’ve browned the elk meat and I’m cooking a pan of home grown tomatoes for sauce. It’ll simmer in the crock pot all day long while I’m in school. If I do this Wisconsin style, Amigo will add noodles to it late in the afternoon. And there you have it: Eating the Opponent — Minnesota, with a Wisconsin twist.

Go! Pack! Go!

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Kitchen Sink Stew or Pantry Raid?

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When I was looking through Homecoming posts for yesterday’s encore, I stumbled upon an early Pantry Raid. This one had a “recipe” for what I called Skillet Stew. As I read it, I realized that I could make it, almost exactly as noted, with the foods in my pantry and kitchen today. And then I realized I’d made pantry raids a few times in the past few weeks.

There was the tomato soup. I realized that I had too many tomatoes for BLTs or salads, so I quartered them and loaded the crock pot. Chef Daisy added in a few herbs and a small onion, diced, along with a hint of garlic, and then it simmered all day. Upon arriving home from school, a potato masher squashed the tomatoes, an immersion blender blended the pulp and pulled out most of the skins, and it was almost soup. A little Worcestershire sauce took the edge off the sweetness of fresh tomatoes, and then a little powdered milk helped thicken it to soup consistency.

Mmm. A little grated cheddar and we had a Wow supper.

Later…I had a chicken rice soup that wasn’t a big hit. The broth was weak. So, with the brilliance of an experienced Kitchen Raider, I drained the soup in a colander. I then added what was left (chicken, rice, and vegetables) to a container of tomato soup. It was thick, tasty, and delicious.

Now, inspired by reviewing my old Skillet Stew, I can see that I might be able to use the leftover lamb chops for a Hunger Games style Lamb Stew. Let’s see if I can find dried fruit to represent the dried plums that Katniss liked. I don’t have any plums at the moment, and for a true raid, I should use what’s on hand here.

By the way: there was no Farmers’ Market today because of a huge celebration that our fair city calls Octoberfest. It’s okay; I have enough fruits and vegetables in the house to feed the family quite well this week, thank you very much.

And another aside: Eating the Opponent this week means Chicago style pizza from Papa Murphy’s take and bake. Sometimes I ask the pros to help out. 

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A New Team Name for Washington, D.C.?

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I might just like La Petite’s suggestion the best. Keep the name, change the mascot to a potato.

But if the owner won’t put his money into spuds, he could try these suggestions, also from La Petite.

  •  Washington Lincolns — mascot, a stove pipe hat similar to the cheesehead
  • Washington Congress — Instead of practicing, they just stand and argue.
  • Washington Georges — white wig, false teeth, I can see it now!
  • Washington Minutemen — slogan, You musket to the end zone!

How about:

  • Washington Gridlock – along the same line as Congress, see above
  • Washington Eagles — oops, the Eagles are already taken. How about the turkeys?
  • George Washington Bridge – ooh, that’s closer to New Jersey gridlock than Washington
  • Washington Patriots — oh, wait, they’re already in Boston and call themselves New England.
  •  Washington Weebles — they wobble, but they don’t fall down!

Meanwhile, whatever will we eat when the Packers formerly known as Acme play the renamed football club?

Well, readers, what do you think?

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Tomatoes! Tomatoes! I still have tomatoes!

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A few days ago, I mentioned having oodles and oodles of not noodles, but tomatoes. I even mentioned a few suggestions. Here you go, folks, the results of Daisy’s Overabundance of Ripe Tomatoes!

Lotsa Salsa!

Lotsa Salsa!

I do mean a lot, too. It took two sessions in the hot water bath canner – my big one! – to process all of it.

In the category of “It’s only weird if it doesn’t work” (Thanks, Budweiser), we have Eating the Opponent, Philadelphia: Tomato Pie!

Tomato Pie!

Tomato Pie!

Well, it didn’t work. The game against the Eagles was a disaster in many ways. I might make the tomato pie again some day, though. It was good. I served it with diced Golden Delicious apples from a farm stand near La Petite’s abode in Lake Geneva.

The calendar may say November, but we’re still eating goodies that were grown locally or nearly so, including tomatoes from my own backyard. Click your heels three times, now, and say, “There’s nothing like homegrown tomatoes. There’s nothing like…” Or something like that.

 

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Eating the Opponent – Detroit

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Amigo is a news junkie and a very creative young man. We’ve put him in charge of most of the research needed for our Eating the Opponent Packers Series. The other North Central Division teams make this a challenge because the Packers play them twice a year. I should have said AT LEAST twice a year, that is, because there’s always the possibility of a grudge match meeting in the wild card games.

Well, back to the question. Green Bay plays Detroit on Sunday. Amigo suggested we bounce off of the topic of Detroit’s bankruptcy and serve pork and beans, Depression style. Hm. Must think on this. It could work. Maybe.

I’ll let you know.

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Eating the Opponent Once Again

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Go! Pack! Go!

Last week we served Crab Louis salad in honor of Fishermen’s Wharf. Chuck also did his best to replicate a fancy flounder dish and found that flounder is simply not widely available in Wisconsin in the fall.

The Packers lost to San Francisco.

We had a wild week in between games with little time for research into foods of Washington, D.C., home of the team called the Redskins. We joked about serving pork. We suggested turkey. We attempted a play on words for fiscal cliff or gridlock. Finally, I did a search or two on my smart phone as we drove to visit La Petite in Lake Geneva.

We found the half-smoke. The half-smoke is a sausage served on a bun, covered in barbecue sauce, sometimes half pork and half beef and sometimes sliced in half lengthwise before cooking. It’s as close as D.C. comes to having its own indigenous food.

A stopover in East Troy took care of everything. We picked up a turkey pot pie at The Elegant Farmer and planned to cook it for Sunday lunch. A few miles down the road we bought our own travel lunch from a BBQ truck and found already cooked and seasoned sausages that looked perfect for our version of the Half-Smoke. A pot pie, a pound of sausage, a bag of ice, and our cooler, and we were in business.

We made it home from Lake Geneva Saturday night just in time to cook the half-smokes and listen to Prairie Home Companion on public radio. Sunday lunch, the turkey pot pie, was delicious. Bonus: it left several leftover pieces for lunches later this week.

But the best bonus: Green Bay beat Washington, 38-20.

Cincinnati, bring it on. We’ll be ready. We’ll serve – so, readers, what kind of foods do Cincinnati residents call their own? Help me out with suggestions, please. We Cheeseheads are hungry for another Super Bowl.

 

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Peaches and muffins

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Part of following a locavore philosophy is eating what’s in season when it’s in season. This morning we had peach muffins made with peaches from the farmers’ market.

Muffins!

Muffins!

Later today we’ll Eat The Opponent with San Francisco style sourdough bread and more.

Made from my own starter, too

Made from my own starter, too

Go! Pack! Go!

 

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