Tour of Fifty States: Wisconsin's Meal

Following last week’s South Dakota meal (kind of in honor of Laura Ingalls Wilder) here is another state that is linked to her.  She was born in Wisconsin, so many years ago.

Today Wisconsin is a state that is very, very proud of its heritage and is known as “America’s Dairyland.”  I got the recipe idea for the soup that I made from the Wisconsin Cheese Board.  Their website is www.eatwisconsincheese.com/recipes.  The one they have is called “Wisconsin Cheese Soup” but as usual, I doctored it up a bit and made my own version.

When you get to the recipe for the brats, be sure to read the “guidelines” that were given at www.bratwurstpages.com. J

Menu :  Bratwurst and Sauerkraut on buns, Wisconsin Beer Cheese Soup, Schaum Torte

Outcome:  We all really liked the brats with the grilled onions.  I think I’m the only one who had sauerkraut though, LOL!  I found some “brat rolls” made by the same National Brand of brat manufacturer…but they were much longer than the brats made famous by the National Brand. Most of us ended up dipping our extra brat buns pieces into the beer cheese soup.  Speaking of the soup, it was pretty good!  I found some “Pretzel” bread sticks at Wal-Mart in a pack of 6 --these tasted just like soft baked pretzels and they were excellent dipped in the soup. 

As for the dessert – I don’t know what happened, but I followed the directions for the meringues to the letter and yet, they were sticky on the inside.  The outside parts of the meringue were super light and crispy, but when I cut into them with a serrated knife, they were the consistency of marshmallow fluff.  Not too appealing, being so gooey, but pretty good tasting with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and frozen (thawed) mixed berries.  I left the meringues in the oven all night to hopefully dry out more, but the next day they were still sticky on the inside.  Note:  The recipe ended up with 12 large meringues, so if I prepare this again I will half the recipe and make the meringues a little smaller. 

Next up:  My turn to choose!  (This round, we are going by middle names in ABC order.) I picked Idaho!  With the holidays quickly approaching, with birthday dinners for 3 of the kids and other mandatory dinners/occasions, our state meal may be pushed back to January.  I will keep writing up the recipes I make for us, however, and post them on here! 

Wisconsin!  YES I used ketchup!

Tour of Fifty States: South Dakota's Meal

As a lifelong fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie book series and the 1970s TV show, I was excited to have the meal from South Dakota.  Brandi, who is also a huge “Little House” fan, mentioned that South Dakota was one of the places that Laura and her husband lived.  J  She was even re-reading Farmer Boy this weekend.

My ancestors settled in Sioux City when they came over from Norway and for many years I had a great-aunt who lived in Rapid City.  I’ve always wanted to visit the area and we’re thinking about making next summer’s vacation trip to see Mount Rushmore…and we’re going to try to stop by DeSmet, SD along the way to see Laura’s home. 

Menu :  Chislic, Potato Skins , Berry Kuchen

Outcome:  Bill really liked the seasoning on the beef cubes.  We opted to serve the meat on each person’s plate instead of on a platter to be speared with toothpicks, South Dakota style, but it was still very, very good!  The Kuchen recipe for South Dakota was much different from the one for North Dakota, which was more like a cake.  This version came out like bars, with a more solid crust on the bottom.  The recipe called for blackberries, a fruit you would more likely find on the South Dakota prairie, but we had 5 gallon-sized bags of blueberries in the freezer – so a Blueberry Kuchen is what we had! 

Next up:  Bridget chose Wisconsin!  (Brandi also remembered that was where Laura Ingalls Wilder was born!)