Food Funatic is a Cheesehead, and a proud one at that. When approaching her abode (sometimes dubbed the Cooking Compound) and crossing the Flatlander (Illinois) border at Russell Road, it feels appropriate to call and announce that one is Entering God’s Country. So when Wisconsin made it into the Rose Bowl this year (a relatively rare event), we were inspired to host a Rose Bowl party featuring red, er “cardinal” and white foods. (If I were to wait for another appearance by either Northwestern or Stanford or my fantasy game between them, we might never get to party, so I got on board with her partisan feelings.)
Some easy and obvious food choices included red and white pistachios for snacking, several white cheeses and crackers served on a red cheeseboard, roasted beets with goat cheese, meatballs with cranberry glaze, radish roses and jicama (and a few other colors of crudités) with roasted red pepper dip, and white popcorn with chili powder for drizzling and turning red & white. Naturally, several choices of red and white wine were opened and poured (including two Wisconsin wines – the Wollersheim Prairie Fume is a perennial favorite, but the New Glarus Primrose Red caused most of us to eye our glasses suspiciously). The entrée course was offered in two pots of chili – one red and one white, and dessert was comprised of meringues with spiced strawberry drizzle. In a fit of ecumenicalism, it seemed that we should include foods that may not be red and white, but which nonetheless represent Wisconsin – and so we jumped on the current bar fad and offered a “big bowl of bacon” for snacking. Nothing says Wisconsin like Usinger’s or Neuske’s bacon!
Okay, so this wasn’t the best food yet produced at the Cooking Compound. And frankly, a LOT of prep work as was required to produce food that was pretty much snacking-level eats. Thus it was inevitable that all those roasting and chopping efforts on New Year’s Eve would cause us to 1.) forget to make out own supper and so have to go get Vietnamese take-out and 2.) start grousing and accusingly ask each other, “Whose idea WAS this, anyway?!”
However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be another scathingly brilliant idea right around the next corner.
FoodFunatic says - give me red and white over purple and white any day! How much red cabbage, eggplant skin and grape can any one eat? Go Badgers!
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