Weekly Wisconsin Cheese Review - Guest Chefs

We were honored to have Mom and Dad here for this week's Wisconsin adventures! What a blast!

Cheese of the Week: Mozzarella Whips
Rating on scale of 1-10: 8

Quote of the Week: "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

We went to Simon's Cheese Factory on Mom and Dad's first day here were we were able to sample several cheeses. Dad's favorite cheese was "Mozzarella Whips" which he then selected as our cheese of the week. I must say that that was the funnest cheese I have ever eaten. Plus, it was really good! It tasted like really fresh string cheese. Yum! If you want to have fun as a family, next time you are in Wisconsin, buy a pack of mozzarella whips for $4.47 and have the time of you lives!

And thank you eveyone for your cheese suggestions! We are excited to try them all. It will make it more fun knowing that you suggested them.
Wisconsin Recipes
Our guest chef, Kay Hinton, prepared both of our new Wisconsin recipes of the week: Chilies Rellenos (in honor of her mother. Grandma Gabe always ordered this at Mexican Restaraunts) and Herbed Tomato and Cheese Crostini. Yum. That sums it up best: YUM, YUM, YUM! We had last week's Cauliflower Soup with these two dishes and the soup that I loved so much paled in comparison with both of these. Thanks for your hard work mom!Fresh deliciousness!

Bubbly cheese on top

Chilies Rellenos - Mom and my favorite. Jared and Dad liked the Crostini better.

Herbed Tomato and Cheese Crostini

8 slices French bread
3 Tablespoons bottled Italian dressing
4 plum tomatoes, diced
3 Tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped
3 Tablespoons fresh oregano leaves, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (our addition)
1/2 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, sliced

Brush bread slices lightly with 1/2 teaspooon each of Italian Dressing. Toast lightly under broiler (the reciped didn't call for this step, but the bread was a bit soggy without it, so I will do it next time). Mix tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic together in bowl. Top bread slices with tomato mixture. Top with cheese slices. Broil several minutes until cheese begins to melt. Makes 4 servings.

Chilies Rellenos
3/4 lb. Monterey Jack cheese, sliced
1/2 lb. Cheddar Cheese, shredded
2 eggs
1 can chopped green roasted chilie peppers (mild)
2 Tablespoons half-and-half
1 1/2 teaspoons flour

Grease a 9-inch square pan. Beat eggs, flour, and cream. Layer 1/2 Monterrey Jack cheese, 1/2 Cheddar cheese, 1/2 chili peppers, and 1/2 egg mixture; repeat layers. Pour remaining egg mixture over top of layers and bake at 275 degrees for 1 hour. Cut into squares and serve hot. Makes 16 appetizer size servings.

Wednesday Wisconsin Cheese Review

Cheese of the week: Sweet Cranberry Cinnamon
Rated (from 1-10): 7
Quote of the Week: "It has a hint of holiday"

After last week's disappointment, this week's cheese was amazing. It has been our favorite so far. We really enjoyed it. It is the perfect thing to eat during the holiday season as the marbled cranberry looks elegant and "Christmas-sy" and the cinnamon flavor is reminiscent of holiday treats. Success. We decided tonight that we are ready to go even further out on a limb and actually try some of the different kinds of cheeses, not just flavored cheddar.

Farmer Style Cheese-Cauliflower Soup

We had amazing success with this week's Wisconsin recipe as well. I LOVED it. I know trying another soup might be boring, but after thoroughly enjoying the creamy cauliflower soup I had with Shonna at a delightful restaurant in Columbus, I HAD to try this one. Brielle helped me with every step, but she still wouldn't eat it. Oh well. I would totally recommend giving this recipe a try. You will be glad you did!

2/3 cup thinly sliced white parts of green onions

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons butter

3 cups cauliflower flowerets

3 cups canned chicken broth

1 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups small curd cottage cheese

Salt and white pepper to taste

4 Tablespoons thinly sliced green onion tops for garnish

In a Dutch oven, cook the white parts of the green onions and minced garlic in the butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add the cauliflower and broth; bring to a boil and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender. Add the seasonings and cottage cheese. Cook, stirring, until the cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Puree the mixture in batches in a blender or food processor (once again I just mashed it with a potato masher because we like having chunks of veggies). Return soup to the pan, heat through, and garnish with green onion tops. Serves 4.

Pacifiers and Polywogs

Today marks one week since we cut the tip off of Nathan's beloved pacifier. When we gave it back to him that night he sucked once, pulled it out, and handed it to us. "Broke," he said. He hasn't used it since. He wanted to hold it while he went to sleep those first couple of nights and we have had more tears than usual, but all in all, it hasn't been too bad. The worst part has been sacrament meeting. During the last few months our goal has been to only let Nathan have his pacifier while sleeping, except during sacrament meeting. When he started to get restless during the meeting, we would pop it in his mouth and he was truly pacified. It was then easy to hold him on my lap and keep him entertained with a toy. This last Sunday we didn't even make it past the opening prayer before Jared was in the hall with him. We'll have to figure something else out.

"Broke"

Four days ago we got our first family pet...polywogs. One of my most treasured memories is going down to the Virgin River with my dad, Shonna, and Michelle. The sky was grey when we started our hike to the river, but we didn't think anything of it. After the excitement of catching several polywogs (tadpoles, guppies, whatever you happen to call them), large raindrops started to fall and the thunder began to clap. I clearly remember racing home as lightning struck all around us (or so it seemed). It was so much fun. Hmm. I wonder if that is where my love of crazy weather began. Anyway, we got to watch the polywogs grow and slowly morph into frogs...then our pets disappeared as soon as they got strong enough to hop away (Don't worry we kept them outside in a bucket. We didn't have stray frogs hiding in our beds). It was such an exciting learning experience for me. I am grateful for a father who took the time to do that with us. Well, last week Jared found some frogs sitting next to the pond outside. On Friday he took the kids out to try and find them. He came home ecstatic because instead of frogs they had found frog eggs. He insisted that we go and get a bowl for them that night, so we did. I thought he was a little overexcited and there was no need to rush to get one, but I was wrong. By the next morning half of them had hatched and by that afternoon they all had. We have been amazed at how quickly they have grown. We are drawing pictures of each stage in hopes it will help Brielle remember the whole process.

Phiadelphia Cheese Steaks - Wisconsin Style

On our first trip to the dairy I found a "Wisconsin Cheese Recipe Book" for about $3 and decided that we should try a new recipe each week as well. (It gives me something fun to plan and is a way to make this experience more fun!) The Creamy Cabbage was NOT a hit, (I actually threw it away after the dinner. Yes, it is true. I didn't put it in the fridge until it started to go bad. It was bad from the beginning.) but we did enjoy the Wiconsin-style Steak Sandwiches.

1 1/2 T Olive Oil

3 Medium Onions

1 garlic clove, minced

4 small Italian hero rolls split in half legthwise

4 small beef steaks

Worcestershire sauce

3/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook slowly, cover, for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Remove onions and set aside. Place rolls open-faced on a baking sheet and brown under broiler for about 3 minutes or until lightly toasted. In skillet, cook steaks several minutes each side to desired doneness. Sprinkle a few drops of Worcestershire sauce over steaks. Place steaks on bottom halves of rolls. Arrange one-fourth of onion mixture on each steak. Top with shredded cheese. Place under the broiler 4 inches from the heat for several minutes until cheese begins to bubble and melt. Top with other half of roll. Serves 4.

The First Week

The first week of Jared’s internship with Kimberly Clark working on the Depend Brand, has gone very well. He came home after his first day absolutely thrilled with his assigned project and with his team. We feel very blessed to be where we hoped we would be. I admit, I had some anxious days last weekend wondering how things would be once “normal life” returned in such new environment, but it has gone remarkably well. Granted, we are still adjusting and not everything is perfect, but we are happy and are so glad that we are here.
Yesterday I took the kids to the “famed” Memorial Park that several people have told me about. It had a huge playground that was perfect for the kids and they had an absolute blast. I neglected to take pictures of them playing, but here is one of them exploring a “BUS!!!” Whenever there is a bus anywhere in sight, little Nathan ensures that everyone within the sound of his voice knows about it. Due to his usual excitement, I asked one of the bus drivers of the many kids that had come to the park as part of their field trip, if Brielle and Nathan could actually get on a bus. They weren’t as thrilled as I expected, but I snapped a couple of pictures nonetheless.

Wednesday Wisconsin Cheese Review

Cheese of the week: Bacon Cheese

Rated (from 1-10): -10

Quote of the Week: "Yuck!"
This week, it was Jared's turn to choose. After narrowing the HUGE selection down to just 5, he decided to go with a "manly" selection and chose "bacon cheese." Now, had we paid more attention we would have realized before buying it that that was an unwise decision, but I guess this is all part of the learning process. Most of the specialty cheeses list the addition (i.e. blueberry) and then list the type of cheese (i.e. white cheddar cheese). This one did not. It was simply Bacon Cheese. As soon as Jared opened the package, he began lamenting his decision. It was a very processed, spongy cheese that not even Brielle (the cheese queen) would eat. Yes it tasted like bacon, but it didn't taste like cheese. Yuck. So, since I struggle wasting anything (Jared teases me because I have been known to put something that we don't really like and no one wants to finish in the back of the fridge until it starts to spoil and then throw it away), I am trying to think of something I can do to use that relatively pricey cheese that is sitting in our fridge. Maybe some type of breakfast dish that calls for cheese and bacon...What do you think?

Wisconsin Potato Cheese Soup

To celebrate our arrival this week we made a delicious Wisconsin Potato Cheese Soup...Thanks to my friend Heather for the recipe. It is inexpensive, quick, easy and delicious. That is my kind of recipe!

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/3 cup chopped onion

(I added 1/3 sliced carrots - the soup is orange, so it is easy to "hide" orange veggies in it so that certain members of my family don't know that they are eating it!)

2T butter or margarine

4 cups diced, peeled potatoes

3 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

1 1/2 t salt

1/4 pepper

Dash paprika

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Chopped fresh parsley

Croutons

In a large saucepan, saute celery and onion in butter until tender. Add potatoes and broth. Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, 12-15 minutes. Allow mixture to cool. In batches, puree potato mixture in blender or food processor. (That is where I strayed from the recipe a bit. We like to have chunks of potato in our soup, so I just mashed it all by hand with a potato masher leaving some chunks. That way you don't have to wait for it to cool either.) Return to pan. Stir in milk and seasonings. Add the cheese and heat just until melted. Garnish with croutons and parsley.