Our Garden 2013

Garden 2013, a set on Flickr.

The calendar had flipped to June by the time our garden saw roots digging into it. But that's fine with us.

We had our plants sitting about on our porch for a week because we just ran out of time Memorial Day weekend to plant. And the weeknights played along just as poorly for us. Alas.

Regardless, here's our garden for 2013.

Our garden in 2013. I plan to update this every couple of weeks.

Chickpea Pita Salad

Light. Refreshing.

In Wisconsin, as spring rolls out and the sun shines down for a few extended days, those are the kinds of adjectives that come to mind to describe the types of meals I want to enjoy.

With those words in our mind and the sun kissing our cheeks in recent weeks, we pulled on our thinking caps and headed to Europe, where we channeled some Mediterranean flavors.

The result was a nice and refreshingly light spring lunch for those days when you just want to get out of the office and sit in the shade for a while. The chickpeas fill you up while the feta jams in some creaminess and the red onion and celery play along with that much-needed crunch. Simple, yes, but a nice balance of flavors and textures.



Chickpea Pita Salad
6 servings

1 cup light mayo
6 ounces 0% Greek yogurt
1 lemon, juiced
2 teaspoons dill
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 clove garlic
2 15 ounce cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 medium red onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 cup reduced fat feta
salt and pepper to taste
lettuce
6 pita halves

1. Mix together the dressing of mayo, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, dill, mint and garlic in a small bowl.

2. Combine the chickpeas, red onion, celery, feta and dressing in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Open each pita half and line with a small handful of lettuce. Scoop about a cup of chickpea salad mixture into each pita half. 

Pulled Pork and Pistol Point Grilled Cheese

When we picked up the award-winning Pistol Point cheese (Rogue Creamery in Oregon) from Brennan's Market, we were happy with the nice surprise.

The cheese, I thought, would pair nicely with some pulled pork, which we happened to have left over in the fridge. And, in celebration of National Grilled Cheese Month in April, we thought that would be a good sandwich to enjoy.

(Ahem. Let's not talk about how busy we were in April, and that the grilled cheese posts we intended to publish then are being published now. We're sorry.)

Regardless, the cheddar cheese laced with chipotle was a natural pairing for the pork, and really brought the spice and smoke of Southwest flavors to the foreground.


Pulled Pork and Pistol Point Grilled Cheese
2 servings

4 slices bread
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 pound pulled pork
2 to 4 ounces Pistol Point cheese

1. Butter each slice of bread and put two slices butter side down on a griddle over medium heat. 

2. Pile pork and cheese on top of two pieces of bread and top with remaining slice of bread. Grill each side until golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Peppered Bacon and Blackberry Grilled Cheese

We wish you a Happy National Grilled Cheese Month. Take the time this month to grab some cheese, some other ingredients and sandwich them between two slices of bunnage or breadage.

That's certainly what we will be doing. We have this simple yet tasty recipe for you today, plus a few more later this month.

As with a lot of our recipes, this one started with an ingredient: Blackberry Spread that we picked up from Brennan's Food Market. (If you can't get it, you could use some other blackberry preserves or jam.) We used a lot of it in previous dishes and snacks, but we had some left over. 

We wanted some other ingredients that would stand up to that deliciously sweet spread, so we picked out some aged cheddar (again from Brennan's) and some Nueske's Thick-Sliced Peppered Bacon. We piled all of that on some hearty Sprouted Rye from Angelic Bakehouse.

We wanted the cheese to stand out, obviously, and the tangy aged cheddar does well. It pairs nicely with the almost syrupy sweet blackberry sauce and the smoky bacon. You'll be glad you gave this grilled cheese a try.

Peppered Bacon and Blackberry Grilled Cheese
2 servings

4 slices rye bread
butter
4 to 5 ounces of aged cheddar, sliced
4 to 5 slices of peppered bacon, cooked
2 tablespoons blackberry spread

1. Place one slice per sandwich of rye bread on griddle, buttered side down.

2. Place cheese on top of unbuttered side of bread. Top that with bacon. 

3. Spread 1 tablespoon of blackberry spread on unbuttered side of another piece of bread. Place on top of sandwich, buttered side of bread up.

4. Grill until golden brown and delicious on both sides.

Wisconsin Artisan Food Producers Taste & Learn

Sure, we all have those cravings for chocolate in the check-out aisles, and as a society we buy lots of bags of shredded, processed cheese or pints of ice cream.

But it doesn't have to be that way. If anything was apparent yesterday at the Wisconsin Artisan Food Producers Association Taste & Learn, it's that artisan food is worth the wait -- and the price.

Indulgence Chocolatiers

The event was a mix of local producers showcasing their products and classes taught by those producers. We sampled some great chocolate from Indulgence, awesome cheese from Clock Shadow, ice cream and more. Beer, meats, coffee and spirits also were available to try.

Some of the things we learned were that we can make our own quark by adding flavors to it. This came after we marveled at the creamy, herbaceous taste of the Quark with Garlic and Dill. (Quark is a mild European style spreadable cheese.)

And it's great to hear that local producer Purple Door Ice Cream will be relying on Great Lakes Distillery for product in some of its spirit-enhanced ice cream flavors.

Clock Shadow Creamery

We attended the Stone Creek Coffee ("How to brew great coffee at home") and Indulgence ("Techniques for tasting and pairing") classes, and were left with tips on how to brew and store at home. Focus on the ratio of coffee to water, and that's one major variable that will have you producing better coffee.

For chocolate, we learned that white chocolate can taste excellent, if the quality is there.

Wild Flour Bakery

The Wisconsin Artisan Food Producers Association was founded in 2012 by eight local producers. Their mission is to promote, advocate for and support artisan producers in Wisconsin.

Want to learn more about the artisans at the Taste & Learn? Visit their websites listed below.

• Bolzano Artisan Meats
• Clock Shadow Creamery
• Great Lakes Distillery
• Indulgence Chocolatiers
• Lakefront Brewery
• Purple Door Ice Cream
• Stone Creek Coffee
• Wild Flour Bakery

Turkey Club Panini with Tomato Spice Mayo

In this case, the motive was the Tomato Spice Jam full up on tomato, cane sugar, lemon zest and juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and natural pectin that we bought from Pinehold Gardens.

It's sweet but sultry, with that wisp of nutmeg drawing you in.

Melissa and I thought it would be perfect on a panini.

We mixed it with a little bit of mayo and begged it to play nice with some turkey, bacon, sharp cheddar cheese and avocado. And sandwiched between slices of hearty sourdough, the ingredients brought a mix of tastes: sour, sweet, creamy, sharp.

If you don't have a jar of tomato spice jam hanging around, you can always make your own. It's something we might add when next we can.



Turkey Club Panini with Tomato Spice Mayo
2 servings

1/8 cup mayo
1/8 cup tomato spice jam
4 slices sourdough bread
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 pound turkey breast, sliced
sharp cheddar cheese
4 slices bacon, cooked
1/2 avocado, sliced

1. Combine the mayo and spice tomato jam.

2. In a microwave or on the stovetop, cook the bacon.

3. Butter the four slices of bread and layer on the tomato spice mayo, turkey, cheddar, bacon and avocado on a slice and cover with another slice.

4. Place the two sandwiches on a griddle over medium heat (or on a panini press) and cook until golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Flip over and do the same for the other side.

Chicken, Bacon and Broccoli Fontina Bake

In January we unearthed a really good recipe from Cooking Light, Fontina and Mascarpone Baked Pasta. We tried it, we liked it.

But to us, it was just the beginning. It was just a shell of what it could be. So we picked up some chicken, bacon and broccoli and tweaked a few things.

That's how we arrived at Chicken, Bacon and Broccoli Fontina Bake.



It's gooey -- thank you BelGioioso fontina -- and delightful -- kudos to Belgioioso, too. It's filling and hearty and helps for lasting in these long winter days in Wisconsin.

But when you get a bite of bacon -- we had Patrick Cudahy in our fridge -- that's when the dish really sings, and the cheese, broccoli and nutmeg dance.

Excuse me while I go have some more.



Chicken, Bacon and Broccoli Fontina Bake
adapted from Cooking Light
8 to 10 servings

14.5 ounces penne
3 small or 2 medium heads of broccoli, cut into florets
4 slices bacon, cut into rough chunks
2 chicken breasts, cut into half-inch pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups fat-free milk
8 ounces fontina, shredded
4 ounces mascarpone cheese
salt and pepper to taste
dash of nutmeg
cooking spray
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1. Cook the pasta a few minutes less than directions suggest. A minute or two before that time, toss in the broccoli. Drain and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Cook bacon until brown; remove from pan to a toweled drying rack or paper towels on top of a plate. Add chicken and cook through; remove from pan.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour and milk. Add to chicken pan. Stir continuously until sauce thickens up, then add fontina and mascarpone. Stir in salt and pepper; add nutmeg. Add the chicken and bacon and the pasta and broccoli; stir and fold to combine.

5. In a 13-by-9 baking pan sprayed with cooking spray, spoon mixture in. Add panko to the top. Cook in oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes.