Weekly Randomness for Friday, December 12, 2014

News that made me stop what I was doing to look it up.

• Just because it isn't new, I don't think this means we should all start smoking again...
• Try to find a better illustration of income inequality.
• Cheese should be its own food group. Well, actually, in Wisconsin, it is. 

Weekly Shits n' Giggles

• If only I didn't suck at the game... too fun! 
• Plantibody. I just like the way the word sounds. Plantibody. 
• My Pinteresting Randomness

Weekend Aims

• More decorating. More canning. Yes, it's a different weekend... 
• Maybe.... a movie! Suggestions?
• I've been working on something to share, but it's not quite time. Soon.
• Plantibody

December 5 is National Comfort Food Day

I kid you not - Friday December 5th has been designated Comfort Food Day. 

I think comfort food means different things to different people, but in general it seems to mean something warm and filling. I'm sure there are people out there that find salads a comfort food, but they are vastly outnumbered by the soup-chili-mac n' cheese-casserole crowd. The idea itself is as old as the human need for comfort, but the phrase was only added to the dictionary in 1977.

My ultimate comfort food is a grilled cheese sammich and tomato soup. As a kid, that meant plastic-wrapped squares of Kraft cheese and white bread toasted in a pan with butter and pressed down until the cheese bonded with the bread, and Campbell's condensed tomato. In college they served grilled cheese & tomato soup every few Fridays; they also had Carmelita Bars. Sort of like an oatmeal, chocolate chip caramel cookie bar, and I was addicted to them. I've never found a recipe to replicate them. Maybe that's not a bad thing, aging and metabolism being what it is. This recipe is pretty close.

Pillsbury Carmelita Bars

There are so many ideals when it comes to comfort foods - everyone has their favorite. In case you are looking to change up your comfort food, here are some tasty options from around the web:

• Jamie Oliver's Insanity Burger over at Serious Eats
• Macaroni and Cheese Seven Ways over at the Food Network
• Baked Ziti over at Simply Recipes (a whole bunch more here)
• Southern Living lists 101 Favorite Comfort Foods - that's enough to me comforted twice a week!

• The Thrillest can tell you the comfort food for every state!

What's your favorite comfort food? Do tell!!

Tomatoes, Cheese Ball, and a Broiler: Refrigerator Roundup

Fresh, summer, dirt-grown tomatoes are a weakness. They are good for only a few weeks, and then it's another year until they are available again. I can eat them breakfast, lunch, and dinner when they are in season. 

We had some cheddar cheese ball leftovers (I know what you're thinking: how on Earth did you end up with leftover cheese ball?! It happens.). Hunks of cheese ball on thick slabs of fresh 'mater, heated under the broiler for some cheesy-tomatoey goodness. Now that, is a summer breakfast. 

These are admittedly darker than I was aiming for, but they were warm and gooey and gone in ten minutes. 

Refrigerator Roundup = Leftovers. Reinvented. 

Oh, the Irony

Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve by Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

Does anyone else find irony in the fact that the cheese judged Best in Show at the recent American Cheese Society competition was made from RAW milk, and yet trying to buy raw milk by my own consumer choice is illegal? I'm dumbfounded by the prohibition on raw milk sales. You would think that allowing the sale is tantamount to forcing raw milk on everyone. It's called consumer choice. I would like to exercise mine; you know, take it out for a walk now and then. To buy some raw milk.

Photo from Wisconsin Cheese Talk, sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Pass It On: Heavy on the Cheese Please!

Living in Wisconsin has always been associated with eating cheese, and with good reason. People in other states ridicule us as "cheese-heads", but frankly I think it's because their jealous.

Every local grocery store carries wonderful local cheeses; even the gas station stop-n-shops carry cheese curds and string cheese from the dairy up the road. So of course, we have a dairy marketing board, and of course, they have a website. Only for them, being cheesy is a good thing.

The Wisconsin Dairy Marketing Board has a lot of recipes and ideas about serving cheese (you mean you can't just lop off a piece and eat it??). It's given me a new focus in the kitchen: to recreate every recipe from their recent 30 Days of Mac & Cheese promo. Cheesemo indeed!