Weekly Randomness for Friday, April 22, 2016

Sometimes it snows in April

Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad

Sometimes I wish life was never ending,

And all good things, they say, never last

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

• Another re-examination of old theories, and another lesson in humility to the data
• A presidential kind of graveyard

Weekly Shits n' Giggles

• Used to be foodie heaven was only during the growing season. Now it's year round if you know where to look. Here's the guide.  
• One-man-band, rather Seussian to me, don't you think?
• My Pinteresting Randomness

Weekend Aims

• Earth Day is our anniversary. Best gift? Go clean up something! 
• Speaking of anniversary, looks like Deadpool!
• Hitting the links for the first time if the weather holds. And hope I don't embarrass the sport...

Have you ever used: Plantain Fufu Flour

I take pictures when I go to the grocery store. That probably sounds odd. I take pictures to remind myself of foods I don't know how to use or would like to try somehow. Maybe that's still odd...

Anyway, I've been exploring alternate starch sources, and on one visit I found this: 

I had no idea what fufu flour is, or knew that you could make flour from plantain. Or maybe I never really thought about it, because now that I think about it, why couldn't you make a flour from dried plantain? It's starchy enough. 

Sources (i.e. Wikipedia) state that it's a traditionally West African food eaten mostly like a dumpling. The term fufu can refer to dumplings made from a number of flours, including plantain. It's often served with soups or stews, and I imagine it would be good alongside anything saucy. 

I found two recipes to start out with, this one seems more traditional, Plantain Pancakes completely not. I think I'll pick up a box next time I'm there and give it a whirl. 

Have you ever used plantain flour? 

Something to Cry About: Wild Rooster Diner CLOSED

UPDATE December 12, 2014
It is sad but appears to be true that the Wild Rooster has closed. There has been a lot of really disappointed people expressing dismay on the restaurant's Facebook page. Much speculation but very little fact as to why, but I will say a lot of folk would be perfectly tickled if they reopened, preferably someplace close by. 
le sigh....


UPDATE December 6, 2014
We tried to go to dinner at the Wild Rooster this last week only to find the doors closed. We are so disappointed, and we are not the only ones. A local CudahyNOW contributor is trying to find out if our new favorite diner is just on vacation or gone for good.  

The Wild Rooster Diner recently opened in downtown Cudahy. I love love love having great local places. Technically, it reopened under new management. I never went to what was there before and frankly don't recall what it was called*. I had heard it was awful.

This new diner has excellent tasty food indeed. Don't take just our word for it (Yelp, TripAdvisor). We've stopped for brunch several times, service is friendly and efficient. Food is fresh, hot/cold as appropriate, plentiful, and tasty (I already said that? well, it's true). The menu has basic diner fare, but also keilbasa and eggs, smoked pork chops (chuletas!) and eggs, tex-mex burgers with pico de gallo and avocado. Fries are decent, better yet are the house special baby red home-fries, or even their homemade potato chips. Lunch and dinner specials are posted daily for view as you come in (also on their FB page).

At our last visit they introduced iced coffees, which I think were premade. But they were cold and tasty nonetheless. We've had their signature bloody mary too (made with pepper vodka). Also cold and very, very tasty. 

Check them out!



*according to Google street view, it was Fili's Family restaurant

Weekly Randomness for November 14, 2014

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

• Landing on a comet is like the first moon landing. Philae is an incredible achievement. 
• Does Vitamin D supplementation really help us living at 43 degrees north?
• Music innovation: human creativity at its best.

Weekly Shits n' Giggles

• Teddy Bear Po'Pine loves his pumpkin
• I find watching this process oddly soothing. 
• My Pinteresting Randomness

Weekend Aims

• The Laramie Project in blackbox at the SoMilPAC. Bold choice, not to be missed.  
• Wisconsin Wine & Dine: my husband got us tickets for my birthday, and I can hardly wait! We even splurged on tickets for the Critic's Choice food tasting from 30 top restaurants; we've eaten at 6 of them before, and wanted to try many of the others.
• Recovery!

The Farm Fresh Atlas

As soon as you decide that you'd like to eat more local, perhaps even try the 100 Mile Diet, you realize that you have no idea where to find the goods. Farmer's markets are a good place to start as well as local natural food stores, but what if you want to get even closer to the source? How do you find grass-fed lamb and organic berries?

Fortunately the people at Farm Fresh Atlas are aware of these questions and they know the answers. Or at least they try to find them. The list of farms (at last count, well over 100) details location and produce, including whether you can find them at a market or buy direct from the farm (or both), or perhaps they have a CSA. The list is updated annually, so the list stays, well, fresh  ;-)

Foodie Finds: Mia Famiglia Restaurant

After a while of really cooking for yourself, it can be almost hard to go out to eat somewhere. Why pay the extra money to eat at a restaurant when you can cook as well, and often better, at home? No worries about that at Mia Famiglia - Chef Tomas is incredibly creative and skillful, and the dishes that come out from his kitchen never fail to delight.

We especially like to order a "Tasting Meal": three to five courses of chef's choice off the menu, and at this point we've done four or five of them. It's hard to explain the excited anticipation for each course when you have no idea what's coming, but you know it's going to be amazing. We've had fingerling potato soup over beet risotto served in a martini glass, mini-sammiches of rare kobe beef with arugula and mushroom aioli, veal sweetbreads, oysters, monkfish - I can't remember it all anymore. Occasionally they do a Wine Tasting meal. I think it's the same idea as the Tasting Meal we usually go for, but more planned ahead and open as a restaurant event. We haven't timed our Mia cravings well enough to attend one, until now. I'm sure they'll have the menu for the evening's goodies available, but I won't read it. I prefer to wait and be delighted by surprise.