Food Writing

Eating Normal's 2023 Resolutions

2/1/2023

Am I a month late? Absolutely. However, We’re all resolving to be different in the new year, and for me, that always starts with food. How will Eating Normal be going into 2023? Well…

1. Start Composting Food Waste

I carry a lot of guilt about food waste. It’s especially hard as a single woman with very few friends in the area to share my creations with when I am recipe developing. I have signed up with Greener Bay to begin composting my food waste, and in the month that I’ve had my bucket hiding in my pantry, I already feel less guilt about experimenting with my cooking. Even if I don’t eat EVERYTHING, I know it will have a second life.

If you’re interested in doing the same, please check out Greener Bay’s website for additional details. Pickup and Drop Off options are available depending on what’s best for you.

2.Cook Even More

I’ve started to fall back onto old habits as a single woman, one of those being my dear friend the instant ramen packet. Feeding only myself and struggling with food waste guilt has really changed the way I cook. I know I deserve to eat better, whole foods– but God, is it hard to do that just for me. I’ve been cooking for other people my entire life. If it wasn’t my husband, it was my parents before him. Now that it’s just me, it’s hard.

Now, cooking for me at this point is as simple as making myself hard boiled eggs for breakfast.

But 2023, I will make myself do it.

3. Make Cooking Videos

I’ll continue to try my hand at short form cooking tutorials like you’ve seen from me already in 2022, but with more frequency. The current food media climate is built on them. Playoff football and the Super Bowl are coming quickly, so expect snack related videos in the month of February.

4. Admit Defeat– Cookbook of the Month

I have never, ever, in the history of this blog managed to do a cookbook every single month of the year. It’s over, folks. We’re closing that segment. I may review a cookbook every once and awhile, but with the belt tightening as I work through divorce, I just can’t afford a new cookbook every month even if I wanted to.

Holiday Shopping Guide 2022

11/2/2022

America’s biggest food holiday is right around the corner, and if you haven’t started considering where you’ll get the best parts of the meal, allow me to assist you in doing so as locally as possible. With the regular farmer’s market season over, your only chances come in very limited dates. There are, however, brick and mortar locations to shopping for local produce and meats in Green Bay and the surrounding area that may take some planning to hit at the right time. We’ve compiled these locations for you as well as any dates and times of indoor farmer’s markets below. As supply chain issues are being threatened in the news, what better way to soothe your anxieties about providing a tasty holiday than to shop from your neighbors?

June 2022 Grand Re-Opening Event

Revolution Market

Among the local vendors with some of the most accessible times is Revolution Market, an Eating Normal fav since the day they opened their doors. Inside those doors, you can find Bountiful Boards, a charcuterie business with cheeses, crackers, and boards available. Any day now, they’ll announce their Thanksgiving rates for arranging charcuterie boards for your festivities.

You could also pick up a quart or two of frozen soup from Souper Day inside of the market as well to keep your Thanksgiving cooks fed while they’re working on dinner!

Produce With Purpose

Now located in Kaukauna, Produce with Purpose has changed some since last year. Their home delivery has expanded, and so have their offerings for the holiday season. They have already announced a $50.00 Thanksgiving Produce Box available for delivery any time during the Thanksgiving holiday week so that you have local produce on the table. You can also pre-order a Waseda Farms Turkey through them if you are in the Kaukauna area to pick up.

Eating Normal is Different Now

10/11/2022

If you’re a frequent reader, I’m sure you noticed how little has been posted in the last few months. My husband and I decided to separate. We became another statistic among couples breaking up during the pandemic, and now the way I cook and eat is different. It’s been different since July, shortly after the latest post drought began. I’m not cooking family meals anymore. I’m not even really eating out anymore.

This is the new normal for a lot of people, especially in our generation. I’m not breaking any new ground by being a newly single woman at 30 after 6 years of marriage and 10 years of cooking to suit someone else’s food preferences. Eating Normal is now about eating and cooking for me, less about cooking for others.

What does all of this mean for you as readers? It means less restaurant reviews, more recipes. Reducing food waste and finding ways to extend the lives of the meals I cook has become infinitely more important to me as a single cook. There isn’t another person in my house there to help me kill leftovers, much less annihilate more than half of a recipe when it comes off the stove.

Supporting local farmers remains important to me, but on a budget, the grocery store remains the easiest way to pinch pennies. Smart shopping methods that save me money will be shared to save you money. Pantry recipes will be as important as our market recipes.

My life has changed in the blink of an eye. One of the first things to change was the way I eat, and it’s time to adjust to a new normal. I intend to document that adjustment as closely as I can. Fortunately, I will have more time to devote to content creation here and on my social media platforms.

I appreciate your support through this dry spell of posting, and I hope that the new direction I am taking in my creative work with food will be enjoyable for you as readers and cooks. As you know, I never ask for you to take a look at my support page on the website to sign up for patreon or donate through kofi. If you decide to do that from this point forward, know that that money will go toward supplies for recipe development that only come from our local farmers. I will be revamping our patreon rewards to provide you with additional content if you choose to support.

Adam's Heirlooms - A Farmer's Market Education

9/30/2022

The number of heirloom variety growers at the Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market has grown in the last few years, but one of those I have always kept my eye on is Adam’s Heirlooms, who frequently had vegetable varieties on the table that I never saw before that day. One weekend, I happened to stop by and see two words that excite an avid cook: Berkshire Pork.

Berkshire hogs originally hail from England, and in many cooking circles, they are considered some of the best available to a modern cook. They may not be Iberico pigs, but this variety of hog is talked about nearly as often as their Spanish, acorn eating relatives. I had to stop. I had to buy, and I learned a lot from the folks at the stand.

One of the Berkshire pork products they offered that day was an Irish Cut Bacon, something I had somehow never heard of before. It skirts the line by including two cuts at once, a little of the belly along the loin to give you the best of both worlds. The Irish bacon has been the foundation of every breakfast I cooked for myself this week, from as simple as a plate of bacon and eggs to a bacon infused frittata. I also walked away with a package of sausage and a product known as pullet eggs.

Pullet eggs so rarely make it to the market because many farmers prize them for their own. These eggs are the earliest eggs laid by chickens, often within the first four weeks of a hen’s egg laying career. They’re so small that they are more comparable to a quail egg than a chicken egg.

The comparison picture I took from the top down really does not do the size difference much justice. The egg on the bottom right is one of the pullet eggs, much rounder than the top left.

While most of my energy was focused on the animal husbandry portion of their offerings, the varieties of peppers and other vegetables on the other end of their stand remained peculiar and unusual compared to the other vendors at the market that morning. I will be back to investigate those further during the final farmer’s market as hot sauce preparations begin several weeks late in the Eating Normal House.

Of note, you can access their website to pre-order what interests you most and pick it up at the Market this weekend. They have home delivery in the Manitowoc area if that is more your speed. I can only wish for a home delivery in Green Bay in the fast approaching off season.

The Revolution Market Undergoes Its Own Revolution

7/2/2022

I’ll be honest. I haven’t been back to the Revolution Market since Produce with Purpose moved out to pursue their stand alone operation and packing site. My work schedule doesn’t offer me many opportunities to visit the smaller vendors in town that close around five, Revolution Market included, so when I saw their Grand Opening to celebrate the renovations since Produce With Purpose left the facility, I knew I had to be there.

We arrived right at their five pm start time, and the crowd was already there. So many other members of the media were there taking pictures, but it was good for me to still be remembered by the ladies running Bountiful Boards and Souper Day. We spotted each other through the crowds and made time to talk when able. Being introduced to all of the new offerings by the people responsible remains the best part about the location.

Early visitors to the Grand Opening

Mushroom Gouda Soup from Souper Day

Souper Day has perhaps taken on the greatest changes since the vendor switch up earlier this year. Their space may have expanded, but so has their menu. These changes came in just in time for the shifting of the seasons that cause most people to give up on hot soup for the year. Cold sandwiches and gazpachos are now available, making Souper Day as viable an option in the summer as it is in the winter.

Bountiful Boards has expanded to fill in the space left behind after Produce with Purpose left the market, and that means three cold cases of cheese to turn it into a proper cheese shop. This fills a hole left behind in Green Bay upon the closure of Nala’s Cheese and Wine in Bellevue sometime last year, and it makes it much more likely that I’ll make more frequent visits to the market in order to see them.

Their previous business model focused entirely on the boards wasn’t as inviting for me as a person who doesn’t do much hosting at home. Access to a big cheese case, however, is very inviting. Cheese and crackers are a common snack in the Eating Normal House, and we left this visit with a brand new cheese in our lives after enjoying the cheese tasting during the event.

Souper Day and Bountiful Boards have also taken on joint ventures in catering. If you’re looking to supply a tasty, locally produced lunch to an office or an event, stop in to the Revolution Market to investigate your options. Many of the potential items were available for sampling and viewing during the Grand Opening event– including a lunch box which would fill that office lunch void perfectly. We took home one of their cold sandwiches for lunch the next day and enjoyed the Souper Day crafted sandwich with Bountiful Boards cheese to its fullest.

Perhaps most exciting for me was the opportunity to sample future offerings from the next tenant at the Revolution Building: McKayla Marie Sweets. A bakery is exactly what that region of town needs. Her sample macarons moved so quickly that they were gone within the first hour of the event, but I got my hands on her peanut butter and cacao nib mini macaron before then. The bitter raw chocolate flavor of the cacao nib balanced perfectly with the peanut butter flavored cookie. Their dainty size made them an attractive feature of the table. You couldn’t go by without grabbing one.

The owner hopes to be ready for business in August, and we will be there to say hello and welcome them into their new facility. The small business growth going on in the Revolution Market is exciting to watch. We wish the new tenants luck in their endeavor! Green Bay is spoiled for bakeries of all kinds, but dare I say none of them have made a macaron that got me as excited as theirs?

McKayla Marie Sweets Sample Stand

New to the building are two attractions: a kombucha bar and a small cold case of locally sourced produce from a collective of local growers. We did not get in to sample the kombucha, but we did take a look at the local produce that the market has added to the corner to keep people like me coming in even if we’re not in the market for lunch. If you miss Produce with Purpose over there like we do, it eases the pain a little.

These new expansions provide all businesses involved with a great opportunity, and we as a community would be foolish to ignore the opportunity that it also presents us. Eating well and eating local in the age of inflation takes some of the pain out of the wallet by putting the money into the hands of people you know, and the people here will know you. They make it their responsibility.

Here’s to a new era at the Revolution Market.

Going Nuts at the Dundas Testicle Festival 2022

5/31/2022

I learned about the Dundas Testicle Festival over a drink with my husband one Saturday afternoon, and by the next Saturday, we were in the car traversing rural Brown and Calumet counties in search of the little unincorporated town called Dundas. We are only just taking the opportunity to travel in Wisconsin in search of good food and good stories now that COVID issues are slowing down and my health is better. We’ve missed more than a few good opportunities in the last three years.

fried bull testicles at Dundas Testicle Festival 2022

We were not going to let that stop us from trying Rocky Mountain Oysters, or bull testicles. It’s an unusual delicacy in most of the US, much less Wisconsin. A festival that takes up an entire block in a little town surrounded by pasture and farms on all sides that celebrates exactly that is even more of an unusual experience. I didn’t know what to expect before setting off through the rural county roads.

Food Resolutions for 2022

1/11/2022

New Year, New Me– we try to tell ourselves. That’s not really the case, but by god, we can try. I have often not managed to meet the goals I set for myself in these sorts of articles that have graced the pages of this website in the past. 2022 can be that year if I am gentle with myself. There are many possibilities on the horizon for me at Eating Normal, and I want to share them with you. These Resolutions will help us get there together.

1. Eat 75% local ingredients.

This is hard to do in the modern world, but it is perhaps the most achievable goal I have in Green Bay right now. We have several local producers still putting out winter veg and hydroponic vegetables for us. Eggs and meat are still coming out of our farms, and there are plenty of winter markets out there to shop for these things. There’s still things that a woman has to get at a regular grocery store, and I will bend where I have to with out of season ingredients and pantry items. It’ll be okay. Still, I am putting my money where my mouth is quite literally this year. If I’m cooking, you bet your ass it’s local.
This will of course be easier as the growing season comes around. Meat will be more expensive locally, but high quality veggies will be more plentiful. I intend to learn how to do some proper canning in order to preserve the flavors of Wisconsin in every way I can.

2. Improve my photography

This is a struggle for every amateur food blogger. We’re the stylist, the writer, the photographer, and the social media manager. Something's got to give, and for me, it’s often been my photography. I haven’t invested in equipment in years. I use my phone for everything, and I don’t even have a good size ring light for a proper recipe photoshoot USING said phone. That’s changing. While I’ll probably still use my phone, I don’t have to use the same plates on the same boring background with the same bad lighting forever. It’s time to change.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll see new angles, lighting, and maybe even some more tiktok videos here and there while I work on improving my technique. Thanks for hanging on for the ride while I’ve been lazy about how stuff looks.

3. Do All Twelve Cookbooks of the Month

I’ve been saying this every year for four years. We did really well at the end of 2021 by keeping up with every month but December, so let’s try again. There are so many cookbooks from 2021 that I never got to after their release and even more coming in the next few months. Do you have recommendations of classics or new books coming out that you’d like me to cover? Leave your suggestions.

4. Explore Wisconsin

I haven’t stepped foot much outside of the Green Bay area since moving here in late 2019. COVID and health issues have kept me close to home for far too long. There is a lot to eat, drink, and see in this state. I intend to start doing that in 2022 and sharing that experience with you here as well as at Nosh Wisconsin. As with cookbooks, I am open to recommendations of restaurants, breweries, and whatever else you think I might enjoy.

Cook90 2022

1/2/2022

Ah, yes. It’s that time of year again. January has come again, and we once more attempt to cook 90 meals in the month instead of going out, ordering takeout, or otherwise wussing out of cooking with canned soups or frozen meals. We’ve tried to do this twice before, and both times, I’ve failed. A new job came in the way the first time, and the second time my health declined pretty suddenly for a period of time. Now, the world has changed. I’m feeling better, and I’m working from home full time with more time to take care of myself and my husband.

If you’ve been around for awhile, you know that COOK90 has its origins from Epicurious’s David Tamarkin, and the rules are simple: cook every meal for the entire month with only three exceptions across the whole of the month, and do not repeat a recipe. Breakfast is something of an exception since we all have certain proclivities during breakfast, but there’s absolutely no eating out during this period of time.

Thanksgiving Travel

12/1/2021

This is the first Thanksgiving in two years that my husband and I have been able to return to one of our favorite cities in the world, Cleveland, Ohio, and share Thanksgiving weekend with my in-laws. The tradition was stopped first by our move to Green Bay and then by the pandemic, but we did not allow that to change our minds this year. We missed the city and the people. We needed to go home.

Let me start by saying that I have never been a frequent flyer. I’ve been on less flights in my time, and many of those were as much as three years behind me when I prepared to fly to Cleveland on Thanksgiving day with my husband. My bags were heavy on my weak shoulders. I was anxious and excited. The drive down to O’Hare airport in Chicago from Green Bay was an easy one. The worst was yet to come.

We delayed the worst by finding two seats at an airport bar to eat our small breakfast of a bagel with cream cheese and a breakfast sandwich from the Berghoff Cafe on United Concourse C. We got to watch them pull our meal together from behind a pane of glass, and the cook juggled a few omelets at the same time. It’s an interesting feature to the little restaurant that I’m sure continues to be spellbinding outside of breakfast hours.

Revolution Market's Oktoberfest 2021

10/24/2021

Fall arrived in a rush this past week, and with it came the cool mornings I have been waiting for for weeks now. I woke up on Saturday morning ready to face the day and the inaugural Oktoberfest over at Revolution Market. The staff and vendors at Revolution have been some of my greatest supporters, hitting that like button for me at many opportunities. Who would I be if I didn’t set aside the time to visit an event that showed so much promise and brought together so many great vendors from across our Green Bay Community?

This event also presented itself as an opportunity to fill up my entire fridge with local goods where I have mostly stopped myself at my limit at the morning farmer’s markets for the last few weeks. We love the resident vendors of Revolution Market, and I was very excited to meet some new folks at Oktoberfest.

Some of these vendors we’ll discuss in their own separate articles as we spent a lot of time with them during the event, and their food deserves their own highlights. I had no idea what to expect when I showed up at the lot. The interior of Revolution was too small in my head to fit every single vendor that their facebook marketing promised, so I figured there would be parking lot spill over.