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.
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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.
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.
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.
As some of you know, in mid September, I published my first recipe with Nosh Green Bay featuring Booyah-- almost entirely shopped for at Green Bay’s Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market. Our local farmers are among our most treasured resources, especially so in an area like this that lends itself so well to the act of growing our food. Creating meals centered around what they produce has been one of the greatest pleasures of the year, and I intend to keep it up until the end of the season. However, as the season ends, I would be remiss not to highlight the farmers and artisans that have made this farmer’s market season a delicious one for my husband and I. We’ve done our best to visit every stall at least once this year while still supporting our favs-- so here we go! Ya’ll are in no particular order. I love you all!
Zambaldi Beer has been doing these Community Supported Brewery Boxes for more than a year now. We've bought at least four of them over the course of this program, and we are now into two consecutive boxes for the first time in 2021 because of one simple fact: the offerings in the last two boxes are undeniable. Last week, we got to taste their special beer for Lorelei Inn’s Oktoberfest a week early, along with a great Good Dog Porter brownie. I single handedly annihilated that pan of brownies in a weekend. This week, we got a sample of their pumpkin spice beer-- along with brats made with their Meatball Man ale and a Good Dog Porter Mustard just in time for a Packers Home game. Their merchandise for the box is also timely for a home game-- a Zambaldi Beer emblazoned football that looks absolutely adorable in our kitchen right now. We may never take it out for a toss, but there are plenty of other patrons that will in the future. This is perhaps my favorite box that we’ve ever purchased given the full blown meal that can be made with the brats this time around.
Zambaldi partnered with local producers Pingel’s Meat Market in Shawano to produce these brats, and you can taste the care that went into them. The flavor of the brats’ namesake beer is light when you eat the brat by itself, but with the caramelized onions and the mustard together, everything sings in a zesty harmony. It was a perfect meal for football and dungeons and dragons.
Green Bay’s Saturday morning market has been my favorite event of the year since my first visit. This new, relaxed season with fewer COVID guidelines has opened it up in a whole new way, and over the course of this new season, I’ve become very familiar with a Green Bay Cheesemaker-- Kickass Cheese-- who is our highlighted vendor this week. There’s not much time left in the season, so they absolutely deserve the recognition while shoppers still have a chance to visit. We stop by their stall every week when we visit the farmer’s market looking for something new to try. Brie, cheddars, curds, jack cheeses, swiss, parmesan… They’ve got something for everyone, and their flavors regularly rotate. If you want to get an idea of what they have to offer before you make a visit to them at the market, you can visit their website to see pictures and descriptions of every variety that they produce on the reg. 
Morning comes, and the grocery order of the day before is safely stored in my refrigerator. The sheer amount of produce and meat that came from local sources is somewhat hard to believe even after a delicious spring and summer farmer’s market season with other vendors in Green Bay. Produce with Purpose Farm has a strong variety available for the time of year, and access to humanely raised and butchered meats propelled them up the list of my favorite places to shop in the last month. It only made sense that I would eventually set up a farm box pick up, and here we are using it as a challenge opportunity. |
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