Muscoda Morel Mushroom Festival

Did you know that Muscoda is the Morel mushroom capital of Wisconsin?
In May, they host an annual festival to celebrate that fact. Mike and I go every year. It's a small festival but there are plenty of fun things to see and do around town. This year we spent the most time at the craft fair. They had all sorts of Morel inspired decorations and plenty of the usual craft fair items as well. Mike bought me a sweatshirt and a super cute pair of tiny morel earrings. I'll post a photo of them on my instagram later to show you.
This year, the weather was colder than usual. So we spent the most of the day indoors. What better way to keep warm than with a Morel mushroom and leek burger from the Sportsman's lounge (and a cocktail or two). The burger was so juicy and the morels on top were prepared perfectly . The french fries were battered just the way I like them too. Honestly, I can't think of a more perfect meal to eat at a Morel mushroom festival. Go next year and try one!

The Barbecue Company

You know that restaurant you always drive by and want to try but you never actually stop there?
I drive by a lot of them but now I can actually cross one of them off my list.
Today, in between foraging for morel mushrooms, we stopped at the Barbecue company in Hartford, Wi. I've driven by it ever since it was a little roadside tent. But, like a hundred other places, I never remember to go there when I'm making dinner plans.
Today I tried the smokey pulled pork and bleu cheese cole slaw wrap. The meat itself was melt in your mouth delicious and the bleu cheese cole slaw stands apart from any other slaw I've had lately. In a good way, of course. Mac and cheese was my side and it was pretty good too but a little spicy.  I probably wouldn't get it again but that's just my personal preference (I like my mac mild).
We will definitely be stopping back in the future for a rack of ribs or to try the brisket sandwich.

Learning to Cook, One Cookbook at a Time.

I thought I knew how to cook, until I met my husband. Tacos and vegetarian pastas aren't enough to fill him up. Not to mention he has Crohns disease so his diet is all canned french cut green beans,  refined flour, and lean meats. Pretty much the opposite of what I eat.
Mike comes from a family of great cooks. His grandma takes pride in all the blue ribbons she has won for various recipes. Holidays with his family are thusly wonderful while my meals often turn out only ok.
I know my cooking is improving,  just not as quickly as I'd like it too. I'm not scared of spices and have creativity, but lack experience  and often end up going overboard. To solve this, I finally dug all those cookbooks I've gotten for Christmas out of the cupboard. Which book should I start with?

Amazing Rueben Rolls

Another St. Patrick's Day has came and gone but there was no corned beef to be found at my house. Sure, I went out for plenty of corned beef sandwiches and Mike picked up corned beef and cabbage for our St. Patrick's day dinner, but it wasn't the same as home made. So last weekend I went grocery shopping and picked up some ingredients to make us some semi-homemade corned beef for dinner. I opted for the non-traditional route. Instead of a classic Rueben sandwich or slow cooker corned beef and cabbage,  I surprised Mike with some amazing rueben rolls. They're a classic rueben sandwich wrapped up and deep fried in an egg roll wrapper instead of bread. Rueben rolls are surprisingly simple to make and they definitely cook much faster than an all day crock pot roast. It probably only took me a half hour to fourth five minutes to make them, from start to finish. It makes about 21 wraps. They're pretty rich so two or three are plenty per person. Which means this makes 8-10 servings.
All I used was one package Nasoya egg roll wraps, one bag Kraft shredded swiss cheese, six small packages of Buddig corned beef, one can of sauerkraut,  and some Wishbone thousand island dressing for dipping.
First lay one egg roll wrap out on a plate. Then add two or three slices of the Buddig corned beef, followed by a sprinkle of the shredded swiss cheese.  After that add a pinch of Sauerkraut. Make sure to drain the can of kraut first!  Otherwise your rolls may get soggy. Finally, lightly dampen two corner edges of your egg roll wrapper. I forgot to mention you should have a small bowl of water nearby for this. Fold the two opposite corners of the wrapper that you didn't wet, in and roll it up tightly,  like a burrito. I placed two or three rueben rolls in the deep fryer, at a time while I made the next couple.
After the surface of the rolls turned turned a nice shade of crispy,  golden brown, I carefully removed them from the deep fryer and placed them all on a paper towel covered plate to rest until I finish cooking.
They weren't safe there,  however.  It wasn't long until I spied a tiny hand reaching out to steal one of the fresh Rueben rolls. Layla has just recently learned how to climb and pull herself up on things lately and seems to be using her skills mostly to snatch yummy snacks off of the tables and counters. After watching all her efforts to get a rueben roll, I gave her some thousand island dressing to dip it in and she loved it. That's it. They officially have the Layla seal of approval. They are so delicious that I'm sure your loved ones will love them just as much as mine did!

The Discovery Of Kale.

I Finally went and did it.  I bought myself some kale at the farmers market. And you know what? It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't juice it or do any of the cool ways to "hide" kale that have been all over Pinterest lately. I just cooked it the good old fashioned way by sautéing it up for lunch on Monday with an egg, spinach, mushrooms and onions. Added a dash of hot sauce and yum yum.
Which makes me wonder, what other delicious healthy foods have I been missing? Do you have any suggestions for what I should try next?