On Wisconsin, Part Deux!! I tell ya, once you go to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it never leaves you... Nevahhhhh! Even if you want it to, ha...but then again, who would want it to? What's not to lurve about all the beer, cheese, and brats one can eat for $25? While chewing along to the beat of the fabulous Wisconsin Marching Band playing If You Want to Be a Badger? Yes, today was the biannual Badger Blast, a monstrous (3,000-person!) downtown Minneapolis get-together of pre-Gopher/Badger game Badger fans, replete with my beloved Triple-Threat Bs: Bucky, Band, & Beer, baby (quadruple if you count brats). Woo friggin' hoo! On Wisconsin, yeah!!!!

Ahem. So, I ended up at the Badger Blast thanks to my crazy-fun-tiny-green-eyed neighbor Lindsay Polyak, nee Kappa (KKG) Lindsay Hykes. We were in Madison at the same time, but despite knowing several of the same boys & bars, never knew each other. I didn't know her equally-crazy-SAE-bro Kevin Hykes either. Where the hell was I, Hykes-less in Madtown? Glad I'm Hykes-ful in Minneapolis, whew!

In fact, it turned out to be nothing less than a big ol' neighborhood party, since several of my neighbors are Badgers. And there were several non-Badger neighbors as well, happy to be at the Badger Blast 'cuz, well, they're born party-ers. Yep, funny thing, I ended up in a neighborhood of like souls, ha. John would rather die than go to a beer-drinkin', brat-eatin' Badger anything, so it's fun to have friends and neighbors who are ready to jump right in - YESSS! In fact, thanks to my neighbor John Miller for post-Blast brewskies at Rosen's (because we all needed more beer, ha). Good thing Beer Is Food, since I forgot to eat a brat (too busy talking, shocker, I know) and I don't want to count the revolting bite of cheese that I (and Kristi) took off of a huge chunk o'cheese being passed around by some random crazy drunk dude.

Soooo, food-wise, Lindsay loaned me a fabulous uh, cooking device (?) called a Romertopf Chicko (prounounced cheek-o). How to describe the Chicko? Well, let's see, how about an enormously phallic ceramic juicer, that's what first came to mind when I saw it. It's purpose has nothing to do with large oranges, however, but everything to do with roasting the perfect chicken. You, uh, penetrate a whole roasting chicken with the Chicko, then set it in a hot oven, and roast the little bird to crispy, buttery, roasted chicken perfection, no turning required. I'll have to get a few more details from Lindsay, via her foodie brother Kevin, who totally discovered this beauty while on vaca in Europe with his fabulous wife Kristi. I'm thinking perhaps a Sunday-night, Chicko-roasted chicken...stay tuned...

Why not tonight? Because this eve, I'm dining out a la Brazilian, at Fogo de Chao, with my my mom and my Portuguese professor Mary Schil (in town for the Badger game). I'll check in later with the very meaty details...Fogo de Chao is a traditional churrascaria, serving slices of meat off of roving skewers. Can't WAIT, yum.

Brrr! It's the real kind of cold out there now, not the fake stuff, oh no. I've even had to wear a coat (no!) these last few days (I usually get away with a cozy sweater, soft hat, and a big ol' fuzzy scarf). Should serve to put me in the mood for the holidays, but I'm having my usual hard time. It always feels to me like Christmas just ended - uh, didn't my tree just come down? Meh. Oh, I eventually get into it - we'll do our tree this weekend - and then I love it. But it's a harder transition every year. And I want that tree up for less and less time. There is no way, no how I am ever putting up a tree as early as Thanksgiving weekend. Egads, noooo!

In a somewhat more gracious mode, I've been cranking loads of food out of my kitchen. I made and brought appetizer pizzas (tomato/basil, bacon/caramelized onion, olive/feta) and almond coconut bars to Nathan's school yesterday, for their monthly faculty meeting. Hopefully tasted good (!), although I kept thinking that by 3:30 p.m., after a long school day, just about anything would hit the spot, ha. The almond coconut bars were a rather last-minute addition that turned out to be quite delicious - chewy, buttery, and best of all...coconut-ty to the max, rarrr. And super-easy, definitely a new addition to my tasty-yet-make-fast repertoire. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

Oooh, I also conjured up the most delicious beef soup. I sort of innovated as I walked through Byerly's...grabbed a chuck roast, then fennel, carrots, onions, garlic, mushrooms, rosemary, sage. I browned the roast in some olive oil, took it out of the pot, then sauteed around 1-2 cups each of the chopped veggies, several cloves of minced garlic, and a few sprigs each of rosemary and sage. I put the roast back in the pot, covered it all with water to cover plus one inch, and let it simmer, partially covered at first, and then uncovered for the last hour, for about three hours until the beef was quite tender. I pulled the beef apart (discarded fat) into bite-sized pieces, skimmed fat off the broth, seasoned with lots of salt and pepper, stirred the beef back in the pot, and voila, a hearty, healthy, flavorful beef soup. Good stuff.

And check this out! I got my Romertopf Chicko (pronounced cheeko), but...it's not a Chicko! Close, but not exactly the same. It's just called a "roaster," and it's bigger, which might be nice because you can actually fit vegetables at the base to soak up all the delicious juices (and basting butter, let's be honest here...) I'll need to be returning Lindsay's Chicko to her now, and I'll check in soon on how the, uh, Roaster works (definitely not as cheeky a name as the Chicko, sniff).