Janet Gilmore reads food as folklore
Around the Table
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
in Brava Magazine
April 2008
RECIPE
In the spirit of the alternative storylines of folk tale, Janet provides a parallel telling of three ways to stuff and bake a big fish. One comes from her fieldwork among the commercial fishing families of Green Bay -- from a woman there named Eileen Behrend -- and one comes from the recipe on p. 230 of the 1946 edition of The Joy of Cooking. The third is Janet’s own method, which is, turn, influenced by her childhood. “When I was growing up, a family friend regularly went charter fishing off the Oregon Coast,” Janet remembers. “He sometimes offered us a nice, big, whole salmon -- a cause for celebration.”
However you choose to follow the narrative below, start with Janet's recommendation of “a fresh, whole, big-bodied fish like Lake Michigan whitefish, Lake Superior lake trout or a wild-caught salmon from the Pacific Northwest,” and don’t stop till you get to the happy ending: a splendid main dish that’s brown and crispy outside, and delicately flaky within.
Baked and stuffed whole fish
One whole 3- to 5-pound fish, cleaned (Janet keeps the head and tail on; Eileen doesn’t)
A few strips of bacon (Eileen only)
Stuffing:
1 1/2 cups bread stuffing cubes (Janet uses sourdough or rye crumbs)
At least 2 tablespoons chopped onion (Janet uses more; Eileen uses “a lot”)
1/2 cup chopped celery (Joy, and Eileen)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (only if it’s on hand, says Eileen)
1 or 2 eggs, beaten (Joy, and Janet)
Salt, black pepper and sage to taste (Eileen)
1/8 teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (Joy, and Janet)
Combine stuffing ingredients. “Stuff the fish loosely and mass any extra along the opening to the cavity,” Janet says. Eileen sews the sides together with a coarse needle and thread. Place fish on a generous length of heavy-duty foil laid over a shallow baking pan. If head and tail is on (they can extend past the pan’s corners), loosely wrap foil around them. If you’re using bacon, lay it over the body of the fish.
Bake at 400° F for 1 to 2 1/2 hours, depending on fish size, until, as Eileen described, “nice and brown and crispy on the outside” and “white opaque all the way through.” Joy says 350°, but “I suspect [400°] will more effectively dry out the fish,” says Janet. “I look for a flaky, dry texture.“ Transfer to serving plater, foil and all.
ARTICLE
What is folklore? If you just thought of embroidered vests, flowing skirts and circle dances, or tales of talking trees and fairy princesses, forget it.
Folklore is everything that you and your folk know and do and make that nobody else quite gets.
Janet Gilmore, who teaches courses at the UW-Madison that explore food as folklore, explains: “It’s traditional artistic expression in small groups. Every group you can think of – a school group, work group, church group. A family. In every one of those environments there’s esoteric information, insider knowledge, that you learn in order to navigate. You usually learn this informally – across generations or from peers – and you use it in artistic expression of who you are.” And how we deal with food, she says, both in daily life and on special occasions, “is definitely folk knowledge.”
Originally from the state of Oregon, Janet earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University. There she met her husband, Wisconsin native and fellow folklorist Jim Leary. For decades, the pair travelled through the Upper Midwest on contracts with organizations like the Michigan State Museum, Manitowoc’s Maritime Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, gathering information about customs and culture, working with museum collections and exhibits and presenting their findings at folklife festivals and academic conferences.
Today both are faculty members at the UW-Madison, where Jim, now the director of the Folklore Program there, helped create the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures. Janet, who’s published a string of papers in peer-reviewed journals based on her fieldwork among commercial fishing families of Wisconsin and Michigan, is an assistant professor of landscape architecture and folklore. She’s also been featured on radio and in print as an expert on the history and social meaning of Wisconsin’s Friday night fish fry traditions.
VVK: How is food a form of folklore?
JG: Food is expressed through a bounty of expression, through stories, words, sayings, songs. There are the religious rituals that use food symbolically, whether it’s Holy Communion or the Passover, where you deal with a series of symbolic foods as you reenact the story of Exodus in your home. The bitter herb for slavery, the ground nut mixture for the mortar of the pyramids -- these things transport you to a different time and place.
Then there are the material traditions involving food. Food is something that we need. But how do we make decisions about what’s going to be acceptable as a foodstuff? How do we extract it from nature? How is it presented on a table? What’s the fast and feast cycle?
VVK: Isn’t that pretty much uniform across the country?
JG: If you interview people you’ll find out pretty quickly they don’t all follow the same routine. For instance, there’s a perception that everyone celebrates Thanksgiving about the same way. In my Festivals and Celebrations class last semester, we talked about three or four main ways just of dealing with the turkey. Some families have the big table-side carving ritual. Who carves the bird says something about the family hierarchy. Some will focus on how the turkey is cooked – they’ll try all sorts of techniques for making it more juicy and flavorful, brining, deep-frying. Immigrant families will get a turkey, as part of becoming American, but they might not know quite what to do with it, and it can end up a little strange. It’ll be over on the side, a symbol, and the real feast will be their own ethnic celebration foods. Then there are families where they have a turkey because they feel they have to, but it’s not featured. They might cook it the night before, to free up the oven. They might even slice it up and serve it on a platter.
VVK: What! They won’t have a whole bird on the table? I find that disturbing, somehow.
JG: Yes, and that’s what happens in my class. Students are so emotionally involved with their family food traditions, that it becomes difficult to separate out their feelings and approach this subject objectively. That’s what attracts people to food – it’s emotional. Students look at their family and their food experiences, and they start to see all the expressions of loving relationships. But also, food has this fundamental purpose. So I say to them, OK, if all you’re doing is expressing love, can you take the food out of the equation and still express the love? And that really bugs them.
But that’s what I like about studying food. When you start talking about food in an academic way, it doesn’t distance you from the food. It just engages you more. What feeds me is that my students are interested in all this, too.
VVK: I’ve heard you say that we’re unaware of a lot of our folk food knowledge. Like when someone gives us a handwritten recipe card with basically just a list of ingredients, a temperature and a time. My friend shared with me her mother’s carrot cake recipe, and it occurred to me that people from a different culture might have a hard time ending up with carrot cake from just that card.
JG: Exactly. Most cookbooks leave a lot out, but you don’t notice that. You bring your own knowledge to it, your esoteric knowledge of what the food is supposed to become. People think a recipe is all you need, but it really isn’t. The more experience you have, the more you can figure out. When a cookbook tries to fully explain everything, there’s so much writing. Yet it never has quite enough information.
VVK: Do you ever get tired of giving talks about Wisconsin fish fries?
JG: Never. I love it. Except that people expect me to be able to tell them what’s the best fish fry in Wisconsin. I tell them, it’s your favorite fish fry. Because it’s not really about the fish. It’s about seeing the people you know, socializing while you stand in line. Your tavern, your church, your VFW hall. Find one where you feel comfortable, and keep going. It will become yours. I know people who go to a different fish fry each week, looking for the ultimate. They’re missing it.
VVK: What draws you to working with the commercial fishing families of Wisconsin and the U.P.?
JG: The joy they have in that life, like nowhere else. Pacific coast fishing families would tell me, “My kids hate fish,” or “Fish is the last thing I want to eat after a day on the boat,” or that they won’t eat fish for days before an event, so they don’t smell. Here, everyone eats fish, everyone cooks, everyone fishes. They figure out how to cook fish out on the boat, using the heat of the engine. They go ice fishing. Children know when the streams will run with different types of fish. It’s a reason for a party, to have a fish boil, or to get the smokehouse going and smoke a hundred pounds of fish, share it with everyone, and wind up with just ten pounds for themselves. They can it, they pickle it. They’ll set out a jar when company comes. It’s wonderful. Families stay in that region, even though times are hard, economically, because they love the life. It’s an inland maritime culture.
My goal is to write some books about these fish foodways, as much for the people I’ve interviewed as anything. It’s their lives. And so many European immigrant traditions that haven’t been researched, and the fish foodways of the indigenous peoples. I’m probably not going to be able to do all of this in my lifetime. I hope I can inspire my students.
VVK: What’s the state of folklore today?
JG: It’s accepted as an academic subject more and more. Folklore is about looking at artistic expressions that aren’t endorsed by the official culture. At what’s expressed by people who aren’t powerful. Everybody participates in folk culture. As long as there’s a group, there’s folklore, because it’s how people interact and how they express themselves.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Sugar River Dairy: Active local culture
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
In Brava magazine, March 2008
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Fruit Salad
In case anyone hasn’t noticed, our state has something of a reputation when it comes to milk. We’ve got nearly 1 in 4 of all the nation’s 65,000 dairy farms, over a hundred cheese-making plants, and plenty of artisan producers.
But a few years back, Ron and Chris Paris noticed a giant hole in the market for small-scale, specialty dairy: practically nobody local makes yogurt commercially. They decided to fill that void with great product of their own, and Sugar River Dairy -- one of only three artisan yogurt makers in the state -- was born. Today, Chris and Ron’s all-natural yogurts, cultured naturally and made without thickeners, colorings, or any of the other additives found in mainstream brands, can be found on the shelves of food markets all over the area, as well as at their booth at the Westside Community Market.
VVK: Do you two have a background in dairy?
Chris Paris: Ron grew up on a farm on the edge of Madison across from Lake Farm Park in Oregon. He got a degree in dairy science from the UW-Madison and held various jobs in the ag industry. My family transplanted to Madison when I was three, but my parents have rural roots in Kansas and Missouri. I’m actually a teacher -- degree from UW-Madison in dance education and early childhood development. In 2004 I went 24/7 with Ron and Sugar River Dairy.
VVK: What was involved in starting up your dairy?
CP: Lots of startup costs and issues. We planned the building and built it 10 steps from my back door. It took two years of planning to find the right equipment and setup. Small processing equipment came from Israel. Everything we could find was meant for big production. The biggest challenge was trying to get a machine to dispense one ounce of fruit on the bottom of a six-ounce cup. Lots of trial and error on that.VVK: How much yogurt do you produce?
CP: One and a half tons per week, or 3,000 pounds. That’s about 1,700 six-ounce cups and 1,400 24-ounce cups of yogurt. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to most yogurt manufacturers. But we’re often able to make our yogurt one day and deliver it the next. Probably the freshest yogurt available!
VVK: Where does your milk come from?
CP: We use non-homogenized milk from two local, single-source, small farms that don’t use rBST and sub-therapeutic antibiotics. We believe that keeping it simple and clean keeps it healthy. We process it quickly and get it to the market.
VVK: How about your culture?
CP: Our culture comes from a local company. There are huge companies around the world that manufacture cultures. They are very sophisticated and very technical. Some won’t sell to small manufacturers like us. There are small companies who will deal with our minimal needs. We’re lucky to have just such a company in Madison.
VVK: Different yogurt brands can taste very different. How did you come upon the blend of culture that you use?
CP: Different blends have different tastes because of the pH’s they work best in. Ours has a mild, pseudo-American preference. It allows the flavor of the fruit to come through and has worked very well for us. Most European and Middle Eastern countries seem to prefer a more tart, acidic taste. Americans are used to mild and sweet flavors. That’s beginning to change now that we have access to a lot more variety.
VVK: I’ve made yogurt at home by adding a little yogurt to milk and keeping it warm, but it never comes out as solid as I’d like. And I can’t keep it going for the next batch. What’s your secret?
CP: We use freeze-dried culture in the same amount every batch for consistency. Real yogurt doesn’t need additives, but it does require help to absorb all the liquid in the milk, like raising the temperature and holding the milk to denature the proteins. We also incubate in the cup so we can retain the original texture without adding stabilizers. The added, unnecessary stuff doesn’t make real yogurt better -- though it makes it travel long distances well
VVK: What’s the most popular flavor? Do you have more in the works?
CP: Raspberry in six-ounce cups. I’d love to do exotic fruits like locally produced aronia [chokeberry] or black current, but the difficulty lies in the processing. Most fruit processors are in California. We’re looking for a Wisconsin or midwestern processor to work with.
VVK: What happens to the cream after you remove it from the milk to make your yogurt lowfat? I understand you’ll be using it in your own line of sour cream soon.
CP: It gets made into butter, but not by us. Sour cream is getting closer. It’s a different culture, and it takes more time and a different temperature. In larger quantities it can be tricky. We really wanted to have it out by now. Seems like everything takes longer to organize when most of our time is spent in production or delivery.
VVK: Is there any chance you’ll be coming out with a whole-milk yogurt anytime?
CP: Whole milk yogurt is on the way. We just need cups printed -- that’s another story, and two months of waiting. Research is clear about the differences between good versus bad fats, but people mostly focus on the word “fat.” They tend to equate fat with calories, and nutrition is a lesser issue. There’s also research indicating that non-homogenized milk may be healthier.
VVK: What else is next for Sugar River Dairy?
CP: A new delivery truck!
Fruit Salad
Recipe from Active local culture: Chris and Ron Paris update Dairy State tradition with their natural, artisan yogurts
Fruit salad
Fresh fruits
Vanilla yogurt
Optional: raisins, almonds, and/or sunflower seeds
Choose a combination of two, three or four fruits. “Very simple.“ says Chris. “Go local or regional if possible. The only frozen I use are those I freeze myself -- strawberries!” Cut in chunks about the size of ice cubes, or use a melon ballers. Arrange atop vanilla yogurt in individual serving dishes.
Fruit combo suggestions:
Apples, pear and cherry
Watermelon, cantaloupe and muskmelon
Thimbleberry (they’re like raspberries, but bigger and softer), grape and blueberry
Mango, guava and strawberry
Pineapple, banana and clementines or tangerines
Fruit salad
Fresh fruits
Vanilla yogurt
Optional: raisins, almonds, and/or sunflower seeds
Choose a combination of two, three or four fruits. “Very simple.“ says Chris. “Go local or regional if possible. The only frozen I use are those I freeze myself -- strawberries!” Cut in chunks about the size of ice cubes, or use a melon ballers. Arrange atop vanilla yogurt in individual serving dishes.
Fruit combo suggestions:
Apples, pear and cherry
Watermelon, cantaloupe and muskmelon
Thimbleberry (they’re like raspberries, but bigger and softer), grape and blueberry
Mango, guava and strawberry
Pineapple, banana and clementines or tangerines
Friday, February 1, 2008
Let them eat bread
For celiac sufferers, Holly Beach provides gluten-free alternatives
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
In Brava magazine, February 2008
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Gluten-free Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
White or wheat? For perhaps as many as 1 in 133 Americans, the answer had better be “gluten-free.” And not just for toast, but for every sort of bread, pizza, muffin, pastry, cookie and pasta. Not to mention beer, imitation crabmeat, soy sauce, vitamins, medicine, envelope glue -- absolutely anything made with wheat, barley or rye.
That’s the estimate given by the National Institutes of Health of those of us who may have the genetic autoimmune disorder known as celiac disease. When a celiac sufferer ingests gluten, a protein in those common grains, the immune system attacks the lining of the small intestine, rendering that vital organ incapable of absorbing nutrients. No matter how much the person eats, they become malnourished. Results can include bloating and gas, fatigue, anemia, osteoporosis, seizures, mouth ulcers, infertility, emaciation or obesity -- and that’s just the short list.
In this country, where awareness among the medical profession is, mercifully, growing, celiac patients have gone years before being correctly diagnosed. An article in USA Today tells of a girl who didn’t grow an inch between the ages of eight and 16 -- when she was finally diagnosed with celiac disease and told to stop eating gluten.
The good news is that the small intestine can usually heal over the course of a few months, and the body can once again receive desperately needed nutrients. The bad news is that there’s no known treatment for celiac disease. Patients must abstain from wheat, barley and rye products for life. The amount of gluten present in just 1/48 slice of bread -- scarcely a crumb -- has been found to trigger an attack.
Lucky for Madisonians with celiac -- and also for those with gluten intolerance and wheat allergies, which are separate medical conditions -- there’s Holly Beach and her Silly Yak Bakery, located right next door to her (whole-wheat) Bread Barn on Mineral Point Road.
Since the early 1990s, Holly owned and operated a bakery in Rochester, Minn., which is, coincidentally, the home of the world-famous Mayo Clinic, a leader in medical research and treatment. In 2000, around the time celiac awareness was beginning to pick up, a patient from out of town dropped by the The Bread Baker asking if they might, perchance, carry GF (gluten-free) bread. Then another, and another. “I had never heard of the disease before customers started coming in and asking for GF product,” Holly explains.
For a baker with a B.S. in health education (UW-La Crosse, 1983), this was a call to action. But there were technical difficulties in creating wheat-free bakery goods. “My first attempts were miserable bricks and I backed off for a bit,” Holly remembers. “ But people were still asking for GF product. I could only say ‘I’m sorry’ for so long.” She rolled up her sleeves again, and didn’t stop until she had perfected some great gluten-free loaves. Then she found how hard it was to bulk-order the special ingredients she needed.
“I remember sitting in my office and crying after another failed attempt to locate ingredients and thinking about all the celiacs that had to deal with finding safe food every day,” she says. “Everyone had the right to walk into my bakery and enjoy bread!” She persisted, and soon, Holly had a gluten-free mail order business up and running “through referrals from the Mayo Clinic.”
Then, in 2004, a serendipitous business deal with the owner of Madison’s Bread Barn led to Holly’s buying that bakery and moving, with her husband, Miguel, to Wisconsin. “It was time for a change in our lives after each living 20 plus years in Rochester,“ she explains. “It all clicked. Within four months we had sold my Rochester bakery and townhouse and purchased the Bread Barn and a townhouse in Verona -- all during the holiday season.”
And then there was this: “I knew that by just being in a larger city I would be able to bake for more people with celiac disease.”
Vesna Vuynovich Kovach: How did you come up with your bakery’s name?Holly Beach: “Silly Yak” is a play on words for celiac. Having celiac disease can be overwhelming, especially for children and parents. I wanted to lift the cloud, so to speak, and put some fun into celiac.
VVK: What led you to baking to begin with?
HB: My Grandmother Nelson was a very gifted cake baker and decorator. I spent many hours watching her create her beautiful cakes. My passion at that time was eating the delicious “cake crumb toppings” that came from leveling off the tops of her cakes. [After college] I moved to Rochester and opened a bicycle store. After 12 years I switched gears -- ha! -- to running a whole-grain bread bakery.
VVK: What’s most challenging about gluten-free baking?
HB: Gluten is the stretchy protein in wheat which allows the bread to expand like a balloon. Unfortunately, this is the culprit for people with celiac disease. We use xanthan gum [a specially fermented corn syrup] along with eggs to replace it. Over the years I’ve been able to develop bread that has a delicious, yeasty smell and taste, with loft and a soft crumb. Muffins and cookies are not so difficult, although they have their naughty moments.
Working with GF ingredients can still be unpredictable and we often scratch our heads in the kitchen wondering, “Now, why did that happen?” when we didn’t change the recipe at all!
We have been getting more requests for GF products that are also casein free, egg free, and yeast free. All of this takes so much time to develop.
VVK: What are some other ingredients?
HB: I try to use many high-protein and high-fiber grains such as amaranth, quinoa, sorghum, Montina [milled Indian rice grass, which is native to Montana] and buckwheat. Lack of fiber is a big concern for most people with celiac disease. I find that the community here in Madison is much more receptive to these grains. However, the Classic Rice bread is still our best selling bread. I’m very proud of our breads and the rave reviews that they get.
VVK: I’ve read that cross-contamination is a serious issue for celiac patients -- hamburgers can’t be cooked on the same grill as buns, fries can’t be fried in the same oil as breaded foods, and so forth. Since you’re running a whole-wheat bakery as well as the Silly Yak, how do you manage?
HB: When I first started baking GF, I set up strict handling procedures. All ingredients are in separate containers and kept in a separate area of the store. Separate utensils and pans are used, and washed and sanitized before each use. All surface areas are sanitized and covered. Each month I randomly test GF products for gluten contamination. By randomly testing products, I’m able to check our safe-handling techniques. We have not had a failed batch to date.
VVK: How does your Silly Yak business compare with your whole-grain operation next door?
HB: Forty percent of our total gross is from GF sales. In 2005 GF sales were only 10% of our total sales, so you can see that GF is growing substantially.
VVK: Who are your customers, and how do they find you?
HB: Our GF customer base is mostly local with about 30% being mail order – and that percentage is growing monthly. We get customers traveling through the area, and regular out-of-towners as far away as Chicago and Dubuque who stop in on a monthly basis. Our customers find us through Internet searches, word of mouth, and referrals from the Mayo Clinic.
To my knowledge, my oldest customer is 98 and hails from New York. My youngest is three years old and loves our snickerdoodle cookies.
VVK: Do your customers tell you of their health journey -- their struggles with celiac?
HB: Some customers come in with heavy shoulders, overwhelmed with the diet changes that they must make. Some are angry. I try to instill in my staff an understanding ear. Our job is to make life just a little bit easier for them.
Some of the most heartwarming moments for me are when customers come into the store and the tears start streaming down their faces. They can’t believe the selection! Some customers haven’t had pizza for over 20 years. And then to be able to offer them gluten-free beer [Lake Front Brewery’s New Grist and Budweiser’s Red Bridge]! Oh my gosh, they think they’ve died and gone to heaven. Also very moving for me was sending GF packages to soldiers in Iraq for Thanksgiving.
VVK: What are your personal favorites?
HB: The banana muffin! We make it with sorghum flour, and it just hits the spot without being too sweet. My staff loves our GF pizzas and we have been known to make large pizzas on a GF bake day for our own ravenous consumption. I also enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches with the tomato-feta bread and Reubens made with our Bavarian bread.
VVK: Any other great connections you’ve made in Madison?
HB: Very special to me is my collaboration with Bunky’s Café on Atwood Ave. in Madison. [Co-owner] Teresa Pullara-Ouabel has been very supportive of the celiac community and prepares wonderful pizzas and main-course Italian dinners that are gluten free. She is super high energy and helps keep me going mentally when I’m starting to bog down.
Gluten-free Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
Recipe from Let them eat bread: For celiac sufferers, Holly Beach provides gluten-free alternatives
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, February 2008
Column: Around the Table
Holly says, “So many of my customers miss baking. Gluten-free ingredients can sometimes be so difficult to work with, but this is a very easy recipe and rolls out really nice. Families can have fun together creating these. Don't tell your friends that these are GF! They'll be asking you for the recipe.”
Mix together:
3 cups rice flour mix*
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cut in:
1 cup chilled butter, cut in small pieces
1 egg
3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Blend well. Chill, if desired. Roll out on rice-floured surface to 1/8" to 1/4" thickness. Cut into valentines or shapes. (This dough works for any holiday!) Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, until a light touch to the center of a cookie does not make a dent. Edges may become slightly golden, depending on thickness.
Sprinkle with sugar before baking or frost after cooled. Yield: About 2 dozen 2" cookies. Store in a sealed container in a cool area. “They freeze great!” says Holly.
*Rice Flour Mix: Use Holly’s GF Flour Mix (available at Silly Yak Bakery) or another GF mix of your choosing. (Check the label to see if xanthan gum is already included.)
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, February 2008
Column: Around the Table
Holly says, “So many of my customers miss baking. Gluten-free ingredients can sometimes be so difficult to work with, but this is a very easy recipe and rolls out really nice. Families can have fun together creating these. Don't tell your friends that these are GF! They'll be asking you for the recipe.”
Mix together:
3 cups rice flour mix*
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cut in:
1 cup chilled butter, cut in small pieces
1 egg
3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Blend well. Chill, if desired. Roll out on rice-floured surface to 1/8" to 1/4" thickness. Cut into valentines or shapes. (This dough works for any holiday!) Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, until a light touch to the center of a cookie does not make a dent. Edges may become slightly golden, depending on thickness.
Sprinkle with sugar before baking or frost after cooled. Yield: About 2 dozen 2" cookies. Store in a sealed container in a cool area. “They freeze great!” says Holly.
*Rice Flour Mix: Use Holly’s GF Flour Mix (available at Silly Yak Bakery) or another GF mix of your choosing. (Check the label to see if xanthan gum is already included.)
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Tops in Toffee
Nilda Molina Miller’s quest for perfection in confection
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, January 2008
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Chocolate Caramel
The kitchen thermometer. That was the revolutionary tool that candy makers of the 19th century used to unlock the secrets of plain table sugar, which can break down and reform into hundreds of variously flavored and textured molecular compounds. It all depends on precisely how far it’s heated and how it’s handled as it cools, and you need a thermometer -- and a dependable stovetop -- to manage that.
In fact, just about all the sweets we’re familiar with today are Industrial Revolution-era inventions: caramel, fudge, fondant, peanut brittle, peppermint drops, taffy, butterscotch. And then there’s toffee, that toothsome marriage of flame-hot butter and sugar beloved by the British since at least 1825, yet nearly unknown in the States outside the occasional tooth-defying encounter with the rocky slab at the core of a Heath bar.
Local chocolatier Nilda Molina Miller is busting down that particular bonbon barrier with the homemade toffees she sells at the café she opened a year and a half ago on E. Johnson Street, in the historic string of storefronts at the intersection with North Street. Unlike what she calls the stereotypical “teeth-breaking” English toffee, her chocolate-coated specialties are browned-buttery rich, with a decisive crunch that collapses pleasantly into a crumbly play of complex, nutty shades of sweetness.
Originally from Chicago, Nilda spent several years as a police officer with the City of Madison, but she yearned “to do something creative and possibly make a career out of it.” After getting a thorough grounding in the science and art of modern confectionary through Ecole Chocolat, an online professional school located in Vancouver, B.C., Nilda began tinkering with toffees, striving to create the ultimate, buttery, crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth treat.
Today Nilda’s Chocolates features a complete line of toffees, along with chocolate truffles and bar chocolate, all individually handmade by Nilda herself. Customers can take home wrapped treasures or enjoy them on the spot with a cup of coffee or tea in the cozy interior of this Art Nouveau-era shop done up in shades of -- what else? -- chocolate and toffee.
VVK: How did you get interested in toffee?
NMM: I always loved toffee as a child and I knew I wanted it to be one of my signature chocolates. I wanted to concentrate on creating a chocolate that wasn’t common in other local chocolate stores.
VVK: How has the Madison reception to toffee been?
NMM: The response has been amazing. Part of the experience is educating customers on toffee if they've never had it before. But the deal sealer is giving them samples! There's nothing like seeing a customer’s reaction for the first time when they bite into a toffee.
VVK: How do you get your toffee to come out the way it does?
NMM: It's the ingredients, and the way that I cook it. Exactly how is a secret. I worked on it a long time! Once I established my base recipe, I was able to add other flavors to come up with my line of toffee, currently nine different flavors.
VVK: What's your favorite item?
NMM: The “Nina Blues” toffee. A dark, slightly intense chocolate surrounds the toffee, which is combined with dried blueberries from Door County and roasted cocoa nibs. It goes well with a cup of coffee and it reminds me of me -- dark, slightly intense and complex!
VVK: Your family is from Puerto Rico. Does that culinary heritage contribute to the sweets and candies you make?
NMM: To a certain extent. I like to use spices that are used in Puerto Rican dishes -- anise, cinnamon, coconut milk, pineapple and mango. I also look at some of the dessert dishes as inspiration for coming up with a new flavor, or name for my chocolates. One of my truffles is called “Cafe Con Leche.” It’s a milk chocolate ganache flavored with freshly brewed coffee, dipped in milk chocolate, and sprinkled with bits of coffee beans. The “Caribbean Goddess” truffle is made with a Venezuelan dark chocolate. Instead of the traditional cream, I use coconut milk in the ganache and combine it with bits of dried pineapple and mango.
VVK: What's your favorite thing about what you do?
NMM: I get to create chocolates and make a living from it!
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, January 2008
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Chocolate Caramel
The kitchen thermometer. That was the revolutionary tool that candy makers of the 19th century used to unlock the secrets of plain table sugar, which can break down and reform into hundreds of variously flavored and textured molecular compounds. It all depends on precisely how far it’s heated and how it’s handled as it cools, and you need a thermometer -- and a dependable stovetop -- to manage that.
In fact, just about all the sweets we’re familiar with today are Industrial Revolution-era inventions: caramel, fudge, fondant, peanut brittle, peppermint drops, taffy, butterscotch. And then there’s toffee, that toothsome marriage of flame-hot butter and sugar beloved by the British since at least 1825, yet nearly unknown in the States outside the occasional tooth-defying encounter with the rocky slab at the core of a Heath bar.
Local chocolatier Nilda Molina Miller is busting down that particular bonbon barrier with the homemade toffees she sells at the café she opened a year and a half ago on E. Johnson Street, in the historic string of storefronts at the intersection with North Street. Unlike what she calls the stereotypical “teeth-breaking” English toffee, her chocolate-coated specialties are browned-buttery rich, with a decisive crunch that collapses pleasantly into a crumbly play of complex, nutty shades of sweetness.
Originally from Chicago, Nilda spent several years as a police officer with the City of Madison, but she yearned “to do something creative and possibly make a career out of it.” After getting a thorough grounding in the science and art of modern confectionary through Ecole Chocolat, an online professional school located in Vancouver, B.C., Nilda began tinkering with toffees, striving to create the ultimate, buttery, crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth treat.
Today Nilda’s Chocolates features a complete line of toffees, along with chocolate truffles and bar chocolate, all individually handmade by Nilda herself. Customers can take home wrapped treasures or enjoy them on the spot with a cup of coffee or tea in the cozy interior of this Art Nouveau-era shop done up in shades of -- what else? -- chocolate and toffee.
VVK: How did you get interested in toffee?
NMM: I always loved toffee as a child and I knew I wanted it to be one of my signature chocolates. I wanted to concentrate on creating a chocolate that wasn’t common in other local chocolate stores.
VVK: How has the Madison reception to toffee been?
NMM: The response has been amazing. Part of the experience is educating customers on toffee if they've never had it before. But the deal sealer is giving them samples! There's nothing like seeing a customer’s reaction for the first time when they bite into a toffee.
VVK: How do you get your toffee to come out the way it does?
NMM: It's the ingredients, and the way that I cook it. Exactly how is a secret. I worked on it a long time! Once I established my base recipe, I was able to add other flavors to come up with my line of toffee, currently nine different flavors.
VVK: What's your favorite item?
NMM: The “Nina Blues” toffee. A dark, slightly intense chocolate surrounds the toffee, which is combined with dried blueberries from Door County and roasted cocoa nibs. It goes well with a cup of coffee and it reminds me of me -- dark, slightly intense and complex!
VVK: Your family is from Puerto Rico. Does that culinary heritage contribute to the sweets and candies you make?
NMM: To a certain extent. I like to use spices that are used in Puerto Rican dishes -- anise, cinnamon, coconut milk, pineapple and mango. I also look at some of the dessert dishes as inspiration for coming up with a new flavor, or name for my chocolates. One of my truffles is called “Cafe Con Leche.” It’s a milk chocolate ganache flavored with freshly brewed coffee, dipped in milk chocolate, and sprinkled with bits of coffee beans. The “Caribbean Goddess” truffle is made with a Venezuelan dark chocolate. Instead of the traditional cream, I use coconut milk in the ganache and combine it with bits of dried pineapple and mango.
VVK: What's your favorite thing about what you do?
NMM: I get to create chocolates and make a living from it!
Chocolate Caramel
Recipe from Tops in Toffee: Nilda Molina Miller’s quest for perfection in confection
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, January 2008
Column: Around the Table
Caramel is cooked at a high enough temperature that the crystals of its cane, corn and milk sugars break apart -- “caramelize” -- and reform as toasty brown, creamy goodness. It’s an easier project for the home cook than toffee, which cooks far hotter.
1 cup unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup light corn syrup
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add sugar and salt. Stir thoroughly. Add corn syrup. Stir. Gradually add milk and stir until all ingredients are mixed well. Add chocolate, stirring constantly until completely melted. Continue to let the mixture come to a boil, stirring constantly. You may have to wash down the sides of the saucepan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent the sugar from crystallizing.
Place a candy thermometer in the pan and cook until it reaches about 246-248° F (the “firm ball” stage), depending on how firm you like your caramel. Remove the pan from the stove and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the caramel into a baking pan lined with parchment paper, allowing extra paper to fold over the sides of the pan. Cool to room temperature. Lift the parchment paper with the caramel out of the pan. Cut the caramel into squares and enjoy as is, or dip them in the chocolate of your choice.
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, January 2008
Column: Around the Table
Caramel is cooked at a high enough temperature that the crystals of its cane, corn and milk sugars break apart -- “caramelize” -- and reform as toasty brown, creamy goodness. It’s an easier project for the home cook than toffee, which cooks far hotter.
1 cup unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup light corn syrup
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add sugar and salt. Stir thoroughly. Add corn syrup. Stir. Gradually add milk and stir until all ingredients are mixed well. Add chocolate, stirring constantly until completely melted. Continue to let the mixture come to a boil, stirring constantly. You may have to wash down the sides of the saucepan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent the sugar from crystallizing.
Place a candy thermometer in the pan and cook until it reaches about 246-248° F (the “firm ball” stage), depending on how firm you like your caramel. Remove the pan from the stove and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the caramel into a baking pan lined with parchment paper, allowing extra paper to fold over the sides of the pan. Cool to room temperature. Lift the parchment paper with the caramel out of the pan. Cut the caramel into squares and enjoy as is, or dip them in the chocolate of your choice.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Spunky and self-made: Sandra Lee
How Sandra Lee’s escape to Wisconsin led to sweet, Semi-Homemade success
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, December 2007
Cover story
When Sandra Lee was 15 years old, she looked her mother straight in the eye and announced that her future would be a good one.
She got the beating of her life.
Sandra left home that day. Exhausted from spending years as the primary caretaker of four younger siblings, emotionally spent from the thankless ordeal of rescuing her mother after a suicide attempt that nearly succeeded, shaken by a rape attempt by her former stepfather, and now more bloodied, black and blue than she’d ever been before, the teen fled for shelter with her boyfriend’s kindhearted family.
Sandra didn’t know it then, but she was only a few months away from the haven that would change her life forever: Wisconsin.
Today, it’s hard to imagine the 40-year-old Sandra Lee as anything other than the celebrity lifestyle expert she’s become. Her upbeat persona has led many to suppose that her success was effortless, her upbringing comfortable and coddled.
She’s the CEO of Semi-Homemade, Inc., the New York Times bestselling author of a string of cookbooks bearing the Semi-Homemade name and a guest lecturer for Harvard Business School conferences. She’s an entrepreneur who for years ran an industry-award-winning business based on do-it-yourself window-treatment gadgets she invented using clothes hanger wire. She’s a tireless worker for charities including UNICEF, Project Angel Food and Share Our Strength, and a trustee of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
But she’s probably best known as the chipper host of Food Network’s popular show Semi-Homemade Cooking. For each strongly themed episode, Sandra personally develops an array of recipes including her signature “Cocktail Time,” dramatic “tablescapes” that incorporate anything from garden ornaments to dime store props for 3D effect, a complete overhaul of the set’s dressing and even a coordinating wardrobe for herself, sometimes with multiple costume changes. She’s done this over 200 times since the show’s debut in 2003.
She balks at the suggestion that the themes express who she is: “It’s not me coming through. It’s not job to dictate what you should like and what you should not like. My job is to show you, if this is your taste, this is how to put it together with the minimum of time, effort and expense. Because I’ve already done it every which way there is to do it. By the time it’s on the air, it’s perfect.” The sheer volume and scope of projects covered in each show can seem overwhelming, but, Sandra explains, “No one’s going to make everything that’s in any episode. You might see one thing and say, ‘I can do that.’”
Sandra is known for an exuberant cooking style that uses lots of brand-name mixes, jars, seasoning packets and cans, for her full-throttle ruffles-and-lace decorating, and not least for a blazingly sunny disposition. This last, paired with her willowy, California-blonde good looks, seems to have predestined her success as the upbeat multimedia juggernaut she’s become. But her background of poverty, abuse and family hardship tells a different story.
In her newly published memoir, “Made From Scratch” (Meredith), Sandra recounts her rocky upbringing. Born to teenage parents, at the age of two she and her younger sister were deposited at the Santa Monica home of her father’s mother. There she spent her happiest childhood years. “Grandma Lorraine,” whom Sandra called “Mommy” at that time, worked hard to make home a special place to share with loved ones. She kept an immaculate house, cooked good food, made crafts with the girls, took them to church. When it was time for celebration, she went all out making decorations and treats, playing on a shrewd inventiveness that made the most of the slim paycheck she earned working at a cafeteria. Sandra lovingly recalls the simple foil pie pans she upturned to make “grand, shiny silver cake pedestals” at birthdays. The lesson in repurposing mundane objects would serve Sandra well later in life.
At six, when Sandra's mother and new husband took the girls to live in Washington State, the peaceful rhythms and special celebrations were gone, replaced by chaos, mess and violence. By the time Sandra was eleven, her stepfather was gone and her mother was immobilized by depression. Sandra took over the household responsibilities, buying groceries by bicycle, rationing food stamps through the month, cooking, cleaning, minding four children, raising extra money by selling bunches of flowers she picked from empty lots, dodging her mother’s beatings and admonitions that she wasn’t helping around the house enough -- and going to school, where she hid her bruises from the school nurses.
Just before her sixteenth birthday, Sandra left Washington for the Onalaska townhouse her father shared with his girlfriend. “I got there just in time,” says Sandra, speaking from her recently adopted city of New York. “If I hadn’t gone to live in Wisconsin, we would not be having this interview. I would not have become the person I am. There’s a sensibility in Wisconsin and the Midwest that’s wonderful. The values and morals are really prevalent in the society. ”
Her father’s household, too, dissolved into domestic violence, but Sandra believes Wisconsin life saved her. “The kids in Washington were doing drugs, but Wisconsin was a very different environment. There was really no bad crowd to get involved with.”
Grandma Lorraine helped Sandra find her own apartment in Onalaska. “It was the best and the worst time in my life,” Sandra recalls. “It was the first time I was really on my own and had to just focus on myself, to be still -- which was just odd and awkward. On the other hand, it wasn’t the chaos I was used to in my life in Washington. I was more peaceful and serene. I didn’t have parental guidance or supervision, but there was also this quiet environment. Being able to grow. I read. I focused on school much more. I was the entertainment editor, and in charge of advertising at the school newspaper. I joined cheerleading.”
Here Sandra says she developed the distinctive aesthetic of her show’s coordinated set dressing, tablescapes and wardrobe. “It’s very matchy-matchy, just like Wisconsin. When you’re in cheerleading, your hair-bow matches your purse matches your book cover. Everyone matches. All the time.”
Unaccustomed to what seemed like loads of free time, Sandra went to work, too. “My first jobs were at Hardee’s and Penny’s Shoes. Then I went to the pet store in the LaCrosse Mall. The work ethic and the support and the understanding -- Wisconsin was just a super terrific place to be.”
Then there was the food. “I experienced different foods in Wisconsin that I never had before. Brats were one, which I loved immediately. Sunfish was another -- I love sunfish to this day. Just flour and salt it, then saute in butter.”
After high school, Sandra headed to the UW-La Crosse to study physical therapy, “a great way to help people -- I got that from taking care of my brothers and sisters.” But the girl who once helped support her family selling value-added wildflowers found business classes more riveting. “Five of us got together and opened up an ice fishing shop, you know, on paper. You had to do per-square-foot dollars and figure out employee scheduling, everything. After that class, I said, ‘OK. I want to own my own business. This is just too much fun.’”
Cocktail Time, as well as the show’s occasional grilling segments, she says, comes straight from her experience of “grilling, cocktail waitressing and bartending at the Holiday Inn on Mississippi River. I learned to grill on that deck grill, in a very small space. I definitely learned creative cocktails on the deck. We’ve shot 200 themes. Who else could pump out 200 different cocktails? You need the expertise of being a Wisconsinite.”
In college Sandra also discovered the pleasures of entertaining for friends. She had no money, but as she had learned from Grandma Lorraine, “there’s no reason things can’t be special, no matter what your budget” (this attitude would later become central to the Semi-Homemade philosophy). So she learned to improvise in the kitchen. “I would make ‘Boone’s Farm Strawberry Shortcake,’ she recalls. “All you do is just simmer thawed-out strawberries, macerated in Boone’s Farm Strawberry Wine. Let it all melt together -- the alcohol cooks out. That was the only thing we could afford.”
It took several years, a lot more life experience and an intensive course at Le Cordon Bleu’s Ottawa campus for all these elements to coalesce into the overarching concept of “Semi-Homemade.” And when it did, the message resonated with millions of homemakers. No publishing firm would touch her first book, “Semi-Homemade Cooking,” so Sandra self-published. The book became a grassroots phenomenon, and soon major publishers and the Food Network were lined up to get Sandra -- and her Semi-Homemade brand -- on their team.
“Semi-Homemade was really created so that the busy homemaker would have the time to sit down with the family,” Sandra explains. “It’s the solution to bringing the family back together at the table, without sacrificing quality or taste. It’s 70-30, right in line with how your grocery is laid out -- all the ready-made products in the center, and the 30% of the perimeter has the bakery, fresh meats, and produce.”
But some critics argue that 30% homemade is 70% short of real cooking. The New York Times review of the first Semi-Homemade cookbook was scornful. Members of Internet forums make gleeful sport of her menus and recipes, disdaining her advice to, for instance, stir together ready-made ranch dressing with sour cream and hot sauce to make a dip for deep-fried olives (she specifies buying them already stuffed with blue cheese) in tempura batter mix. The contempt doubles at her examples of repurposing, as when the strained-off olive liquid plays a role in Cocktail Time.
Sandra bristles at such attitudes. “They need to quit, these purists, being condescending. I take offense, and I take offense on behalf of millions of women who are working. Who want to take five minutes to sit down with their family. Or to look nice. Taking a shot at Semi-Homemade is absolutely ridiculous. They’re not even taking a shot at me; they’re taking a shot at those women.”
She continues, “Everything I do on the show, I ask first, does this work for Colleen Schmidt [Sandra’s best friend from college] of Fredonia, Wis., who’s on her second marriage and is raising two children? Does this work for Kimber Lee, who’s got no nanny to help her? If it doesn’t work for them, then it doesn’t work. Anything that creates helps create time and a platform for good family values should be greeted with open arms.”
Sandra sometimes has to fight this battle on her own show. For this year’s Christmas episode, a producer nixed a centerpiece of white, powdered-sugar doughnuts adorned with “tiny blue candies that you stick in the holes of the doughnuts,” Sandra explains, and draped with blue fruit leather, all affixed to a craft styrofoam cone.
“They didn’t want me to do this doughnut tree. It was drop-dead gorgeous! I just think the woman in charge didn’t understand what it’s supposed to be about. I said, ‘I understand that it’s not New York, L.A. sophisticated,” Sandra says, her voice becoming hot as she recounts the skirmish. “I said, ‘It’s not about you. It’s about what Colleen Schmidt Wayberg will use to make the holidays easier, better, faster.’ That’s what Christmas is supposed to be about. If you did that at your holiday party, everyone would say, ‘You are so clever!’” The producer relented.
“They don’t even know how to tell me, ‘No,’” Sandra says.
It’s a bit boastful, but that’s OK. Years ago, Sandra Lee decided to look straight in the eye of someone who wanted to beat her down, maybe for good. You wouldn’t expect her to back down now over a doughnut tree.
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, December 2007
Cover story
When Sandra Lee was 15 years old, she looked her mother straight in the eye and announced that her future would be a good one.
She got the beating of her life.
Sandra left home that day. Exhausted from spending years as the primary caretaker of four younger siblings, emotionally spent from the thankless ordeal of rescuing her mother after a suicide attempt that nearly succeeded, shaken by a rape attempt by her former stepfather, and now more bloodied, black and blue than she’d ever been before, the teen fled for shelter with her boyfriend’s kindhearted family.
Sandra didn’t know it then, but she was only a few months away from the haven that would change her life forever: Wisconsin.
Today, it’s hard to imagine the 40-year-old Sandra Lee as anything other than the celebrity lifestyle expert she’s become. Her upbeat persona has led many to suppose that her success was effortless, her upbringing comfortable and coddled.
She’s the CEO of Semi-Homemade, Inc., the New York Times bestselling author of a string of cookbooks bearing the Semi-Homemade name and a guest lecturer for Harvard Business School conferences. She’s an entrepreneur who for years ran an industry-award-winning business based on do-it-yourself window-treatment gadgets she invented using clothes hanger wire. She’s a tireless worker for charities including UNICEF, Project Angel Food and Share Our Strength, and a trustee of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
But she’s probably best known as the chipper host of Food Network’s popular show Semi-Homemade Cooking. For each strongly themed episode, Sandra personally develops an array of recipes including her signature “Cocktail Time,” dramatic “tablescapes” that incorporate anything from garden ornaments to dime store props for 3D effect, a complete overhaul of the set’s dressing and even a coordinating wardrobe for herself, sometimes with multiple costume changes. She’s done this over 200 times since the show’s debut in 2003.
She balks at the suggestion that the themes express who she is: “It’s not me coming through. It’s not job to dictate what you should like and what you should not like. My job is to show you, if this is your taste, this is how to put it together with the minimum of time, effort and expense. Because I’ve already done it every which way there is to do it. By the time it’s on the air, it’s perfect.” The sheer volume and scope of projects covered in each show can seem overwhelming, but, Sandra explains, “No one’s going to make everything that’s in any episode. You might see one thing and say, ‘I can do that.’”
Sandra is known for an exuberant cooking style that uses lots of brand-name mixes, jars, seasoning packets and cans, for her full-throttle ruffles-and-lace decorating, and not least for a blazingly sunny disposition. This last, paired with her willowy, California-blonde good looks, seems to have predestined her success as the upbeat multimedia juggernaut she’s become. But her background of poverty, abuse and family hardship tells a different story.
In her newly published memoir, “Made From Scratch” (Meredith), Sandra recounts her rocky upbringing. Born to teenage parents, at the age of two she and her younger sister were deposited at the Santa Monica home of her father’s mother. There she spent her happiest childhood years. “Grandma Lorraine,” whom Sandra called “Mommy” at that time, worked hard to make home a special place to share with loved ones. She kept an immaculate house, cooked good food, made crafts with the girls, took them to church. When it was time for celebration, she went all out making decorations and treats, playing on a shrewd inventiveness that made the most of the slim paycheck she earned working at a cafeteria. Sandra lovingly recalls the simple foil pie pans she upturned to make “grand, shiny silver cake pedestals” at birthdays. The lesson in repurposing mundane objects would serve Sandra well later in life.
At six, when Sandra's mother and new husband took the girls to live in Washington State, the peaceful rhythms and special celebrations were gone, replaced by chaos, mess and violence. By the time Sandra was eleven, her stepfather was gone and her mother was immobilized by depression. Sandra took over the household responsibilities, buying groceries by bicycle, rationing food stamps through the month, cooking, cleaning, minding four children, raising extra money by selling bunches of flowers she picked from empty lots, dodging her mother’s beatings and admonitions that she wasn’t helping around the house enough -- and going to school, where she hid her bruises from the school nurses.
Just before her sixteenth birthday, Sandra left Washington for the Onalaska townhouse her father shared with his girlfriend. “I got there just in time,” says Sandra, speaking from her recently adopted city of New York. “If I hadn’t gone to live in Wisconsin, we would not be having this interview. I would not have become the person I am. There’s a sensibility in Wisconsin and the Midwest that’s wonderful. The values and morals are really prevalent in the society. ”
Her father’s household, too, dissolved into domestic violence, but Sandra believes Wisconsin life saved her. “The kids in Washington were doing drugs, but Wisconsin was a very different environment. There was really no bad crowd to get involved with.”
Grandma Lorraine helped Sandra find her own apartment in Onalaska. “It was the best and the worst time in my life,” Sandra recalls. “It was the first time I was really on my own and had to just focus on myself, to be still -- which was just odd and awkward. On the other hand, it wasn’t the chaos I was used to in my life in Washington. I was more peaceful and serene. I didn’t have parental guidance or supervision, but there was also this quiet environment. Being able to grow. I read. I focused on school much more. I was the entertainment editor, and in charge of advertising at the school newspaper. I joined cheerleading.”
Here Sandra says she developed the distinctive aesthetic of her show’s coordinated set dressing, tablescapes and wardrobe. “It’s very matchy-matchy, just like Wisconsin. When you’re in cheerleading, your hair-bow matches your purse matches your book cover. Everyone matches. All the time.”
Unaccustomed to what seemed like loads of free time, Sandra went to work, too. “My first jobs were at Hardee’s and Penny’s Shoes. Then I went to the pet store in the LaCrosse Mall. The work ethic and the support and the understanding -- Wisconsin was just a super terrific place to be.”
Then there was the food. “I experienced different foods in Wisconsin that I never had before. Brats were one, which I loved immediately. Sunfish was another -- I love sunfish to this day. Just flour and salt it, then saute in butter.”
After high school, Sandra headed to the UW-La Crosse to study physical therapy, “a great way to help people -- I got that from taking care of my brothers and sisters.” But the girl who once helped support her family selling value-added wildflowers found business classes more riveting. “Five of us got together and opened up an ice fishing shop, you know, on paper. You had to do per-square-foot dollars and figure out employee scheduling, everything. After that class, I said, ‘OK. I want to own my own business. This is just too much fun.’”
Cocktail Time, as well as the show’s occasional grilling segments, she says, comes straight from her experience of “grilling, cocktail waitressing and bartending at the Holiday Inn on Mississippi River. I learned to grill on that deck grill, in a very small space. I definitely learned creative cocktails on the deck. We’ve shot 200 themes. Who else could pump out 200 different cocktails? You need the expertise of being a Wisconsinite.”
In college Sandra also discovered the pleasures of entertaining for friends. She had no money, but as she had learned from Grandma Lorraine, “there’s no reason things can’t be special, no matter what your budget” (this attitude would later become central to the Semi-Homemade philosophy). So she learned to improvise in the kitchen. “I would make ‘Boone’s Farm Strawberry Shortcake,’ she recalls. “All you do is just simmer thawed-out strawberries, macerated in Boone’s Farm Strawberry Wine. Let it all melt together -- the alcohol cooks out. That was the only thing we could afford.”
It took several years, a lot more life experience and an intensive course at Le Cordon Bleu’s Ottawa campus for all these elements to coalesce into the overarching concept of “Semi-Homemade.” And when it did, the message resonated with millions of homemakers. No publishing firm would touch her first book, “Semi-Homemade Cooking,” so Sandra self-published. The book became a grassroots phenomenon, and soon major publishers and the Food Network were lined up to get Sandra -- and her Semi-Homemade brand -- on their team.
“Semi-Homemade was really created so that the busy homemaker would have the time to sit down with the family,” Sandra explains. “It’s the solution to bringing the family back together at the table, without sacrificing quality or taste. It’s 70-30, right in line with how your grocery is laid out -- all the ready-made products in the center, and the 30% of the perimeter has the bakery, fresh meats, and produce.”
But some critics argue that 30% homemade is 70% short of real cooking. The New York Times review of the first Semi-Homemade cookbook was scornful. Members of Internet forums make gleeful sport of her menus and recipes, disdaining her advice to, for instance, stir together ready-made ranch dressing with sour cream and hot sauce to make a dip for deep-fried olives (she specifies buying them already stuffed with blue cheese) in tempura batter mix. The contempt doubles at her examples of repurposing, as when the strained-off olive liquid plays a role in Cocktail Time.
Sandra bristles at such attitudes. “They need to quit, these purists, being condescending. I take offense, and I take offense on behalf of millions of women who are working. Who want to take five minutes to sit down with their family. Or to look nice. Taking a shot at Semi-Homemade is absolutely ridiculous. They’re not even taking a shot at me; they’re taking a shot at those women.”
She continues, “Everything I do on the show, I ask first, does this work for Colleen Schmidt [Sandra’s best friend from college] of Fredonia, Wis., who’s on her second marriage and is raising two children? Does this work for Kimber Lee, who’s got no nanny to help her? If it doesn’t work for them, then it doesn’t work. Anything that creates helps create time and a platform for good family values should be greeted with open arms.”
Sandra sometimes has to fight this battle on her own show. For this year’s Christmas episode, a producer nixed a centerpiece of white, powdered-sugar doughnuts adorned with “tiny blue candies that you stick in the holes of the doughnuts,” Sandra explains, and draped with blue fruit leather, all affixed to a craft styrofoam cone.
“They didn’t want me to do this doughnut tree. It was drop-dead gorgeous! I just think the woman in charge didn’t understand what it’s supposed to be about. I said, ‘I understand that it’s not New York, L.A. sophisticated,” Sandra says, her voice becoming hot as she recounts the skirmish. “I said, ‘It’s not about you. It’s about what Colleen Schmidt Wayberg will use to make the holidays easier, better, faster.’ That’s what Christmas is supposed to be about. If you did that at your holiday party, everyone would say, ‘You are so clever!’” The producer relented.
“They don’t even know how to tell me, ‘No,’” Sandra says.
It’s a bit boastful, but that’s OK. Years ago, Sandra Lee decided to look straight in the eye of someone who wanted to beat her down, maybe for good. You wouldn’t expect her to back down now over a doughnut tree.
Anna Alberici carries on the tradition of Madison’s Little Italy at the Greenbush Bar
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, December 2007
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Anna's Cannoli
Anna Alberici was just a child when the bulldozers came. Her family’s home fell with the others in the neighborhood -- with the grape vines, flower gardens and tomato patches, the groceries, churches, spaghetti houses and taverns. Gone was the multiethnic enclave bounded by West Washington Avenue, Park Street and Regent Street, the territory once nicknamed Little Italy. Anna’s neighborhood, the Greenbush, or the “Old Bush,” was a target of the 1960s’ zeal for “urban redevelopment;” the area, with its rich history, was cleared for new concrete megastructures.
A few buildings along the north side of Regent Street survived the wrecking ball. One was the Italian Workmen’s Club, which ran a bar downstairs. Today the club, still in existence, rents that downstairs space to the much-loved Greenbush Bar, owned by Anna and managed by Gretchen Hils, Anna’s life partner. “When I saw that it was for rent [in 1993] I jumped on it,” says Anna. “It seemed like a natural for me to be in that space. “I remember going there with my family.”
VVK: What do you remember about the old Greenbush neighborhood, and what it was like when everyone had to leave?
AA: Even though I was only 10 when we left, I miss it. I really did love it. I wish it were still there. Often when I drive past the area where I lived I think about being a kid, what the neighborhood looked like, how I felt. There were several small grocery stores. All Italian and everyone knew everyone. I would be sent to the store for a pound of salami and “Mr. Frank” would slice it to order, put it on our account and send me home.
I just remember what a huge change it was when we moved. I hated it. My mom was very sad. The older folks really had a hard time when they had to leave. The rest of the people scattered about.
VVK: How does the establishment tie in with the area’s past? What makes it special?
AA: I named the bar in tribute to the neighborhood. It fits into the old tradition of the old Greenbush neighborhood in that we serve Sicilian cuisine. Most of the Italians in the old Bush were from parts of Sicily.
I think what makes the Greenbush special is the coziness. You go down a flight of stairs. Before you get to the door you can smell the food and hear music, talk and laughter. It's warm and inviting, especially on a cold winter night. We pay special attention to not only the quality of the food but also the drink. We have a "top shelf" rail, great wines at a good price, lots of bourbon and scotch as well as local beer.
VVK: What led you to the culinary trade?
AA: My mother was a great cook. She also cooked in restaurants all of her adult life. She was born and raised in the Greenbush neighborhood and cooked in almost all of the Italian restaurants at some point. At home she made traditional Sicilian meals. She loved cooking and we loved eating.
I feel lucky to have acquired a taste for things like Sicilian olives, snails and garlic -- and lots of it -- at an early age. It shaped my love for food that is simple, tasty and wholesome.
VVK: The Greenbush is known for its commitment to local, sustainable food products. What’s behind that?
AA: I remember as a child how good meat and poultry products in this country were. And how that changed in later years. Now I buy all of my non-processed meat -- everything except pepperoni, salami and prosciutto --from Pecatonica Farms in Hollandale, Wis. Their meat is all natural and free range.
We are totally committed to using local and buying local as much as possible. This is the way I eat at home and I feel it my duty to serve that kind of food to my customers. The flavor of local, organic and naturally raised food is so outstanding. I think it is also all local businesses to help other local business survive. We need to support each other. The chain restaurants are out of control and they don't serve our community except in the area of employment, which is good, but ….
VVK: What’s your favorite dish at the Greenbush?
AA: Spaghetti and meatballs. It is comfort food to me. The recipe is pretty much what I grew up with.
VVK: What’s your favorite thing about what you do?
AA: Simply cooking. I love it when I’m alone in the kitchen and preparing whatever it is I'm making that day. It's kind of Zen for me.
VVK: What’s ahead for the Greenbush?
AA: I hope that the Greenbush can keep growing. We often consider opening for lunch, but parking in the day is an issue. I'm currently on a steering committee for the Regent Street south campus area redevelopment. I think it will be great to get Regent Street on the track of more businesses and more of a neighborhood rather than just a busy street.
Brava magazine, December 2007
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Anna's Cannoli
Anna Alberici was just a child when the bulldozers came. Her family’s home fell with the others in the neighborhood -- with the grape vines, flower gardens and tomato patches, the groceries, churches, spaghetti houses and taverns. Gone was the multiethnic enclave bounded by West Washington Avenue, Park Street and Regent Street, the territory once nicknamed Little Italy. Anna’s neighborhood, the Greenbush, or the “Old Bush,” was a target of the 1960s’ zeal for “urban redevelopment;” the area, with its rich history, was cleared for new concrete megastructures.
A few buildings along the north side of Regent Street survived the wrecking ball. One was the Italian Workmen’s Club, which ran a bar downstairs. Today the club, still in existence, rents that downstairs space to the much-loved Greenbush Bar, owned by Anna and managed by Gretchen Hils, Anna’s life partner. “When I saw that it was for rent [in 1993] I jumped on it,” says Anna. “It seemed like a natural for me to be in that space. “I remember going there with my family.”
VVK: What do you remember about the old Greenbush neighborhood, and what it was like when everyone had to leave?
AA: Even though I was only 10 when we left, I miss it. I really did love it. I wish it were still there. Often when I drive past the area where I lived I think about being a kid, what the neighborhood looked like, how I felt. There were several small grocery stores. All Italian and everyone knew everyone. I would be sent to the store for a pound of salami and “Mr. Frank” would slice it to order, put it on our account and send me home.
I just remember what a huge change it was when we moved. I hated it. My mom was very sad. The older folks really had a hard time when they had to leave. The rest of the people scattered about.
VVK: How does the establishment tie in with the area’s past? What makes it special?
AA: I named the bar in tribute to the neighborhood. It fits into the old tradition of the old Greenbush neighborhood in that we serve Sicilian cuisine. Most of the Italians in the old Bush were from parts of Sicily.
I think what makes the Greenbush special is the coziness. You go down a flight of stairs. Before you get to the door you can smell the food and hear music, talk and laughter. It's warm and inviting, especially on a cold winter night. We pay special attention to not only the quality of the food but also the drink. We have a "top shelf" rail, great wines at a good price, lots of bourbon and scotch as well as local beer.
VVK: What led you to the culinary trade?
AA: My mother was a great cook. She also cooked in restaurants all of her adult life. She was born and raised in the Greenbush neighborhood and cooked in almost all of the Italian restaurants at some point. At home she made traditional Sicilian meals. She loved cooking and we loved eating.
I feel lucky to have acquired a taste for things like Sicilian olives, snails and garlic -- and lots of it -- at an early age. It shaped my love for food that is simple, tasty and wholesome.
VVK: The Greenbush is known for its commitment to local, sustainable food products. What’s behind that?
AA: I remember as a child how good meat and poultry products in this country were. And how that changed in later years. Now I buy all of my non-processed meat -- everything except pepperoni, salami and prosciutto --from Pecatonica Farms in Hollandale, Wis. Their meat is all natural and free range.
We are totally committed to using local and buying local as much as possible. This is the way I eat at home and I feel it my duty to serve that kind of food to my customers. The flavor of local, organic and naturally raised food is so outstanding. I think it is also all local businesses to help other local business survive. We need to support each other. The chain restaurants are out of control and they don't serve our community except in the area of employment, which is good, but ….
VVK: What’s your favorite dish at the Greenbush?
AA: Spaghetti and meatballs. It is comfort food to me. The recipe is pretty much what I grew up with.
VVK: What’s your favorite thing about what you do?
AA: Simply cooking. I love it when I’m alone in the kitchen and preparing whatever it is I'm making that day. It's kind of Zen for me.
VVK: What’s ahead for the Greenbush?
AA: I hope that the Greenbush can keep growing. We often consider opening for lunch, but parking in the day is an issue. I'm currently on a steering committee for the Regent Street south campus area redevelopment. I think it will be great to get Regent Street on the track of more businesses and more of a neighborhood rather than just a busy street.
Anna's Cannoli
Recipe from Anna Alberici carries on the tradition of Madison’s Little Italy at the Greenbush Bar
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, December 2007
Column: Around the Table
One secret to this Italian classic is to wait until the moment before serving to fill these ethereally crispy tubes with a rich, creamy filling of your choice. “Sorry, I can't give you our restaurant’s cannoli filling recipe,” says Anna, “It's top secret!” This chocolate chip variant is “a basic recipe, similar to my mom's -- every Christmas she would make a platter full.”
Shells
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon brandy
1/3 cup red wine or more as needed
Vegetable oil for frying
Special equipment: 3 or 4 metal cannoli tubes, available at Fraboni’s or online.
Blend together dry ingredients in a food processor. Turn off machine. Add wet ingredients. Process until dough forms a ball. Add more wine if it’s too dry. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit one hour. Roll onto a floured surface to about 1/16th of an inch. Cut out 3" circles. Wrap a circle around each tube. Brush some water or egg white where the seam overlaps and press together.
With the dough still wrapped around the tubes, deep-fry in 350º oil for about two minutes, turning as they cook. Watch the heat and never leave them, as they cook quickly. Remove to paper towel. When cool, remove from tubes and repeat until all dough is used.
Filling
3 cups whole milk ricotta cheese, well-drained
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips
chopped pistachio nuts
Blend together ricotta, sugar and cinnamon in a food processor. Stir in chips. Fill shells with a pastry bag and garnish the ends with chopped pistachio nuts.
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, December 2007
Column: Around the Table
One secret to this Italian classic is to wait until the moment before serving to fill these ethereally crispy tubes with a rich, creamy filling of your choice. “Sorry, I can't give you our restaurant’s cannoli filling recipe,” says Anna, “It's top secret!” This chocolate chip variant is “a basic recipe, similar to my mom's -- every Christmas she would make a platter full.”
Shells
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon brandy
1/3 cup red wine or more as needed
Vegetable oil for frying
Special equipment: 3 or 4 metal cannoli tubes, available at Fraboni’s or online.
Blend together dry ingredients in a food processor. Turn off machine. Add wet ingredients. Process until dough forms a ball. Add more wine if it’s too dry. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit one hour. Roll onto a floured surface to about 1/16th of an inch. Cut out 3" circles. Wrap a circle around each tube. Brush some water or egg white where the seam overlaps and press together.
With the dough still wrapped around the tubes, deep-fry in 350º oil for about two minutes, turning as they cook. Watch the heat and never leave them, as they cook quickly. Remove to paper towel. When cool, remove from tubes and repeat until all dough is used.
Filling
3 cups whole milk ricotta cheese, well-drained
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips
chopped pistachio nuts
Blend together ricotta, sugar and cinnamon in a food processor. Stir in chips. Fill shells with a pastry bag and garnish the ends with chopped pistachio nuts.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
No column
I didn't have an Around the Table column in Brava magazine for the month of November 2007.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Kristi Genna mixes it up at Genna’s Cocktail Lounge
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, October 2007
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Berry Mojito
Kristi Genna was doesn’t remember the day her father, Frank, opened Genna’s Lounge in 1964 – she was only three years old at the time. But she knows its role in Madison’s cultural history as one of a cluster of taverns that earned a little stretch of University Avenue downtown the sobriquet “the Bermuda Triangle.” They say the unwary could become lost for days wandering the Black Bear, the 602 Club, Bob and Gene’s, Jocko’s Rocketship – and Genna’s.
In the 1980s, after graduating from the UW-Madison armed with a degree in communications arts, Kristi headed for Chicago “to pursue a career in television and film,” she says. She soon found work in commercials, but when her father fell ill, she found herself spending weekends in Madison helping with the bar.
“It became obvious that I couldn’t remain in Chicago and continue helping my father during his illness, so I moved back to Madison,” she says. “I ran the bar by myself while my father was ill.” After Frank’s death in 1987, ownership passed to Kristi. “Since then, I have never looked back. I am a proud bar owner, and this is what I do.”
In 1993, Genna’s moved to its new location on the Capitol Square, in a historic building that Kristi’s husband, Jack Williams – “with the help of a few loyal patrons,” as Genna’s Web site says – renovated completely.
Today Genna’s combines family tradition with urban sophistication, leading the way in cutting-edge mixology and authentically rendered classic cocktails.
VVK: What are your earliest memories of the family business?
KG: My father would take my sisters and me to help him clean the bar on Sundays. He provided incentive by telling us, “You know those drunks always drop money on the floor.” We later realized that he threw money on the floor as a little treat for us to find.
VVK: Did you think you’d be involved in the operation someday?
KG: Actually, my father refused to let me work at Genna's while I was at UW-Madison. I told him that he didn’t have to pay me – I would just work for tips. Without his permission, I started helping out the bartenders. As business began to increase, over time most of his bartenders left.– they didn’t care for the younger clientele. With more business and a smaller staff my dad conceded that he needed me there. He never put me on payroll, but he always helped me pay the rent. I think in the end he was happy I pushed it.
VVK: Do you still see patrons from those days?
KG: We often see people who once frequented my father’s bar. They usually express some degree of surprise that Genna’s is still operating, even if in a new space. They tell colorful stories about my father, whom I have learned over the years was quite a character.
VVK: Tell me about your passion for this business. What role do establishments like yours play in life and culture?
KG: I believe that taverns, if run correctly, provide a great service to society. People are social animals, and throughout history, we have gathered at meeting places to share our stories. The ancient Greeks and Romans certainly knew the value of gathering over wine to discuss life, art and philosophy. I think Genna’s has provided just such a meeting place over the years. The value of skilled bartenders is not only serving good drinks but also listening to the patrons’ stories as well as contributing their own.
VVK: How has Genna’s – and the Madison lounge scene – changed over the years?
KG: The old Genna’s was a classic hole-in-the-wall Wisconsin tavern – a “shot and beer” bar. Genna’s today retains that classic atmosphere, but the new space allows us to be so much more.
We helped bring the modern cocktail lounge to Madison. Just before the move, I hired Kitty Bennett, who was then head bartender at L’Etoile, to teach our bartenders the art of mixing classic cocktails at drink-making seminars. In 1993 very few people ordered martinis, but we continued offering specials. I persuaded my friends and regulars to try them. Genna’s became one of the few lounges in town serving Martinis, Cosmo[politans]s, and Manhattans.
The current set of bars serving finely crafted cocktails grew around us, and I am proud to have been part of that evolution. Genna’s still offers cocktails that are known to be some of the best and most unique in town. Our Bloody Mary is second to none, and where in Madison can you order a Pimm’s Cup?
We also offer a vast selection of microbrews and hand-crafted beers. Ten years ago, we couldn’t give away a Belgian beer, and now they’re quite popular.
VVK: What’s your secret to success?
KG: Genna’s staff certainly has been a large part of our success. An excellent staff tends to attract other people of the same caliber. And once these professionals are in place, they must have the freedom to be themselves. They help foster an atmosphere of individuality, creativity and free expression. People work better when they know management will support them and back them up. Our staff really is like family.
VVK: What’s the most difficult aspect of the business?
KG: Maintaining the equipment and infrastructure. If it weren’t for my husband Jack, I don’t think Genna's could have made it. Jack built this bar, and he has maintained it and kept it operating for over 20 years.
VVK: What’s been your biggest surprise?
KG: That my marriage has not only survived but thrived. I work alongside my husband every day and it really has been a great experience. After 17 years of marriage we still have so much fun together.
Brava magazine, October 2007
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Berry Mojito
Kristi Genna was doesn’t remember the day her father, Frank, opened Genna’s Lounge in 1964 – she was only three years old at the time. But she knows its role in Madison’s cultural history as one of a cluster of taverns that earned a little stretch of University Avenue downtown the sobriquet “the Bermuda Triangle.” They say the unwary could become lost for days wandering the Black Bear, the 602 Club, Bob and Gene’s, Jocko’s Rocketship – and Genna’s.
In the 1980s, after graduating from the UW-Madison armed with a degree in communications arts, Kristi headed for Chicago “to pursue a career in television and film,” she says. She soon found work in commercials, but when her father fell ill, she found herself spending weekends in Madison helping with the bar.
“It became obvious that I couldn’t remain in Chicago and continue helping my father during his illness, so I moved back to Madison,” she says. “I ran the bar by myself while my father was ill.” After Frank’s death in 1987, ownership passed to Kristi. “Since then, I have never looked back. I am a proud bar owner, and this is what I do.”
In 1993, Genna’s moved to its new location on the Capitol Square, in a historic building that Kristi’s husband, Jack Williams – “with the help of a few loyal patrons,” as Genna’s Web site says – renovated completely.
Today Genna’s combines family tradition with urban sophistication, leading the way in cutting-edge mixology and authentically rendered classic cocktails.
VVK: What are your earliest memories of the family business?
KG: My father would take my sisters and me to help him clean the bar on Sundays. He provided incentive by telling us, “You know those drunks always drop money on the floor.” We later realized that he threw money on the floor as a little treat for us to find.
VVK: Did you think you’d be involved in the operation someday?
KG: Actually, my father refused to let me work at Genna's while I was at UW-Madison. I told him that he didn’t have to pay me – I would just work for tips. Without his permission, I started helping out the bartenders. As business began to increase, over time most of his bartenders left.– they didn’t care for the younger clientele. With more business and a smaller staff my dad conceded that he needed me there. He never put me on payroll, but he always helped me pay the rent. I think in the end he was happy I pushed it.
VVK: Do you still see patrons from those days?
KG: We often see people who once frequented my father’s bar. They usually express some degree of surprise that Genna’s is still operating, even if in a new space. They tell colorful stories about my father, whom I have learned over the years was quite a character.
VVK: Tell me about your passion for this business. What role do establishments like yours play in life and culture?
KG: I believe that taverns, if run correctly, provide a great service to society. People are social animals, and throughout history, we have gathered at meeting places to share our stories. The ancient Greeks and Romans certainly knew the value of gathering over wine to discuss life, art and philosophy. I think Genna’s has provided just such a meeting place over the years. The value of skilled bartenders is not only serving good drinks but also listening to the patrons’ stories as well as contributing their own.
VVK: How has Genna’s – and the Madison lounge scene – changed over the years?
KG: The old Genna’s was a classic hole-in-the-wall Wisconsin tavern – a “shot and beer” bar. Genna’s today retains that classic atmosphere, but the new space allows us to be so much more.
We helped bring the modern cocktail lounge to Madison. Just before the move, I hired Kitty Bennett, who was then head bartender at L’Etoile, to teach our bartenders the art of mixing classic cocktails at drink-making seminars. In 1993 very few people ordered martinis, but we continued offering specials. I persuaded my friends and regulars to try them. Genna’s became one of the few lounges in town serving Martinis, Cosmo[politans]s, and Manhattans.
The current set of bars serving finely crafted cocktails grew around us, and I am proud to have been part of that evolution. Genna’s still offers cocktails that are known to be some of the best and most unique in town. Our Bloody Mary is second to none, and where in Madison can you order a Pimm’s Cup?
We also offer a vast selection of microbrews and hand-crafted beers. Ten years ago, we couldn’t give away a Belgian beer, and now they’re quite popular.
VVK: What’s your secret to success?
KG: Genna’s staff certainly has been a large part of our success. An excellent staff tends to attract other people of the same caliber. And once these professionals are in place, they must have the freedom to be themselves. They help foster an atmosphere of individuality, creativity and free expression. People work better when they know management will support them and back them up. Our staff really is like family.
VVK: What’s the most difficult aspect of the business?
KG: Maintaining the equipment and infrastructure. If it weren’t for my husband Jack, I don’t think Genna's could have made it. Jack built this bar, and he has maintained it and kept it operating for over 20 years.
VVK: What’s been your biggest surprise?
KG: That my marriage has not only survived but thrived. I work alongside my husband every day and it really has been a great experience. After 17 years of marriage we still have so much fun together.
Berry Mojito
From Kristi Genna mixes it up at Genna’s Cocktail Lounge
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, October 2007
Column: Around the Table
This fruity rendition of the classic rum refreshment is “our Saturday Farmers Market special,” says Kristi. You can swap in frozen berries for fresh; let thaw first. Barspeak translations? A traditional “jigger” is 1.5 liquid ounces, or three tablespoons. To “muddle” is to crush in liquid. A bartender’s muddler “looks like a tiny baseball bat,” Kristi explains. “In a pinch the end of a wooden spoon or any flat-ended object 1/2" to 1" in diameter will work.”
4 or 5 raspberries
6 or 7 ripped-up mint leaves
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
A splash or two of seltzer water
1/2 jigger fresh lime juice
1 1/2 jiggers Mount Gay Rum
Put raspberries, mint, sugar and a splash of seltzer water in the bottom of a 10 ounce glass and muddle till all is mashed up. Fill glass with crushed ice. Pour the rum over the ice. Top off the glass with seltzer water. Stir up the concoction and garnish with a sprig of mint and wedge of lime.
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, October 2007
Column: Around the Table
This fruity rendition of the classic rum refreshment is “our Saturday Farmers Market special,” says Kristi. You can swap in frozen berries for fresh; let thaw first. Barspeak translations? A traditional “jigger” is 1.5 liquid ounces, or three tablespoons. To “muddle” is to crush in liquid. A bartender’s muddler “looks like a tiny baseball bat,” Kristi explains. “In a pinch the end of a wooden spoon or any flat-ended object 1/2" to 1" in diameter will work.”
4 or 5 raspberries
6 or 7 ripped-up mint leaves
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
A splash or two of seltzer water
1/2 jigger fresh lime juice
1 1/2 jiggers Mount Gay Rum
Put raspberries, mint, sugar and a splash of seltzer water in the bottom of a 10 ounce glass and muddle till all is mashed up. Fill glass with crushed ice. Pour the rum over the ice. Top off the glass with seltzer water. Stir up the concoction and garnish with a sprig of mint and wedge of lime.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Megan Ramey’s MoCo Makes Willy Street Go-go
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, September 2007
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Stuffed Olive Whipped Cream Cheese
Who would think a new convenience would be something a foodie could get excited about? Forget any associations you might have with sterile atmosphere, flat lighting and stale Pop-Tarts. 30-year-old Megan Ramey calls MoCo Market, which she opened this spring on Williamson Street, a “lifestyle store.”
Ramey’s brainchild is a bold reinterpretation of the classic quickie mart that integrates environmental and employee sustainability, commitment to community, and gorgeous design. The luxurious, dark-stained flooring is fast-renewing bamboo; the paint is non-toxic; there’s furniture and paneling made from reclaimed wood. Upscale offerings include alternative magazines, microbrew beers, a rotating selection of international and regional wines, fruit sushi, organics, locally raised bacon. There’s whole-bean Anodyne Coffee, roasted in Milwaukee, and a beverage cooler featuring exotic offerings like bottled kombucha tea and Coca-Cola, aesthetically bottled in old-fashioned chunky green glass.
Even the advertising is alternative: for MoCo’s TV spot, a hip minifilm complete with production credits, Megan sought out animation students and talked a local band into letting her use its music.
After earning a degree in fashion merchandising from the University of Georgia, the Madison-born Megan came back to the area for a job at Land’s End, and soon enrolled in the UW-Madison’s MBA program. MoCo evolved through the course of her studies. She knew she wanted a retail business, and, she says, “I knew that food must be incorporated somehow. My life revolves around food and I love eating. My family is large. One side is Swedish and the other side is German. We live to eat, drink and be merry as much as possible.”
VVK: What's the philosophy behind MoCo?
MR: MoCo is essentially a convenience store that caters to urban dwellers on the go. Urbanites tend to pride themselves in knowing cutting-edge design, music, pop culture, travel and politics, so I tried to bring together all the products that would communicate these facets of life.
Many of my friends love to find new food or retail products that are amazing, and then we tell one another about them. The same goes for [finding] companies that care about more than their bottom line – are they in business to achieve more than making money? When we find those that have strategies that impact people and the environment in a positive way, we tell each other about them. I wanted MoCo to be one of those companies and to hopefully set an example for others.
VVK: MoCo is different from any other convenience store I've ever been in – the vibe itself is unique, and it goes beyond product selection.
MR: You feel as if you are transported to an international destination because of the modern design. Customers tell us that MoCo reminds them of places that they have visited: Tokyo, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy. We have modern communal-style bench seating towards the front so people can eat in the sunlight coming through our huge windows while people-watching. All of our groceries are housed on minimal, chrome metro[-style] shelving. Japanese minimalism is the design theme.
Most importantly, MoCo’s interior feels good to be in. My best friend, Mary Bolger, who is LEED-certified [Leadership in Energy and Interior Design], was in charge of creating the magical feeling of the store. She definitely shared my vision for what the store needed to be: “eco-modern.”
VVK: MoCo has the distinction of being certified by the Green Restaurant Association. How did that come about?
MR: While researching an environmental strategy for food retailers during an MBA class on sustainability and ethics, I came across GRA and loved their certification process because it not only centered on food preparation and sales, but also involved community and interior design.
VVK: How did you come up with the market’s name?
MR: I wanted “convenience” to be a part of the name, but I also wanted a four-letter name. “Modern” is what brings the convenience aspect into present day. So I shortened both words to their first two letters and combined them. I love the name because people confuse it with MoMA and MMoCA, which are both beautiful museums.
VVK: What's your favorite MoCo-made food item?
It’s a tie between the sushi and the smoothies.
VVK: What innovations haven’t worked out in the way that you expected?
MR: I thought that music CDs were going to make a comeback. I, for one, really miss having a hard copy of a music library. We still have CDs, but they are listed on eBay, also. I don’t rely on in-store sales. They are mostly used to help shape the image of MoCo – that we’re passionate about music.
VVK: What role do you see MoCo as playing in its Willy St. neighborhood? Have you given thought to additional locations?
MR: Willy Street is my neighborhood and is by far the best one! Where else in Madison is there such a sense of community? I lve knowing my neighbors. The Wil-Mar neighborhood also seems to have the most professionals who bike or walk to work. Plus, the idea of there being a central park one day is so very exciting. I cannot wait to watch Madison and the eastside over the next five years from this vantage point.
I am having trouble finding another neighborhood in Madison where people are outside and community oriented as much as Willy Street. People tell me there is a neighborhood in Milwaukee that would eat MoCo up!
Brava magazine, September 2007
Column: Around the Table
Recipe: Stuffed Olive Whipped Cream Cheese
Who would think a new convenience would be something a foodie could get excited about? Forget any associations you might have with sterile atmosphere, flat lighting and stale Pop-Tarts. 30-year-old Megan Ramey calls MoCo Market, which she opened this spring on Williamson Street, a “lifestyle store.”
Ramey’s brainchild is a bold reinterpretation of the classic quickie mart that integrates environmental and employee sustainability, commitment to community, and gorgeous design. The luxurious, dark-stained flooring is fast-renewing bamboo; the paint is non-toxic; there’s furniture and paneling made from reclaimed wood. Upscale offerings include alternative magazines, microbrew beers, a rotating selection of international and regional wines, fruit sushi, organics, locally raised bacon. There’s whole-bean Anodyne Coffee, roasted in Milwaukee, and a beverage cooler featuring exotic offerings like bottled kombucha tea and Coca-Cola, aesthetically bottled in old-fashioned chunky green glass.
Even the advertising is alternative: for MoCo’s TV spot, a hip minifilm complete with production credits, Megan sought out animation students and talked a local band into letting her use its music.
After earning a degree in fashion merchandising from the University of Georgia, the Madison-born Megan came back to the area for a job at Land’s End, and soon enrolled in the UW-Madison’s MBA program. MoCo evolved through the course of her studies. She knew she wanted a retail business, and, she says, “I knew that food must be incorporated somehow. My life revolves around food and I love eating. My family is large. One side is Swedish and the other side is German. We live to eat, drink and be merry as much as possible.”
VVK: What's the philosophy behind MoCo?
MR: MoCo is essentially a convenience store that caters to urban dwellers on the go. Urbanites tend to pride themselves in knowing cutting-edge design, music, pop culture, travel and politics, so I tried to bring together all the products that would communicate these facets of life.
Many of my friends love to find new food or retail products that are amazing, and then we tell one another about them. The same goes for [finding] companies that care about more than their bottom line – are they in business to achieve more than making money? When we find those that have strategies that impact people and the environment in a positive way, we tell each other about them. I wanted MoCo to be one of those companies and to hopefully set an example for others.
VVK: MoCo is different from any other convenience store I've ever been in – the vibe itself is unique, and it goes beyond product selection.
MR: You feel as if you are transported to an international destination because of the modern design. Customers tell us that MoCo reminds them of places that they have visited: Tokyo, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy. We have modern communal-style bench seating towards the front so people can eat in the sunlight coming through our huge windows while people-watching. All of our groceries are housed on minimal, chrome metro[-style] shelving. Japanese minimalism is the design theme.
Most importantly, MoCo’s interior feels good to be in. My best friend, Mary Bolger, who is LEED-certified [Leadership in Energy and Interior Design], was in charge of creating the magical feeling of the store. She definitely shared my vision for what the store needed to be: “eco-modern.”
VVK: MoCo has the distinction of being certified by the Green Restaurant Association. How did that come about?
MR: While researching an environmental strategy for food retailers during an MBA class on sustainability and ethics, I came across GRA and loved their certification process because it not only centered on food preparation and sales, but also involved community and interior design.
VVK: How did you come up with the market’s name?
MR: I wanted “convenience” to be a part of the name, but I also wanted a four-letter name. “Modern” is what brings the convenience aspect into present day. So I shortened both words to their first two letters and combined them. I love the name because people confuse it with MoMA and MMoCA, which are both beautiful museums.
VVK: What's your favorite MoCo-made food item?
It’s a tie between the sushi and the smoothies.
VVK: What innovations haven’t worked out in the way that you expected?
MR: I thought that music CDs were going to make a comeback. I, for one, really miss having a hard copy of a music library. We still have CDs, but they are listed on eBay, also. I don’t rely on in-store sales. They are mostly used to help shape the image of MoCo – that we’re passionate about music.
VVK: What role do you see MoCo as playing in its Willy St. neighborhood? Have you given thought to additional locations?
MR: Willy Street is my neighborhood and is by far the best one! Where else in Madison is there such a sense of community? I lve knowing my neighbors. The Wil-Mar neighborhood also seems to have the most professionals who bike or walk to work. Plus, the idea of there being a central park one day is so very exciting. I cannot wait to watch Madison and the eastside over the next five years from this vantage point.
I am having trouble finding another neighborhood in Madison where people are outside and community oriented as much as Willy Street. People tell me there is a neighborhood in Milwaukee that would eat MoCo up!
Stuffed Olive Whipped Cream Cheese
Recipe from Megan Ramey’s MoCo Makes Willy Street Go-go
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, September 2007
Column: Around the Table
This easy spread combines the smooth lusciousness of cream cheese with the savor of a stuffed olive. “When it comes to my passion of cooking, I love combining unlikely ingredients,” says Megan.” The idea of an olive cream cheese came from a friend who used to work at a café in Door County. Whipped cream cheese is so much better than regular because it’s easier to spread and feels good in your mouth.”
1 block cream cheese
1/2 cup skim milk
stuffed olives, as many as desired (Megan recommends Santa Barbara Olive Co.’s sundried tomato, blue cheese, or jalepeno stuffed varieties.)
Megan says: “Simply throw cream cheese, milk and as many sliced olives as you like into the bowl [of an electric mixer]. Mix until the mixture reaches your desired whippiness! Serve with bagels, veggies or crackers.”
By Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Brava magazine, September 2007
Column: Around the Table
This easy spread combines the smooth lusciousness of cream cheese with the savor of a stuffed olive. “When it comes to my passion of cooking, I love combining unlikely ingredients,” says Megan.” The idea of an olive cream cheese came from a friend who used to work at a café in Door County. Whipped cream cheese is so much better than regular because it’s easier to spread and feels good in your mouth.”
1 block cream cheese
1/2 cup skim milk
stuffed olives, as many as desired (Megan recommends Santa Barbara Olive Co.’s sundried tomato, blue cheese, or jalepeno stuffed varieties.)
Megan says: “Simply throw cream cheese, milk and as many sliced olives as you like into the bowl [of an electric mixer]. Mix until the mixture reaches your desired whippiness! Serve with bagels, veggies or crackers.”
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