Fear Leads to Anger, Anger Leads to Hate....

And hate, as we all know leads to the dark side.

I was cranky.  It happens.  It wasn't the right thing to do.

Not that I disagree with anything I wrote, but it could have been easily written without addressing it at anyone - anonymous or not.  I was angry.  I thought I was justified.  I probably wasn't.

Here's the problem, though.  I was so busy being angry that I almost missed my deadline for the cherry contest.  And that, really, is the dark side.  I was so pissed off that the only reason I DIDN'T miss the deadline was because I wrote it down wrong.  Not cool.  Not useful.  Well, sort of useful because I'm a nerd and enjoy writing a good research paper, but other than that, not useful.

So, basically, I'm sorry.  It wasn't appropriate, and it didn't do any good.  Plus, it could have done a lot of bad.  Not just in terms of missing the cherry contest.

But, thankfully, the contest did not end on 2/12 as I wrote down in my calendar, but actually ended today, so I got a chance to turn mine in.  I find out by the end of the day tomorrow if I'm one of the five finalists.  It sounded like they got a lot of entries, so I'm not holding my breath, but it was fun anyway.

When I started creating this recipe, I really thought that the star was going to be the steak, but it ended up being the kohl slaw, which tasted so much like summer.  It was the perfect mid-winter pick-me-up.  I also like that this recipe can be done with a very inexpensive, often overlooked cut of meat.  I used a buffalo flank steak.

I don't know how this happened, but I can't find a picture.  I remember taking one, but it has vanished.  Lame.

(**UPDATE 2/22:  MKEfoodie and Cherryland's best were awesome enough to provide a picture for me!  Also, I TOTALLY WON THIS CONTEST!!!!  My first food contest win - not at work - ever!)

Cherry Marinated Steak Sandwiches, with Cherry Kohl(rabi) Slaw
(Serves 4)


   • 1 flank, skirt, or flat iron steak, about 1/2 lb
   • crusty buns or rolls



For the Marinade:

   • 1 cup CherryLand's Best 100% Cherry Juice
   • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
   • 1 tbsp honey
   • 3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
   • 1 shallot, minced
   • 2 tbsp fresh oregano, minced
   • 1 tbsp freshly ground pepper



For the Kohl(rabi) Slaw

   • 1 cup julianned kohlrabi
   • 1 cup julianned carrots
   • 1/2 cup CherryLand's Best Dried Tart Cherries
   • 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
   • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
   • 2 tbsp mayonnaise (or more if you prefer a creamier kohl slaw)
   • 1 tbsp Cherry Land's Best 100% CherryJuice

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup cherry juice, red wine vinegar, and honey, and whisk until well combined. Add remaining ingredients, and continue to whisk.

Place the steak in a large zip-top bag, and pour the marinade over the top. Seal the back, pressing out any air (helpful hint! Use a straw to suck excess air out of the bag) and then mush the steak around gently to insure all sides of the meat are in contact with the marinade. Place the bag into a large bowl to catch any possible leaks, and refrigerate for up to 6 hours.

In a large bowl, combine kohlrabi, carrots, cherries, and onion. Season with salt and pepper, and mix to combine. Add mayonnaise and cherry juice, and stir gently until well incorporated. Taste, and adjust seasoning if necessary. Allow to sit, refrigerated, to allow flavors to combine.

Once you are ready to cook the meat, preheat a grill or broiler to high heat. Prepare a double thickness of aluminum foil, large enough to fully wrap the meat. Season the meat generously with salt on both sides immediately before cooking.  Cook at as high as heat possible (with the grill as close to the flames as possible, or with the broiler rack set as close to the broiler) for 1 to 2 minutes on each side. The goal is to brown the meat as quickly as possible, without cooking int all the way through. Then transfer to the foil, wrap tightly, and allow to sit for 15 minutes. The meat will continue to cook during this period.

Cherries Part 2 - Turkey Cherry Chili

I just noticed my last post didn't have a title. That sucks.  I could have come up with something catchy and alliteration-y like all my pumpkin posts.  Cheery Cherries?  Cherry Chow?  Cherries for Chomping.  That's the one.  Let's just pretend I called it that!

This recipe kind of started out as a joke.  Mondays tend to be "crock pot" day in the house, and I was looking at what I had on hand and what I could make with it, and with cherries, and this just sort of developed.  Even after I decided I was actually going through with it, I wasn't sure that it was going to work.  I called my husband on the way home from work (a bad day at work, on top of that) to ask him to open up the crock pot and make sure what was cooking was actually food.  There was, in my opinion, a good chance that I was stopping at Gold Rush Chicken on my way home.  (BTW, fellow Milwaukeeans, Gold Rush is the best chicken in the whole world.  Quite possibly the only restaurant I have endorsed so far on this website.  It is not good for you.  I'm sure they're not buying local chicken.  You will probably regret it the next day.  But SO good!!!  Make sure you put the bag the chicken comes in into a plastic bag before putting it in your car, or you will have a grease stain on your car seat!)

But it was food.  It was good food!  It was good, hearty, Wisconsin-y food.  I'm really pretty damn proud of how good it is.  A good entry for the contest... except that it didn't taste like cherries.  And, again, I feel like, as on Iron Chef, cherries need to be the star of the show.

So try this.  Don't be afraid of it.  I promise.  It's not as weird as dandelion soup.  None of the ingredients are weeds.  It's a good meal for a cold winter night.  Or, really, a not that cold winter night because it's been pretty warm this winter!

I used butternut squash in this because I don't like beans.  And as far as I'm aware there aren't any WI grown kidney beans.  But I'm sure you could use your favorite beans in place of (or in addition to) the squash.

In my mind, this needed more heat.  My friend Denise (who I do refer to as "Wimpy Spice" because she can't stand anything spicy) thought it was perfect.  I'm pretty sure I will make it again, and when I do I will probably chop up one of the Thai chilies to add some heat.

Turkey Cherry Chili 

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb ground turkey
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 lb butternut squash, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 cup Cherryland's Best Dried Cherries (you should hear how sarcastic that sounds in my head.)
• 1 pt homemade (or store bought) chunky spaghetti sauce
• 2 cups Cherryland's Best Tart Cherry Juice
• 2 Thai chilies, whole

In a large frying pan over high heat, or crock pot on "brown"setting,  heat up oil and brown onion for about 5 minutes.  Add turkey, season with salt and pepper, and brown for an additional 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add garlic, and continue to cook for 2-3 more minutes.  Transfer to the crock pot, if not already there.  Add squash, dried cherries, spaghetti sauce, and cherry juice, and stir to combine.  Cook on low for 6 hours.

Remove whole chilies before serving. 

I served this over elbow noodles.  I was pretty excited to find there's an organic pasta company in Chicago (less than 100 miles!) who make elbow noodles and tri-colored rotini.  This probably wasn't necessary, but I like pasta in my chili.

This was really thick. If you like a soupier chili, add two cups of turkey or chicken stock.

So Friday's post (especially the awesome on that no one got to read) was about learning about recipes, combining them, and making new recipes.   This is actually a new concept for me.  Sure, I can substitute as well as (and probably better than) the next girl, but it's not very common that I come up with my own recipes.  I tend to just Google until I find the recipe that matches the food I have in my head.  I figure, everything's probably been written anyway.  It's funny.  I probably own 50+ cookbooks, and I hardly ever look at any of them.  Some of them have legitimately never been opened, except at the store when I bought them after looking at all of the pretty pictures.  I like cookbooks for the same reason I keep wanting to go back to school.  I like the idea of knowledge.  It is important to continue to grow, to learn new things, to change your mind, and to move your way of thinking forward.  In theory.  In reality, it's important to get my job done, keep the house clean, do the laundry, and try to find time to work out.  So I buy the books, with the hope of learning in the future, but end up just storing them in my kitchen like a very expensive accent wall.  This is, in my mind, the next step in my culinary journey. 

I want to really learn what works together.  I want to have a meal in my head, and create the recipe without having to find it on the internet.  I can do this with pasta; is everything else really that different?  Or, am I just used to making pasta ala whatever the hell is in my fridge, and I've never given myself the opportunity to do the same with other meals?


Here's a reason to give it a try:

To celebrate the 280th birthday of George Washington, MKEfoodies and Cherryland's Best of Appleton are sponsoring a "Great Wisconsin Cherry Recipe Contest."  The prize: $100 and $100 in cherry products.  Fancy.  But, it says that recipes will be judged on "their use of Door County Cherries, taste, creativity, uniqueness, and their "Wisconsin Spirit" (meaning using local WI products), so I feel like this is just the contest for me.  Why the heck not, right?  I like cherries, and dried cherries in the middle of winter are a nice treat.  Plus, cherries are good for you, so it's a win-win-win!


And, the contest requires original recipes only.  Which makes sense.  It wouldn't be very nice for me to enter a recipe contest using someone else's recipe

I kind of thought my first try would be the winner, straight off the bat.  Mostly because it was lamb, and I love me some lamb.  Delicious.  But it wasn't the winner.  It was delicious, but it didn't really taste like cherries.  I'm taking this contest like an Iron Chef challenge: the cherries need to be the star. Lamb has too overpowering of a flavor (delicious as it is), and the cherries were just overpowered.

I served this with sauteed mushrooms and spinach, and garlic mashed potatoes.

Cherry Braised Lamb Shanks
(Makes enough for two with plenty of leftovers)

• 4 lamb shanks (about 3/4 lbs each)
• Kosher Salt
• 1 large onion, about two cups roughly chopped
• 3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 celery ribs, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup Cherryland's Best Dried Cherries (I'm such a sell out!)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice

-->1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeng

1/4 tsp white pepper

4 bay leaves

1 cup chopped tomatoes (fresh, frozen, canned.  Doesn't matter.  Just make sure they're peeled)

1 cup dark beer

1 cup Cherryland's Best Tart Cherry Juice

Coat a large Dutch oven generously with olive oil and bring to a high heat.

Season the shanks generously with salt and pepper, and brown well on all sides in the Dutch oven.  Work in batches if you feel they are crowding each other.  Once browned, transfer shanks to a plate or pan and set aside.

While the shanks are browning, puree the onions, carrots, celery, cherries, and garlic in a food processor until it becomes a course paste, about 1 minute total.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Discard any excess fat from the pan.  Add olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, then add the pureed cherry mixture and spices, including bay leaves.  Season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.  (At this point, I tasted, found it a little bitter, and added a handful more cherries.)  Sautee until the puree is very brown and aromatic, about 20 minutes.  They should form a crust on the bottom of the pan but SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BURN.  Stir constantly.

Add the tomatoes and cook an additional 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Taste again and adjust if needed.  Add beer and juice and cook, stirring frequently, until liquid has reduced in half.

Add the shanks back to the pot, along with enough water to make sure they are fully submersed.  Cover the Dutch oven, and place into the pre-heated oven.  Cook 2 ½ to 3 hours, checking every 45 minutes.  If the shanks are uncovered, add more water.  Skim any fat off the top each time you check.

Uncover the pot during the last 30 minutes of cooking.