food | Minnesota Prairie Roots

The unavoidable numbers games February 17, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:22 PM
Tags: board games, entertainment, Family Game Night, food

A variety of games are available to play during the monthly Family Game Night at Trinity Lutheran Church, Faribault. On this Saturday in February, three separate tables of gamers play Sequence, Buzz Word and Settlers of Catan.

I SPOT THE PLAYING cards and poker chips and instantly veer from the table. They laugh, knowing anything involving numbers drives me away.

“It’s not math,” they try to explain. “It’s like Connect Four.” I will hear none of it. I threaten to overturn their table because this looks like gambling to me and we are in church.

But they are playing Sequence, nothing like the money mongering in the temple.

This is Family Game Night, a monthly gathering in the Trinity Lutheran Church fellowship hall of friends who play board games and talk and laugh and eat.

Those who attend game night bring snacks to share.

This February night, just days before Valentine’s Day, we are treated to heart-shaped sugar cookies Tammy and her daughter Hannah baked, frosted and sprinkled with sugar. I tell them how I, too, once made cut-out heart cookies every Valentine’s Day. But now my girls are all grown up and gone and I don’t’ bake much any more because the guys in the house don’t crave sweets and I do and I don’t need them, the sweets that is.

Billie Jo's decadent brownies.

Tonight, though, I indulge in the sugary treats—the heart-shaped raspberry cake and the brownies with the decadent caramel, M & M and marshmallow toppings. And then, to balance the unhealthy overload, I sample Mandy’s “healthy brownies,” if brownies can be healthy, and grab a baby carrot.

Between bites, I play Buzz Word, shouting out words in response to a clue along with my two senior team members, senior meaning those over age 50. The juniors—41 and under—although numbering only two, beat us each round.

My favorite games involve words, not numbers. No surprise there.

Winning matters not as much as the company of friends, in the savoring of moments like Billie Jo’s 4-year-old swooping into the room with a valentine he’s made for her. Later his sister arrives with a second delivery. I wonder out loud to my friend if the kids, tucked into the nursery with a babysitter, are making valentines for all of us. They aren’t.

I remember, earlier in the day, going through drawers in a desk at home and finding red valentine hearts colored by my own daughters at the same age.

Still later, when we sing happy birthday to Jesse, I remember what it was like to turn 40 and wonder why turning that age bothered me so much now that I am creeping toward 60.

On this Saturday Family Game Night, even though I’ve tried as I always do, I can’t avoid numbers.

The group of regulars who prefer strategy games played Settlers of Catan on Saturday night. I avoid strategy games, that also require a great deal of thinking and concentration, just like I avoid number/mathematical games.

DO YOU PLAY board games? What are your favorites (or not so favorites) and why?

(P.S. Dear readers, please pretend this post was published before Valentine’s Day.)

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46 years of serving pancakes for a cause on Super Bowl Sunday February 2, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:10 AM
Tags: charity, Faribault Lions Club, food, health, hearing, Minnesota, pancake breakfast, sports, Super Bowl, vision

THEY’RE SYNONYMOUS in Faribault—the Super Bowl and pancakes.

For 46 years, the Faribault Lions Club has sponsored a pancake and sausage breakfast on Super Bowl Sunday, raising funds to support projects that adhere to the club motto: “We serve.”

Let me repeat that. Forty-six years. Wow. You have to admire an organization so committed to helping others. The Faribault Lions expect to feed 1,200 – 1,500 and raise $5,000 at their Super Bowl Pancake Breakfast.

Now I’m no fan of pancakes (ranking them right alongside liver) or of football, but I may have to eat pancakes this Sunday simply to support a worthy cause. I’ll skip the football except for the commercials.

The Faribault Lions provide funding for college scholarships, dictionaries for third graders, food for children in need, and assistance for the visual and hearing impaired, among other projects.

While all are worthy causes, the club’s effort on Sunday to collect used prescription eyeglasses and hearing aids and to raise dollars to assist those with visual and hearing impairments resonates with me.

I’ve worn glasses since age four, after undergoing surgery to correct crossed eyes. Without that surgery, I would have gone blind in my “lazy eye.” I value my vision and know that without corrective lenses, I would struggle to see.

Lions Club International’s commitment to helping those with vision issues stretches back to 1925 when Helen Keller presented this challenge during a speech to the Lions:

Will you not help me hasten the day when there shall be no preventable blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided? I appeal to you Lions, you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness?

And so with that challenge, the Lions became “Knights of the Blind,” collecting and distributing prescription eyeglasses through clinics world-wide. Can you imagine the joy of giving someone the gift of sight?

I just rummaged through a dresser drawer and found four eyeglasses that I can donate to the Faribault Lions Club on Sunday.

The prescription eyeglasses I'm donating.

Faribault Lions have also connected with the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind in Faribault, supporting numerous projects there, including an apartment to teach independent living skills.

My community is home to the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, perhaps another reason local Lions take such a strong interest in helping those who are hearing impaired.

I am among those with a hearing impairment having lost 70 percent of the hearing in my right ear last March in an episode defined as “sudden sensory hearing loss.” (Click here to read about that.) Unfortunately, a hearing aid will not help with this type of near-deafness.

But for most who suffer from a hearing impairment, a hearing aid will help. The Lions are committed to collecting used hearing aids for distribution to those in need. Can you imagine the joy of giving the gift of hearing?

It’s impressive, isn’t it, how so many worthy causes have evolved from two powerful words: “We serve.”

FYI: The Faribault Lions Club Super Bowl Pancake Breakfast will be held from 7:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. on Sunday, February 5, at the Eagles Club, 2027 Grant Street Northwest. Cost is $6 for adults and $4 for those 12 and under.

The Lions are also selling Super Bowl snacks—8-ounce packages of nuts for $5 – $6—to raise monies for their Backpack Blessings Program which provides local children in need with food for the weekends.

It should not go without stating here that many local businesses and volunteers (within and outside of the Faribault Lions Club) contribute to the annual Super Bowl breakfast.

Bring your used prescription eyeglasses and hearing aids, your money and your appetite on Sunday to participate in the “We serve” endeavor.

Click here to learn more about the Faribault Lions Club.

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The generous gift of a St. Paul woman to a rural Minnesota food shelf January 6, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 1:38 PM
Tags: charity, donations, Elizabeth Reishus, food, food shelf, giving, news, news story, rural Minnesota food shelf, Second Harvest, Sibley County Food Share, southern Minnesota, St. Paul, The Gaylord Hub, thoughts

TODAY I’M TREATING YOU to a gem of a story published yesterday in a weekly community newspaper, The Gaylord Hub.

It’s an inspiring and uplifting story of a St. Paul woman who purposely sought out a rural food shelf as the recipient of a Christmas gift. And a mighty generous one from someone with apparently no connection to Gaylord, a southern Minnesota Sibley County seat town of around 2,300.

Hub officer manager and bookkeeper Elizabeth Reishus shares the tale of generosity in her January 5 “The Word From High Avenue” column as shared with her by Yvonne O’Brien of Sibley County Food Share, Inc.

Writes Reishus:

A woman from St. Paul had called Second Harvest food bank to ask for a list of rural food shelves. Second Harvest was not able to give her that information, but did give her O’Brien’s phone number.

The woman then called O’Brien and asked questions about the food shelf. What percent of families served were minorities? Is the need higher in the summer? What kinds of resources does your food shelf have to rely on for donations?

O’Brien explained that about 40 percent of clients at the food shelf are people of a minority. The need for help increases in the summer when seasonal workers arrive to work at area farms and other agriculture-related jobs. She also explained that unlike bigger towns and cities, we do not have the big chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Cub or Cash Wise that donate food. The Sibley County Food Shelf is maintained through the generosity of area people and some grant money, O’Brien explained.

The St. Paul woman said she would like to send a donation to the food shelf. O’Brien gave the woman the mailing address for donations and expected to receive a check for about $50. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the donation check was for 10 times that amount. The generous mystery woman gave $500 to the Sibley County Food Shelf.

How’s that for Minnesota Nice and for thinking beyond the metro?

Consider the effort this mystery woman took to find just the right place for her $500 donation. What motivated her to seek out a rural food shelf, to ask those specific questions about minorities, to give that much money to a single food shelf?

I’d never really thought, prior to reading Reishus’ column, how small-town food banks typically don’t receive food donations from chain stores, relying instead primarily on the generosity of locals.

So thank you to that woman from St. Paul for thinking beyond the metro area of the need in rural Minnesota and for blessing Sibley County Food Share with $500.

She offers us much food for thought.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Sibley County Food Share, click here.

Grilling on a balmy, brown Christmas in Minnesota December 27, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:17 AM
Tags: Christmas Day, Christmas dinner, food, grilling, record temperature, southern Minnesota, weather

FOR CHRISTMAS DAY dinner, I planned to prepare homemade lasagna complemented by salad and garlic bread.

But at the last minute, due to weather conditions, I changed my mind. The lack of snow and predicted 40-degree temperatures here in southern Minnesota called for firing up the Weber on Christmas Day. My husband enjoys grilling no matter the temperature or ground cover, and he’s darn good at it. (Click here to see images of him grilling atop a snowbank.)

My husband grilling in our snowless and warm backyard on Christmas Day in Faribault, MN.

On Sunday he grilled pork chops, seasoned potatoes and carrot slices, a simple and savory meal.

I proposed setting up a card table on our south-facing, sun-drenched patio, just to say we’d dined outdoors on Christmas Day. But even I found the low 40s still too nippy for comfortable and leisurely noon-time dining.

Instead, I settled for photographing the holiday grilling in shirt-sleeve warm weather without a trace of snow lingering in the backyard.

Weather-wise this marked a mighty fine Christmas weekend here in southern Minnesota with a high of 42 degrees in Minneapolis/St. Paul, the fifth warmest Christmas Day on record since 1905.

On Monday, the temp soared to 52 degrees in the metro, shattering the previous December 26 record high of 51 degrees set in 1936.

I don’t know if Santa appreciated the warmth and absence of snow. But I sure did.

Juicy pork chops on the grill.

Christmas Day dinner ready for dishing up. If you look in the upper left corner through the window, you'll see a smidgen of snow outside on the north side of our house.

Christmas dinner plated on my garage sale china.

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In the kitchen preparing for a German dinner November 15, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:31 AM
Tags: Cannon Valley Lutheran High School, ethnic food, Faribault, food, fundraiser, German dinner, German fest, kitchen, Minnesota, Morristown

Barb Young preps food in the Trinity Lutheran Church/Faribault Lutheran School kitchen for Cannon Valley Lutheran High School's German dinner.

THESE DINNERS DON’T happen without lots of willing hands and hours and hours and hours of volunteers working together.

We’re talking church, school and community dinners here, and specifically Cannon Valley Lutheran High School’s second annual German Fest of Thanks and Praise.

This past weekend I got a behind-the-scenes, before-dinner peek at the effort that went into preparing a German meal for more than 200 diners. Cooking isn’t my forte, meaning I admire folks like Arlen and Suzanne Krause who always seem to be in the kitchen whenever CVLHS, based in Morristown, hosts a fundraising dinner. The Krauses love to cook and they know how to cook. I’ve suggested more than once that they open a catering business or restaurant.

Arlen Krause prepares ethnic food for the German Fest dinner.

Saturday evening, while assisting my friend Mike Young, the CVLHS volunteer development director, and my husband Randy with setting up tables and chairs for the German dinner, I occasionally popped into the kitchen to photograph progress there. The Krauses and Barb Young, who’s married to Mike, were busy mixing and stirring and slicing in the two hours I was there; they’d started around noon and labored until 9 p.m. and were back again the next morning. And I know they’d also been prepping food earlier in the week.

Beef awaited slicing and complete transformation into tender and savory sauerbraten.

The feeding-multitudes recipe for delectable bread pudding.

Bread cubes, mounded high in bowls, were baked into bread pudding.

Pans of raisin-topped bread pudding cooled on the kitchen counter Saturday evening.

Fortunately, the kitchen crew trio didn’t mind my scooting around the counters, camera in tow. I tried to stay out of their way and not ask too many questions or overstay my welcome.

But staying out of the kitchen proved challenging given the tantalizing scent of gravy bubbling in roasters, the sweet Grandma’s kitchen aroma of bread pudding baking in the oven and the pungent, nose-stinging scent of vinegar poured onto cabbage.

By the magic addition of vinegar, the cabbage color changed from blue gray to purple in the foreground. I was witness to a science experiment and cooking class rolled into one.

I am 100 percent German, after all, and perhaps my German genes were naturally drawn to these food smells of the Motherland. Either that or I was awfully hungry given the supper hour. Probably both. Homemade caramel corn, strategically placed on the serving counter, cut the hunger edge.

Vinegar, sugar and butter—lots and lots and lots of butter—were key ingredients in the ethnic foods I saw prepared. I could hardly wait to taste the complete meal Sunday evening following the German worship service.

Let me tell you, the German dinner rated as absolutely fabulous. Tender sauerbraten (savory beef and gravy) atop spaetzle (like mini dumplings); dense bratwurst mixed with sauerkraut; tangy, bacon-laced German potato salad as good as I’ve ever eaten; the perfect blend of sweet and sour in the jolt-of-color red cabbage; a nip of pepper in the tiny rounds of pfefferneusse (cookies); and to-die-for, heavenly bread pudding smothered in a buttery, sugary sauce.

The German meal: sauerbraten and spaetzle on the left, German potato salad, sweet and sour red cabbage, dinner roll and sauerkraut and brats.

CVLHS volunteer cooks and bakers—and I know more were involved than Arlen, Suzanne and Barb—thanks for one outstanding ethnic meal.

As long as I’m extending appreciation, I’d like to express a broader thanks to all those folks out there who labor behind the scenes at church, school and community dinners. I’ve been to a handful or more of these dinners this year and I have, every time, been beyond impressed with the quality of the food and the hard work that clearly is invested in such events. Well done.

CVLHS students served the German meal to attendees.

Diners enjoy the ethnic meal at the second annual CVLHS German Fest.

Kristin Sellentine, a Trinity Lutheran Church member and active in community theater, greeted guests as Katie Luther, wife of Reformist Martin Luther. Her costume hearkens from her days of acting at the Renaissance Festival.

CVLHS Development Director Mike Young, a designer at Erickson Furniture in Faribault and a floral designer, transformed the Trinity gym into a beautiful dining experience with his creative talents.

Prior to the dinner, German Fest attendees gathered in the Trinity sanctuary for a service of thanks and praise, including a performance by the CVLHS Tone Chime Choir. Hymns and prayers spoken and sung in German and English, and other musical selections, were also part of the 45-minute service.

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One final visit to Stockholm. Wisconsin. Not Sweden. November 8, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:18 AM
Tags: art, food, Lake Pepin, pie, shopping, Stockholm, Stockholm Pie Company, Sweden, tourism, travel, Wisconsin

Shops, eateries and more line the streets of Stockholm, a quaint village along Lake Pepin. This photo was taken in early October. To the left you'll see blue bikes, available for visitors to use at no cost.

TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN in Stockholm (Wisconsin. Not Sweden):

If only I had known about the bribe.

I would have accepted your offer, the one I found listed under “Stockholm News & Media” on your website:

Are you a writer, blogger, reviewer, photographer with a web site? Let us bribe you (how about a fresh cup of expresso from Stockholm General, a piece of pie from the Stockholm Pie Company, lunch at Bogus Creek Café, a beer at Gelly’s, a ticket to an event at the Widespot?) in exchange for your coverage!

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And, yes.

While I’ve never drank an expresso, I’m certainly open to trying one. I like pie. A lot. I do lunch. Yes, I’ll toast your town with an icy mug of beer. And, yes, I always enjoy being entertained.

I was too full from lunch across the river in Wabasha to try the Stockholm Pie Company's pie, made completely from scratch. Not that I wasn't tempted to try a slice of caramel apple crunch or key lime or peanut butter fudge. I even stepped inside this tiny shop to smell the baking pies. Next time I'll save room for dessert.

However, dear people of Stockholm (Wisconsin. Not Sweden.) and dear readers of Minnesota Prairie Roots, my writing has not been influenced, not one teeny bit, by offers of free anything. My three previous, glowing posts from Stockholm were written from the heart. Simply put, I fell head-over-heels for this quaint Lake Pepin-side village of 89 without any undue influence.

Today I’ll take you on one last visit to this destination town just across the Mississippi River from Minnesota. Enjoy. And if you’ve been to Stockholm, Wisconsin, not Sweden, I’d like to hear what you most appreciate/relish/savor about this riverside get-away.

And if you own a business or live in Stockholm, submit a comment and tell readers why you love your village and why they should visit.

P.S. I’ll be back for the pie and the lunch and the…

One of the many shops lining the streets of Stockholm.

One of my favorite finds, a lizzard crafted from old silverware and more and lounging outside a shop. No, I didn't purchase this critter, but I certainly admired the creativity.

I notice details, especially signs, windows and doors, including this door on the Stockholm Museum.

The Stockholm Museum, home to the Stockholm Institute which preserves and celebrates the history of the Stockholm area, is housed in a former post office.

On the museum exterior, I discovered this handcrafted tribute to WW II vets.

The lovely Abode gallery, where my artist friend Arlene Rolf of Faribault has artwork displayed.

Another business door and signage that caught my eye. It's all about the details, my friends, all about the details.

A residence, I assume, since the steps were marked with a "private" sign. So inviting and lovely, just like all of Stockholm.

To read my previous posts from Stockholm, click on each story link below:

Russell, the Bookseller of Stockholm

A bit of Sweden in Wisconsin

A garage sale in Stockholm, Wisconsin

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In praise of German food and missions November 6, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 2:30 PM
Tags: Camp Omega, Cannon Valley Lutheran High School, food, Gary Thies, German meal, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Minnesota, missions, religion, Thanksgiving, Trinity Lutheran Church Faribault, turkey dinner, worship

A 2009 Thanksgiving display at Trinity Lutheran Church, Faribault.

WITH THANKSGIVING only weeks away, it behooves us to begin expanding our stomachs in preparation for the big meal.

It also behooves us to focus our thoughts on thanksgiving and praise.

If you live anywhere near Faribault, you can accomplish both by attending two upcoming events at my church, Trinity Lutheran, at 530 Fourth Street Northwest, across from McDonalds. Trinity isn’t sponsoring the events, lest you think I’m specifically promoting my congregation here.

Rather Morristown-based Cannon Valley Lutheran High School and rural Waterville-based Camp Omega are coordinating these separate Sunday worship services followed by meals.

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY, on Sunday, November 13, CVLHS is offering a German Fest of Thanks and Praise at 4 p.m. followed by a supper of traditional German foods at 4:30 p.m. Attend one or both, and I’d highly recommend both, especially if you appreciate the Mother Tongue and ~~good~~ great German food.

The plated portion of the authentic German meal served last year by CVLHS.

I attended this Lutheran high school’s first-ever German worship service and dinner last year and enthusiastically endorse it, otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it to you here. (Click here to read a blog post from the 2010 German celebration.)

After you’ve thanked and praise, you can indulge in that ethnic meal of sauerbraten with spaetzle, sweet and sour red cabbage, bratwurst and sauerkraut, pfeffernusse and bread pudding (to die for).

And let me tell you, these Cannon Valley volunteers know how to cook.

If you want to partake in the German meal, you need to act soon. Tomorrow, Monday, November 7, is the deadline to purchase tickets, which are $13 for adults, $7 for ages 5 – 10 and free for preschoolers. Call CVLHS at (507) 685-2636.

A portion of Jesus face, photographed from a stained glass window at Trinity Lutheran Church, Faribault.

THE FOLLOWING SUNDAY, November 20, I’d suggest you return to Trinity at 2 p.m. for a two-hour “Let the People Praise!” service followed by a Camp Omega-sponsored free turkey supper. Yes, you read that right—free worship service, free food.

First the worship service, which truly is two hours long and which evolves around missions: Think of it as Mission Sunday or a mission rally or something along those lines. Missionaries involved in Hispanic, Sudanese, Hmong, Liberian, Anglo and campus ministries will participate.

There’ll be singing by a Hmong choir and Liberians and, yes, even drumming and dancing. In a Lutheran church. Would you want to miss that? I didn’t think so.

I can almost guarantee that you’ll be emotionally and spiritually moved based on the music alone. I anticipate many pastors attending this service and, boy, can they sing.

After the service, Camp Omega is sponsoring that free turkey supper several blocks away at the Faribault American Legion with Gary Thies, mission development counselor for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, as the presenter. He’s traveled to 76 countries and spoken at more than 1,250 churches throughout the U.S. I’ve heard this man speak. He’s fired up for missions. He’ll address “Missionary Ministry in our Daily Lives.”

Thies will also give messages at the 5:30 p.m. Saturday, November 19, and 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sunday, November 20, Trinity worship services.

Anyway, organizers are hoping to fill the Trinity sanctuary and the Legion. If you want to attend the free 4:30 p.m. turkey supper on November 20 at the Legion, you must RSVP to Curt at Camp Omega, (507) 685-4266. He needs a head count soon. You can’t just walk in the door on the day of the dinner and expect to get seated. It won’t happen.

So, there you go—two wonderful opportunities to prepare for Thanksgiving.

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In the middle November 5, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 2:50 PM
Tags: art, blog, Faribault Farmers' Market, Farm Rescue, food, horseradish, humor, Minnesota Prairie Roots, photos

TODAY I HAVE SEVERAL STORIES to share with you, all with a single common denominator: the middle.

Let’s start with the most recent. I made myself a sandwich for lunch—a little mayo, turkey deli meat and ham deli meat with a slice of pepperjack cheese layered in the middle. Nothing unusual about that.

The second half of my sandwich, minus the...

Until I bit into the sandwich and hit something that didn’t seem quite right. But I kept biting and chewing, thinking it was just the rough grains in the multi-grained bread or an edge on the meat.

But after several bites, I paused to investigate and discovered a piece of paper. Yes, people, I was eating the paper that separates cheese slices. I had removed one piece of paper while making the sandwich. Clearly I had not checked the flip side of the cheese slice.

WARNING: Always remove the paper from BOTH sides of the cheese slice before eating.

In relaying this story to my husband, he could only shake his head, laugh and repeat several times, “That’s my Audrey.”

Now onto those other “middle” stories, which have cast me in the role of a “middlewoman.”

Earlier this week I received a request from a retired Air Force chaplain for commissioned artwork. Not my art; I don’t paint or draw or sculpt or anything artsy like that. Rather, the retired military man was looking to contact Richard Vilendrer, a 72-year-old Faribault artist whom I met at the Faribault Farmers’ Market and featured in a September blog post. I spoke with Richard’s wife Carol several days ago and now I’m waiting to hear if Richard is being commissioned.

An example of Richard's nature and faith-inspired pen-and-ink and colored pencil artwork.

Another inquiry this week came from a videographer for Farm Rescue, an organization that helps farmers in need. The North Dakota man was requesting permission to use images from a July 1 storm (in southwestern Minnesota) which I published on my blog. Because I hadn’t taken the two photos he wanted, I had to contact my brother and my uncle. Done. I’ll tell you more about this organization next week.

Then, the same day, an inquiry came via a blog comment from a South Dakota writer. She wanted to know if I knew of a Minnesota organization that works to preserve prairie churches. I don’t. Do you?

On Friday I learned that I made my first art sale. Again, not my art. Not my money. But a reader saw my photo of a hideous “turkey choir” print in a blog post about a Stockholm, Wisconsin, antique shop and promptly put the print on hold to purchase. Do I get a commission on this sale?

The "singing turkeys" print I helped to sell.

Finally, today, a metro woman asked, via a blog comment, if I could find the man at the Faribault Farmers’ Market who sold fresh horseradish. I knew exactly who she needed to contact. So I dialed Dennis Gare’s number, spoke to his wife and hopefully fresh horseradish will soon be on its way to this reader’s house.

You might rightly conclude from the above stories, with the exception of that paper eating incident, that I am truly a “middlewoman.” And all because of the power of this blog.

Thank you, readers, for reading Minnesota Prairie Roots. Happy to help you if you’re in the market for art, photos, information or horseradish.

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Bottled apple pie and Amish butter in Tomah November 2, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 4:24 PM
Tags: Amish, Amish butter, cranberry wine, dining, family, food, Interstate 90, Interstate 94, pie, restaurant, shopping, Tomah, tourism, travel, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Highway 21, Wisconsin wine

UP UNTIL SUNDAY, Tomah, Wisconsin, meant little to me except as the half-way point between my home 2 ½ hours away in southeastern Minnesota and my daughter Miranda’s home 2 ½ hours away in eastern Wisconsin.

Located near the intersection of Interstates 90 and 94, this town of around 10,000 has been the ideal place to stop and stretch before jumping onto two-lane, wood-edged Wisconsin State Highway 21 which runs through umpteen mostly tiny towns all the way to Oshkosh. Not that I have an issue with small towns and woods and such. But if you want to make time and avoid deer, this highway is not the one to take.

Sorry, I got sidetracked there for a minute thinking of the long stretches of woods without a home in sight, miles and miles without cell phone service, cranberry bogs hugging the roadway, dead muskrats and dead deer.

Oh, and one other tidbit you should know about Highway 21. Amish travel this narrow and busy state highway. In their buggies. Day or night. And especially on Sundays.

But back to Tomah, which, by the way, also happens to have a fabulous cheese shop, Humbird Cheese, conveniently positioned right off I-94 at its intersection with Highway 21.

Humbird Cheese, a popular tourist stop at Tomah, Wisconsin.

On Sunday, I wasn’t looking for a cheese shop, but rather a place where my husband and I could meet our daughter and her friend Gerardo for lunch and a car swap. That’s how we ended up at Burnstad’s European Restaurant, Village and Pub. I found information about this shopping and eating complex online and determined it would be the ideal place to connect. If one or the other of us had to wait, we’d have something to do.

Burnstad’s, as it turns out, offers plenty of time-killing shopping options. I was most happy to see Amish products sold here as I am fascinated by the Amish. Not that I bought anything Amish, like a log of Amish butter or cheese or chocolate candy or egg noodles or preserves.

Amish Country Roll Butter from ALCAM Creamery Co. and sold at Burnstad's.

But…I could have…if my husband hadn’t dropped money on a bottle of semi-sweet cranberry wine from Three Lakes Winery; Travis Hasse’s Original Apple Pie Liqueur produced by Drink Pie Company in Temperance, Michigan, but originating from the Missouri Tavern near Madison (and which we may serve to our Thanksgiving dinner guests if there’s any left by then); and blueberry craisins, which I thought were dried blueberries (they’re not; they’re dried cranberries with grape and blueberry juice concentrate). Lesson learned here—read ingredient lists and know the definition of “craisin.”

Wisconsin cranberry wine displayed in, of all things, a high-heeled shoe. Huh?

"People are looking at you," my husband said when I asked him to hold this bottle of Apple Pie Liqueur so I could photograph it. I replied: "I don't care. I'll never see them again."

All that aside, Burnstad’s rates as one impressive place. Impresssive to me primarily because of the atmosphere—including a cobblestone pathway meandering past the restaurant and pub and gift shops—and cleanliness. Honestly, in the European market/grocery store, the spotless, shiny floor reflected like a lake surface on a calm and sunny summer afternoon. I’ve never seen such a clean floor in a grocery store, or maybe anywhere.

I didn't photograph the floor of the grocery store, because shoppers really would have stared at me. But I did photograph this sign, which so impressed me with its support of Wisconsin farmers.

Then there’s the pie. Oh, the pie. Typically my family doesn’t order dessert in a restaurant. But the pie in the rotating display case proved too tempting, especially when I inquired and learned that the pies are made fresh daily. So Miranda and Gerardo each selected a piece—Door County cherry and rhubarb/raspberry—which the four of us promptly devoured. We were celebrating Gerardo’s October 29 birthday and Miranda’s soon-to-be birthday. If you like pie, Burnstad’s pie is the pie to try. I wonder if it’s made by the Amish?

Speaking of which, right outside the gift shop entrance you’ll see an Amish buggy. I wanted Miranda and Gerardo to pose for a photo. My daughter was having none of that. Since I’m the one semi-possessed by all things Amish, she insisted I climb into the buggy for a photo op. I refused to wedge myself inside the close confines of that buggy. So instead, I stood next to it and smiled a tourist smile like any good Minnesotan would.

I put on my tourist face for this Amish buggy photo. Just down Highway 21 you'll see authentic Amish buggies.

Packers fans will find Packers fans for sale in Burnstad's gift shop, in the Packers section.

A particularly amusing sign I spotted in the gift shop and suitable for either a Minnesotan or a Wisconsinite.

SORRY FOR FAILING to photograph exterior and interior shots of Burnstad’s. I was just too excited about seeing my daughter for the first time in three months that I didn’t get carried away with photo-taking like I typically do.

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