My Madison Bistro

Watching football is stressful if you’re invested in one of the teams.

I was laughed at as I repeated, “Oh, my God!” over and over when I thought something bad might happen. In other words, constantly. And that was just during the first drive.

Not wanting to be laughed at further, I spent a good portion of yesterday’s game between the Packers and the Bears with my head hidden under a quilt, peeking out here and there when I thought it was safe. If my head was under a quilt, I reasoned, I wouldn’t panic so much during every. single. play.

Continue reading “Nachos”

Tags: beef, Cheese, chips, Mexican Food, Onions, peppers

Have you ever had an MRI? If not, I recommend avoiding it, if possible. I’ve had my head scanned, my foot scanned…doesn’t matter which end of me they look at, frankly, it sucks.

Let’s talk about the foot MRI, first. I had that done a few months ago, when my foot hurt so much I wasn’t able to sleep more than an hour or two each night.

I tried ibuprofen. Didn’t work. I tried gelatin. May have helped *a little,* but not enough to make much of a difference. Finally, one weekend at my parents’, I tried some of my dad’s acetaminophen for arthritis. That allowed me to almost sleep through the night.

But overall, the problem persisted. It was nearly half a year after I rolled my ankle, and now, my foot hurt so much that sleep eluded me most nights. It was time to go back to the doctor.

Continue reading “Lasagna”

Tags: beef, Cheese, comfort food, mushrooms, pasta, ricotta, spinach, tomatoes

Sometimes I conduct food experiments.

I’m not referring to cooking or baking, but more of what I eat. Yesterday was going to be such an experiment, but halfway through the day, I changed my mind.

Now and again, I dial back my carb intake for a few days, as my own little detox. It’s very easy for me to get pretty intense cravings for sugar or starch, and when they seem to overpower my desire for more nutritious food, I take a few days to get back on track.

So yesterday, I had a plan to avoid sugar and starch. I thawed some chicken soup from the freezer – it’s heavy on the chicken but has enough carrots and celery to provide some veggies, and planned on a few nachos for dinner (sounds funny, I know, but a serving of tortilla chips smothered with taco meat and cheese is surprisingly low in carbs). Breakfast was rough, as it always is when I try to avoid starch; pretty much the only thing I can tolerate in the morning is something with grains, especially this time of year. I nearly overdose on yogurt with fruit each summer, so that’s often out of the question come January. Instead, I had a piece of swiss cheese and a handful of mixed nuts.

It made me sad.

Continue reading “Orange Cranberry Pound Cake”

Tags: comfort food, cranberries, everyday food, orange, sour cream

We all have our go-to dishes, those that just sort of developed as we started cooking our own meals.

Over time, they evolve. The meat sauce I make now doesn’t come close to resembling my initial efforts more than a decade ago. Then, I was terrified of developing a brown film on the bottom of my frying pan when I cooked anything. To me, that brown stuff just meant I would have to scrub harder when doing dishes that night.

Oh, if only I knew then what I know now.

Continue reading “Meat Sauce for Pasta”

Tags: beef, Carrots, celery, mushrooms, Onions, tomatoes, Vegetables