My Madison Bistro

One of my favorite things about the farmers’ market is the mini raspberry pound cake that is sold at an Amish stand. It’s dense and delicious, and no matter how hungry I am, I can never eat as much as I think I can.

Sadly, due to a foot injury (my first broken bone ever!), I haven’t made it to the market very often this summer. What is usually a weekly (sometimes more) venture has not been a part of my summer routine. So imagine my pleasure when a recipe for a blackberry swirl pound cake arrived in my mailbox early this summer! At the time, I had yet to injure my foot and had in fact just purchased raspberries from the market (as well as my small pound cake), so I made a pound cake with the raspberries I purchased. At the time, I decided to wrap it up and freeze it, and save it for the 4th of July holiday, so my whole family could enjoy it.

And enjoy it we did – it was even better than the pound cake I buy from the farmers’ market, but homemade is always better, isn’t it?

My local grocery store has had an amazing price for organic raspberries for awhile now, so I picked up a couple of packs this week. With such a bounty of raspberries, I couldn’t resist making this cake again, though I am hoping to finally make it over to the farmers’ market this weekend.

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Tags: cake, everyday food, raspberries

I was a strange little kid.

Some of the foods/meals that top the favorite’s list of many small children topped my “I hate” list, among them mac and cheese (also known as Kraft dinner), bologna sandwiches, pb&j, and Sloppy Joes. I didn’t even really like potato chips, and told my mom they sucked. And proceeded to get into a bit of trouble for my language, though at that age, I had no idea what the problem with that word was.

Anyway, I refused to eat Sloppy Joes, mostly because they just seemed kind of gross to me. Then in fourth grade, I went to a friend’s birthday party, a slumber party, no less. What was on the menu? Sloppy Joe’s and Dorito nachos. I’m sure there was more, like cake, but those were the two items I remembered, mostly because yikes! Sloppy Joe’s were the only main dish, and face it, nachos made with Doritos sounded both delicious and intriguing to a fourth grader.

I was hungry, so I had no choice but to try a Sloppy Joe. It wasn’t bad, and of course I came home the following day, announcing that I liked Julie’s mom’s Sloppy Joes. (Only little kids can word things like that, right?)

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Tags: beef, childhood

This is my go-to recipe for making potatoes in the summer – it’s easy, it doesn’t dirty many dishes, and I can use the same technique for sweet potatoes if I cut the pieces into the same sizes I would the baby reds. The best thing is that the cooked potatoes can sit in the foil (and stay warm) while you finish up other dishes, making it easy for the meal to come together.

To change things up, you can substitute extra virgin olive oil for the butter, and add some chopped rosemary to the potatoes while they cook.

Continue reading “Grilled Potatoes:

Tags: everyday food, potatoes

I go through phases when it comes to grilling in the summer; I’m either grilling just about every meal, or I slip into sandwich/smoothie mode to escape the heat. I’m not sure if I’m heading back into full-blown grilling mode, but today I did have the urge to make a quick meal on the grill: Tuscan chicken and baby red potatoes.

For quick meals, I am a big fan of grilling chicken cutlets – if you can’t find chicken cutlets, you can cut boneless skinless chicken breasts in half horizontally, or pound them out between sheets of waxed paper to about ¼ inch thickness.

I always use a basic recipe for my marinade, tweaking the ingredients depending on my mood. I often don’t add lemon zest, sometimes I add extra garlic, and sometimes I will blend all of the marinade ingredients in the blender – it’s really easy to play around with the basic recipe to get different (and delicious) results.

Continue reading “Tuscan Chicken”

Tags: chicken, lemon, rosemary, thyme