Winter Cooking Wonder

Mississippi River slough on Goose Island, La Crosse WI

As the snow falls and the temperature plummets, we both find great comfort in the foods we cook in winter.  Stews and soups, an occasional bold run out to the grill (a Big Green Egg - a gift from my brother and mother); citrus and salad greens as we can. We have a fridge and pantry full of root vegetables - beets, rutabagas, carrots, turnips, potatoes and some lovely fresh Beauty Heart and Black Spanish radishes that make our salads sing.

Our minds turn to meat quite often now - the lamb from our farmer Carol in Amherst; the pork roasts and tenderloins from an Argyle  farm family; tiny, tasty tenderloins from our farming friends in Ettrick and rural Clintonville; chickens from our CSA farm near Viroqua; the Mississippi flathead catfish from a local fishmonger - perhaps because the deep cold calls us to eat more protein to keep warm. It's all packed away in the freezer for us to make our way through during the long cold days.

There are long rituals of making these meals in the cold weather - not the fast stir fry or quick toss of vegetables of the spring and summer. This is the long simmering; the slow braising; the baking and the stewing to develop the deep complex flavors that pique our interest and palettes. We come back from a ski or a snowshoe or a shovel or a bracing, skating hike on the sidewalks and find the warmth of these slow meals cooked in the winter dark to be a wonder in themselves.