Wisconsin and Iowa

Apparently people in Wisconsin really like beer.  The favorite dish seems to be bratwurst cooked in beer, and their favorite soup is beer-cheese soup.   We wanted to make pork for an entree for Iowa since it is the number one producer of pork in the U.S.   So we skipped the brats and made the beer-cheese soup.    I'm sorry to say that it was not a hit.  It wasn't terrible, but we didn't particularly like it either.   We did think that it was fun that it is eaten topped with popcorn.

Wisconsin is the number one producer of cranberries in the U.S., so we made a cranberry-apple chutney (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/cranberry-apple-and-ginger-chutney-recipe/index.html) to go with our pork tenderloin.  We liked the chutney :-).

To find out what to make for Iowa, I emailed a friend who's family is from there.   She sent me her grandmother's recipe for Norwegian Kringla.   I remember her grandmother fondly, so I am happy to have the recipe!   Kringla are a pretzel shaped biscuit/butter cookie.  My friend reports that they are so popular in Iowa that they are sold on the counters in gas stations.   We liked them too!  After the first batch was in the oven, my daughter decided they looked too plain and started putting colored sugar on them.  The recipe is below.

Grandma Hill's Kringla recipe

1/2 cup butter

1 C sugar

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 C buttermilk

3 C flour

 

Mix all together.  Refrigerate for awhile.  Roll out (teaspoonful at a time) to make a pencil-thick rope.  Dough is a bit sticky...use flour!  Roll into approx 8" lengths and shape into pretzel shapes.  Bake at 450 degrees until just a tiny bit light brown.  About 7 or 8 minutes.  They do rise a bit so they end up being sort of filled in...not the big holes like the mall pretzels have - and are great with a little butter...they also keep well.