Wisconsin State Dinner

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I have started a new blog at https://creativeinstinct.blog/ and moved my State Dinner and information there. Come visit my new site!



Bratwurst
Beer cheese soup topped with popcorn
Spinach salad with bacon dressing
Milk
Cream puffs


Wisconsin is known as "America's Dairyland." According to the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service, the total monthly milk production in Wisconsin is 2.2 billion pounds and in 2008 Wisconsin produced 2.5 billion pounds of cheese. The official state nickname is The Badger State, but it isn't what you think. The "badgers" were miners in the 1800s. They would tunnel into the ground looking for lead (galena) and many of them lived in the tunnels they dug. Thus the nickname "badger". Wisconsin has since adopted the badger as its official state animal.

Bratwurst is a German sausage and many Wisconsin residents have a German heritage. That might have something to do with why Wisconsin has so many breweries.

Pork is a popular product throughout the midwest region. My mom made this salad dressing that is especially good on a spinach salad:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
crumbled bacon
You can fry up some bacon slices and then crumble or use real bacon pieces found in the salad condiment aisle (not imitation bacon bits!).

Milk is the official state beverage, of course. Cream puffs are a good dairy dessert and another popular midwestern dish. My kids really liked these which surprised me as cream puffs aren't all that sweet.

Comments

mshel333 said…
Somehow I missed this post! Looks very good. I like the snippets of history that you post. I had never heard that about the miners.
May 15, 2011 at 8:41 AM
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