❤️ Sundays with Stephanie❤️🧀 🥣
🙏🏻 for California, 14 bars for dining more Mocktail recipes, an Embroidery Workshop, A parmesan kale salad, a Beer Cheese Wild Rice Soup, and a Cheesy Chicken Chili exclusive Subscriber recipe
Happy New Year. This post is free for all Subscribers this week - if you like what you see - spend the year with me (for the cost of a cookbook - $60 a year) by upgrading your subscription to the Sunday paid version to get all the recipes, podcasts, and exclusive invitations to events.
It’s been a crazy week for sure with the fires in California. We watched from Beaver Creek, Colorado, as over 150,000 people became displaced, and some of our favorite parts of California that we have traveled in our vans burned.
If you have followed me for a while, you probably know I have a 1970s cabin in Ely, Minnesota, on an island on Burntside Lake. I can tell you that a fire from a lightning strike is our biggest fear each summer, along with the dry seasons we have been having lately due to climate change; the storms and straight-line winds can be wicked and dangerous.
I feel for our California friends, actors, artists, musicians, hospitalitarians, small business owners, kids, and families. Kurt’s niece’s husband is a firefighter with the LACFD and just got promoted to driving the truck. They live in a community surrounded by other firefighting families, and I am sending them all love and light as they battle these fires. Once the fires are out - these communities will be changed forever.
As usual… Chef Jose Anders and his World Central Kitchen are on the front lines feeding people (can we give this guy a Nobel prize already?), but so are local food trucks and Wolfgang Puck. Here are a few places to make donations if you are so inclined.
American Red Cross provides shelter for families, serves meals, supports emergency responders, provides medical care, and delivers emergency relief supplies.
World Central Kitchen provides food to evacuated families and first responders.
Los Angeles Noah’s Legacy Fund provides care for animals affected by the wildfires.
Baby2Baby provides diapers, food, formula, and hygiene items to families
California Community Foundation provides funding to nonprofits aiding fire recovery and rebuilding.
California Fire Foundation provides immediate financial assistance to wildfire victims.
Meanwhile in Snowy Minnesota -
I had a blast at the Minnesota Ice Festival! Tickets are available now and you can save 20% with my promotional code MNICEVIP here
also
Last Call - Come Hang Out With Me This Tuesday at the “Healthy Hour”
Let’s start the new year together! I am hosting a “healthy hour.” It's a happy hour with easy ideas for healthy, savory, and sweet grain bowls, and we will share a mocktail or two with my friend Alex Zweber’s company, Sharab Shrubs. They make great products and have lots of mocktail and cocktail recipes here.
Make time for yourself as we turn the page on the new year! Learn about facials, laser treatments, injectibles, weight loss medications or even surgical options to feel your best @skinrejuvinationclinicmn in Edina
We will have cookbook prizes & discounts when you set your appointments. I’ll show you all my favorite skincare products!
In keeping with last week’s 16 Mocktail Recipes - I found this article timely …
I also like
opposite take on his favorite bars to dine at…
Kurt and I also love bar dining… We liked many of his selections and added a few more like…
14 Bars that are excellent for dining
We love hitting up the bar at the Monte Carlo and ordering their delicious Dry Rubbed Wings and fries with an icy cold martini.
In Hopkins, the Pink Ivey Kitchen and Bar is adorable and has delicious entrees and apps. Their cocktail menu is great, too
We also like bar dining at The 1029 - it's a bar dive, to be sure, but it’s always lively and a fun spot to grab a Lobster Roll or Lobster Mac and Cheese and pull some tabs.
Also - The Lexington is great when you can eat at the bar or in the Williamsburg Room listening to live Jazz and don’t miss Bar dining at JD Hoyts Supper Club. The spot is old School in all the best ways, with a Buddy Bowl and a Cosmopolitan.
Spoon and Stable is on
's list but I have to include them here, too, as it’s in my top 3. The food is spectacular, and the drinks are top notch too.I love having steak and frites or oysters and french fries at Meritage with the perfect French 75 - they have my favorite version
Giannis Steak House feels like you are at a Wayzata high school reunion in all the right ways. Everyone at the bar knows everyone and its a congenial vibe with great peole watching. The steaks are great here and - the steak sandwich at the bar is a particular favorite! Make sure to get the loaded hash browns.
St Genevieve for Bubbles and Brunch, Tilia for counter dining Picnic Linden Hills for neighborhood snacks and Old Fashioneds in the Linden Hills Neighborhood.
The cutest little St Paul spot with an equally tiny bar and delicious pot stickers can be had at Potstickers on Randolph Avenue, and Minari, who took over the Peacock Lounge in North East Minneapolis, is also killing it with the dumplings.
Lastly, the Groveland Tap is always on our list, and they have expanded their bar significantly and have a heated patio now. Their Beer Cheese soup and Crunch Wrapped Burger with Cajun Fries are top-notch!
Fun Things to Do:
I set some goals to learn some new things this year, and 40 of us went to a class at the Textile Center to learn to embroider tea towels.
Here are a few pictures from our class. Watch this space for Mahjong Play coming before the Spring .
What I have recorded:
A new Sizzle reel has come out for Taste Buds. I love it so much, and it really encapsulates what the show is about. It makes me proud of all the great food makers where we live and my Taste Buds team at Fox 9. They are so great, and I am lucky!
This Weeks Taste Buds was all about Soup! I made Beer Cheese Wild Rice (see below for the recipe) and Chicken Chili Verde - This recipe can be made in the Instant Pot or I have the Stove Top Version like I made in the episode too.
I was thrilled to film with my old friend Mateo Mackbee and his partner Erin Lucas (Flour and Flower, named NYT best bakery) Mateo developed a love for New Orleans’ culture through his grandfather’s cooking, and now uses his family recipes to bring authentic Creole cuisine to St. Joseph, Minnesota. We made Gumbo and Red Beans and Rice! Check out Krewe’s full menu at krewemn.com.
Taste Buds will be a rerun this week with Stephanie Meyer!
We featured protein packed Sweet Potato and Spicy Chicken Soup and Kale Salad with Parmesan and Crispy Prosciutto Croutons!
Beer Cheese Wild Rice Soup
Serves 10
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked wild rice
8 slices bacon
1 1/2 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped into large chunks
1/2 cup onion
6 cups chicken stock
1 cup flour
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 clove minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground mustard
5 drops of Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 can dark beer (IPA's, Stouts, Amber Lagers will all work as would a N/A version)
4 cups extra-sharp cheddar cheese
Instructions
Add 1 cup of wild rice to 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Then, lower the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for 45 minutes until soft. Drain excess liquid and set aside.
Cook bacon, break it into 1/2-inch pieces, and set aside. Drain the grease out of the pan, leaving 1 Tbsp behind.
Sauté onion and mushrooms in the bacon grease with 2 Tbsp butter until tender and set aside
Warm the remaining 6 Tbsp butter in a Dutch oven. Add flour, and cook for 3-4 minutes on low heat, stirring frequently, until it forms a nice paste. Add 1 cup chicken stock to the paste, bring to a low boil, and stir until the flour-butter mixture is dissolved. Add 5 cups of chicken broth. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.
Add sour cream, Worcestershire Sauce, celery salt, ground mustard, Tabasco, Pepper, and cooked wild rice, bacon, mushrooms, & onion, then stir in cheese until completely melted.
Cook on low-medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Slowly add the beer and cook for 15 - 30 minutes on med-low, stirring frequently, being careful not to boil.
You can add additional salt and pepper to taste.
This is a recipe shared and adapted by my friend Stacey Crane. She has won many office Chili Cook-Offs with her Cheesy White Chicken Chili. Enjoy this Substack exclusive and as a Paid Substack subscriber you have access to all these Exclusive recipes anytime (60 recipes to date) just click on the orange link Read Full Story below or the orange box.
Cheesy White Chicken Chili
By Stacey Crane
Ingredients
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or chopped
2 (4oz) cans green chilies
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, sliced
3 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
48 ounces chicken stock
2 Tablespoons Better than Chicken Bouillon
3 14-16 ounce cans Great Northern Beans
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (*do not use pre-shredded - they have anti-caking agents that prevent proper melting)
1 cup sour cream
Chopped green onion, sliced jalapeno and/or fresh cilantro or tortilla chips for garnish
Instructions
Heat a couple of Tablespoons of olive oil in a Dutch oven or stock pot on the stovetop. Add onions and cook until translucent. At end, add garlic
Add chilies, jalapeño, cumin, oregano, broth, beans, cayenne and soup base. Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 15 minutes.
Just before serving add cooked chicken, sour cream and SLOWLY add cheese so it doesn’t clump, cooking over low heat until cheese is melted.
Serve topped with green onions, cilantro fresh jalapeños, and tortilla strips if desired.
Did you catch the latest Podcast for Subscribers with
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Born and raised in the Midwest to parents originally from Egypt, sisters Alia and Radwa Elkaffas created their Food Dolls platform to share exciting, fast, healthy meals. Born and raised in the Twin Cities to parents originally from Egypt, their recipes from
Loved you bar food recommendations! I’d never heard of Potsticker or Pink Ivy!