Fabulous foodiness

Last weekend was a whirlwind of fabulous foodiness (or was it foody fabulousness?) here in Madison. Friday night was the Food for Thought Forum with Dan Barber, Leah Caplan, and Scott Williams. Here's a good summary in the Capital Times. Intangibles-wise, I found it an odd mix of personalities, as Dan is definitely a sarcastic New Yorker, Leah is a dry-humored, tell-it-like-it-is kinda gal, and Scott is about a sweet and earnest as anyone I’ve ever heard. Slight oddness in the Q&A part, but a good mix.

Saturday was the Food for Thought festival. I went to set up at 6 a.m. Despite a few glitches with non-functioning electricity for the sound system and a temporarily lost tent, everything went smooth as silk. The weather was fall-tasticly cool, and there was a steady crowd all day. Most of the exhibitors were happily busy throughout. I heard Cooking with the Stars was hilarious, though I didn’t get to see any of it. All of our volunteers were supahstars,and we got some good media coverage. My info tent spiel got shorter and shorter as the day went on, but it was a fun, exhausting, productive day.

After a nice nap, B&M and I attended the Slow Food RAFT picnic, which has a goal of celebrating-to-save some of our country’s native and heirloom food varieties – from produce to animal breeds. The menu featured some of these varieties from all over the country, including American Plains Bison over polenta (my favorite of the night!), a Mulefoot pork sandwich, an amazing wild rice and apple side, marrow fat bean salad with Door County cherries (my second favorite), fabulous Pleasant Ridge cheese, panna cotta, and hickory nut caramels with sea salt. Wow. We ate so much. So, what did we do next? Go to Cocoliquot for wine and chocolates, of course. What a meal!

Sunday consisted of a trip to the Willy Street Fair, where the infamous parade-o-various-ridiculousnesses passed us by several times and we had kettle corn. We also took a leisurely bike ride around the lake. And, across town, some more canning fabulousness that I hope we'll all get to sample.

Even though temperatures are back to summerlike this week, the air has imperceptibly and firmly flipped the switch to fall. I’ve had my first Bailey’s-n-cocoa in honor of the season. Here’s to many more fall-tastic weekends before winter sets in.