Wisconsin’s Own Danish Pastry, The Kringle

I am a Wisconsinite. Go ahead, laugh. As much as I understand why the cheddar and beer stereotype (and Favre’s latest exploits) have turned us into a national joke, you should all be secretly jealous. We have something you don’t: Kringle.

A circular pastry that originated in Denmark, the kringle is only common in its home country and in Racine, Wisconsin, thanks to waves of Danish immigrants in the 1880s who had enough sense to move to Wisconsin. Some of my favorite Saturday mornings were had over a cup of coffee and a cream cheese kringle.

Even grocery store kringle will blow your mind. The secret is in the Danish Weinerbrod dough, which layers like puff pastry sheets but remains soft instead of crisping in heat. Inside is usually fruit filling, and a light, sugary glaze similar to that of a donut coats the top. Strawberry and cherry fillings are most common, but you can also find almond, apricot, pecan, apple and cream cheese, in most places kringle is sold.

While you can often find smaller portions as pictured above, kringle is traditionally made in a loop shape. Cutting and serving it isn’t quite the art some make it out to be, unless you made it from scratch, in which case you have every reason to demand it be cut correctly. I recommend the version on the left-hand side for easier coffee-dunking.

I’ve never been ambitious enough to make my own kringle, but if you currently have an oven in your apartment (you’re one-upping me), give this pecan and walnut kringle recipe a try. For the cheaters: No matter what shape your store-bought kringle takes, pop it in the oven at 300 F for 15 minutes and toss the packaging. The pastry still has all the complicated layers only a Danish-style bakery can replicate, and all the heat and aroma of being fresh from the oven.

And you thought we were fat because of the cheddar.

-Tara for TKGO

Save a Roadside Attraction!

The Midwest has a long upstanding tradition of zany roadside attractions. My personal favorite, the corn maze, is unfortunately often poorly tended, making what was once a clear path into a jumble of cut stalks buried under a foot of mud.

 

Corn mazes may be great in theory, but Sarah and I agree — you definitely want to be walking on gravel if it rained the night before.

 

Like a ray of hope in an era of degrading farm mazes, two yellow flags flew high over a white sign with black lettering, in all caps, declaring: “MAZE.” To the rescue came the A-Mazement Park in Marion, Wisconsin, to solve the region’s pressing corn maze mud problem. Every April until September since 2001, the park opened to thousands of highway nomads searching for cheap thrills. For $7, you could spend hours diving through the wooden walls and gravel paths to get to each of four checkpoints, where you stamp your card before trying to return to home base in record time. In mid-October through Halloween, the park became Transyl-Maze-ia, where for a slightly steeper admission price of $12, you could enter the park as late as 10 p.m. and not only dodge walls, but also park employees cloaked in demonic attire and white face paint.

 

The A-Mazement Park is in an ideal spot, just four hours from Chicago and Minneapolis and two and a half hours from Milwaukee! Courtesy of Google Maps.

 

Sadly, you notice I write in the past tense. The A-Mazement Park’s survival is at risk. Because of the owner’s heavy time commitment to a construction company, the A-Mazement Park is not open this year and is for sale. To purchase this Wisconsin landmark and progressive maze for $399,000, call VR Business Mergers at (715) 966-6647. (Or, to buy the Transyl-Maze-ia props, call Todd at (715) 754-4566.)

 

The A-Mazement Park, courtesy of the official site

 

It’s really in great condition. Plus, since the walls are made of wood and stand off the ground by two feet or so, the owner can move them every few weeks so customers enter a new maze whenever they come. (You also have the added security of being able to army-crawl your way to the open air at any point if this gets old. Then, there’s always mini-golf.)

Act quickly! You may even be able to open in time for Halloween!

The A-Mazement Park is located at 111 Industrial Drive, Marion, WI 54950.

-Tara for TKGO

The Friday Night Fish Fry (or, “Look, there’s a five-year-old at this bar!”)

In the immortal words of my born-and-raised Wisconsin grandfather, “What are you doing? Put that chicken back in the freezer! It’s Friday, I’m goin’ for fish.”

Friday fish frys are one of Wisconsin’s most beloved traditions, and everyone has his own opinion of which dive does it right. Although my first choice is my grandparents’ cottage in northern Wisconsin, Club Tavern in Menasha, Wisconsin, takes the cake when it comes to the restaurant crowd.

 

 

Strollers and tots in tutus are all welcome at Club Tavern, by Tara for TKGO

 

Smoky taverns and bars have always been the best place to take the whole family to a fish fry, but since the Wisconsin state ban on smoking in bars and restaurants went into effect on July 5 this year, these pubs clog only your arteries, not your lungs. General rule of thumb: The more dilapidated the building, the better the fish. (Club Tavern hasn’t changed a bit in 20 years, with the exception of the flat screen over the bar.)

 

 

Outside of Club Tavern, by Tara for TKGO

 

The typical order is perch or pike, both of which are caught (usually that day) in Wisconsin’s freshwater lakes and rivers. Perch is a smaller, meatier white fish while pike is larger, flakier and tastes slightly “fishier” if you’re used to eating halibut. You can order the plate, which comes with sides of cole slaw and rye bread, and your choice of fries, onion rings or potato salad at Club Tavern. Other places usually also offer a baked potato with sour cream and butter as a side. The fried and breaded fish can be dunked in tartar sauce with your hands like chicken fingers, or cut with a knife and fork.

 

 

 

An order of pike ($9.99) at Club Tavern, by Tara for TKGO

 

 

 

An order of perch ($11.50) at Club Tavern, by Tara for TKGO

 

If you’re nowhere near Wisconsin and hope to try your own fish fry at home, any fresh-caught freshwater fish can be fried at home. My grandmother used to soak the skinned perch in buttermilk for a few minutes to get rid of the “fishy” taste before dunking it in Italian breadcrumbs and dropping it into a frying pan full of vegetable oil or olive oil. When both sides are browned and a little crispy, blot the fish with a paper towel to remove excess grease. It’s ready to eat!

Club Tavern, 56 Racine St., Menasha, Wisconsin. (920) 722-2452. No reservations or credit cards accepted, so bring cash or your checkbook!

-Tara for TKGO

Looking to the Sky in Wisconsin

Never seen an air show? You’re missing out. And you never would have guessed where you could fill this void: Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

AirVenture began in 1953 as a fly-in convention, and still is. As a customer service rep at a private airport (otherwise known as an FBO) in nearby Appleton, I typically spend this last week of July swamped in invoicing, filing, fueling, getting ice, recommending hotels and restaurants and finding 15W-50 for the hundreds of pilots who land at Maxair for AirVenture. But this year, Cinderella got Friday off and headed to the ball.

To cut to the chase, the highlights are the afternoon air shows, which happen every day. On Friday, I saw Chuck Aaron pilot the Red Bull Helicopter and the four-plane AeroShell Aerobatic Team (in the video), among others.

But after the shows, it’s easy to get caught up in lectures about concept jets that have been years in the works, like Cessna’s $1.7 million Citation Mustang, as well as new designs like Cobalt’s five-seater Co50, reminiscent of a fighter jet. Rare aircraft include the last SB2C “Helldiver” WWII dive bomber flying in the world, a Charles Lindbergh-era DC-2 and a restored Eastern Airlines DC-7 that American hero “Sully” Sullenberger flew on Wednesday beside FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.

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Military aircraft arrive every year, too, and this year two favorites — the WWII-era B-17 bomber and the DC-3 — celebrated their 75th birthdays during the week of AirVenture. (A B-17 can be booked for rides both at Oshkosh and at Maxair.) You can also see modern military aircraft on the ramp, like the drones Predator and Global Hawk, as well as the Bell-Boeing V-22, an airplane with a helicopter rotor attached to each fixed wing.

If you happen to own your own Cessna 172, plan to spend your nights next July dozing behind the wheel at a “Fly In Movie” and pay Maxair a visit!

-Tara for TKGO