A Taste of Home: How UW–La Crosse Brings Family Recipes to the College Dining Room
What if one of the simplest ways to make a college student feel at home is to serve a familiar family recipe for dinner?
That’s the idea behind the Recipes From Home program at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. The program began in 2009 and gives first-year students—including international students—the opportunity to share recipes that are meaningful to them and their families. Those recipes are then brought to life by the dining team and served in the Whitney Center Main Dining Room.
Of course, we’re not talking about making dinner for a family of four.
The UW–La Crosse dining team may prepare a submitted recipe for 1,200 to 1,500 students!
So, for Season 4, Episode 7 of Funeral Potatoes & Wool Mittens, I talked with five of the people who help make Recipes From Home happen:
- Lizzy Haywood, Associate Director for Business & Dining Operations
- Jessica Harke, Registered Dietician
- Christy Ihrke, Marketing Director for Dining Services
- Robbie Hanson, Chef
- Michael Raymond, Chef
We talked about who submits the recipes, what happens when a home recipe arrives in a professional kitchen, how the chefs scale recipes for a dining hall, and some of the dishes students have especially enjoyed.
Listen to Season 4, Episode 7 of Funeral Potatoes & Wool Mittens to hear the people behind Recipes From Home. You’ll discover how a familiar family recipe can become a little taste of home for a student who is a long way from it.
The episode is available anywhere you listen to podcasts. Or, listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube below.
But there’s another important part of this story: the student experience.
A Student Perspective
Keira Burton, a psychology major from Northbrook, Illinois, joins me. Her family’s gluten-free Chicken Alfredo Bake was selected for the program. Hearing Keira talk about what the recipe means to her—and what it was like to have it served to hundreds of her fellow students—was one of my favorite parts of the conversation.
One of the things that struck me most about this program is that it recognizes that college isn’t only an academic transition. For a first-year student, it’s also the experience of leaving home, family, familiar routines and the foods they’ve grown up eating.
Sometimes a plate of food (and extra helpings to take back to the dorm room) can help bridge that distance.
As Burton put it, having “the connection between our hometowns and our new homes here is really special and unique.”
Three Recipes from Home
UW-La Crosse shared three recipes featured through the program so you can get a taste of the range of foods served on campus: (the recipes are at the end of this post)
Chicken Alfredo Bake — Gluten Free
Keira Burton, Northbrook, Illinois
Mee Goreng (Fried Noodles)
Zhe Yi Ng, Malaysia
Tres Leches Cake
Caden DeGlopper, Mukwonago, Wisconsin
Thanks for the Tip
And I want to thank my friend and previous Funeral Potatoes & Wool Mittens guest Shannon Thomasser for introducing me to this program. Shannon told me about Recipes From Home after her son Jack attended UW–La Crosse. The dining hall served their family soup recipe. That story stuck with me—and eventually led to this episode.
A note from Shannon: UW-La Crosse asked for recipes from the families that they could recreate and share with students in the dining hall. Jack’s college friends saw it the day it was being served, along with his name and hometown next to the soup. They texted Jack to show him that the University made his soup for the day! Ham and Potato Soup recipe submitted by ELLIE11to All Recipes. Personally, we left the salt out due to the salt in the ham… I would say taste before serving!
That’s something I enjoy about food stories. Sometimes one person shares a recipe, and it leads to an entirely new story, maybe even a new tradition.
Sweet wishes,
Chicken Alfredo Bake — Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1 box gluten-free (GF) pasta (Barilla gluten-free penne holds up well)
- 2 heads of broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 2-4 grilled GF chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces (we use pre-cooked Costco grilled chicken packs for ease of meal prep)
- 2 jars Classico (or similar GF) alfredo sauce
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tsp garlic and herb seasoning
- non-stick cooking spray, like Pam – be sure to use one that's gluten-free!
- 1 bag Ruffles chips
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375℉. Spray 9×13 glass baking pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
- Fill large pot half full with water and bring to a boil. Cook pasta as directed on box.
- While waiting for water to boil and pasta to cook, prep other items (chop grilled chicken breast, wash and chop broccoli) Add chicken, broccoli, shredded cheese, garlic and herb seasoning and 1 jar alfredo sauce to the 9×13 pan (do not stir yet).
- Once pasta is cooked, drain and add to 9×13 pan.
- Quickly cover with the second jar of alfredo sauce and stir all ingredients until evenly coated with alfredo sauce, then spread out evenly in the pan.
- Cover with aluminum foil, sprayed with non-stick spray to keep it from sticking to the food. Bake at 375℉ for approximately 45 minutes or until alfredo sauce starts to bubble.
- Remove from oven and serve, topping with crumbled Ruffles chips as desired.
Notes
Go back to the recipe by scanning this QR code:
All text and images © Staci Mergenthal • Random Sweets
Mee Goreng (Fried Noodles)
Ingredients
- vegetable oil, as needed
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes, OR 8 large peeled, deveined shrimp (about ½ pound), optional
- kosher salt
- ground white pepper
- 2 eggs
- 1 leek, white and light green part only, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 4 4-6 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 6 oz cooked egg noodles, thin vermicelli or thick, flat rice noodles
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 tbsp kicap manis (also sometimes labeled sweet soy sauce, preferably Javanese brands like ABC or Bango; see Tip), plus more to taste
- 1 cup chopped green cabbage
- 4 bok choy or gai lan (Chinese broccoli), separated into individual stalks
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- Store-bought or homemade crispy fried shallots, lime wedges and sliced cucumber for serving
Instructions
- Heat a wok or large cast-iron skillet on high until it’s very hot. (You should be able to hold your hand a few inches above the pan for just a few seconds.) Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil. If using chicken or shrimp, add it to the pan, season with salt and white pepper and cook until beginning to brown, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Crack the egg into the wok, seasoning with more salt and white pepper, and scramble together with a spatula until the egg is just cooked. Turn the heat down to medium.
- Add the leek, shallots and garlic, and stir until they start to soften and are fragrant, about a minute more.
- Add the cherry tomatoes and egg noodles, and season with salt and white pepper. Stir until everything is combined. Stir in the oyster sauce and optional sambal oelek. If the noodles stick to the wok, add another tablespoon of oil.
- Turn the heat to high, then add the kecap manis and quickly stir everything to combine. Let cook, undisturbed, over high heat until you see small wisps of smoke coming out of the noodles, about 1 minute, then stir again. The noodles will begin to turn darker in color and caramelize, taking on a smoky flavor called wok hei. Repeat this process, scraping the sides of your wok in between, until at least half the noodles are darkened, but not burned, 2 to 5 minutes more. Taste, adding more salt, white pepper and sweet soy sauce if needed.
- Add the cabbage and bok choy and stir until combined. Turn off the heat and drizzle with the sesame oil.
- Top each serving with crispy fried shallots and serve with lime wedges and cucumber slices.
Notes
Go back to the recipe by scanning this QR code:
All text and images © Staci Mergenthal • Random Sweets
Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 15.25 oz 1 box vanilla cake mix {15.25 ounces}
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 1 cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Milk Mixture
- 1½ cups whole milk
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 16 oz evaporated milk
Topping
- 8 oz whipped topping
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350℉. Spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
- Combine cake ingredients and mix with a hand held mixer {or by hand}. Mix until all of the ingredients are nicely combined {about 2 minutes}. Pour into the prepared 9×13 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake is cooked through. You can tell it is finished when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes.
- While the cake is cooling combine the milk mixture and whisk. Once the cake has cooled poke holes in the top of the cake with a tooth pick or skewer. Poke the holes about a half inch apart all over the top of the cake. Then pour the milk mixture evenly over the top of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably longer {even overnight}.
- Once the cake has refrigerated for at least an hour, top with whipped topping. Serve or refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Go back to the recipe by scanning this QR code:
All text and images © Staci Mergenthal • Random Sweets
