Champagne. It’s one of the loveliest words and loveliest drinks out there, so when we can get a bargain on a new bottle, I am always for it. Since we moved further south, we have been taking advantage of our proximity to Bin Ends in Braintree. Bin Ends has SO many good deals, and this past weekend they had a sale on their bargain bins. We stocked up on every day wine; bottles that are $15 and under are very easy to find at Bin Ends Their fine wine flea market each month is also a great place for wine bargains and for expanding your knowledge of wine. I blogged about the fine wine flea market many moons ago when I first started getting into wine. Really, worst pictures ever. 
Anyway, as I mentioned, we found some great bargains and decided a split of Ritz Brut Champagne would be worth a try for $12. The weather on Memorial Day was pretty disappointing and meant we couldn’t take the boat out, so we consoled ourselves with Champagne and some snacks, including a delightfully nutty, salty Dubliner cheese from Kerrygold. This Champagne embodies all I love about this special beverage, full body, notes of warm brioche and vanilla with perfect acidity to make it refreshing and food friendly. Champagne, as you have read here and in other places, is an excellent food wine, and this paired very well with simple snacks like chips and cheese. I am a salt-aholic, and Champagne always seems to pair with my favorite foods. I’ll keep looking for Champagne in those bargain bins. I love trying new ones and love pairing them with food even more.
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Tags: boating, champagne, Kerrygold, wine, wine and cheese, wine and food, wine of the week, Wine Wednesday
Mother’s Day is just a couple of days away, and if you are making brunch, you might want to try these corn flour pancakes, which incorporate spicy, salty, and sweet. I made these cakes for dinner one night this week with a salad, and they were a huge hit.
These pancakes are made up of chopped jalapeño, turkey bacon, roasted corn, grated Kerrygold cheddar, milk, and eggs.
As always, I kind of eyeballed things with this recipe. I chopped two large jalapeños (which turned out to be too much, I would go with one next time) and four slices of turkey bacon and combined those items with a cup of roasted corn. I use the Trader Joe’s frozen roasted corn in lots of recipes, including chili, and it is awesome.
I recently received an amazing gift of cheese and butter as part of the Kerrygold Blogger Network. I grated up about 1/2 cup of the Skellig Sweet Cheddar (all the while nibbling this sweet and tangy cheese while I cooked). I added the grated cheese to the jalapeño, bacon, and corn mixture and stirred thoroughly, distributing the ingredients evenly.
At this point, I was really kind of winging it, so I slowly mixed in the corn flour, which I received from War Eagle Mill as part of Whole Grain Sampling Day. I stirred in about two cups of the corn flour, then added three eggs, mixed again, and slowly streamed in milk until the mix was no longer dry. The pancake mix is thick and sticky; there are a lot of ingredients that make it so.
I then heated up a frying pan with a little oil and made the pancakes just as I would any other pancakes, browning them lightly on each side.
The final step was whipping up some Kerrygold butter with maple syrup. We topped the pancakes with the sweet butter, and dug right in.
These pancakes are bursting with flavor and texture. The sweet maple butter really pulls it all together, cooling some of the spice, and pairing so well with the salt of the bacon. These would make a fantastic brunch, paired with some fruit, spicy Bloody Marys, and maybe some pastries or dessert items.
Do you have any delicious brunch plans this weekend?
Tags: bacon, brunch, cooking, cornmeal, Food, Kerrygold, pancakes, recipe, spicy food
If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you will know that Kerrygold butter is a big part of my cooking and baking (And spreading on crackers for a snack!). Farm fresh butter, sourced from Irish farms, and other Irish dairy products such as Kerrygold’s delicious cheeses taste the best to me. When we visit Ireland, we go through gallons of milk, dozens of cups of yogurt, and multiple bars of Kerrygold butter and cheese. For my husband, it tastes like home. For me, it tastes like some of the best dairy products I have ever had.
Luckily, Kerrygold products have become fairly plentiful on this side of the Atlantic, and I was delighted to receive samples of their new naturally softer and reduced fat butters to use in a special recipe contest they are hosting.
These new butters are for spreading and cooking, rather than baking, and before I could come up with spreadable ideas, I had to give both butters a try.
The naturally softer butter tastes just like the regular Kerrygold gold bar of butter, only softer and creamier, perfect for spreading on multi-grain bread or crackers. And I was absolutely amazed to discover how delicious the reduced fat butter is. I normally do not do reduced fat anything, and especially reduced fat butter, but this tasted and felt like the real deal. I would not have been able to tell the difference in a taste test, and I like to think I know my butter. 
And one thing I love to do with butter is to eat slivers of it, along with a sprinkle of salt, atop giant farmers market radishes. I have been known to make a dinner or lunch out of this, and I decided for my first use of the butter, I would make a radish butter with Kerrygold’s naturally softer version.
For this spread (which serves 2-3 as a spread for hearty bread) you will need:
2 large radishes, washed and cut into matchsticks
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons of Kerrygold naturally softer butter (I left it out for a bit to make it even softer for mixing purposes)
The spread is simple. Cut the radishes into “squares” by trimming off the rounded edges, then cut into even matchsticks.
Set the cut up radish in a small bowl and sprinkle with salt, tossing thoroughly. Leave the radish in the salt for about 20 minutes. This gets some of the moisture out so you are not mixing butter with a ton of water.
There’s no need to rinse the radish; simply drain it or use a slotted spoon to pull out the pieces, leaving the liquid to be thrown away.
In a clean bowl, use a fork to thoroughly blend salted radish and butter until a uniform consistency has been reached.
Spread on delicious bread like this sunflower oatmeal loaf or a crusty, hot baguette (or little crostini, for a party appetizer) and prepare to enjoy a salty, sweet, crunchy, and creamy spread.
My second use of the new Kerrygold butter was inspired by one of my all time favorite dishes to make, Whiskey and Brown Sugar Salmon. This spread could be used to top hot salmon filets, but it’s sweet and tangy flavors would also be perfect on a pound cake, bread pudding, or even on a slice of bread for a treat on a cold winter night. And it can be prepared a couple of ways, either by whipping up a buttery spread, as I do below, or melted together on low in a saucepan, making more of a glaze or sauce than a spread.
For a serving for four, I used the following:
4 tablespoons Kerrygold reduced fat butter
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons Jameson Irish Whiskey
(Chopped walnuts would make a fabulous optional addition!)
Again I let the butter sit out for a few minutes. It is, right off the bat, softer than bar butter, but I wanted to be able to really incorporate my ingredients.
By hand or using a small food processor, whip the butter, brown sugar, and whiskey until soft, creamy, and a consistent light brown color throughout. Transfer into a glass or other mold, chill, and cut into desired shapes before serving.
You might be wondering if the alcohol curdled the butter at all. It did not, but it did change the consistency a little. That’s why I recommend really chilling it again or heating it all up together in a pan to make more of a buttery whiskey caramel sauce. Either way, the flavors are out of this world, and it is one of the easiest ways to add something spectacular to the everyday.
Thanks to Kerrygold for inviting me to participate in this contest and for providing the butter for me to play with. I did receive the butter free of charge, but if you know my blog, you know it’s been full of Kerrygold long before I was ever in contact with the brand!
What are your favorite ways to use butter?
Tags: butter, cooking, Food, Kerrygold, recipe, spreads, whiskey
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