Happy Burp-Day: Let's Drink to Six Years of Burp! Blog

Six years. Wow.
Six years of blogging flies past faster than you'd think.
But, here we are, still cooking up a storm and loving what we do.

And we have only you to thank.

Thank you, dear readers, for reading and interacting.  For hanging tough when we've suffered from recipe block and when we didn't have much to say. For understanding when posts weren't quite as frequent as we would have liked.

We may not have the MOST readers of any blog out there. But, I can assure you that we have some of the best. And we're privileged to have gotten to know you all -- some of you in person, but even more of you online. Thanks to you we have an active Facebook page, a healthy Twitter following, and a blog that we love coming back to day after day.

Over the years, we've run into a lot of people who were amused by the name of our blog, and excited about what we stand for (this makes us happy!). We've also had a host of requests from family, friends, and fans to create a bit of Burp! swag.

Our first attempt was the Burp! t-shirt, which we printed for the first time in 2010 and again in 2012. People loved them, but we decided to do something different this time around.

So, in celebration of our sixth year, we've teamed up with talented local Milwaukee ceramics artist, Kate Riley, to present the first ever Burp! mug. Read more about Kate here.

The mugs are hand-crafted and hand-painted - iridescent black on the exterior, with a flat white on the interior. Best of all,  each mug holds 12 ounces of just about any liquid you can think of -- from coffee and tea to milk or beer.  Beautiful. Functional. And microwave and dishwasher safe.

Mugs are $20 plus $5 shipping and handling.

Proceeds will support MKEfoodies.

Please note that the mugs are hand-crafted in small batches in Kate Riley's studio here in Milwaukee. Right now, we have 30 mugs on order, which we'll mail out as soon as they're finished.  If demand warrants, we'll commission more mugs to be created.

©BURP!

5th Burp-Day Giveaway Winners and One Final #Giveaway

 It's tough to believe that our Burp-Day month has passed by already!  We've had a great time writing about some of our favorite local businesses and some of the lessons we've learned in our last five years of blogging.

Thanks to all of you who participated in the giveaways all month long!  We're pleased to announce the official winners.

  The two wine and cheese gift sets from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board go to: 

• Sarah - who was really curious about the rhubarb cheese pie at  DairyDaysofSummer.com and
• SarahJ | Curious Cuisiniere who has fallen in love with Wisconsin Apple Cheddar

• Winners of the Scrumptious Pantry gift baskets containing TWO bottles of Cranberry Catsup (one smoky, one earthy) and TWO jars of heirloom pickles (Beaver Dam Peppers and Pickled Beets):
• Abigail/Mamatouille who is "such a pickle girl and would love a taste of those pickled red beets"
• Domestic Diva who thinks "the beaver dam pepper sounds great." 
• And Mindless.Ali who said that "The eggplant spread looks amazing sauce!"

• Jen of Juanita's Cucina was winner of the Becky's Blissful Bakery caramels

• Ariel was the winner of the Bittercube Bitters

• Devil's Food Advocate was the winner of the Cybros Bread assortment
• Carolsue was the winner of the Howling Wolf Barbeque sauce and rub.
• Alysha from She's on the Run was the winner of the Indulgence Chocolate.

Best of all, Jamie Leigh Martin won the Grand Prize assortment of Wisconsin Cheeses from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

We had so much fun with the giveaways that we're going to do one last round for those of you who may have missed out on the first seven.

In celebration of our 5th Burp-Day, the first FIVE (5) people to comment on this post will each receive a great little cheese cooler bag -- also from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing board.

Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, who provided us with the product for our giveaway. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Indulge Your Readers: Indulgence Chocolate #Giveaway

  If a blogger writes a blog post in the forest, and no one is around to read it, does it make a sound?

Don't laugh. It's a serious question. And it brings me to my final words of advice on blogging: Remember that you are never alone. Acknowledge your readers. Gratify them. Give them what they want (within reason). And make them feel special.

Because they are special. They've gotten you where you are -- wherever that might be. They've read your words, re-created your recipes, and shared your news (both good and bad). They've become friends, mentors, and your best critics.

So, yeah. We've been blogging for five years. And we still don't have all the answers. But, one thing we know for sure is that our readers are the ones that deserve the credit for everything that we are, and that we've become.

THANK YOU.
From the bottom of our bacon-eating, rosemary-loving, chocolate-obsessed hearts. And please enter the giveaway at the bottom of this page. Because it's seriously some of the best chocolate on earth. And it's our thank you gift to you. For just being you.

Inspired by the fine European chocolatiers she encountered during a college backpacking trip, Julie Waterman founded Indulgence Chocolatiers in 2007 with the goal of introducing fine artisan chocolate to the Milwaukee area's burgeoning culinary scene. Indulgence started out small, producing delectable truffles for weddings and events. Their imaginative chocolates, made from blended bean Belgian chocolate, are embellished with classic flavors like coconut, hazelnut and mint, as well as globally inspired combinations like coconut habanero, Parmesan crisp and Thai peanut butter.

And yes -- every one of her flavors is ... Just. That. Good.  Just look at the newly released S'Mores gift pack pictured below. How can you resist?

We're super excited to announce that Indulgence Chocolatiers will be opening its first chocolate boutique in Shorewood's new Ravenna building at 4525 N. Oakland Ave. With construction already underway, the delicious boutique is scheduled to open sometime in late summer. In addition to offering beautiful, locally handcrafted chocolates in unique flavor combinations, Waterman plans to feature monthly tasting and pairing classes at the boutique, making it a destination for Milwaukee chocolate enthusiasts.

In the meantime, you can order Indulgence products ONLINE, pick them up from a variety of retailers and restaurants in the Milwaukee area, or try your hand at winning a gift set by following the instructions at the end of this post.

No matter how you decide to procure your chocolate, it will be well worth it.
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We'd like to give you the opportunity to try out a couple of Indulgence chocolate products for yourself. This is the final of seven 5th Burp!-Day giveaways taking place on the blog during the month of June.

One lucky reader will win a sampling of chocolate from Indulgence Chocolatiers.

To enter, head on over to the Indulgence Chocolatiers web site, taking a look at their offerings, and tell us what you would like to try most. For a bonus entry, head over to the Indulgence Facebook page and give them a big fat LIKE.  Be sure to leave us a comment letting us know you did just that.

This is a short one! You'll have until NOON TOMORROW (June 30, 2012) to enter.  Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

As an added bonus, since June is Dairy Month, all entrants will ALSO be entered to win a grand prize assortment of hand-selected Wisconsin cheeses.

Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Indulgence Chocolatiers, who provided us with the product for our giveaway. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.

 ©BURP! Where Food Happens

Dare to Be Different: Howling Wolf Barbeque #Giveaway

Culture teaches us to blend in. In school we're taught to sit still, speak when spoken to, and mind our manners. We abide by moral codes, dress codes, and codes of conduct. When we venture outside of the norm, we reap the consequences of rebellion.

When you blog, it's good to be different -- or, rather, to differentiate yourself.  The world really only needs one Pioneer Woman (and mimicking her style isn't going to win you a book deal or a television show). And, as lovely as Smitten Kitchen is, no one would be very smitten if every blog was just another version of the same.


So, here are a few words of advice that every blogger should follow.

1. Buck the trends. They're only trends, after all. And they, too, shall pass.
2. Find a niche where you feel comfortable today -- and where you're likely to continue to be comfortable tomorrow -- and make your home there.
3. Find your writing voice -- it's one of the most valuable gifts you can give to yourself.
4. Be yourself -- and totally yourself. Let people get to know the real you.
5. Be weird. Be unique. Be random. Go wild. Because you never know who might love the person you otherwise hide.

You won't be surprised when we say that we love companies that follow this advice in the way that they do business... entrepreneurs who approach things just a little bit differently, and who aren't afraid to do exactly what they love... and do it well.

Howling Wolf Sauces, based in Theresa, Wisconsin, was started by Ken Wolfe, a classically trained chef who always had a passion for sauces. Wolfe started in the industry, running a cafe in Wyoming which was known for its outstanding ribs and barbeque. He moved to Wisconsin to focus full-time on marketing his sauces. The sauces, which were featured in Jane & Michael Stern’s 2005 edition of Roadfood, are available at a wide range of local stores including (but not limited to) Metcalfe's Sentry, Sendik's Food Market (Wauwatosa), Tower Chicken, and Woodman's Market.

We love the Howling Wolf line of gourmet BBQ sauces -- not only because they're made locally -- but because they are created in small batches using the finest ingredients available. None of them contain high fructose corn syrup. They don't use irradiated spices. And their products are both extremely flavorful and very versatile.

For example, the Cranberry Orange BBQ can be used as a glaze for Asian sweet and sour, and the original sauce can be mixed with yogurt to take on a unique Middle Eastern flavor. In addition to sauces, the company also makes a collection of spice rubs, of which The Land and Sea Rub is the most popular. It was created to enhance the buttery flavors in fish, but it's equally delicious on pork, chicken, and even steaks. 

Try it on a baked potato! Popcorn! Vegetables!  Use your imagination and surprise yourself.
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We'd like to give you the opportunity to try out a couple of Howling Wolf products for yourself. This is the sixth of seven 5th Burp!-Day giveaways taking place on the blog during the month of June.

One lucky reader will win an 18 oz bottle of Howling Wolf original barbeque sauce, along with a packet of Land & Sea Rub.

To enter, leave us a comment below telling us what you'll do with your barbeque sauce or Land & Sea rub if you win it. For a bonus entry, head over to the Howling Wolf Facebook page and give them a big fat LIKE.  Be sure to leave us a comment letting us know you did just that.

You'll have until NOON on June 30, 2012 to enter.  Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

As an added bonus, since June is Dairy Month, all entrants will ALSO be entered to win a grand prize assortment of hand-selected Wisconsin cheeses.

Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Howling Wolf, who provided us with the product for our giveaway. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.


©BURP! Where Food Happens

Give Yourself Time to Sprout: Cybros Bread #Giveaway

  Patience is a virtue. Especially if you're a new food blogger.

The moment you hit PUBLISH on that first post, the waiting game begins.  You wonder if anyone is reading. You check the stats on your blog obsessively. You pump your content out on Facebook and Twitter and Stumbleupon. And you wait.... and... silence.

Like a seed sprouting in a garden, building an audience takes time. Most bloggers don't become overnight sensations. In fact, many bloggers (ourselves included) have been blogging for years without hitting pay dirt.

And that's OK. Because good things take time. And great things are worth waiting for.

It's a little bit like baking bread.  And even moreso like baking bread with sprouted grains.

These days, sprouted grains are all the rage. Known for their superior nutritional content and advanced digestibility, you'll see them in products on shelves, not only at health food stores, but also large corporate retailers. If you didn't know better, you'd think sprouted grains were something new.

But, a Milwaukee-area wholesale bakery called Cybros - The Sprouted Bakehouse has been specializing in breads made with good-for-you sprouted grain since 1969. In fact, it's the only sprouted grain bakery in the Midwest. 

We had the opportunity to visit Cybros this year and chat with the owners, Jenny and James Marino.  They walked us through the sprouted grain process and, in the meantime, taught us a lot about the role of patience.

Flour, by nature, is a dry, flavorless substance. Most healthy breads made from regular flour require significant amounts of fat, sugar and salt in order to make them palatable. But, not sprouted grain products.

During the sprouting process, the complex carbohydrates in grains break down into simple sugars, and the proteins break down into amino acids; both are easier for the body to process. Sprouting neutralizes phytic acid – a substance present in grains – that inhibits absorption of nutrients. In addition, the sprouted grains have the advantage of being higher in protein and fiber, and lower in both carbohydrates and calories.

Cybros uses house-sprouted red wheat berries as a processed flour substitute. Because they're made from whole-wheat kernels, sprouted grain breads are an excellent source of whole grains. The process, along with the fact that Cybros bread contains no unrefined sugars, fats or preservatives, gives the product a natural advantage over breads made with traditionally milled flour.

An even bigger difference is apparent when it comes to flavor. Unlike their traditional whole grain counterparts, Cybros sprouted grain breads are surprisingly soft, with a flavor that is both earthy and nutty. And, unlike their West Coast competitors, Cybros packages and sells its products fresh, rather than frozen.

"The biggest challenge in using freshly ground sprouted grains to make our products comes in forecasting orders," Marino says. "We don't have the luxury of opening bags of flour when orders are surprisingly high. The die is cast days in advance when we determine how much grain to set."

In other words, patience is a virtue.
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You've been pretty patient yourself, reading all the way to the end of this post.  But, we're happy to say that there's a pretty nice pay-off. It just so happens that this is the fifth of five... make that seven 5th Burp!-Day giveaways taking place on the blog during the month of June. So come back often, and come hungry!

This time, ONE lucky reader will win an assortment of Cybros bread products, along with 2 Cybros t-shirts and matching water bottles.

To enter, just leave us a comment telling us whether you've ever tried Cybros breads before.  For bonus entries, give @healthybakery a follow on Twitter or a LIKE on their Facebook page.  Be sure to leave us a comment letting us know you did just that.

You'll have until NOON on June 30, 2012 to enter.  Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

As an added bonus, since June is Dairy Month, all entrants will ALSO be entered to win a grand prize assortment of hand-selected Wisconsin cheeses.

Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Cybros - The Sprouted Bakehouse. They provided us with the product for our giveaway. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Follow Your Passion: Becky's Blissful Bakery #Giveaway

 Blogging can be a chore. Food blogging, in particular.


Your average blogger sits down, thinks of a topic, and pumps out content.  It's simple. Straightforward. Food bloggers can't really do that. We've got to think about what we'd like to make, find (or create) a recipe to make it, make it, take pictures of it, eat it (sometimes by this point it's cold), think about whether or not it was good (despite the fact that it was cold), and then write about it.


It's a process. And there's an even deeper element to it. It's one thing to simply have writer's block.  It's a different matter to be entirely uninspired in the kitchen, but have a blog sitting there waiting for content.


If you've ever wondered why so many food blogs are short-lived, the time commitment is likely to be a the top of the list as a reason. But, there's another element that helps an awful lot. And that's Passion.
It's not rocket science. When you love something, you're more inclined to work hard at it. It's not difficult to reason that you're also likely to become better at it over time if you put some elbow grease into the process.  


So, if you're going to blog, blog about something that's gotten under your skin that you simply can't let go. Blog about things you talk about so much with your friends that sometimes they roll their eyes when they see you coming. Blog about what makes you happy.


We love supporting businesses that exhibit that same kind of passion. And Becky's Blissful Bakery is one of them.


Rebecca Scarberry's business started as a hobby. She sold a few organic caramels on the side, but wasn't anywhere close to making a living at it. And then, tragedy struck. In the same week that her divorce was finalized, she lost her job as an executive assistant for an architecture firm. And Rebecca needed to find a new source of income. So, rather than sitting home over the holidays feeling sorry for herself, she turned to her kitchen stove and cooked up a caramel business.


These days, Becky's business is thriving. She makes 10 different varieties of all organic caramels, including flavors like beer and pretzel (made with Lakefront beer), espresso dark chocolate, chai tea (made with Rishi chai), and sangria. Even better, she recently signed on to provide her caramels to national food giant, Williams-Sonoma for their fall/winter catalog.  

You can read more about Becky and her business in an article I wrote about her back in April. And you can get a taste of her caramels by checking out the cool giveaway we've got going on below.
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This is the third of five... make that seven 5th Burp!-Day giveaways taking place on the blog all through the month of June. So come back often, and come hungry!

One lucky reader will win a box of Becky's Blissful Bakery's Sangria Caramels.

To enter, simply visit  Becky's Blissful Bakery and tell us which product in her line you'd most like to try. For a bonus entry, stop by her Facebook page and give her a like.  Be sure to leave us a comment letting us know you did just that.

You'll have until NOON on June 30, 2012 to enter.  Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

As an added bonus, since June is Dairy Month, all entrants will ALSO be entered to win a grand prize assortment of hand-selected Wisconsin cheeses.


Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Becky's Blissful Bakery, who provided us with the product for our giveaway. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Be True to Your Values: Scrumptious Pantry #Giveaway

 We were so flattered the first time a company approached us to do a product giveaway that we didn't think twice about saying "yes." We may have even gotten a bit giddy about it. As new bloggers, it made us feel valued to have garnered the attention of large, national corporations. It was exciting. And fun. And sometimes delicious.

But, after writing a review or two about products we wouldn't necessarily have purchased of our own accord, we decided we needed to create some standards for the acceptance of free product. After all, this was OUR blog, and it should reflect our values, our tastes. In our case, we decided to focus our energies on supporting locally made products, preferably those that were organic or produced in a sustainable fashion. So, blogging lesson number two for us was: be true to your values.

Interestingly enough, we were recently approached by a Chicago-based company called Scrumptious Pantry who was interested in a collaboration. Scrumptious Pantry is a company that takes hand-grown ingredients from family farms in the Midwest, California, and Italy and prepares them in small batches, using recipes that are deeply rooted in the culinary heritage of the region.

We fell in love with them when we found that they had recently launched a line of pickled heirloom vegetables, including the Wisconsin-bred Beaver Dam Pepper. The mildly spicy heirloom variety was introduced to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin by an Hungarian immigrant around 1913.  But, the cultivation of the pepper was soon left on the wayside in favor of more easy-to-grow varietals. The pepper is now listed among 200 fruit and vegetable varieties in Slow Food's Ark of Taste, a catalog of delicious foods in danger of extinction. Fortunately, Wisconsin farmers like John Hendrickson at Stone Circle Farm and Nicole Schauer at Good Earth Farm took up the challenge to grow these peppers and supply them to Scrumptious Pantry.

Beaver Dam Pepper Pickles are fantastic eaten out of hand, so you know they also make an excellent accompaniment for cheese or charcuterie. They're delicious atop a pulled pork or Italian beef sandwich, or as part of a Greek salad.

But, they're also extremely tasty as an accompaniment to one of Peef's famous bloody marys.

The most recent rendition of this fabulous brunch drink also contains another Scrumptious Pantry product -- their smoky, slightly tangy Cranberry Catsup made with tomatoes from Happy Valley Farm and cranberries from Fine Vine Organics.  If you think regular ketchup is good on a burger, wait until you've tried this stuff. Smoky, slightly sweet, and deliciously robust, this is one catsup that's not to be missed.  And -- oh! -- did we mention how good it is on sweet potato fries??

As far as catsup in a bloody mary goes... The cranberries add a subtley fruity flavor, while the chipotles add a subtle smoky heat. A bit of brine from the Beaver Dam Peppers takes the drink to a whole new level.

Cranberry Chipotle Bloody Mary with Beaver Dam Peppers


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Once again, we couldn't end this post without leaving you with a little bit of something in celebration of our 5th Burp-Day. This is the second of five... make that seven giveaways taking place on the blog all through the month of June. So come back often, and come hungry!


First-- ALL of our readers can take advantage of 20% off on Scrumptious Pantry's site starting today and going through June 25th, 2012.  To take advantage of this offer, use the code EatBurp at the checkout at the Scrumptious Pantry Online Store.

Second, three (3) lucky readers will win Scrumptious Pantry gift baskets containing TWO bottles of Cranberry Catsup (one smoky, one earthy) and TWO jars of heirloom pickles (Beaver Dam Peppers and Pickled Beets).

To enter, simply visit Scrumptious Pantry and tell us which product in their line you'd most like to try. For a bonus entry, stop by their Facebook page and give them a like.  Be sure to leave us a comment letting us know you did just that.

You'll have until NOON on June 30, 2012 to enter. Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

As an added bonus, since June is Dairy Month, all entrants will ALSO be entered to win a grand prize assortment of hand-selected Wisconsin cheeses.


Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Scrumptious Pantry, who provided us with the products for our giveaway. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Cheese is Good: Uplands Cheese and Our First #Giveaway

 Over the last five years, we've made plenty of mistakes.  As new bloggers, we didn't have the slightest idea how to take photos of food. Heck, we didn't even have a digital camera until about two months into the process.  So, you can just imagine how much fun we had with our first few posts (look back on them if you must, but we're warning you).

Needless to say, one of the first lessons we learned while blogging is that you can't take yourself too seriously. Blogging is about relaxing, being yourself, and giving yourself room to grow.  If that means taking really bad photos for almost two years before you finally figure out how to rig up pseudo professional lighting in your dark kitchen, so be it.  Have fun. Don't give up.  And keep on blogging.  In other words, a little bit of "cheese" can be a very good thing.

Speaking of cheese...

Over the weekend, we were treated to a fabulous adventure by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. They took us, along with numerous other Wisconsin food bloggers, on a whirlwind tour of three of Wisconsin's most fabulous creameries -- Chalet Cooperative, Hook's, and Uplands Cheese.

While every one of the creameries had its charms, we were absolutely beguiled by the inner workings of Dodgeville's Uplands Cheese, producer of two of our favorite farmstead cheeses, Pleasant Valley Reserve and Rush Creek Reserve.

What endears Uplands to us in such an intimate way is not only the cheese they produce, but the care with which they produce it. This family-run dairy farm in southwestern Wisconsin cuts absolutely no corners when it comes to the production of their cheeses. In a time when the term "artisan" is slowly losing its meaning, Cheese Maker Andy Hatch uses century-old knowledge to produce Alpine-style cheeses in the most traditional fashion possible without fancy approaches, short-cuts, or pretense.

From the carefully orchestrated rotational pasture grazing of their 130 Holstein cows, to the painstaking care they take to hand-craft and age their cheese, Uplands is the epitome of old world simplicity. And their cheeses are a reflection of that.

Modeled after the Beaufort cheese of France, Pleasant Ridge is sweet and nutty with an earthy bite and a long finish. Produced from raw spring and summer milk that carries the flavors of the sweet, tender, sugary grasses of the Driftless countryside, this cheese is all about the milk.  As Andy says, "With this cheese, we get out of the way and let the cheese do its thing."

Rush Creek, on the other hand, is made with raw milk from cows who've grazed on fading autumn grasses and hay. Inspired by the French Vacherin Mont d'Or, its flavor is more dependent upon the ripening process, which allows the rich young cheese to age in Spruce bark, imparting a rich woodsy flavor.

Uplands makes its cheese in small batches, the old fashioned way, sacrificing efficiency for the sake of producing a superior product. Their ways are simple, and their cheeses complex and filled with the passion and handiwork that only old-school can produce.

And gosh, that's just the sort of thing we can't get enough of.

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Of course, we couldn't end this post without leaving you with a little bit of something in celebration of our 5th Burp-Day.  This is the first of five... make that seven giveaways taking place on the blog all through the month of June. So come back often, and come hungry!

Since June is Dairy Month, we want to give you the opportunity to sample some cheese of your own. So, thanks to the generosity of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, we'll be sharing the wealth.

Two lucky readers will win a wine and cheese set, complete with a round wooden cheese board, multi-function corkscrew and three cheese knives.The accompanying insulated, zippered compartment stores the board and keeps cheese and accompaniments chilled during travel.


To enter, simply visit DairyDaysofSummer.com, look through the list of great summer recipes, and leave a comment telling us which recipe you'd like to make first. For a bonus entry, tell us your favorite Wisconsin cheese to take along with you on summer picnics.


You'll have until NOON on June 30, 2012 to enter.  Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.


As an added bonus, all entrants will ALSO be entered to win a grand prize assortment of hand-selected Wisconsin cheeses.


Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, who covered all of our expenses related to the aforementioned creamery tours.  WMMB also provided us with the products for our giveaway. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.


©BURP! Where Food Happens

Coriander Lime Ice Cream with Rhubarb Swirl: Celebrating Our Third Burp-day!

Blogging is a little bit like being in a long-term relationship.
For the most part, I can't remember what life was like BEFORE the Burp! blog came into our our lives.  It has become a fixture, a way of life, a part of how we live and cook.  On the other hand, as I look back over all the posts we've written and all the great people we've gotten to know, I realize that three years is a pretty long time to be dedicated to a food blog.

Like every healthy relationship, blogging takes work and dedication.  I'm not sure that we're really in a position to be giving blogging advice (after all, I feel like we're still learning the ropes).  But, here are a few tips we've picked up along the way:

1. Always talk. Keep communication channels open. Be authentic. If there's one thing I've learned from blogging, it's that there's no point to putting on a show. Or pretending to be someone you're not. You've got to find your own voice, write about what you're passionate about, and share little bits and pieces of yourself with your readers. Blogging isn't a popularity contest, and it's not high school.  It's about building real relationships and community.
2. Set expectations and goals. Keep GROWING. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted from blogging. In fact, when we first began, it was just a mechanism for tracking our recipes and exercising our writing muscles... we didn't expect anyone (beyond friends and family) to be reading it! Of course, as we moved along, we realized that we needed to have a vision for where we wanted the blog to be going. We needed to make a commitment to it (and our readers), and we needed to decide how we would keep things new and fresh. 
3. Seek out good advice and coaching. You may think that only relationships that are on the brink of failing need to seek out good advice and coaching. But, that's simply not true. Even good relationships (and blogs) can benefit greatly from the good advice of others -- and that's absolutely been true for the Burp! blog.  We've learned so much from ALL of you -- from the tips and tricks passed along by our readers to the inspiration and sage words of advice from senior bloggers.

Burp! wouldn't be here if it weren't for you -- our loyal readers and trusted blogging friends.  The past three years have really blown past. In fact, if it hadn't been for a serendipitous glance at the calendar this past weekend, the fact that it's our third blogiversary (or "Burp-day," if you please) might have passed us by without any mention.

However, once we realized we were celebrating three years, we decided we had to do SOMETHING to celebrate.  And what better than churning up a bit of celebration ice cream?

Of course, this couldn't be just any old ice cream. It needed to be something extra special.  As we were looking over all the recipes we've developed over the years, Peef suggested we create something with rhubarb.  He pointed to the recipe for rhubarb sauce with coriander and lime, a recipe we created back in 2008.

The recipe actually marked a sort of turning point for the blog -- one in which we decided that we'd really like to journey outside our previous "comfort zones" and start experimenting with different flavor combinations.  We'd never used coriander in a sweet application, so the idea of trying it out in a rhubarb sauce seemed a little bit wild.  Interestingly enough, it turned out to be a fabulous complement for the sour notes of the rhubarb and lime, and became an instant favorite.

This time around, we wanted to boost the coriander flavor a bit -- so we made it a primary flavor for our ice cream base by infusing it with ground coriander seed, half of a vanilla bean, and the zest of one lime. This Philadelphia style ice cream has notes of coriander, vanilla, and lime with a delicious swirl of rhubarb sauce running throughout.

Honestly -- the ice cream was so delicious that Peef couldn't keep his spoon out of the ice cream maker as it was churning.  It's the perfect combination of cool creamy sweetness and zippy tartness -- a bit like all the best parts of spring-turned-summertime captured in a dish.

And so, in the spirit of deliciousness, we lift our glasses of ice cream high and toast all of you! Thanks for three amazing years!

Even more exciting -- in celebration of our Burp-Day, we'll be giving away at least THREE (3) t-shirts during the month of June. Visit Burp! Blog on Facebook to find out how to win!

2008: Rhubarb Sauce with Coriander and Lime
2010: Coriander Lime Ice Cream with Rhubarb Swirl


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