Spinach Artichoke Melts for Grilled Cheese Month

You know it's grilled cheese month, right?

It's the perfect time to take a moment of silence and truly appreciate the miracle that happens when you put great bread and delicious cheese together.

Living in Wisconsin, we're surrounded by mounds and mounds of delectable artisan cheese. And yet, sometimes we forget how lucky we really are. Grilled cheese month is a nice reminder that living in one of the cheesiest states in the union has its advantages.

This year, when we thought about concocting a sandwich to celebrate GC Month, we were looking to create something a little bit outside of the box. Two of our favorite things just happen to be grilled cheese sandwiches and spinach artichoke dip. So, as we puttered in the kitchen one day we thought, why not combine the two?

These delicious melts are the result of our experimentation. 

Deliciously cheesy, with all the flavor of a great spinach artichoke dip and the gooey cheesiness of the best grilled cheese sandwich you’ve ever made, they’re made even better by a crisp exterior created by grilling the sandwiches with real butter -- also a hot commodity here in the Dairy State :)

Spinach Artichoke Melts

©BURP!

Beer Bacon Brittle and a Delicious Giveaway

We met Sarah Marx Feldner, owner of Treat Bake Shop, over a year ago. It was before her delicious candied spiced pecans were featured in "Martha Stewart Living" magazine... or named among the "10 locally made products every cream city household should have on hand" by M Magazine.  In fact, when we met her, she was nonchalantly doing a tasting at our local food coop.

Even though we're the type of people who would ordinarily make our own spiced pecans, we had to admit that Sarah's recipe was pretty amazing.

Crispy, sugary, spicy... they're everything you'd want and more.

In fact, we kept finding ourselves picking up a jar here and there -- for that impromptu cheese plate at the holidays, to add to our next batch of brownies... Honestly, we bought at least a jar or two just for snacking.

As our esteem for her product grew, we got more and more excited about the prospect of show-casing it on the blog. But how?  We wanted to create something fun and tasty that really show-cased the great flavor of the pecans...

So, we started thinking about some of our favorite ingredients. What's more classic than the combination of beer and nuts?  And isn't it true that bacon makes everything better?

We made up a batch of this brittle, and it completely blew us away. It also won over the hearts of the readers over at Go Bold with Butter, our latest freelancing project.

This brittle brings together the flavors of game day staples like beer, spiced pecans, and bacon into a crunchy, salty-sweet snack that your guests will find as delicious as it is addictive.

Quite frankly, melted butter and sugar never tasted so good.

Beer Bacon Brittle

Of course, it's not really fair to talk about Sarah and her awesome pecans without offering you a chance to try them out for yourself.  So, get your commenting fingers ready.

Leave a comment telling us how you would use a jar of Treat Spiced Pecans. You have until NOON on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 when we'll randomly choose three (3) of you to receive a jar for your very own. Winners will be 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.

Make bacon beer brittle... or simply eat them out of hand. Whatever you decide to do, it will be fabulous.

©BURP!
Full Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Treat Bake Shop, who provided us with the product to us free of charge. However, all opinions expressed in this post are our own.