Champagne Cocktail for the New Year and Beyond

Tradition. It’s a big thing this time of year, with practically everyone celebrating one thing or another with friends and family. But no matter how you choose to usher in the New Year, you’ll probably be doing it by drinking some form of champagne or one of its sparkling wine knockoffs derivatives such as Spanish Cava or Italian Prosecco. Good champagne is very good, while great champagne can be superb. Unfortunately, it is almost always priced accordingly and the age-old adage “no free lunches” most certainly applies.

Roasted Almonds

This week we’re going to show you how to make roasted almonds, the perfect pairing to a nice, crisp ale or a light red wine. What’s great about this recipe is that it is ridiculously easy to make, incredibly customizable so you can change it up according to the spices and flavors you have on hand and wish to use and takes about 10 minutes to make; and that’s if you take 5 minutes to test-drive your beer beforehand. Sounds too good to be true? Let’s get started!

Cured Salmon and Pickles: Ancient Recipes for Modern Winters

So this week we have two recipes for you! Why two recipes?

1) Why not?
2) Because they go so well when served together
3) Because both are super easy to prepare
4) Because both are ready at about the same time
5) WHY NOT?

Magazines, MacGourmet and Muffins

Back in my former life I had a collection of magazines from a prominent culinary publication in Israel. Perhaps collection is a bit grandiose of a word, I didn’t collect them to collect them and I wasn’t even a regular subscriber but I did purchase quite a few editions whose main articles and features I particularly liked. I kept these around on my shelf and consulted them on occasion much as I would any cookbooks. But the problem with magazines, perhaps more so than books, is that they are dated and that is no more evident than on the cover. After a while I had accumulated a good dozen or so of these and when it came time to move to Ireland I couldn’t justify bringing them with me. Enter MacGourmet, a digital recipe collection app described as iTunes for your recipes. I had used MacGourmet for some time before moving and I somehow (moving is stressful, moving to another country even more so) managed to add my favorite recipes from my collection to MacGourmet (stay with me here, there’s a recipe or two for you at the end).