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Privacy Policy / Your California Privacy Rights
Revised and posted as of March 4, 2013

Prime Publishing, LLC ("Company," "we" or "us") reserves the right to revise this Privacy Policy at any time simply by posting such revision, so we encourage you to review it periodically. In order to track any changes to this Privacy Policy, we will include a historical reference at the top of this document.

This Privacy Policy will tell you, among other things:

Your California privacy rights.
How we collect information and what information we collect.
How we may use information.
How we may share information.
Your choices regarding the sharing of information.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT/YOUR AGREEMENT
Company websites are not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18 or those who are not legal residents of the United States. By using our website or submitting information to us, you consent to the Company's use and sharing of the information collected or submitted as described in this Privacy Policy. If you are not 18 years of age or older and a valid resident of the United States or you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, do not provide us with any information or use any of the products or services offered or provided on Company websites or through Company technology.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Beginning January 1, 2005 under California's "Shine the Light" law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family or household use are entitled to either: (1) a list detailing the categories of information shared and the entities to which such information was provided; or (2) to be notified of a mechanism by which a consumer may opt-out of having their information shared with third parties. We have elected the second option. To opt-out of having your information shared with third parties please write to us.

HOW DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION AND WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
We collect and combine personally identifiable information ("PII") and non-personally identifiable information ("Non-PII") through various sources, including those discussed below. For your reference, PII is data collected with an intention to specifically identify, contact or locate a person, including but not limited to name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address. Conversely, Non-PII is data that is not used to specifically identify, contact or locate an individual, including but not limited to zip code, gender, age, or IP address.

Distribution Partners
Website operators that license our ad serving technology pass information to us so that we may serve advertisements to you. The information passed may include, but is not limited to, your IP address, e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, and gender.

Offer Forms
We also collect information about you when you complete a survey or offer form on one of our websites or web pages. This information may include, but is not limited to: your e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, and payment information; information about your background, interests, health, education, career goals, and shopping preferences; and any other personal information or unique preference information you provide to us or our advertisers.

Website Registration Forms
We collect information about you when you register on one of our websites. This registration information may include, but is not limited to your:
e-mail address
full name
mailing address
telephone number
date of birth
gender

Publisher Partners
When you complete a registration or offer form that is hosted by one of our website publisher partners on our behalf, the website publisher partner may submit all or a portion of the information that you submitted on the form to the Company. This information may include, but is not limited to: your IP address, e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, and payment information; information about your background, interests, health, education, career goals, and shopping preferences; and any other information you provide to our website publisher partner.

Marketing Partners
We may receive information about you, including but not limited to your IP address, e-mail address, first name, last name, mailing address, and telephone number, from third party marketing partners that provide us with consumer data to manage on their behalf.

Automatic Information/Digital Identifiers
We may automatically receive and store certain types of information about you through the data sources listed above.

You may be familiar with the term "cookies," which are unique alphanumeric identifiers that store information on your computer. A cookie is placed on your computer when your web browser accesses our website. We use cookies for tracking transactions and the user characteristics explained in detail throughout this Privacy Policy. If you choose, there are utilities available for purchase from independent software providers to install on your computer as well as tools/preferences you can choose through most web browsers to make website visits anonymous. Of course, cookies let you have a more satisfying website experience, so we recommend that you leave them turned on.

We also collect information through our web server applications. This information includes your Internet Protocol or "IP" address, date/time stamp, browser type, and referring URL.

Additionally, we may use pixel tracking technology to track the completion of transactions with us or our advertisers, the source information for those transactions, and your IP address, date/time stamp, browser type, and referring URL.

Government Forms
The Company may be required to create, collect, maintain, and submit certain information required by the government, such as IRS Forms W-9 and 1099. This information, which may include your taxpayer identification number, will not be used, shared, transferred, or sold for marketing purposes.

HOW DO WE USE THIS INFORMATION?
We may use the collected PII and Non-PII for any legally permissible purpose in our sole discretion, including but not limited to those explained below.

Ad Serving
We may serve advertisements to you based, in part, on your IP address, the demographic and geographic information you submitted to the Company during the website registration process, and other socio-economic information, psychographic information, Internet behavior (i.e., browsing, search, shopping, purchase, and ad response behavior), and lifestyle information about you that we obtain from affiliated entities and from third parties.

We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our Web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit www.networkadvertising.org.

Pre-select/Pre-fill Offers
Our website technology may pre-select certain offers for you to view based on the demographic and geographic information you submitted to the Company during the website registration process. Additionally, this technology may pre-fill some or all of the offers' data fields with the information you submitted during the website registration process in order to prevent you from having to re-enter this information. We may not show all of the pre-filled data fields to you.

Upsell
We utilize customized post transactional or "upsell" technology to help advertisers generate sales, while providing you with a series of great offers we think may be of interest to you. The way it works is simple: once you purchase a product or service from one of our reward advertisers, you will be offered additional products or services that we think may be of interest to you. If you elect to purchase products or services from an advertiser in the post transactional channel, we will pass the information that you provided during the initial transaction to the subsequent advertiser, including but not limited to your credit card information. This information pass is done to enhance and simplify your purchasing experience. Your information will only be passed to an advertiser in the post transactional channel after you have elected to purchase their product or service. By electing to purchase their product or service you consent to the passing of your data to the third party advertiser in question.

Customer Service and Fulfillment
We may use your information to operate the website promotion, service your account and to fulfill rewards earned through Company websites. We may also use your information to verify your identity or claimed account status and, where we consider appropriate, investigate your compliance with the terms and conditions of the website promotion or any advertiser offer. We do retain customer service correspondence.

Credit Card Preauthorization
By submitting your credit card information to us or to one of our advertisers, you are authorizing the Company or its agent to periodically verify that your credit card account is valid and has credit available by charging, and thereafter crediting, a small sum to the card.

Marketing
We may use your information in our online (e.g., e-mail marketing) and offline (e.g., telemarketing, cell phone text messaging, skip tracing, and direct mail) marketing programs. If you would like to be removed from these programs please write to us.

HOW DO WE SHARE INFORMATION?
We may share the collected PII and Non-PII for any legally permissible purpose in our sole discretion, including but not limited to those explained below.

Within the Company
We may share information we collect with affiliated companies, including our parent company and other subsidiaries of our parent company, for use in their ad serving and marketing programs. This Privacy Policy does not apply to affiliated companies and their collection, use and sharing of information.

Vendors
We may share your information with various third party vendors that are not part of the Company, including but not limited to vendors that provide us with technology to deploy commercial e-mail, vendors that sell the products or services for which you have qualified through one of our websites, and shipping companies that we utilize to ship products to you.

Advertisers
When you participate in an offer by completing a form, we will transfer the information you submitted on the form to the applicable advertiser.

When you answer "yes" or "no" to a marketing or survey question, some or all of the information that you submitted during the website registration process will be transferred to advertisers that we believe may be of interest to you without providing you with another opportunity to review the information.

When you select "yes" next to an offer, we will transfer some or all of the information that you submitted during the website registration process to the applicable advertiser without providing you with another opportunity to review the information.

Ad Serving Companies
We may use third party ad networks or ad serving companies to serve advertisements on our websites. We pass information about you to these companies so that they can deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of interest to you. The information passed to these companies may include, but is not limited to, your IP address, e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, and any other information you provide to us. Web pages that are served by these companies will state that they are "powered by" or "ads by" the applicable company and will contain a link to that company's privacy policy.

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site.Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet.Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Marketing Partners
We may share, license or sell your information to third parties for various marketing purposes, including their online (e.g., e-mail marketing) and offline (e.g., telemarketing, cell phone text messaging, skip tracing, and direct mail) marketing programs. If you would like to be removed from these programs write to us.

Data Enhancement/Appending/Validation
We may use third party service providers to enhance our database with additional elements, including but not limited to age ranges present in your household, whether you own or rent a home, the length of time you have lived at your residence, whether you are a mail order buyer or responder, household income, and gender. Further, we may use third party service providers to append telephone numbers to other data points we have in our database. We also may use third party service providers to validate the data we have in our database.

Additionally, we may share, license or sell your information to third parties for use in their data validation, enhancement, information verification services, and, to the extent permitted by law, individual reference or look-up services.

Third Party Cookies

Notwithstanding anything else in this policy, we or a data provider we have engaged may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser to enable you to receive customized ads or content.   These cookies contain no personally identifiable information.  The cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to data you voluntarily have submitted to us, e.g., your email address, that we may share with a data provider solely in hashed, non-human readable form. To opt-out of these cookies, please go to http://www.aboutads.info/choices.

Governmental Agencies or Other Companies
We may share your information with law enforcement officials or governmental agencies: (1) in response to their request; (2) when permitted or required by law; or (3) to establish our compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, or guidelines.

We may store and share your information with third parties for suppression or opt-out purposes.

We also may share your information with third parties when: (1) trying to protect against or prevent actual or potential fraud or unauthorized transactions; (2) investigating fraud that has already taken place; (3) enforcing or applying existing terms and conditions and/or other agreements; (4) protecting the rights, property or safety of our websites, our users or others; or (5) responding to subpoenas, court orders or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.

In all cases, this information is not provided to these entities or persons for marketing purposes.

Right to Transfer
Should the Company choose to sell or transfer business assets, it is possible that the information we possess may be transferred as part of that transaction. The Company may decide to retain a copy of the information post sale or transfer.

COMPANY CUSTOMER CHOICES

Marketing Communications and Unsubscribe Information
By completing and submitting a Company registration form, you are consenting to receive marketing communications from the Company and its third party marketing partners. If, after you have shared your information with the Company, you decide that you do not want to receive marketing communications or newsletters from the Company and its third party marketing partners, you can discontinue the communications by clicking here and filling out our form. If you have registered or submitted information under more than one e-mail account, you must submit separate unsubscribe requests for each account.

Request for More Information
As it relates to marketing communications or any other questions you might have about our Privacy Policy, please write to us at Prime Publishing, LLC, 3400 Dundee Road, Suite 220, Northbrook, IL 60062.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I HIT A LINK TO ANOTHER SITE FROM A COMPANY WEBSITE?
Our websites may offer links to other websites. Other websites have their own terms of use and privacy and security policies. If you choose to visit one of these sites, you should review the policies that govern that particular site.

APPLICATION OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy applies to all information collected by or submitted to the Company. Other affiliated entities of the Company may obtain information independently from transactions and experiences with you or from other sources. This Privacy Policy does not pertain to that information.

WHAT IS THE POLICY WITH RESPECT TO COMMUNICATING WITH CHILDREN?
We recognize the unique privacy concerns regarding children. We are committed to carefully protecting privacy where children are involved no matter the point of contact. In particular, our intention is to fully comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"). Per COPPA guidelines, we do not knowingly collect PII from children under the age of 13. If a parent or guardian is made aware that a child under the age of 13 has provided us with PII through any point of contact, click here to contact us and we will delete the information about the child referenced from our files.

SECURITY
There is no such thing as complete security on the Internet or otherwise. The Company uses various security techniques on our websites to help protect against the loss, misuse or modification of information we've collected from you. When you access your personal information or transmit information to us, that information is stored on servers that we have taken steps to protect from unauthorized access or intrusion. While we strive to protect your information, the Company cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. You acknowledge and assume this risk when communicating with the Company, its partners and affiliates.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ANY DISPUTE OVER PRIVACY IS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, AS WELL AS THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS WEBSITE (INCLUDING LIMITATIONS ON DAMAGES). YOU AGREE THAT THE COMPANY'S LIABILITY FOR ANY BREACH OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE VALUE OF THE TRANSACTIONS OR SERVICES PROVIDED TO YOU BY THE COMPANY TO THE EXTENT SUCH CLAIM IS NOT OTHERWISE BARRED BY OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

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Parmesan Crusted Fondue Grilled Cheese and Grilled Cheese Academy Recipe Showdown

April ended, May wormed its way in under a blanket of snow and announced the official end of Grilled Cheese Month. Sigh.

While many blogs are moving on to Mother’s Day celebrations—all pretty and lacy with flowers and sweets galore—I have just one more grilled cheese to share with you. Just because I can’t help myself.

And because I couldn’t bear it if you missed out on the chance to win some crazy, great prizes by simply creating your own grilled cheese sandwich, I really needed to remind you just one last time about your chance to wow the world with your cheeseness.

I’ll be one of the judges of the Grilled Cheese Academy’s Grilled Cheese Recipe Showdown next month, eating my way through toasted bread and gooey middles to choose the finest cheese sandwich of 2013.

The entries have been rolling in but I couldn’t resist giving you one more prod, one more push to enter for yourself because the prizes are just too good to not give it a go.

If I could enter, I oh so would. But I can’t, so you need to.

You only have until May 12 to enter the contest, and here are over 5,000 reasons you should…

Gold Skillet Award will go to 1 Winner

$4,000 Gourmet Kitchenware including:

10-piece Copper Core Cookware Set (a serious brand name I totally covet)

7-piece Knife Block Set (from THE German knife maker)

10-piece Cast Iron Cookware Set (and more serious names)

$1,000 MasterCard Gift Card

Wisconsin Cheese Basket

Inclusion in the 2013 Grilled Cheese Academy Recipe Book

Silver Spatula Award will go 2 Winners

$500 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card

Wisconsin Cheese Basket

Inclusion in the 2013 Grilled Cheese Academy Recipe Book

Bronze Butter Knife Award will go to 8 Winners

$100 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card

Wisconsin Cheese Basket

I’ve had a cadre of different grilled cheese sands I’ve created for the blog and this is probably the most stripped down I’ve done yet. Although you can hardly call it uncomplicated.

My inspiration was to create a grilled cheese that embellishes the cheesiest treat around: Fondue. A sandwich that combines the essence of that popular 70’s group noshing fest with the centerpieces nutty gruyere and melty baby swiss.

The bread is toasted and Parmesan crusted, brushed with garlic butter and layered with cheese and pepper jelly. I couldn’t help myself in keeping it cheese only. Will I ever find my simplicity again?

Parmesan Crusted Fondue Grilled Cheese with Pepper Jelly

Ingredients

2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced 8 ounces baby swiss cheese, sliced Instructions

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat with sliced garlic. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until butter begins to brown and garlic becomes fragrant then remove from heat and discard the garlic slices. Brush garlic infused butter on one side of each slice of bread, then flip the bread buttered side down and repeat with the remaining bread slices. Stack the bread slices, buttered sides together and press a sprinkling of grated parmesan into each of the buttered bread slices. Stack the baby swiss cheese then a teaspoon or so of the pepper jelly and then the gruyere cheese onto the bread slices. Place the cheese topped bread, parmesan and buttered side down, in a non-stick fry pan over medium-high heat and top with the other slice of buttered bread. Cover with lid and let cook for 3-4 minutes or until golden. Reduce heat to medium and flip sandwich to the other side and cook for 2-3 minutes or until bread is toasty golden and the cheese has melted. The second side will cook faster than the first so watch carefully. Repeat process with the other sandwich ingredients to make the rest of the grilled cheese sandwiches. Enjoy hot.http://www.foodiecrush.com/2013/05/parmesan-crusted-fondue-grilled-cheese/Can’t wait to see what grilled cheese you come up with to enter in the Grilled Cheese Recipe Showdown,

Tagged as: cheese, grilled cheese, lunch, pepper jelly, sandwich

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Garlicky Swiss Chard and Chickpeas plus a Recipe Girl Cookbook Giveaway

There are few things I enjoy more than spending an afternoon cuddled up with:

A: A warm body I love (Smudge, G Dawg or one of the pups all take first place),

B: Either my iPad loaded with new online mags to scroll through or a fresh batch of my favorite print titles to savor,

OR

C: A new cookbook to glean tasty inspiration from.

Lucky me, I have exactly three of those reasons to make a fresh iced coffee, kick off my shoes, and steal away for some “me” time but this time it’s with the debut cookbook from one of the web’s most popular food bloggers, Lori of Recipe Girl, appropriately titled The Recipe Girl Cookbook. Well said Lori.

Lori was one of the first food bloggers I discovered after being introduced to her blog by a friend of a friend. I had just started FoodieCrush and after blogging for a just a few months I boldly asked Lori if I could interview her. She was probably wondering what she got herself into, but graciously said yes to this newbie.

I got to know her a lot better on a blogger’s trip to visit Harry & David, and in person realized this girl not only knows food, but she’s generous and creative, offering advice when asked and encouraging others to reach their goals. Plus she likes a nice glass of wine. I can totally get down with a gal like that.

So when Lori asked me to take a look at her new cookbook, and cook and eat and share one of her recipes, it wasn’t hard to respond with an “Absolutely!” Send over the echo-sign, I’m in.

Lori paired my post with one from Amanda, who chose to make Lori’s Cheese Ravioli with Brown Butter & Fresh Tomato Sauce. My plan was to choose a side dish that would work with her choice, creating a complete—and simple—dinner. Oh but which recipe was would it be?

I had the toughest time narrowing down my recipe creation choices, maybe because there are 195 of them.

Avocado and Pine Nut Salad (oh, what a perfect combo), Gorgonzola Smashed Potatoes (it’s not like I’d be caught without a fridge full of cheese so I had all the ingredients) or Cheese and Herb Beer Bread (my idea of two essential ingredients joined in perfect union.)

But my daring pairing skills took over and I finally decided Garlicky Swiss Chard with Chickpeas would be the perfect mate to the Cheese Ravioli. 

Luckily spring has produced some gorgeous ribs of Rainbow Swiss Chard that are populating one of my go-to grocery stores. Okay, you might be thinking, ew, swiss chard. What even is that? Hippie dippie food? No, it isn’t hippie dippie food, it’s delicious. And a veggie you really need to incorporate into your diet thanks to it’s many, many health benefits that offset our love of cheese and butter. It’s all about balance people.  And I think it might be one of my recently acquired and newly coveted veggies crushes.

A few notes about the recipe:

1. Follow Lori’s advice on the ingredient list and do not halve this recipe. It seems like a TON, literally a TON, of swiss chard, but like spinach, it cooks down a bunch, so if you’re serving for a crowd, plan accordingly.

2. There’s plenty of room for interpretation here by switching up the noted ingredients for what you have on hand, just like Faith did in her Recipe Girl Cookbook Review. You can always sub out kale or spinach for the swiss chard, parmesan or goat cheese for the feta cheese and regular onion for the shallot (which I had to go back to the store to get since I was out!) Be adventurous and play a little people. 

3. While this recipe lives in the “sides” section of the cookbook, I totally ate the entire thing for lunch. It was that good.

Garlicky Swiss Chard and Chickpeas

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided 2 bunches Swiss chard, center stems cut out and discarded and leaves coarsely chopped 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth) 2 medium shallots, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)6 medium garlic cloves, minced 15.5 ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese, optionalInstructions

In a larges skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add half of hte chard and cook, 1 to 2 minutes. When the first half has wilted, add the remaining chard. When all of the chard is wilted, add the chicken broth. Cover the skillet and cook the chard until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain the chard through a fine sieve (strainer) and set it aside. Wipe out the skillet and heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook, stirring, until they are softened, about 2 minutes. Add the chard and chickpeas and cook until heated through, 3 to 4 minutes. Drizzle the lemon juice over the mixture and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle cheese on top just before serving, if desired. http://www.foodiecrush.com/2013/04/garlicky-swiss-chard-and-chickpeas/

Being a bit of a print junkie who happens to make online magazines because I can’t afford to print it, the first thing I noticed when I handled the The Recipe Girl Cookbook was the delicious cover stock. It has a velvet feel that is so soft to the touch it just begs to be opened. Okay, will do. 

After a few drool marks skirted the pages thanks to lush pics by another fave food blogger/cum photographer Matt Armendariaz (who I interviewed here) I noticed each of the recipes has an icon noting it to be gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian or a web favorite. Thanks for that awesome idea I may borrow for upcoming eBooks. Mwah.

The recipes are unique enough for skilled home cooks, but easy enough for the novice to pull off and just about each recipe features a ‘Change It Up’ idea suggesting how to get creative and use Lori’s recipes as a baseline to create your own interpretation. As a winger, I totally get that.

Congratulations on your new cookbook Lori, I’m betting it will leave plenty of people happy and belly-full.

Lori and KitchenAid want you to enjoy the book at home with a new blender to boot. One winner will win a copy of The Recipe Girl Cookbook and a 12-Speed KitchenAid Blender in your color choice. I of course like orange, but you get your pick. Please read the complete rules found on the widget. Valid for U.S. residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch by subscribing to FoodieCrush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. This site includes affiliate shopping links of which I receive a small percentage of sales to allow me to create new and special content like this for my readers, so thank you for your support. All opinions are my own.

Tagged as: beans, chickpeas, garlic, recipe, side, swiss chard

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Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese and Grilled Cheese Academy’s Recipe Showdown

If you hadn’t noticed, I sort of have a thing for cheese, especially grilled cheese. Yes, I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to the grilling of the cheese.

I think it stems from some of my first cooking experiences as a kid, when one of my standy-by lunchtime masterpieces was a melted cheese sandwich, forever inking the taste of melty cheddar cheese and white bread into my tastebud memory bank. And it’s now become a favorite of my Smudge too. How could it not?

Last year I celebrated Grilled Cheese month by creating a new grilled cheese recipe to share each week during the month of April. With so much melted goodness to be had they’re still some of my favorite posts.

[ 1 ]  Turkey and White Cheddar with Caramelized Onion and Grape Grilled Cheese  [ 2 ] Honey Smoked Ham with Fig Spread Grilled Cheese  [ 3 ]  Sweet Pear and Rosemary Honey with Havarti Grilled Cheese  [ 4 ] Truffled Mushroom with Prosciutto and Tallegio Grilled Cheese

I hope you like them too because it’s time to break out the cheese grater and warm up the sandwich flipper because we’re doing it again this year. My mind just can’t quit thinking of some of my favorite ingredients to melt together.

And here’s a reason yours should get churning too.

My friends at Wisconsin Cheese and I are announcing Grilled Cheese Academy’s 2013 Recipe Showdown, where aspiring cheese heads can put their creative talents to the test to compete for the title to be crowned the queen—or king—of the grilled cheese sandwich for an entire year.

And lucky me, I will be one of the contest judges stuffing my face with amazing creations. Is there a crown? Possibly. A sash? I’ll make you one. But I do know there will definitely be prizes ($5,000 in value to the grand prize winner plus more!) bragging rights and some serious cheese cred.

All you have to do is create and enter your best grilled cheese sensation. Oh, TWIST MY ARM! Oh wait, I can’t enter since I’m a judge. Well then people, don’t let me down and please cook me a sandwich to make me and your mama proud.

Now about those prizes…

Last year’s Gold Prize Winner, Ally Phillips, created The Bewitching (shown above), a melted griller featuring Wisconsin Gouda and Provolone with fresh blackberries, peppery greens and bacon. I think you can compete with that.

The contest runs now through May 12, 2013, giving you one month to conceive your new winning cheese baby and enter it at the Grilled Cheese Academy website.

Here’s what you could win when you do:

Gold Skillet Award will go to 1 Winner

$4,000 Gourmet Kitchenware including: 10-piece Copper Core Cookware Set7-piece Knife Block Set10-piece Cast Iron Cookware Set$1,000 MasterCard Gift CardWisconsin Cheese BasketInclusion in the 2013 Grilled Cheese Academy Recipe Book

Silver Spatula Award will go 2 Winners

$500 Williams-Sonoma Gift CardWisconsin Cheese BasketInclusion in the 2013 Grilled Cheese Academy Recipe BookBronze Butter Knife Award will go to 8 Winners

$100 Williams-Sonoma Gift CardWisconsin Cheese BasketA few tips to help you along the way:

The first step is to conceive a recipe that is mouth watering and unique. A layer of cheddar between two slices of white bread is great when you’re an 8 year old cook (like I was) and will always be a classic but won’t win you any grand prizes. Dream up something wild, something new, give it a unique name to match its creative ingredients and you’re well on your way to wow.

The second step is creating unique and complimentary flavor combinations—sweet, savory, spicy, whatever your imagination conjures up—using Wisconsin Cheese made from cow milk. You’ll be judged on how well Wisconsin Cheese was incorporated in the sandwich so save the goat cheese for another day. 

While the flavor will be of utmost importance, the last step to influence the judging is the look of your sandwich. A decent photo and nice presentation always helps and I know you can take that step to the bank too.

For a the complete list of rules, types of cheeses as well as tips and sample sandwich flavor combos, visit the Grilled Cheese Academy.

And now, how about the recipe for this Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese?

The inspiration for this recipe came from the flavor combination I always choose for pizza night, when I sometimes stray from the flat disk to create a stuffed calzone instead.

I loooove the multiple cheeses—ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan—and the sautéed, garlicky spinach with artichoke hearts (my favorite!) and when sandwiched between 2 slices of crispy sourdough, it’s almost enough for me to give up pizza dough all together. Well, maybe. I think I’ll keep them both in my back pocket for now.

Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided 2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped roughly 4-6 canned artichoke hearts in water, drained and sliced 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese 8 ounces mozzarella fresca (fresh mozzarella), grated Instructions

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat then add 1 clove of the sliced garlic and cook for 5-7 minutes, lowering the heat so the garlic doesn’t burn but just steeps in the garlic oil and becomes fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. In a small bowl mix the ricotta cheese and parmesan cheese and mix. Add the cooled garlic olive oil and mix in. Sauté the remaining garlic slices in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil for 1 minute over medium high heat. Add the chopped spinach and artichoke hearts, season with kosher salt and cook for about 4 minutes or until spinach begins to wilt. Remove from heat and cover with a lid to keep warm. Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread, then stack the two buttered sides together and repeat with the other 2 slices. Sprinkle the bread with a handful of the grated fresh mozzarella, then a layer of the spinach and artichoke hearts and half of the sun dried tomatoes. Add half of the ricotta cheese mixture and top with additional mozzarella cheese. Place bread, buttered side down, in a non-stick fry pan over medium-high heat. Cover with lid and let cook for 3-4 minutes or until golden. Reduce heat to medium and flip sandwich to the other side and cook for 2-3 minutes or until bread is toasty golden and the cheese has melted. The second side will cook faster than the first so watch carefully. Slice in half and enjoy hot.http://www.foodiecrush.com/2013/04/spinach-and-artichoke-grilled-cheese-and-grilled-cheese-academy-contest/

Next week I’ll be back to regularly formatted Friday Faves with another grand grilled cheese. Have a fantastic weekend!

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch by subscribing to FoodieCrush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. This site includes affiliate shopping links of which I receive a small percentage of sales to allow me to create new and special content like this for my readers, so thank you for your support. All opinions are my own.

Tagged as: artichoke, cheese, contest, grilled cheese, Grilled Cheese Academy, lunch, mozzarella, parmesan cheese, ricotta, sandwich, sourdough, spinach

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Roasted Artichokes with Chorizo Dressing and an Artichoke Recipe Round-Up

I look forward to this time of year, all year long. That may not make sense when you read it but try saying it out loud. Loud and proud. There you go. See, it works.

With the neighbors firing up their lawn mowers for the first spring shave (as we currently sit in the midst of a snow storm) and the grasses green and the  trees bloom (where’s my hay fever meds?) I find myself craving the same foods I do every spring: Fresh, clean and flavorful. Gotcha! You thought I was going to say chocolate and cheese. No, that’s every day, not just a particular season.

Flavor. That’s what makes these roasted Artichokes with Chorizo Dressing leap straight to the top of the want list.

I have a lot of artichoke recipes in my go-to recipe drawer, er, filed in my head: pasta, pizzas, with eggs and chicken. So far only Chicken Tzatziki Pizza with Artichokes, Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese (come back tomorrow for another grilled cheese recipe to celebrate Grilled Cheese Month) and my second post ever, Spring Artichokes have made it to the blog.

Which leaves plenty of room to develop and share a lot more with you lucky devils.

Some of my favorite recipes are from canned artichokes—my faves are from Trader Joe’s—packed in water. Which is awesome because then I can cure the crave any time of year. But when fresh artichokes are in season? Forget about it. I’m going fresh.

While I usually hold out for the Ocean Mist brand at Costco because they are big, have tightly bunched leaves and I’ve found have the most meat on the leaf, my local store isn’t carrying them yet. So I went mini. I found these baby artichokes at Whole Foods, and bingo, they’re from Ocean Mist, so the first time I bought them I knew they’d be good. I was right.

This recipe is one I’ve kept in my piles, and I mean piles (just ask my husband who I believe is currently devising a strategic plan to rid the house of all “reference material”) of recipes pulled from magazines over the past 10 years. And even more when it comes to Thanksgiving, but that’s another season entirely so it’ll have to wait.

It’s based on a recipe from Napa Valley’s Michael Chiarello aka Cooking Channel fame in a 2010 issue of Food and Wine. The idea of roasting artichokes is a favorite of mine because it makes the hearts so incredibly tender and deeelicious.

A few things about the recipe:

1. Don’t skip the lemon step. Repeat, do not skip the lemon step. What is the lemon step? It’s when you cut the artichoke, pretty much anywhere, and rub the cut portion with a slather of lemon juice. This helps keep the cut area from discoloring. Now it works most of the time, but you have to be Johnny Be Good quick, these things brown in a heartbeat once they get a whiff of fresh O2.

2. Be a good stripper. The other step to be very keen about is stripping the little buggers of all of the tough outer leaves because these nuggets are perfect for popping directly into the mouth. You’ll feel like you don’t have any leaves left on the chokes by the time you’re done, but it will be well worth the effort. When boiling artichokes, the outer leaves soften and you can still strip the meat without cutting the inside of your mouth like a Ginsu warrior. With roasting, any semi-tough outer leaves will just get tougher and roastier. Think artichoke jerky. Check out this how to clean baby artichokes video if you’re feeling trepidatious.

3. Winging it is for the birds. The first time I made this recipe I made the mistake of thinking, “Hey! If 3 tablespoons of lemon in the roasting liquid is good, then doubling that is sure to be better.” Whoa, not. Adding more lemon turns the artichokes into bitter balls of green, and after all the work you’ve done slathering and stripping and anticipating the savoriness, you’re going to cry. I did. After I threw them in the garbage. I learned this is one part of the recipe where it’s better to be a follower than an adapter.

Roasted Artichokes with Chorizo Dressing

Ingredients

Roasted Artichoke with Chorizo Dressing 1 lemon, halved plus 3 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 tablespoon lemon zest 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 6 cloves garlic, half quartered and half minced 2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped 1 cup fresh sourdough bread crumbs 1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped kosher salt and freshly ground pepper Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Fill a large bowl with water and squeeze juice from one half of a lemon in the bowl and cut the other half into slices. Working one at a time on each artichoke, pull off all of the touch dark green outer leaves of the artichokes down to the tender leaves. With a sharp knife, trim the bottom of the artichoke stem and all of the sharp tips of the leaves and cut the artichokes in half. Scoop out the inner leaves and any semblance of a furry choke, although with smaller artichokes they probably haven’t yet developed. Quickly rub each cut with a slice of lemon so the cut edges don’t turn brown and add to the lemon flavored water. Repeat with all of the artichokes. Combine the 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 cloves quartered garlic, thyme, bay leaf and 2/3 cup olive oil in a large oven-proof skillet. Add the drained artichokes and bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 2-3 minutes. Move skillet to the oven and roast for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned in spots and fork tender. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the 3 cloves of minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add bread crumbs and stir to combine then let the bread crumbs cook without stirring for 1-2 minutes or until they begin to brown. Allow to cook for another minute or two stirring more frequently as the bread crumbs toast and transfer to a small bowl. In the same skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and add the chorizo sausage and cook over medium heat, breaking into small pieces until cooked through. Remove from heat and add the bread crumb mixture, chopped parsley and lemon zest and stir. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Once artichokes are done cooking, remove from the oven, transfer to a serving dish and add chorizo bread crumbs and drizzle with extra olive oil and serve warm or at room temperature. http://www.foodiecrush.com/2013/04/roasted-artichokes-with-chorizo-dressing-and-an-artichoke-recipe-round-up/

Since I can’t seem to get enough of my spring fling with the thorny little buggers, check out these food blogger’s great recipes for the holy artichoke.

Spinach Artichoke Mac n Cheese from Megan of Country Cleaver

No Cook Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke Dip by Rebecca of Foodie With Family

Artichoke Lemon Pesto by Priscilla of Red Shallot Kitchen

Roasted Stuffed Artichokes from Heather of Heather Likes Food

Spinach Artichoke and Roasted Red Pepper Cheesy Squares from Averie of Averie Cooks

Pan Fried Baby Artichokes with Mint and Lemon by Kasey of Turntable Kitchen

Artichoke Biscuit Bread with Asiago Cheese and Olives from Patrice of Circle B Cooking

Lemon Chicken with Artichokes by Kate of Framed Cooks

Artichoke, Leek and Potato Casserole by Katie of Good Life Eats

Oven Braised Artichokes with Garlic and Thyme from Sylvie of Gourmande in the Kitchen

Mediterranean Chicken and Artichoke Stir Fry by Rachel and Bill of Simply Fresh Cooking

Gluten Free Tempura Artichoke Hearts with Vegan Goody-Goody Sauce from Carol of Simply Gluten-Free

Roasted Butternut Squash, Artichoke and Goats Cheese Salad by Jennifer of Le Delicieux

Chicken and Artichoke Pesto Quesadillas by Snixy Kitchen

Roasted Artichokes with Lemon Tarragon Butter by Mellissa of I breathe I’m Hungry

Hot Asiago Crab and Artichoke Dip from Confections of a FoodieBride

Buffalo Mozarella, Artichoke and Lemon Pizza from Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen

Garlic Chicken Panini by Kathy of Panini Happy

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch by subscribing to FoodieCrush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. This site includes affiliate shopping links of which I receive a small percentage of sales to allow me to create new and special content like this for my readers, so thank you for your support. All opinions are my own.

Tagged as: appetizer, artichokes, chorizo, recipe, small bites

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