Two Bite Tuesday ~ The Vinegar Tasters and Fancy Butter

There's been so much going on lately and I've had so may great finds that I had an interesting time choosing just two to share today. Finally though, here they are:

First Bite ~ Since discovering Balsamic Vinegar a few years ago, I've become a bit of a vinegar snob, maybe snob isn't the right word. Enthusiast works better. Snob implies that I know what I'm talking about, and I don't. I just know what I like :-). These vinegars come from Cucina Olive Oils, an adorable little olive oil and vinegar shop just a few miles from my house. The shop really is like a little wine tasting room with vats of flavored olives oils from around the world on one side and vats of flavored vinegars on the other side.

Photo via Janet Ellis

It is pomegranate season here in the southwest and my grandmother has a tree abundant with big juicy ripe fruit. Yeah! I love the sweet/tart flavor of Pomeranian (I mean pomegranate :-/ Have never eaten a Pomeranian )and it is really just lovely in a salad. It is also lovely in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. That's the first bottle. I also chose a cinnamon pear because it just sounded like it would make either a delicious dressing for a beautiful pear Gorgonzola salad or a nice glaze for a fall dinner.

 Second bite ~ This little goodie comes from a little shopping excursion to ABC Cake Decorating last week. I was just going for some candy gift boxes and you can't just walk in there and not browse. I ran across these little candy molds in the shape of turkeys and poinsettias, and while I'm not into molding candy, I thought that serving turkey shaped butter pats for Thanksgiving and poinsettia shaped butter pats for Christmas would be a nice touch and they were only a couple of dollars a piece.

The picture doesn't really do them justice but the butter came out really cute. Use real stick butter, allow it to soften so that you can spread it into the molds. Check it for air pockets on the front (learned the hard way) and then pop them in the freezer for a bit to harden. Then just pop them out of the molds. I did a few for our Family Brunch and they turned out pretty cute. What do you think? A nice little touch without a whole lot of effort.

Turkey Butter Pats

I think I'll do up a bunch ahead for Thanksgiving and Christmas and store them on sheets of wax paper. They'll be so cute at every place setting. By the way...still working on that Velvet Pumpkin Giveaway...Brandi is at Disneyland as I write this, so I may have to go it on my own and I've never done one by myself. We'll see how it goes if I can figure it out in the next couple of days....stay tuned :-)))