Welcome to the Urner’s Food Blog!
I’d like to toss out a couple of things before I forget. First of all, if you are looking for recipes older than this blog recounts, please email me at marketing@urners.com and I will attempt to track them down for you. I know there are some foodies that don’t want to miss anything so we will do our best to catch you up where we can.

Secondly, since you are here on the blog, I am going to let you know about where else we are on the glorious world wide web…

If you are into Pinterest, you NEED to follow us there. We have several boards with inspiration for food, decorating, home organization etc. http://pinterest.com/urners/boards/.We are working diligently to be awesome and content rich on Pinterest. If you have pins to share with us, please do! We will continue to add to our content there. We do regularly update our Facebook page with deals, coupons, sales, and sometimes just fun stuff. https://www.facebook.com/urners. Did you know we are on youtube? Yep. We have product videos and advertisements and other fun stuff over there – http://www.youtube.com/user/Urners1. And we are still growing our social media sites, so stay tuned!

But enough about that. FOOD. Show me the FOOD!!

I will now confess that until this class, I would not eat goat cheese. But I am a believer now! Part of what made Ellie’s dishes so palatable was the addition of cream cheese which softened the tang of the goat cheese a bit. If you are eating goat cheese to avoid dairy, I realize cream cheese is not helpful. But I think there are other ways to introduce your palate to goat cheese without the shock that initially turned me off to it. I highly recommend Ellie’s brunch line-up for any special event you might be hosting (I immediately think of bridal or baby shower) especially in the summer and early in the day. These were light dishes but definitely did not leave us hungry. Delicious, elegant, simple and fresh. ENJOY!

RECIPES COURTESY OF CHEF ELLIE FERGON

Strawberry Bruschetta with honey goat cheese:

• 1 loaf french bread, halved lengthwise
• 4 ounces Honey goat cheese
• 2 pints Fresh strawberries, diced
• 1 bunch fresh Basil, chiffonade
• 1 tablespoon Aged Balsamic Vinegar

1. Brush each side of bread with olive oil. Broil until golden.
2. Smooth a generous amount of goat cheese on each half. If using plain goat cheese, drizzle honey on top.
3. Chop fresh strawberries into small bite size pieces.
4. Toss with aged balsamic vinaigrette *if you have a flavored balsamic vinaigrette, use here (vanilla-fig/strawberry) and chopped basil. If making in advance, do not add basil until serving, just distribute on top of strawberry-balsamic mixture.
5. Top goat cheese bread with strawberry mixture and serve immediately. Cut into pieces before topping with strawberry mixture if serving individual pieces.

Thyme Goat Cheese Tart with fresh berries

Honeydew Mimosa

• 2 ounces honeydew juice
• 1/2 ounce mint simple syrup
• Sparkling wine or Champagne
• Melon for garnish

1. Juice half honeydew melon. Hint: pour into ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, save in a freezer ziplock bag and use when needed.
2. Make simple syrup: Use equal parts sugar and water with fresh mint leaves. Heat water and sugar until sugar is dissolved and syrup begins to slowly boil. Turn off heat, add mint leaves and cover. Let steep for at least 30 minutes and remove leaves before cooling.
3. Assembly: Shake juice and simple syrup in a shaker filled with ice until completely chilled. Strain into a champagne flute. Add Sparkling wine to the top and garnish with a melon ball on a skewer.

Skillet Goat Cheese Biscuits with Jam

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, divided
• 4 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 425 ^°F and place a 10-inch cast-iron pan into the oven while it’s preheating.
2. Pour flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Cut 4 tablespoons of the butter into small pieces and add it to the bowl, with the cold goat cheese and the yogurt. Stir until the mix is moistened, adding an extra tablespoon of yogurt if needed.
3. Remove the hot skillet from the oven and place a tablespoon of butter into it. When the butter has melted, divide the batter into 12 biscuits, each about the size of a golf ball, and then nestle them into the pan – they’ll be snuggled in their pretty cozily, and that’s all right. I usually start by making a ring of 9 around the edge, then 3 in the middle.
4. Brush the tops of the biscuits with one tablespoon of melted butter. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes until browned on the top and bottom. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the grated Parmesan cheese.

WARNING: these biscuits are amazing, and very easy to make. We can’t be held responsible for how much or how often you choose to enjoy them…