Need a special gift for your favorite carnivore? Murray’s Meat of the Month Club will send a monthly treat of the finest cooked or cured artisan meats.

Each month you or your giftee will receive Murray’s choicest selections: cooked and cured meats, whole and encased meats, salami, pâtés. Two delicious selections will arrive on the third Thursday of the month.

If you’re giving a club membership as a gift, Murray’s will email you a welcome letter that you can tuck in a card.

The Meat of the Month Club is priced beginning at $225.00 for four months of deliveries. Other options include six months ($325) and twelve months ($625). All prices finclude shipping.

Order at MurraysCheese.com.

One of our favorite salads is appealing year-round: for its green, red and white palette during holiday season, and for color, flavor and texture anytime.

With a delicious shipment from Love Beets, we’ve been enjoying it every day. It’s a mesclun salad with beets, goat cheese and nuts. You can turn it into a lunch salad by adding a protein.

You can also toast or candy the nuts. We think that toasted walnuts or pecans work best.

For extra flavor and nutrition, you can roll the goat log in seeds (chia, pepitas, sesame, sunflower) or minced herbs before slicing.

RECIPE: MIX & MATCH GOAT CHEESE & BEETS SALAD

Ingredients

Ingredients for the salad. You can send this box as a gift! Photo courtesy Taigan.com.

 
Preparation

1. SLICE the goat cheese into rounds.

2. TOSS the lettuce and tomatoes with the vinaigrette and place on plates. Arrange goat cheese rounds and beets atop lettuce (cut them in half if you like). Sprinkle with nuts.
 
GIFT PACKAGE

Want to send the ingredients as a gift? Check out this gift box from Belle Chevre (BYO fresh lettuce).

If you like beets and have attempted to cook them, you know they can be a mess: peeling the irregular surface, getting red beet juice over everything (it stains!).

Canned and jarred beets are pretty good substitutes, but Love Beets takes things a bit further, in minimal packaging and a broad choice of styles flavors.

Our favorites are the flavored baby beets in: Honey + Ginger, Mild Vinegar, Sweetfire (with chili), White Wine + Vinegar and Organic White Wine + Vinegar. The seasoning add pizzazz to salads and other recipes.

Certified kosher by OU, with organic options, the company also sells snack trays (beets, cheese and crackers, for example) and beet juice.

Find the Love Beets nearest to you with this store locator.

BEETS & BURGERS

In Australia, a true Oz-style burger must be topped with a slice or two of beets. Even McDonalds and Burger King serve it.

Mom gets flowers for Mother’s Day; perhaps Dad would prefer a bacon bouquet. It’s easy to make 12 long-stemmed bacon roses.

Here’s a video from the National Pork Board that shows how to make bacon roses.
 
RECIPE: BACON ROSES

Ingredients For 12 Bacon Roses

 
*Get 12 fabric or plastic roses on plastic stems from the craft store. You have to remove the flowers, but typically, they snap off so you can wash the stems and use them again. After you remove the flower, wash the top of the stem before adding the bacon roses.

1. UNWRAP the bacon and gently separate the slices. Roll each into a bacon rosebud.

2. INSERT two toothpicks to hold each bud in place. Place the buds on a wire rack over a pan and bake at 400°F for 25-35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

3. MOUNT a bacon bud at the top of each stem and place the stems into a vase. Tie the ribbon around the vase. Present to the happy dad.

 
ALTERNATIVE: SEND A JERKY BOUQUET

A turnkey alternative to making bacon roses is to send a delicious beef jerky bouquet—12 long-stemmed pieces of jerky—from GaryWest.com.

Wrapped decoratively in red tissue and delivered in a traditional flower box, the steak bouquet is $42.00, with a choice of flavors: Traditional, Black Pepper Cajun and Teriyaki.