BACON JAM!!!

If anything could make me open this little 

site back up, those two words can.

And did.

And it has been so long, sadly, since I have been in

Blog mindset, that I didn't take a picture

of the final product.

I hang my head in shame.

But this was sooo stinkin' good

and I put it on grilled cheese sandwiches that

I baked!

With three cheeses!

Including Bree!

I gotta share:

The Jam

1 pound bacon cut into 3/4 inch pieces

1 1/2 cups diced onions

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 T. Dijon mustard

In a large heavy pot, cook the bacon till browned and crisp.

Drain on a paper towel. 

Reserve 1 T. of the grease and cook the onion in it

until soft (about 8 min.)

Add 

water,

syrup,

vinegar,

brown sugar

and Dijon.

Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer, add the bacon back in 

and cook, stirring occasionally until thickened.

1-2 hours.

Once it's all nice and thick (mine took all of 2 hours!)

break down mixture with food processor or

immersion blender to get it top a spreadable consistency.

WALA!

You can spread it on a shoe, 

or on toast with a poached egg, 

or on incredible grilled cheese sandwiches.

Here's how to make multiple 

grilled cheese sandwiches at once

AND

have the center get all melty.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

assemble sandwiches as you would to grill them, 

butter and all, 

place on a cookie sheet

and bake 6 minutes,

flip

cook 6 more minutes and

WALA!!

You are welcome.

Mac And (Butternut) Cheese Bake

This came from 

Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Butternut squash seems to have become the 

"it" food.

I've gotten to the point where I will 

substitute sweet potatoes

for it sometimes just because.

But not here.

I made the recipe as written with a couple of exceptions:

I used corn pasta,

I roasted my squash, 

because, really? Who would microwave it??

And most importantly, 

INCREASED THE BACON!!

Who puts two stingy pieces of bacon in

ANYTHING!!??

It was really good and

*almost*

vegetarian ;)

I can't seem to find it on their page so here you go:

3 cups of butternut squash (roasted)

8 ounces of pasta of your choice

1 T. butter

8 ounces of mushrooms, sliced

3 green onion, sliced

3 T. flour

1 C. milk

6 oz. Fontina cheese

Lots of bacon

Mash the roasted squash, cook the pasta.

Saute the mushrooms and onions in the 

butter till tender, 

sprinkle on the flour and cook one minute, 

add the milk and salt and pepper and cook till 

thick and bubbly.

Stir in the mashed squash, fold in the pasta.

Transfere half into a 2 quart baking dish

that has been coated with cooking spray. 

Sprinkle with half the cheese and a bunch of bacon

and repeat.

Bake 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Bacon Wrapped Bananas

Just because you can, 

doesn't mean you should.

Just sayin....

Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole

There is not a thing in that title 

not to like.

Oh, and you make it in a slow cooker.

Aces!

My only problem is I neglected to

take a picture of it.

Sorry.

But, honestly, it's not that great a sight.

Tastes great though!

The thing you kind of forget is that since this 

is made in a slow cooker, those tots

don't get crispy, crunchy, wonderful. 

But they do become something 

different. 

But good.

I'll link to the original recipe site but really all you

do is layer 

 tots, 

bacon,

shredded cheese, 

cut up chicken breasts

(raw)

and repeat then pour 3/4 cup

of milk on top and slow cook away.

Comfort food.

Oh, and PS, 

!!!!BACON!!!!

http://www.thecountrycook.net/2012/07/cheesy-chicken-tater-tot-casserole-slow.html 

Michael Had An Idea

And it was good.

It wasn't exactly an original idea. 

He adapted it from some crazy food website.

I can't even begin to describe the premiss of this site.

Or the reason for it's existence.

It appears to be a bunch of guys doing crazy things with food. 

One of their extravaganzas involved

 90 McDonalds breakfast sandwiches. 

It defies description. 

They did create something where they lined

a muffin tin with bacon and filled them 

with I can't remember what. 

I thought there was actually potential there

and did a bit of brainstorming with Michael. 

This is what we came up with

 These are mini muffins lined with one slice of bacon

cut in half and crisscrossed to line the cups. 

Then mini red potatoes that I par-boiled and thinly sliced, 

a bit of shredded cheese and topped with one more

slice of potato. And then all tucked in.

I baked them 450 degrees for 25 minutes. 

They were pretty good.
But then, what isn't good all wrapped up in bacon?

Brown Butter Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know if it has "bacon" in the title, I'm gonna make it.

The other thing this recipe has going for it is that the gal who

developed it started out with a Cook's Illustrated recipe

and went from there. 

America's Test Kitchen/ Cook's Illustrated

can do no wrong in my book.

These are really good. 

The edges are crispy and the middles are soft and gooey.

Kristina says in her blog that browned butter is the new trend.

I love it when I participate in a trend without knowing it.

She also says putting bacon in everything is a new trend.

Whatever, it's just been my world for, hmm, however long it would

take to make it lose it's "trend" designation. 

That being said, I think I have finally found something that bacon

does NOT enhance the flavor of!

I KNOW!

Did you feel the earth fall off it's axis a bit?

These cookies are really good, way more work than Toll House

but also a totally different animal.

I say, try them, but really, you can leave 

out the bacon.

Save your bacon for cupcakes.

http://mouthfromthesouth.com/brown-butter-bacon-chocolate-chip-cookies/

BACON!

In my never ending quest to determine if there is 

ANYTHING

 you

CAN'T 

put bacon in, I submit my latest concoction.

Food Network Magazine had a version of these in their

June/July issue. I was looking over the ingredient list and when 

I got to "potato starch" I drew the line.

I'm sorry but this magazine has sent me on one too

 many wild goose chases for ingredients. 

I submit my "Japanese Seasoning" at $15 (including shipping cause

you know *that's* not just sitting on the shelf at Meijer's).

So potato starch may not be that exotic and is probably something

you just boil up at home with a couple of potatoes,

but I'm sorry, just not in the mood. 

So let's just say I used their idea as inspiration.

I started with a spice cake mix and substituted the the grease

from the bacon for the oil. 

Yeah, these will kill you.

Get over it.

I substituted about 1/4 cup maple syrup for 1/4 cup of the water.

(Actually could have used more.)

Then I crumbled up about 3/4 pound of bacon into the batter.

Baked those puppies up and then made the cream cheese 

frosting the magazine published.

Now *that* was good!

It's really just a standard cream cheese frosting but instead of vanilla 

and milk you use 1/4 cup maple syrup and 

a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon. 

Then you garnish with what's left over of the bacon.

Yum! 

I think the chocolate bacon cupcakes are still my 

favorite weird way to eat bacon, 

but I'm not tossing these out either!

BTW, did I ever tell you about the company that sells 

Kosher, vegetarian, bacon flavored mayonnaise? 

Yea, scary, huh?

BLTs with Wasabi Aioli

I don't like mine toasted.

Rips up the roof of my mouth. What' s THAT about??

Honey likes his toasted.

Here's a shout out to that tomato, the first (hopefully more to come) from my garden!

Aggie turned me on to the concept of wasabi aioli.

We tossed around a bit what differentiated aioli from mayonnaise and concluded the olive oil and the garlic turned mayonnaise into aioli.

I'm pretty sure that the Hellman's mayo that says "made with olive oil" is really aioli

dumbed down for the masses. But I digress..

So taking my newfound knowledge and running with it I decided I could make a "cheat" aioli by adding great flavors to store bought mayo. And, it worked!

I do have in mind making it from scratch one of these days but for a busy Saturday lunch this worked out great.

I'll post my "formula" in the recipes.