Bacon and Beans

Garden season is in full swing. Not only are we getting fantastic veggies from our CSA, I harvested my first ripe tomato from my own garden today and everyday brings in more handfuls of beans.  Today it was the purple pole beans.  They are gorgeous!  Now beans are great for munching on straight from the garden, in fact I watched my friend's 5 year old daughter pack away a bunch of the beans I brought over the other day.  That's how you know they are tasty! There are many ways to prepare fresh beans, that s if they make it in from the garden....

A while back I tried a side dish at a restaurant that was called 'firecracker beans'.  It was basically over cooked beans with limp bacon and no spice....not too appealing.

  

Tonight I decided to make my own firecracker beans and boy oh boy were they tasty. There really wasn't too much to it.  My bacon was in the freezer and since I've been doing quite a bit of cooking with it, I unwrapped it and hacked of the end, sliced it up and tossed it in the pan. 

2 slices bacon, sliced

1 big handful of beans

1/2 to 1 tsp hot pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

A large fry pan

 Once the bacon is close to crisp, pop in a good pinch of hot pepper flakes. (If your bacon has left lots of grease, drain enough grease to leave about a tablespoon) Use up to a teaspoon, depending on how spicy you like it.

  Let the flakes heat up a little and add the beans. Sauté the beans for no more than 3 minutes.  You want the beans to still have some snap and not get soggy.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Eat the beans.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

There's Kale With My Bacon

Yesterday was CSA pick up day which netted us a lot of the same types of things as last week. We've had a busy week so I failed to take photos of our haul before I prepped it for the fridge. (Sorry about that.) I did however get excited because we got more edible flowers this week!!

People warned us when they learned we had signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture program, telling us that we'd get nothing but kale. We have actually only received 2 small bunches of the curly green stuff. I tried making kale chips with our small bunch of kale last week but I did not like them. Perhaps I need to try again and bake them a bit shorter? The Boy and I both like raw kale though. We even made ourselves some BKT sammies for lunch today and the kale worked so well with the sammie!

Our busy week actually started this past weekend with the Boy and his baseball playoffs. They managed to win all 4 games in the tournament and will play for the City championship tonight. (go team!) Sunday we had some people come on over so they could tear out yucky old garage down, knock the crumbly front steps off the house, take out some tree stumps, and tear out the old fence...I am sooooo glad someone else did the work.

Goodbye old garage...glad the garden made it safe and sound!

So long crumbly and dangerous steps!

Did I mention the water main break that caused me to be without water for a short while?

Now, we have a whole bunch of shirtless men working in the yard....life is sooooo darn tough sometimes.  A new fence is going up as are new stairs on the front of the house. I actually can't believe these guys just keep working in this heat. I almost feel bad sitting here inside blogging....almost.

Work is progressing nicely and I am excited about a new fence and a chance to get my yard done up the way I want it....once I decide what that is, it will be fun. I promise...

Until next time, stay warm stay cool and eat well.

Sin is In Part II: Bacon Maple Cheese Cakes

Sometimes I see a recipe in a magazine and think 'What a fabulous idea! I should make that!'.  Other times I see a recipe in a magazine and think 'That's okay, I bet I can make it better!'

That's exactly what I did with a recipe from this month's edition of Food Network Magazine. They had these great looking mini bacon cheesecakes on page 124 of the May edition.  Now don't get me wrong, they look fabulous with their little pieces of bacon on top but I started thinking...

'A chocolate cookie based crust would just take over the bacon flavour'....then it was..
'Why use vanilla when you can use maple? Everyone knows maple and bacon were just meant to be together!'
'How can I get more bacon into the the crust?'
'Can it really be called a bacon cheese cake if the only bacon is actually just the garnish?'

Seriously folks, I almost hurt myself on this one!  After making some adjustments to the original recipe, I came up with a fantastic little treat with a great bacony bite and a maple taste.  This may seem like a lot of work for 24 mini cheese cakes, but come on now, it's bacon!

Maple Bacon Mini Cheese cakes

Printable recipe here

Yield: 24 minis

Bacon

Place 10 strips of your best bacon onto a baking sheet and slip it into the oven. Turn the oven on to 350F and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. You want the bacon to be crisp, but not too dark as some will cook more in the crust and some will cook more with the maple glaze....mmmmm

Drain the bacon on some paper towel. Save 4 for the crust and 6 for the maple application.

Maple glazed bacon

6 strips cooked bacon

¼ cup maple syrup (NOT fake pancake syrup...the real deal people!!)

Cut each strip of bacon into 4 or more pieces. As long as you have at least 24 you will be good.

Heat the maple syrup in a pan and add the bacon strips.  Let the syrup get all bubbly and thick (boil it down, reduce....whatever word you want to use).

Once the syrup is all thick and the bacon pieces are each well coated in a nice coat, remove the pieces to a sheet of parchment paper to cool. Save 24 pieces so you will have one piece per mini cheese cake.

You will know you've boiled it enough because you will get sugary/maple strings like this:

sweet, stringy, maple goodness!

Line a mini muffin pan with liners

The crust

½ cup panko

4 strips bacon, baked until crisp

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp melted bacon fat (or butter)

Whir everything in the food processor or blender until mixed and the bacon is broken down into small pieces.

Scoop 1 tsp of the crust mixture into each liner and pack it down tightly with your finger tips.

Cheesecake

1 8oz pkg cream cheese (at room temperature)

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp maple extract

2 tsp maple syrup (optional)

1 egg

Heat the oven to 325F

Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature before starting. It will be easier to blend and make a smoother cheese cake.

Cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. (I like to use the mixer for this but a wooden spoon works the arm muscles).  Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the maple extract and syrup.  Keep mixing until smooth and blended.

Add the egg and blend just until fully incorporated.

Scoop 2 tsp of filling onto the crusts.

Bake for 15 minutes (at 325F), until the cheese cakes are set in the middle.

Cool in the pan, then transfer to an airtight container, top with a piece of maple glazed bacon and store in the fridge!

Chill for at least 4 hours....or as long as you can wait....

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Bacon Love

Do you do anything for the Oscars? I don't normally make anything extra for Oscar night, mostly because the Boy usually has a baseball practice that night...and guess what....the Boy has a baseball practice on Oscar night! At times, I think I should do more to observe these sorts of things but in reality, that's not going to happen so I do what I can. 

As I was browsing through blogville and all things internet, I started seeing all sorts of ideas and menus. I had all sorts of ideas milling about in my head (some of them were even good ones). Oscar night is a star studded event so I was thinking about making something that was also star studded.  Star studded with bacon of course!

Bacon peanut brittle came to mind so I started to browse the wild world of the internet and found many different recipes and you know what I discovered? I discovered that you can take any peanut brittle recipe and add bacon to it.  I don't have a tried and true recipe for brittle so I used the recipe found here at My Man's Belly with only a couple of adaptations.

Bacon Peanut Brittle
 Printable recipe here

Make sure you have a candy thermometer for this one. You will need it.  Also, gather all of your ingredients into bowls before the sugar is done boiling so you can add it all in quickly and pour the molten hot mass onto the cookie sheet.

Gather up the following into their own separate bowls:

• 1 lb bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped into small pieces
• 1 cup roasted, peanuts. (I used unsalted but salted would work here to)
• 1/2 tbsp baking soda
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla (I will use a full tablespoon next time)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp salt

Affix the candy thermometer to the side of a large pot and add to the pot:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup corn syrup
• 3/4 cup water

Prepare a cookie sheet with either a silpat or silicone liner or butter it generously and set it aside so it is ready to use when it comes time to pour out melty, hot, molten sugary goodness onto it.

Place the pot on the element and turn the heat to medium.  Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves, then set the spoon aside until it is time to stir in the other ingredients.

Stay in the kitchen during the boiling of the sugar. It can burn so quickly. Don't even run to the bathroom to pee quickly or duck into the other room to check the score on the Jets game!!! (This means you Mrs Kimball!)

This can take a while but do not turn up the heat on the stove, it will be tempting but burnt sugar is gross and messy so don't!
When the temperature reaches 290 degrees or the hard crack stage, remove the pot from the heat. This is important because even if you turn the heat off on an electric stove, the element stays hot and you can burn the sugar.

When 290 degrees has been reached, quickly dump in the peanuts, bacon pieces, and butter.  Stir quickly to incorporate.  Now just as quickly, dump in the vanilla, salt, and baking soda.  It will bubble up so be careful. Stir until it stops foaming and quickly  (carefully too) pour the molten hot mass onto your prepared cookie sheet and let it spread out.  Do not use a spatula or the spoon to smooth it out because it will deflate the brittle.

Allow the brittle to cool completely before breaking it into pieces.

Savour it slowly....enjoy it.....every bacony piece.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Bacon, Pasta, and Power

Tonight was one of those nights I actually got some time to myself after work. I must admit it is a bit of a strange feeling.  The Boy is at school until 6:30 for driver's ed, Hubby has a class, and there was no rehearsal for the school production due to a meeting (that I didn't have to attend)!! What to do with that time??? I thought about having a nap but didn't think I would wake up until tomorrow morning. Instead I wandered over the the IGA by my house to browse the shelves and get some ingredients for dinner.  I had a recipe in the back of my head and had a quasi-mental list...okay, I confess, I checked a recipe in my new Jamie Oliver cook book and knew what I wanted to make.

The original inspiration for tonight's dinner was "mini shell pasta with a creamy smoked bacon and pea sauce". Such a long title but it was an easy peasy recipe and has bacon in it! Once I got to the store, I discovered that IGA didn't have fresh mint and things just got worse from there.  As I was at the dairy case, the power went out.  It did kind of throw me for a loop. It wasn't dark as it was actually still light out and there are windows but it still caused me to forget to grab some frozen peas and double check what I was getting as all the interact machines were down!

So I walked home from the powerless store to my powerless house and put my groceries away in my powerless fridge. With no power to cook supper, run the Internet, or heat the house I bundled up and walked over to my friend Marie's house.  We drank some beer so it wouldn't go bad....and she has three fabulous dogs that took turns sitting with me to keep me warm!!

The original recipe can be found on page 52 of Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Food Revolution and calls for:

• 10 slices smoked bacon
• a small bunch of mint
• salt and pepper
• 1 lb mini shell pasta
• olive oil
• a pat of butter
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 2 tbsp creme fraiche or heavy cream
• 1 lemon
• 6 ounces Parmesan cheese

As some of you may know, I have issues following rules recipes so many times the recipe I start with is very different from what I actually cook.  I do like to use the recipes as a base idea and then add my own flair. The pasta dish I served up tonight included:
Printable recipe

• 1/2 lb bacon, cut into small pieces
• basil
• salt and pepper
• rotini pasta
• 1 cup frozen peas (dug in the freezer and found some)
• 2 tbsp half and half
• 1/2 lemon
• 2 cloves garlic (because hey, it's garlic)
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes in juice (I had some left over from the other day. I blitzed them with a hand blender first)
• sauteed mushrooms and asparagus (these were left over from last night's dinner. They had been sauteed in garlic and were fan-freaking-tastic)
• Parmesan cheese (I actually had some leftover from making the chicken fingers last week! It was about 1/2 a cup)

Put a pot of water on to boil, heat a skillet, and chop the bacon.

Saute the bacon until it is crisp. Drain the fat (or at least some of it).  Add the peas, mushrooms, and asparagus.  Also grate on a micro plane or use a press to add in the 2 cloves of garlic.  This is also a great place to add in a couple grinds of pepper.

To the pot of boiling water, add a hefty pinch of salt and plunk in the pasta.  Cook according to package directions.
Pour the tomatoes into the skillet along with some pinches of basil.  Let this boil down until the pasta is half cooked.

Add 2 tbsp of half and half to the skillet and stir.

Remove the pasta from the water and add it to the skillet.  Mix it all together and add the squeezings of half a lemon and the Parmesan cheese.

Serve with salad or veggies.

This dish received fabulous reviews from the boys and heated up nicely for Hubby when he got back from his class tonight.

 


Devour!

FYI, the power did go back on just before 6pm, after 2 hours.  Apparently the hydro company had to shut off the power so they could fix a hydro pole fire issue. 

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Dreaming of sunny weather and blue waters...

Back to Work Cheesey Stuffed Burgers: The Last Meal

 Please don't make me go back...the summer flew by so quickly....I am no where near done with my summer.  SIGH...

 Now that we have the new BBQ we have used it twice in as many days! After all, we must squeeze in as much summer as possible!  The evenings have a chill settling in over them and mornings are quite cool.  This is a sure sign autumn is creeping in.  SIGH. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the bounty of the garden with fresh tomatoes, corn, carrots, and beets almost at the ready but the fact that dusk is settling in around 8:30 pm means we are getting closer to cooler weather.  I do look forward to the beautiful fall colours and the change....I just wish winter didn't last so darn long.

Some of our garden bounty

 I dubbed tonight's dinner "Last meal" as it is my last dinner of summer vacation.  I really can't complain, I do get 2 months off....but going back is just so darn hard.  Tomorrow morning I actually have to get out of bed when that alarm goes off instead of giving Hubby the boot....ACK!!  I will definitely need my morning tea, my mid morning tea, my lunch hour tea, and my mid afternoon tea.....or perhaps a caffeine patch of some sort.

While assembling the meat and fixings to make burgers this afternoon, I decided that I wanted to make these burgers a little more special so I tucked cheese in the middle of each burger.  But you know what? That wasn't special enough for me so I made some pretzel rolls.  Guess what? It still needed something else so I cooked up the rest of that bacon left over from making that sinful pie.

The Boy manned the BBQ again tonight...he does such a fabulous job cooking up burgers!

The boy certainly chose the most comfy chair possible for his BBQ session!

Cheese stuffed burgers. This made 9 burgers tonight.

3 lbs ground beef
2 small onions
1 egg
2/3 cup bread crumbs
salt
pepper
9 slices cheese (I used processed cheese slices today but any think square of flavourful cheese will do)

Grate the onion, mix in a healthy pinch of salt and a healthy pinch of pepper.

Add the ground beef and bread crumbs.
Gently mix by hand.
Divide beef mixture into equal portions. For these burgers, I used a 1/3 cup measure. (Next time I will use a 1/4 cup measure for each half, just so the burgers aren't so big...they were soooooo filling!)

Each measure will be joined with another to make sandwich cheese in the middle.
Flatten out half of your meat lumps and pair them with another portion of meat.
Fold a slice of process cheese into quarters.

Place a quarter in the middle of each patty.

Take the partner meat lump, flatten it out and place on top of the other.  Make sure to gently pat and form the patty to seal the edges.
Let the patties rest in the fridge

We had a couple of cheese blowouts!!!

How could you not enjoy these??

Have a great week everyone.  Wish me luck on surviving my first week back!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

If Sin Was a Pie, Then this Pie is The Biggest Sin EVER

Happy Bacon Day!!

Yup! That's right...this pie has bacon on the top of it....yes, it is an apple pie.  Yes, it tasted so good, it was sinful!!  I needed something a little sinful so close to the end of summer...

Tuesday will be my first day back at work...my summer is over and a new school year begins.  No more sleeping in, no more staying up late, no more fun...no wait, that's not right.  Fun is always to be had, sleeping in and staying up late will happen on the weekends! All is good.  This week was much better than the week before.

It was a busy week!!

• The show "Wicked" was in town, and it was just that, Wicked!! Amazing!!!

• Trips to the gym, Cost co, and just plain getting ready for the back to school season....felt busy, but good.

• The Boy and I made perogies (with a cheddar bacon potato filling). He did a fabulous job pinching perogies.  Although I don't think we got as many in the freezer for fall as I wanted.  Many perogies fell into his mouth as soon as they were boiled! I am surprised he didn't burn his mouth! We had fun and they tasted great.

• BBQs went on sale at Home Depot so we upgraded.  You know, from no BBQ to one so big it is like challenge to see just how much food I can fit on the grill.  We are working on some ribs for the inaugural BBQing.  The Boy helped with the ribs as well.  I think my kitchen job is in danger!

Now on with the sin....It felt so sinful just thinking of making this pie, never mind actually baking it.  I originally got this idea from Karen at Tasty Trials.  I had bookmarked this recipe when she first posted it and National Bacon Day seemed like the perfect time to try it out.  Now I didn't follow her recipe exactly, I mean how many of us actually do follow the recipe?  Karen is much like me and usually forgoes recipes.  Recipes are really just guidelines.  Once you know the methods, you can change it up.

Sin is In Apple Bacon Maple Pie

Printable recipe here

Pie crust of your choice (homemade or store bought)

14 slices Bacon (10 slices for the top weave and 4 to cook and crumble)

reserved bacon grease

8 granny smith apples

Squeeze lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon

½ cup maple syrup (give or take)

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ cup white sugar

springform pan (or a deep dish pie plate)

Roll out a thicker bottom pie crust than you normally would. (you want a substantial base for all the apples and bacon.)  Chill the pie crust until ready to use.

On a piece of parchment, construct a weave of bacon.  Place in a cold oven and turn oven on to 300F. Let the bacon weave bake away until slightly crisp but not overly crispy as it will continue to cook on the top of the pie.

In a large fry pan, fry the last 4 slices of bacon until crisp. Be careful not to burn the bacon or the pan. Drain the bacon on paper towels and cool.  Save the bacon fat in a bowl for later.

Peel, core and slice your apples.  Toss with some lemon juice.  Mix with the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour.

Add the white sugar to the hot pan with the bacon grease and tasty bits to start the caramelizing process.  Add in about ¼ cup of maple syrup.

Tip the apples into the pan and cook until caramelly and thickened but you don’t want the apples cooked through.  Let the mixture cool.

Crumble the four slices of bacon and mix in with the apples.

When the bacon weave is cooked, but not crisp, remove it from the oven and place it on paper towels to drain.

Remove the pie crust from the fridge and brush the entire surface with bacon fat.

Pour the apples and syrup mixture into the crust and bake at 400F for 20minutes.  Check the pie, if the edges are over browning, cover with foil and bake another 10 minutes.

Top the pie with the bacon weave.  Brush the bacon with 2 tbsp maple syrup.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove pie, brush bacon with more maple syrup, reduce oven temp to 300.  Bake for another 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove the pie, brush again with maple syrup and bake for another 12 minutes.

Resist eating the pie until it has cooled somewhat... you don't want to burn your mouth!!

Serve while in the company of good friends!
I am not going to lie to you....this was absolutely divine!!! Discussion actually touched on the topic of 'too much bacon' (if you can believe it).  Suggestions were made of perhaps a litte extra bacon in the pie and no weave on the top....as nice as the weave of bacon looked, it was a LOT of bacon!  The caramelly/maple goodness went sooooo well with the bacon. This pie is a must to try at least once!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!