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!

Spice Up Your Night

Not only does the Little Kitchen have a weakness for bacon, it also has a weakness for all things chicken wings! After our disappointment in the heat department with the Sriacha glazed wings, we went all out with the wing recipe from the Jan/Feb edition of Food Network magazine. This recipe consisted of a marinade, a rub, and a glaze...three levels of spicy, tasty goodness...lets have a go, shall we?

There are three steps to getting these wings spicy. The first step is the marinade, the second is the rub/spices, and the third is the glaze for the last little bit of cooking. These layers make for a very flavourful and mighty spicy wing!! If there happen to be leftovers, they get a little bit more spicy the next day!!

Chile Rubbed Wings
From Food Network Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011

First make the marinade so you can give the wings plenty of time to get all happy in the fridge!
In a blender or food processor, place:

• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 2 jalapenos
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (okay, so I used a little bit more)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 1/2 tbsp oil

Give it a whirl until all chopped and blended.

Put wings in a zip top bag, pour the marinade over, seal the bag and mush it around until all the wings are coated.

Park the wings in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Make the rub!

In a bowl, mix together the following spices:

• 1 1/2 tbsp ancho chile powder ( I couldn't find ancho chile powder so I used a package labled hot chile powder...just no smokiness)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

To make this easy, I dumped the wings from the bag into the bowl with the rub. I then used my hands to mix it all up and evenly distribute the rub.

Spread out on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 450F for 20 minutes, flip the wings over and bake for another 20 minutes or until crispy.

In a large bowl, mix together: (ok, I mixed this in a small bowl, then poured it over so I wound up messing up 2 bowls...oops)

• 1/4 cup sriracha sauce
• 1/4 cup honey

Place the hot wings into the bowl and mix it up so that all of the wings are coated in this sweet and spicy goodness.

Place the wings back on the baking sheet and bake until crispy and sticky...you can broil them until crisp if you'd like.

Enjoy with something cooling such as veggies, chips, or milk...these were quite warm!!

Serve these tasty little wings of spicy goodness with some fresh veggie and dip to help cool the mouth...if you need..

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!