Pumpkin Bacon Mac & Cheese

More bacon, I know.  But I made half recipes of this awesome pumpkin bacon mac and cheese as well as the tasty pea and bacon risotto... two half recipes = one package of bacon.

Anywho, this dish turned out pretty great (despite the terrible photos, sorry).  I combined two recipes I found online to make my final product.  I basically followed the sauce instructions from this recipe (minus the honey and all-spice), combined with the onion, bacon and buttered breadcrumb topping from this recipe.  Plus my own addition: some minced garlic with the onion.  

Healthier than your average mac and cheese, but still cheesy enough to satisfy your craving.  

Pea and Bacon Risotto

Mmmm... this pea and bacon risotto recipe is a winner.  I like how some of the peas are kept whole and some are pureed and mixed into the rice to ensure the flavor is spread throughout the dish.  Plus, the fresh, green pea flavor is complimented by the smokey, meaty bacon and the lemon juice at the end brightens it all up.  Good stuff from Food & Wine. 

Bacon Weaved BLT

BLT Night!

Made BLTs tonight, decided to try another Pinterest post where bacon pieces are weaved to make sure there is  delicious bacon in every bite! Three pieces of bacon cut in half and weaved together.  Added some Sriracha mayo to it, yum.

500th Post! Evolution of a Sandwich

To celebrate the 500th post on this blog (500!! Whoa.), I am going to lead you through my mind's convoluted process for weeknight meal development... in tonight's case, the end result was this turkey and bacon club sandwich with chipotle and green onion mayonnaise, heirloom tomatoes, and Bibb lettuce.

You'd think that for my 500th post perhaps I would iron the place mat for the photo shoot.
You would be wrong.

Step 1: I peruse my favorite food blogs, and hopefully am inspired by (or drooling over) a particular recipe.
In today's case it was this amazing looking avocado BLT with fried egg and chipotle mayo at Closet Cooking.

Step 2: I obsess over recipe discovered in Step 1 and wipe drool from my chin.

Step 3: I consider whether I can make said recipe exclusively using ingredients I already have at home; determine that I cannot.
I didn't have avocado... boo.

Step 5: I ponder whether it's worth following the recipe exactly, and thus whether I must brave a trip to the grocery store.
The lines at my local grocery store leave much to be desired...

Step 6: I decide that the grocery store is too daunting, re-evaluate whether I need to be a slave to the recipe, or if I can just riff off of it and make my own creation.
Yes, riffing is good.

Step 7: I utilize the Google machine to search similar recipes that might be more in line with
the ingredients I have in stock and develop a dinner plan based on this.
Today, using the search term, "chipotle mayo," I found this recipe and the sandwich took a turn into club sandwich land.

Step 8: I finish out my day at work in excruciating anticipation of the sandwich that evolved in steps 1-8.
Today was a long day...

Step 9: I implement the plan!
Rejoice over bacon, spicy mayo, and amazingly juicy tomato!

Cheesy Toasted Corn Grits with Sauteed Okra, Bacon and Tomatoes

Take freshy fresh veggies from the CSA (crisp okra, super sweet orange cherry tomatoes, creamy sweet corn on the cob) and add these to more indulgent pantry staples (grits, bacon, sharp cheddar) and you get a pretty tasty meal of cheesy grits (with my addition of toasted corn kernels) topped with sauteed veggies and crispy bacon. I think I would add a dash or two of hot sauce to the saute, but otherwise it was pretty nice!

Split Pea Soup with Bacon, with Whole Wheat Pita

I don't think I'd ever had split-pea soup until I made this recipe. For some unknown reason, I bought a bag of split peas at the grocery store last week, so I gave the soup a try.

While split pea soup is traditionally made with ham hocks, they kinda weird me out. As an alternative,I gave my soup a salty, smokey base by cooking a couple slices of bacon in the pan, removing them, and then cooking the onion, garlic and carrot in the bacony grease. Then I served the soup topped with the crispy bacon bits. Delicious!

The soup called for some hearty bread to dip into it, and since the white pita went so well last week, I tried pita using a whole wheat dough. Pretty good! Not as tender as the white pita, but still poofy and tasty!

Baked Tortellini with Bacon

So last year Meg got Tony a subscription to Everyday Food (a Martha Stewart magazine.) We've been using a bunch of the recipes since moving in together, but this baked tortellini with bacon seemed exceptionally good and easy!

Linguine with Brussel Sprouts and Bacon: Meh

I love brussel sprouts. However, I have discovered that I think I only really love them one way: roasted.

This pasta recipe calls for the brussel sprouts to be sauteed/steamed in a pan prior to throwing them on pasta with crunchy bacon. Sounds good in theory, but in practice, meh. Steaming/sauteeing brussel sprouts just doesn't give them the caramelization and crispiness that oven-roasting does. It just makes them limp and kinda stinky.

Lesson learned.

Chickpeas with Bacon and Spinach (Topped with an Egg)

So, you could probably tell from my blogging history that I have a special place in my heart for bacon, as well as quick dishes with chickpeas and greens. Also, I subscribe to the theory of "when in doubt, throw an egg on it"... Tonight these disparate loves of mine came together like magic. This dish is ridiculously easy (only 6 ingredients), has bacon, and tastes amazing with a fried egg over easy thrown on top. I think Tim would second my feelings about it, but his memory of the meal may be tainted by the fact that the Nats scored 2 homers against his Mets whilst we ate it.

The recipe had one odd set of instructions that I took the liberty of ignoring... the recipe calls for boiling the bacon in water before browning it in the saute pan. While there is probably some specific reason for that step, I just couldn't justify the extra effort, nor could I ignore the disgusting images that flashed through my mind when I thought "Boil bacon?," which included that breakfast scene from "Better Off Dead" where the mother served slimey green boiled bacon because her husband doesn't like all the grease of fried bacon. So I just browned it in the pan, took it out and crumbled it, poured off the excess fat and carried on with the recipe. My only other suggestion regarding the bacon is that you not cook it further with the chickpeas and spinach- that only serves to make it soggy. After you cook the bacon, remove it and set it aside, then fold it in at the end. Enjoy!

Fettuccine with Peas, Asparagus, and Bacon

This pasta dish with peas, asparagus and bacon was the May Bon Appetit front cover... it looked great and tasted pretty good. Quite fast to make, light and springy. Mmm.

Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles

Mmm. These waffles from Joy the Baker rock. The waffles themselves are made with brown sugar and buttermilk (or, in our case, whole milk mixed with some lemon juice), but they also have caramelized brown sugar bacon bits in them. Soooo good... sweet, salty, and, because we used peppered bacon, peppery. Give them a try. We had ours with a little butter and some McCarthy maple syrup.FYI: the bacon sinks to the bottom of the batter, so dig deep to get the bits. Also, the recipe makes like 500 waffles.

Crispy Stuffed Potato Skins!

Crispy, cheesy, bacony... fantastic. I'm bringing these to a football party tonight.

This method from Simply Recipes is a little bit labor intensive, but not difficult. It involves 3 separate baking times: first to cook the whole potatos, then to crisp the scooped out skins, then to melt the cheese. Totally worth it, though.

I used chives instead of green onions, but otherwise followed the directions. Mmmm.

Potato, Leek and Cheddar Soup

We had a ton of potatoes from the CSA that have been accumulating, and I just got some leeks in this week, so potato leek soup it was! I combined several recipes to make my own...

Cooked 4 slices of chopped bacon in my stock pot, took out the bacon pieces, then cooked 2 sliced leeks, 5 cloves of garlic, and a bunch of diced potatoes in the bacon grease. Then I added 2.5 cups of chicken stock and some salt and pepper and let it simmer until the potatoes were soft. Pureed with the stick blender, then added 1/2 C milk, 1/2 C sour cream, a cup of shredded sharp cheddar, and some smoked paprika and stirred until combined. Served with extra cheese, bacon bits and a ton of chives. Mmmm.

Corn Chowdah

To all my loyal readership (ha!): I apologize for the break in regularly scheduled programming. I spent the week in Iowa on a "biofuels tour," which involved visiting corn and soybean farms, touring ethanol and biodiesel plants, and generally being harassed by industry representatives.

So in honor of my trip to Iowa (the corn state, the state where there are more hogs than people), I made a corn chowder, using this simple recipe from Tyler Florence, and sprinkled it with bacon bits. I used purple potatoes, corn, onion and parsley from my CSA, and substituted chicken broth for the veggie broth, and half-and-half for the heavy cream. Delicious and super easy! Say it, Frenchie: CHOW-DAH!

Goat Cheese, Corn and Bacon Stuffed Jalapenos

Mmm... loosely based on a Bobby Flay recipe, these stuffed jalapenos and cherry peppers were great. We added some cooked and crumbled bacon, which was awesome with the corn, baked them instead of grilling them, and skipped the red pepper sauce, since none of us here is enamored of red peppers.

The stuffing was so good, you could probably just make that and warm it in a pan in the oven and serve it with chips, crackers or veggies. Kinda like Martha's crab dip, but with corn and bacon instead of crab.

BACON (and swiss chard) PIZZA!

This recipe is good stuff... worth almost smoking yourself out of the house with burning cornmeal.

Made with the olive oil pizza dough recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, swiss chard from the CSA, and... wait for it... BACON!