I know that I have been really bad about posting lately, and I am sorry.  I could go into who, what, why, but it really doesn’t matter…does it?…especially since this post is all about bacon.  (Plus, I have quite a backlog of recipes just waiting to go up.)

My bacon journey started last month when Not Quite Nigella posted her recipe for bacon jam.  An all-out obsession kicked in and I followed the trail of bacon jam through many a twist and turn.  Most of the recipes I found were for a “sweet” version, which I understand but I wanted something a little more savory that I could literally swirl into anything.  (My thought is that you can always add sweet to a dish, but it is very difficult to remove sweet from a dish.)

I  also wasn’t too jazzed about cooking something on the stove top for 2 hours and having to tend to it.  (This is probably why risotto isn’t quite right when I make it.)  I’ve got too many other things to do than making sure my house doesn’t burn down because I let a pan of something go dry on the stove.  So I turned to my old friend – the braise.

Craig could tell I had an obsession of some sort banging around in my head.  While he wanted to help, and usually can, I opted to leave him out of this one.  He believes that doing anything beyond cooking bacon in a pan is tantamount to treason.  Of course, once he eats said traitorous bacon creation, he usually smiles from ear to ear and cleans his plate.

Whipping up a cup of this before Thanksgiving should make all those leftovers taste that much better.  Think about it…smear it on your turkey sandwich, mix it into leftover veggies, swirl it into leftover mashed potatoes, and it would probably even taste really good added to the leftover cranberry sauce.  What doesn’t bacon taste good with?

Relationship Advice

No matter how much he wants to help, sometimes you need to just work things through yourself.  Guys like to fix things, and most of the time they don’t like to fix things that, to them, are not broken.  To Craig, there is nothing broken about fried strips of bacon.  For the record, I don’t think that concept is broken either, but it’s good to think outside the box sometimes.  In this instance, I knew that if I told him what I was up to, he would have given me a bunch of grief before being willing to try this dish.

Makes 1 Cup

Ingredients

• 1 Pound Smoked Bacon (thick cut or un-sliced slab)
• 1 Medium Brown Onion (sliced thin)

Rub

• 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ginger
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Mustard
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1/4 Teaspoon Chipotle Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
• 1/4 Teaspoon Dried Rosemary (crushed)
• 1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper (ground)
• 1/4 Teaspoon Onion Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

Braising Liquid

• 1/2 Cup Dry White Wine
• 1 Tablespoon Cider Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses

Directions

In a bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and mix well.  Place the slab of bacon into a dutch oven and sprinkle both sides of bacon with dry rub.  Pat the dry rub into the sides of the bacon (use all of the rub).  Cover the dutch oven and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Farenheit.

In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the braising liquid and mix well.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.

Remove the bacon from the refrigerator and sprinkle with onions.  Pour the braising liquid into the dutch oven.  Do not pour on top of bacon.

Cover the dutch oven and braise in oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Remove pan from the oven and place on burner.  Remove lid and, over medium high heat,  reduce liquid in pot until it is thick and glaze like.

Pour contents of pan into food processor.  Pulse bacon mixture until it is a thick, but chunky consistency.

Pour into serving dish or lidded jar.  If not using immediately, refrigerate.  (Let the bacon chutney cool to room temperature before putting the lid on it and putting it into the refrigerator.)

Technorati Tags: Bacon, Bacon Jam, Bacon Recipes, Easy Recipes

This is sheer madness, I know.  But what was I supposed to do?  While I was trying to clean out the refrigerator (I have to do this once a year whether I want to or not) I found some of the most disgusting things.  It’s amazing what creepiness grows in those cold boxes.  Anyway…while I was tossing out one science experiment after another, I ran across some sticky bottles of jelly and syrups.  You know, the one’s you see in a store and think “oh how cool is this – I’ll definitely use this” only come face to face with reality and you’ve used it once and it has taken up permanent residence in the back corner of the refrigerator (because it’s stuck to the shelf by the same kind of sticky substance NASA uses to glue those space shuttle tiles on with).

After throwing out numerous bottles and jars, and putting a few back (I swear I’ll use them for something) I turned around and found that I had this sad little plastic bottle of pancake syrup still sitting on the counter.  I took this as a sign that I should cook something with it.  Plus it was really sticky and I didn’t feel like cleaning it up and putting it back in the refrigerator.

I could have made pancakes for dinner, Craig would have loved that, but I thought that would be too easy…too obvious.  I was kind of thinking about cookies.  But I was also thinking about bacon (because I was already braising some for another dish that you will be seeing very soon).  Then I was trying to come up with something to marry these two soul mates with and I came up with cheese.  Yeah, I didn’t get it either at the time but sometimes I just have to run with my weird thoughts.  And this time it worked for the better.

I have a serious weakness for shortbread, so that’s how I determined what type of cookie this was going to be.  But trust me, this cookie is really easy to make.  I will admit that it is a little confused in that it doesn’t know if it is a breakfast food, a dessert or something to be passed as an appetizer in between the cheese plate and the olives.  But I think that just gives you lots of options…and excuses to make these.

Words of Wisdom

Cleaning sucks!  But cleaning out the refrigerator is one of life’s little curses.  Unfortunately, it has to be done so here are a couple of ways to really make it work in your favor.

By the time you get done throwing everything out (because the expiration dates are long past due) you’ll see that you have nothing to eat so you can go out and buy all of those healthy foods you keep swearing you are going to start buying.

If you time the cleaning just right, you won’t have anything left in your refrigerator to cook for dinner, and no time to start anything even if there is something left in there.  So you both will have to go out to eat if you plan on being nourished for the evening.

Makes 24 Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour (plus additional for dusting)
• 1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese + 1 Tablespoon Parmesan Cheese (separated)
• 1 Cup Chilled Unsalted Butter (cut into 1/2″ x 1″ pieces)
• 3/4 Cup Maple Flavored Pancake Syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Crumbled Bacon (cook 1-2 strips of bacon and crumble in food processor or chop by hand)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In food processor, blend flour and parmesan cheese.

Add butter to flour and cheese mixture by pulsing blade.  Keep pulsing until dough starts to come together.  Add maple syrup, through feed tube, while pulsing.

Lightly flour work surface.

Turn dough out onto work surface and form a loose ball.

Divide dough in 1/2 and roll each half into a log.  Cut log into 12 pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball and place on lined baking sheet, space 1″-2″ apart. (You may have to lightly dust your hands with some flour to keep dough from sticking to you – use the flour sparingly.)

Flatten each ball into a 2″ round.

In a small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese with 1 tablespoon crumbled bacon.  Sprinkle on top of each cookie.

Bake cookies for 20-25 minutes.  Tops should be dry and edges golden.

Transfer to a rack to cool completely, then store in a covered container.

Technorati Tags: Bacon, Baked Goods, Cheese, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, shortbread cookies

If your man is like mine, and aren’t they all pretty much the same?  Well, my guy gets bored with constantly eating chicken.  I have to admit (but I’d never admit it to him)…it can get pretty boring.  For whatever reason, he never seems to get bored eating beef burritos.  If he could, he’d eat some kind of beef burrito every night of the week.  But then, I’d have to listen to him bitch at me that he didn’t fit into his pants anymore and while he’s sitting at his desk the waistband was too tight blah blah blah.  Of course, somehow this would be my fault.

So when he finds that we’re having stuffed chicken breasts I never hear any complaints.  I might be because it contains two of his favorite food groups – cheese and bacon.

This is another really easy recipe, and if you need to make something for a dinner with a bunch of people I highly recommend this.  Just make sure you are aware if there is anyone that doesn’t eat pork.  (This will help to avoid major embarrassment – but the dish can be made without the bacon.  I just like the salty smoky flavor it gives the dish.)  Once you make this the first time, you’ll realize that you can make a bunch of variations on this basic recipe.  It’s a good recipe to use up leftover vegetables, fresh herbs, sun dried tomatoes, or roasted peppers.

I serve this with a small salad on the same plate as the chicken.  The extra balsamic vinegar used on the chicken, is then gets used on the salad for dressing. But you could also do roasted potatoes and use the balsamic as a dressing on those as well.   And then you only have one plate to clean up.

This recipe serves 2, but is easily doubled…tripled…you get the idea

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 Pieces Cooked Center Cut Bacon(Thick Bacon) – Applewood Smoked is Perfect for this
• Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 4 Tablespoons Goat Cheese
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Herbs de Provence
• 1 Clove Garlic Finely Minced
• 1 Tablespoon Chopped Parsley (Optional)
• 1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries
• 2 (6-ounce) Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Olive Oil – For Brushing on Top of Chicken

Directions

Pour balsamic vinegar into small saucepan and over medium heat reduce vinegar by half.  To tell when the vinegar is done, it should coat the back of a metal spoon and when you drag your finger through it, the line you made should stay.  Remove vinegar from heat and set aside.

In a small bowl add goat cheese, herbs de provence, minced garlic, dried cranberries, and parsley.  Mix thoroughly using a fork and set aside.

For the stuffed chicken, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over your cutting board and tucking the ends under ends of the board. Place one chicken breast on the covered cutting board and season with salt and pepper.  Place a second piece of plastic wrap over the chicken and flatten the chicken using a meat mallet or heavy skillet.  Pound the chicken thin (to 1/4″ – 3/8″ thick). Set aside first pounded piece of chicken.  Do the same thing with the second chicken breast, using new plastic wrap.

Peel off one layer of  plastic wrap from each breast and spoon 1/2 of the cheese mixture onto the breast 1/2″ from the end and sides. Lay bacon slices next to the cheese.  (This is where you could also insert asparagus, oil packed sun dried tomatoes, or roasted peppers)  Roll each breast tightly (do not keep the plastic wrap on the chicken.).  If you need to, you can secure the breasts with toothpicks. Then place seam side down in square baking pan.  Brush tops with olive oil and roast in oven for about 30-35 minutes.

Remove the toothpicks, if you used any. Slice the chicken roll to show the pretty insides. Place on serving plate and spoon reduced balsamic vinegar over top of chicken.

Technorati Tags: Bacon, Cheese, Chicken, Chicken Recipes, Easy Chicken Recipes, Fast Dinner Recipe, Things to do with Leftovers