This recipe comes across my desk just in time as all of our tomato plants (and that one basil plant) have blown up!

Simple, easy, fresh and tasty!  It’s Bacon & Tomato Pasta.

Bacon and Tomato Pasta [Read more →]

Look at our sweet ol’ grandma! Her name is Norma Pemberton and from what they report in Australia’s “Central Coast Express Advocate” she’s got quite a knack for cookin’ up cheese and bacon snacks.

Being the wonderful lady that she is, she’s shared the recipe with the paper and now, through the, I share it with you.

Recipe after the jump… [Read more →]

It’s because of these beauties…

via Craft

Yesterday we had a great breakfast/brunch recipe for bacon wrapped eggs. Today we share with you a gourmet hot dog recipe from my morning Detroit Free Press called the 3 a.m. Dog.

Created by Chef Aaron Cozadd of the Union Woodshop just north of me in Clarkston (also winner of the Free Press “Restaurant of the Year” Honor for 2011) comes this dog with egg and a bacon jam!

Recipe after the jump: [Read more →]

because you never know what you are going to find.

Like today for example…

I get my daily alerts from the Google Machine and notice an article from Marcus Samuelsson’s blog where he explains the different cuts of bacon.  It’s a good read as he talks through side, pancetta, slab, back, nitrate free…then I see something that makes me stop in my tracks:

Cooking with bacon can be a great way to add a little bit of flavor to a dish. You can chop some side bacon or pancetta and use it to enhance your favorite pasta, or in a banana bread or leave the strips whole and wrap them around fruits for a great appetizer like tapas or “Devils on horseback” or wrapped around oysters to make “Angels on horseback.”

Wait…back up…banana bread? Are…….you……kidding me?

*CLICK*

[Read more →]

We are away on vacation until July 12th.  Until then, please enjoy these selected “Best Of” posts.  This was originally published on 8/18/2009 and for close to a year and a half was the highest viewed post on the site.

With the recent “heat-wave” in Michigan, I thought a nice cool treat would help us all get through August.

Presenting…The Maple Bacon Milkshake (no photo available – writer’s artistic rendition)

Ingredients:

• 2 slices bacon (about 2 ounces), cut into thin strips
• 6 tablespoons cold whole or low-fat milk (about 3 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, preferably grade B (about 1 ounce)
• Pinch of salt
• 8 medium scoops French vanilla ice cream (about 1 quart), softened until just melty at the edges.

I have ALL these ingredients in my fridge right now…I think a TEST KITCHEN is in order!

Directions:

1. Fry the bacon in a small skillet set over medium heat, stirring frequently, until rendered and crisp, about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the cooked bacon to paper towels to drain, and nibble on it or reserve it for another use. Off the heat, briefly cool the fat in the skillet.
2. Place the milk, maple syrup, 1 tablespoon of cooled bacon fat (if there is any more, you can discard it), salt and ice cream in a blender and pulse several times to begin breaking up the ice cream.
3. With the blender motor off, use a flexible spatula to mash the mixture down onto the blender blades. Continue pulsing, stopping and mashing until the mixture is well blended, thick and moves easily in the blender jar, roughly 30 to 90 seconds. Pour into a chilled glass or glasses, and serve at once.

Makes about 3 1/2 cups

Nutritional analysis per 1/2 -cup serving: 219 calories, 13 grams fat, 22 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 41 milligrams cholesterol, 216 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber, 50 percent of calories from fat.

–From “Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes” by Adam Ried (W.W. Norton, $24.95)

We are away on vacation until July 12th.  Until then, please enjoy these selected “Best Of” posts.  This was originally published 9/2/2009.

Yesterday’s “Better with Bacon” featured recipe, the Maple French Toast & Bacon Cupcake, came from the “Food Network Magazine” and provided yet another take on what is becoming a trend in the dessert world – sweet & savory desserts featuring bacon!

When I was a kid, I used to love to bake: Nestle Tollhouse Cookies, Skywalker Crunchies (I know…nerd), cakes, brownies, etc.  I need to say upfront that it has been quite some time since I actually baked anything but this looked so good that I had to try.

What I didn’t expect was the amount of time it took to make these.  The recipe said 40 minutes, but turns out that was just the baking time.  I started this project at 9:15 pm and didn’t finish until 11:30 pm.  Granted, my lack of current experience may have hindered me, but making stuff from scratch like this takes a while (that did also include clean up as the cupcakes were in the oven).

So when I start to make anything, I like to have all the ingredients pulled: [Read more →]

So Easter has passed and you got yourself a mess of colored hard boiled eggs…now me, I don’t dig on eggs, never have.  But there are enough of you bacon & egg combo lovers out there who would appreciate this:

Bacon & Cheddar Deviled Eggs [Read more →]

I was doing some searching on my Google machine for some brunch ideas that I could whip up this Sunday and stumbled across this…

Hummena, hummena…

I know it’s more of a dessert, but my o my this just sounds wonderful!

Praline Bacon Bread Pudding with Rum Raisin Creme Anglaise [Read more →]

Better Half was working late tonight so I was pickin’ up Lil’ Baird.  The thing with Daddy pickin’ up Lil’ is that the first time I picked her up at her new school, we went out for a Daddy / Daughter day that included a trip to Rainforest Cafe.  Since then, every time I pick her up she wants to go to a “res-TA-runt”.  Well today she got to me and we headed down to Noodles & Company just down the street.

As I walk in, one sign had me at hello…“Grown Up” Mac & Cheese.  Three new bowls including this…

Bacon, Mac & Cheeseburger.  Yeah, I’m game! [Read more →]