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Well, the server died, and then Blogger disabled FTP publishing and made us migrate to blogspot. Which is all fine and dandy except that all of our graphics have vanished. Stay tuned, I guess? Leaving the recipes up for now.

In Food News

SYDNEY - Some Australians are up in arms over a new kangaroo and emu flavored chip, horrified that people are encouraged to eat the nation's coat of arms which depicts the iconic Australian animals.

I... don't think that's the only problem with those chips.

Emergency Bacon Stir Fry

Okay, everyone was busy this weekend and we weren't actually going to do the bacon thing. That was before my car got snowed into the back alley and I was unable to complete my errands, one of which was 'go to grocery store.' So I ended up throwing together a meal from random bits and scraps in my kitchen. It was based on the bacon herb pasta I made last year, but several ingredients were fudged from necessity.

EMERGENCY BACON STIR FRY

5 strips bacon (shredded in mid-sized pieces)
1/4 white onion (this was all the onion I had, people)
1/2 C frozen corn
1 can white kidney beans, drained
1/3 C brazil nuts
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 T butter
1 tsp crushed garlic
dash lemon juice
salt
pepper
lemon pepper
herbes de provence
1/4 C grated parmesan
pasta of your choice (I used peppercorn fettuccine)

Fry up bacon. Remove from pan, saving drippings. Add butter and garlic to drippings, then add kidney beans and brazil nuts. Season (salt, pepper, lemon pepper, herbes de provence, lemon juice) to taste. Add onions after a few minutes. Keep on fryin'. Reserve corn and tomato until a few minutes before you are finished cooking; add the bacon back in.



Turn off heat; add cooked pasta and parmesan, and stir everything together.



This was really surprisingly good.

The important things in life

Yeah... Wiley got it right. Taken from Comics.com.

Bacon Quesadillas

Take about 8 strips of bacon and cook them little darlings till they are like charcoal (hence the Italian “carbonaira”… but that is another dish for another day)… let cool and mush them up in a bowl. It should be like bacon bits… only real and your kitchen smells better.

THEN…

1 cup or as much corn as you like… to show off peel it off the cob… (guests feel special)
2 Avacados… soft but not brown… got to be mushable
1 red onion… chop up as much as you need but make it tiny
As much FRESH lime as you like…
1 tablespoon ground cumin… don’t overdo this…
Chop up a bunch of coriander nice and fine like…
Zip in a blast or three of hot sauce…
Salt if you are inclined…
Now I like mixing in a bunch of cheese… cheddar, jack and such… but you need not… be heart smart
Whip it all up in a big bowl…
Add the bacon… oops not that heart smart is it?



While all this is happenin'… heat a frying pan… medium heat…



Once all is mixed to YOUR satisfaction spoon the mixture thinly on half of a tortilla (quesadilla wrap)… fold over and cook two at a time in the bid old pan… (now nicely greased… I like olive oil)

Eat with tomatillo salsa… crisp white wine… whatever makes you happy… VERY cold beer is delightful too.



Once you have followed these exacting directions YOU MUST experiment to make it your own and remember to footnote: Thanks Mike!

[Edited by X to add: we served ours with bacon pineapple salsa, courtesy of Cin]

Bacon Maple Muffins

We devoured these. Original recipe is here.



BACON MAPLE MUFFINS

8 slices bacon, fried and diced
2 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 C milk
1/2 C vegetable oil
2/3 C maple syrup (the real stuff; no skimping, y'all)
brown sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400. Mix ingredients together in a bowl, reserving brown sugar. Spoon muffins into baking cups, then sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake about 20 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.



We consumed ours with coffee and a side of fresh fruit. If you have leftovers, make sure to refrigerate them, what with the meat and all.

Bacon-wrapped Chicken with Boursin

This recipe was swiped from recipezaar.com, with a few small changes. It is delicious. Cinnilla and I may not eat for a week.



BACON WRAPPED BOURSIN STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 package smoked bacon (uncooked)
150g boursin (I used one with garlic & herbs)
4T olive oil
Few drops lemon juice
Fresh ground pepper
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

Preheat oven to 375F. Place chicken breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap, and beat thin (I used a potato masher; a wooden mallet or heavy frying pan would also work well). Spread one side of each chicken breast with boursin, then roll the breast and wrap with bacon (I found 2 to 2 1/2 pieces of bacon per chicken breast was sufficient).



Brush a pan with olive oil and place the chicken breasts on the pan. Season with ground pepper, and drizzle 6 or 7 drops of lemon juice over each piece of chicken.

Roast the chicken in the oven for approximately an hour. After the first half hour, check the chicken and add the tomatoes to the pan.

I served this with roast potatoes and asparagus, also cooked in the oven on the rack below the chicken. About 10 small russet potatoes were washed, quartered, and sprinkled with seasoning salt and steak spice, then put in the oven 10-15 minutes before the chicken (for an hour and 10-15 minutes of total potato cooking time). I added the asparagus (drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with lemon pepper) to the potato pan in the last 20 minutes of cooking.



SAUCE

All of the chicken/boursin/bacon drippings
1/3 C whipping cream
1/4 C white wine
Fresh ground pepper
1 T corn starch (dissolved in a bit of water)

The original recipe says that the sauce is optional. The sauce is not optional. The sauce is so freaking good. We could eat it as soup. It is possible that more than one spoonful was consumed in this fashion. It is also possible that extra potatoes were consumed solely as an excuse for more sauce.

Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and whisk over medium-low heat. Turn off the oven, but leave the chicken, potatoes etc. in the warmth while the sauce is simmering.

The sauce is really tasty. I don't know if I've made that sufficiently clear. (Edited to add: my parents have now tried this recipe, and my mother suggested renaming it to 'Boursin Bacon Cream Sauce with a Side of Bacon-Wrapped Chicken.')

As bonus information, our wine of choice for the evening was Red Bicyclette Syrah. It nicely complemented both the main course and the cayenne chocolate cupcakes we had for dessert. (We were shameless tonight, people.)

Bacon Rice Croquettes

Yes: the farmer's market is closed, the marking is on our desks, and we are back in bacon business. You may see a few other recipe types on here this year -- Cinnilla and I have a hankering to try some Coke cake -- but so far bacon is still winning as our ingredient of choice.

For the first recipe of the year, I turned to Mr. Breakfast and pretty much used their recipe for bacon rice croquettes, with two small changes. I added green onions, and ended up rolling the rice balls in dried bread crumbs (because adding an egg to the bread crumbs as originally suggested just made for a clumpy mess).

BACON RICE CROQUETTES

2 C cooked rice, cooled
3/4 pkg bacon (we cooked the whole package and used the rest for "snacking bacon")
1/3 C freshly grated parmesan
3-4 green onions, finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 C fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 tsp pepper
vegetable oil (I used canola)

Fry bacon & chop into bacon bits. Add together bacon, rice, parmesan, green onions, pepper, egg. Press into small patties, then roll in bread crumbs (I had imperfect luck even with the dry bread crumbs; may have needed another egg in the rice, but at that point I was out of eggs.)



Fill a large pan with an inch or two of oil (I used a big metal stew pot, as I did not want oil splashing all over the kitchen -- please be careful here). Heat oil, then drop in patties and fry for a few minutes on either side. Drain hot croquettes onto a paper towel.



A few of the croquettes did crumble in the pan, but for the most part they held together pretty well -- and they were delicious. The leftovers were also great cold.



Served with blueberry banana pancakes, and Cinnilla's sweet potato bacon hash (recipe incoming).

Hiatus

Perhaps you, our noble reader (I'm pretty sure there's only one of you), are wondering where we are. Easy explanation: the farmer's market re-opened, the college year ended, and we have now taken a break from our iron chef weekends. We will return in October, when the market closes and our lives are again fraught with grading and peril. Lots of peril.

We're trying to think of an ingredient for next year (maple sugar?). Or we might just try a different odd recipe every weekend. We are taking suggestions if you are so inclined. It will give you something to do with your lonely life as you pass the endless weeks until our return.

Praline Sauce

What could make bacon ice cream a little less stomach-churning?

Nothing, actually. But praline sauce was a good idea so I made it anyways. The brainstorm actually came from breakfast at Elizabeth's in New Orleans (see previous post, or, better yet, just go there). If their specialty is praline bacon, why not just cover bacon ice cream with praline sauce?

So we did. And thanks to the Junior League of New Orleans, whose excellent cookbook Jambalaya provided us with this most awesome praline sauce. Hint: this makes about a quart of sauce, so I recommend freezing it if you don't want to fall into a diabetic coma. It freezes fine, except for a slight crystallization of the sugars when thawed, which might be eliminated by reheating it gently.

Anyhow, back to the recipe:

3/4 cup white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (though I used dark brown and it was still good)
4 tablespoons butter
1 (5 1/3 ounce) can evaporated milk---since we're in Metric Land and the supermarket does not sell evaporate milk in cans that size, just call it 2/3 cup and you're good.
3/4 cups chopped pecans

Combine syrup, sugar, and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and cool. When lukewarm, stir in milk and pecans. Refrigerate. Yields 2 1/2 cups.

One thing not in the recipe, but for those who need to know: what you're basically making is a caramel, so under no circumstances stir the pot while the sugar is melting. Otherwise you might end up with a crystallized mess other than a delicious syrup-like consistency. (I have heard that corn syrup stabilizes things, but why take chances?) Feel free, however, to swirl the pot occasionally.

Good over ice cream and I'm tempted to coat some bacon with it. This may possibly lead to a Bacon Special Experiment.