Bourbon, Bacon & Bean Balderdash! 

(Serves 4 average size folk)

Ingredients:

½ lb. Bacon

2 cups dried white beans
½ cup mozerlla cheese
2 small onions
1 whole clove
½ cup of Barbque Sauce

3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
2 shots bourbon
2 tablespoons of Salsa
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider or white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco Sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

Soak the beans in a large bowl of clear, drinking water overnight.

Then carefully drain and rinse the pre-soaked beans and add them to a pot.

Peel the onion and cut it in lengthwise in half.

Insert the clove into one of the halves and place both pieces of onion in the pot with the beans.

Place the garlic and bay leaf into the pot and make sure that you cover the contents with water approximately one inch above the beans.

Pour in the 2 shots of bourbon and stir it in well.

Partly cover the pot, stir and simmer the beans for 50 to 60 minutes or until the beans are tender and just enough water remains to keep the beans wet.

Remove the onion, along with the inserted clove and bay leaf.

Add the salt to the pot and mix well.

Now, in a small bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients listed on the ingredient list, with the exception of the bacon and add this mixture to the beans, mixing well.

Add a slice of bacon to the pot and simmer uncovered for 20-30 minutes until the beans have thickened.

Meanwhile, fry the rest of the bacon to a state of moderate crispiness then and pat with paper towels in order to remove all excess grease.

Slice the pieces of bacon into 1? pieces.

When you are ready to serve the beans, toss them with all but a few pieces of the fried bacon.

Garnish with the Mozzarella Cheese and remaining pieces of bacon.

Enjoy!

Introducing delightful and delectable: “Bacon Cheddar Jalapeno Poppers!” This is a totally terrific tasty treat, not just because it’s so darned delicious, but also because it’s so amazingly quick and utterly easy to prepare.

The actually cooking time of this mouthwatering dish is a mere ten minutes and the preparation time is even less. That means, when surprise visitors show up at the door and stay long enough to earn themselves a meal, you can smile with pride, serving up a bountiful, “baconlicious” masterpiece. 

This is simply too outrageously awesome to only eat when company is visiting. We find the family loves to enjoy these “piggies” about once a week and it’s perfect for when the family cook is frantically rushing around with other tasks to attend to or is simply tired of spending so much time in the kitchen.

Here’s all it takes to get your herd eating like a … well, you know!

Bacon Cheddar Jalapeno Poppers

(Serves 4-6 people)

Ingredients:

A “16 oz.” block Cheddar Cheese

6 Jalapeno Peppers (seeded)

12 slices of Bacon

Directions:

Preheat the broiler.

Slice the jalapeño peppers in half.

Remove all of the seeds.

Slice the cheddar cheese into 12 medium thick slices.

Be sure that the slices are long enough to fit inside the jalapeño halves.

Insert the cheese slices into the jalapeño halves.

Wrap the Bacon carefully around the outside of the jalapeño halves and secure it with a toothpick.

Place on a medium sized baking sheet.

Broil for 8 to 10 minutes or until the bacon is evenly brown. 

Allow 3-5 minutes to cool and then Enjoy!

Here’s a great way to start your day off right with a tongue tempting, “tried and true” touch of traditional tastes, based on a basic “bacony” breakfast billing that is creatively combined with today’s modern sophistication and flavorful experimentation with the classics. Enjoy!

Sun-Dried Tomato Bacon & Eggs Benedict

(Serves 4)

Hollandaise Sauce Ingredients:

4 egg yolks

1 cup melted butter

3 ½ tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tbsp. fresh drinking water

1/8 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 inch of white pepper, freshly ground

¼ tsp. salt

Meal Ingredients:

8 eggs

8 strips Sun-Dried Tomato Bacon

4 English Muffins, split

2 tbsp butter, softened

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

Hollandaise Directions:

First fill the bottom of a double boiler part-way with water.

Make sure that water does not touch the top pan.

Bring water to a gentle simmer.

In the top of the double boiler, whisk together your egg yolks, lemon juice, white pepper, Worcestershire Sauce and 1 tbsp. of water.

Slowly add in the melted butter to the egg yolk mixture a little at a time while whisking the yolks vigorously.

If the sauce begins to get too thick, add a teaspoon or two of hot water to the mixture.

Continue whisking until all of the butter is fully incorporated and blended evenly.

Now whisk in the salt and remove from heat.

Place a lid on the pan to keep the sauce warm.

Meal Directions:

Preheat oven on broiler setting.

While your eggs are poaching, brown the bacon in a medium skillet over medium-high heat and toast the English muffins on a baking sheet under the broiler.

To poach the eggs, fill a large saucepan with 3 inches of water.

Bring water to a gentle simmer and then add the vinegar.

Carefully break eggs into simmering water, and allow them to cook for 2 ½ to 3 minutes.

Remember that the yolks should remain soft in center.

Remove eggs from water with a slotted spoon and set on a warm plate.

Spread the softened butter over the toasted muffins halves.

Top each muffin half with a slice of bacon and one poached egg.

 Drizzle the poached egg and bacon covered muffins with hollandaise sauce & serve!

Recipe by Matt Harron

Ingredients:

3 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes

1.5 lb sliced lean bacon (the more dark meat the better)

1 Jar of cheese whiz (refrigerated)

2 tbsp Bar-b-q sauce

8 tbs of butter (1 stick more)

1 cup of whole milk or heavy cream

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 photo of King Tut’s death mask to work from

Directions:

Prep Time :  1:15 hrs

Cook Time:  20 min

Peel and cube the potatoes and boil in a large pot for about 12 minutes in 3-4 quarts of water.  Don’t over cook these or they may become hard to work with when molding.  Drain the potatoes and force them through a ricer or hand-mash them in the same large pot you boiled in.  Slowly add the butter and milk to make sure they potatoes do not get too runny.  You want them to be firm and tasty.  Add salt and pepper.

In a large greased casserole dish, start molding the face by scooping up two large handfuls of potato.  (I found that greasing my hands with bacon grease helped the potato from sticking)  Work from the top of the dish down, remembering to leave room for the headdress at the top and the necklace at the bottom.  Once you have the oval face, try rolling the potatoes between your hands into strips and laying them around the face.  You’ll need to shape the chin, nose, eyes, eyebrows, and headdress. Remember this is not an exact science.  It’s going to taste good anyway.

Once you’re shaped your Tut, use the cheese whiz and coat the face and headdress like you would icing a cake.  If your potatoes are still warm, keeping the cheese whiz cold will help it to spread nicely.  You don’t have to cake it on too much, you can always add the extra after you cook it.  For the chin, I used bar-b-q sauce and fatty bacon stips to make it look like bandages.

Now separate out about 7-8 pieces of bacon and set them aside. Using scissors or a sharp knife, cut the remaining bacon into strips to be used to accent the headdress and the face.  Use the picture of Tut to help you decorate.

Weave the remaining bacon into a rectangle that will fit your creation.  I did 4 pieces horizontal and 3 pieces cut in half vertically.  This part was a little tricky because you may need to cut out the headdress and chin from the bacon weave in order to fit it into the pan.  Think of the bacon weave like construction paper and you should be fine.  You can always add more.

Once you’re done, make sure to take a “before” picture and then bake the entire casserole on 350f for about 20 minutes or until the cheese looks crispy.   Add any remaining cheese and enjoy!  Feeds about 4-6.

 So here it is, from my kitchen to your tummies:
Pancake & Bacon Whoopie Pies

1 lbs bacon, cook it pretty crispy
1 C complete pancake mix (the kind where only water is needed)
1/4 C water
1/4 C half & half
1 egg

Filling:
1 8oz brick cream cheese
4TBS maple syrup (I use the real stuff)
2TBS half & half

For ultimate bacon flavor, cook your bacon the night before and mix half of it with your cream cheese filling (just add all ingredients and beat until fluffy)

Combine the pancake mix, half & half, egg and water until well blended. If you are a bacon lover like I am, add the other half of your cooked bacon to the batter. Scoop even amounts of batter and pour onto a cookie sheet that is either greased or lined with parchment. Depending on the scoop sizes, this should yield 6 to 10 scoops. [3 to 5 pies]
Bake at 375 for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tops start to show light golden brown. Remove immediately from pan and allow to cool slightly. Once cool enough to handle, spread a heaping amount of filling on one cake, and top with another.

Article and Recipe submitted by Laura Crawford.

This is the second of three Super Bowl recipes using Bacon Jam that we have received and wanted to pass onto Bacon Nation. The recipe is Grilled Rib Eye Crostini, and we hope you enjoy it.

•Directions:

Rub a little olive oil on the rib eye and then crust the rib eye in the cracked pepper and salt and let sit for 30 minutes. Preheat the grill to as hot as it goes. Grill the rib eye for 2 minutes on each side getting a good char on each side while preserving the medium rare temperature in the middle. Set aside and let come to room temperature. When room temperature, about 30 minutes, slice very thin so that it will fit on a crostini.

To assemble, spread about a tablespoon of bacon jam on the crostini, layer a few slices of rib eye on the crostini. Top with bleu cheese crumbles and arugula.

 Photo Credit:  http://www.chow.com/tags/old-school/gallery/22586/basic-grilled-rib-eye 

The Superbowl is just 2 weeks away, and whether you are into the game or just enjoy the commercials, food plays a huge part in each party.  Josh has prepared a set of recipes using bacon jam that would be great for Super Bowl parties.  Bacon Jam is a great resource for anyone that loves bacon, or loves to cook.  One of these three recipes will be published today, and the the other two as the Superbowl draws near. 

The first recipe we are going to release is Bacon Jam and Spinach Dip.

Ingredients…

• 2 tablespoons minced onion

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

• 1 1/4 cups whole milk

• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

• 1 1/4 cups grated parmesan cheese

• 1/2 cup frozen artichoke hearts, thawed, squeezed dry and finely chopped

• Tortilla chips and salsa, for serving

Directions…

The Food Hound, one of the cool cooking blogs we’ve discovered in recent weeks, covers a lot of interesting territory. Looking for great food photography, recipes and cooking ideas? You’ll get that kind of stuff here.

It may shock you to no end (sarcasm alert!), but we couldn’t help but drool onto our keyboards recently when we spotted this bacon-laced recipe by The Food Hound for a great winter soup. Butternut-jalapeño bisque with bacon crumbles is the type of cold-weather dish that comforts souls on cold winter nights. Or on warmer nights. This is just bisque, and it’s your choice.

But this is also a bisque that’s packed with some sophisticated flavors. Better yet, it doesn’t look tough to make, and everything on the ingredient list is available in most groceries and markets.

That includes the bacon. Yes, the bacon. The Food Hound is careful to note that the crumbled bacon bits aren’t just a cool-looking garnish for the finished soup. The bacon is that final “pop” that pushes the dish over the top. This is a winter soup with a blend of creamy, luxurious texture, deep root-vegetable flavor, and the bonus savory boost of crispy bacon. We like that.

The Food Hound’s recipe is another reason why bacon is so great in the kitchen: It’s a great flavor base when starting a recipe. It’s also good enough to be a standalone side dish. Plus bacon has that mysterious quality that makes it a great final touch to a dish. How many foods can give you all that?

Check it out, fellow baconistas. Try making The Food Hound’s butternut-jalapeño bisque with bacon crumbles. Let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you!

Here is yet another great recipe sent from a Bacon Today reader, enjoy…

Ingredients:

2 lbs lean sirloin, coarse ground
1 lb thick bacon
1-2 poblano peppers
1/4 lb smoked gouda (any cheese will do, depending on preference, or omit cheese)
whole garlic cloves (to taste, and I like LOTS of garlic)
small onion

Start by cutting the bacon into small pieces, 1/2″ long or so, and cook them just to get a little bit of the fat out. Sirloin is lean, so the fat in the bacon will help all of this hold together. Don’t cook out too much of it, unless you want the crunchies. In this case, the cheese might be more necessary. I prefer to roast my Poblano peppers over a fire, but oven roasting is ok. When the skin get bubbly and looks charred in spots, remove and peel the skin off. (tip: Put them in a sealed container for a few minutes and the skin is much easier to remove.) Remove the seeds, cut julienne style, and set aside. Mince the garlic and dice the onion. In the same pan you cooked the bacon in, assuming you didn’t dump the fat, saute your onion and garlic. Now that all of these have been prepped, roll out some foil or wax paper and spread your sirloin onto it about 1/2″ thick or less, in a rectangle. Layer the bacon, julienned peppers, sauteed garlic and onions on the sirloin. Top with shredded or finely diced cheese and roll. The foil makes the rolling much easier. Once that’s done, set it in the fridge for a few hours and let the fat do it’s thing. It will stay together better if allowed to sit for a while, but you can just cut it into slices and grill right away.

1 1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup bacon grease
2 cups sugar
2 large beaten eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup plus extra for the candied bacon
2.5 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups flour
2 lbs bacon
1/2 cup white sugar for coating the dough balls

First things first: the bacon. Line baking sheets with tin foil. Put racks on them, and lay out the bacon. It can overlap some, but not too much. Spread on a healthy amount of maple syrup, spreading it with a brush, if you have one. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. Flip the bacon, spread on more maple syrup, and bake for another 15 minutes, or until perfectly crisp. You can turn the oven off, because the dough will need to chill out in the fridge for a little bit.

Next, the grease: Pour about 1/4 cup of the bacon drippings into a measure cup, and set aside. You can discard the rest of the grease if you want. Or save it in your fridge for the next time you’re making pancakes. YUM.

Now, the cookie dough! Melt the butter in the microwave and mix it with the sugar in a large bowl. Let the mixture cool (Since the butter will probably still be warm) and add the beaten eggs. Add maple syrup, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Mix it all up.

Again with the bacon! Set aside about seven strips of bacon. DO NOT EAT THEM. All of your eating bacon should come from the other bacon. Chop the other bacon up into smallish pieces. Eat as much as you want, but remember, the more bacon that goes in your stomach now, the less bacon you’ll have in your cookies later. Mix you chopped bacon in to the dough. Then add the flour and mix thoroughly.

It’s chill time! Chill the dough for at least 1 hour in the fridge. (Overnight is fine too.) This is a good time to clean up the kitchen. Alternatively, depending on how much bacon you ate, it’s a great time to take a nap or go for a run. I chose to clean up.

It’s cookie making time! Roll the dough into walnut sized balls with your hands. Error on the side of small, because they will spread out. Roll the balls in white sugar and place them on parchment lined cookie sheets, 12 to a standard sheet. Keep them at least an inch apart, but more if you have room to spare. They spread out and will mush together if you do what I did and put them too close together. Take your remaining bacon and cut it into half in pieces. Put a piece of bacon on the top of each cookie. Flatten them with a spatula or potato masher.

Time to bake! Put oven rack in the middle position. If you are awesome enough to have a convection over you can bake with two racks at a time. OH YEAH. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes or until nicely browned. Cool on the cookie sheets while you clear off a place for the cookies to cool down further. You can shift the parchment paper off the cookie sheet and place it on, say, your washing machine, so you can reuse that cookie sheet.

Wait a gosh darn minute! The cookies will seem soft, but they will crisp up a little bit. They’re remain sort of soft, though, which is how I like them.

Now, eat as many as you want, then pass out in a delicious bacony coma.

Note: If you somehow don’t eat all the cookies right away, you should store them in the fridge, because, yeah, bacon.

ARTICLE/PHOTO CREDIT: Eat Drink and be Meiri @ http://eatdrinkandbemeiri.blogspot.com/