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7-Layer Chili Dog Dip

February 27, 2012 in appetizer

We celebrated my oldest’s 5th birthday this past weekend. Five! How am I old enough to have a 5 year old?!

We had a small party including cake, a pinata, and way too many Power Rangers toys.

(Him on his 1st birthday and on his 5th! Is that not the chunkiest baby you’ve ever seen?)

I made this dip for his party because the boy loves hot dogs. And yes, this does have actual hot dogs in it!

It’s 7 layers (obviously) of things you might put on your hot dogs – chili, cheddar, bacon, red onions, sour cream, and cilantro. The hot dogs being the 7th layer, of course. ;)

When I first saw this recipe, I thought it sounded way too bizarre to be any good but I saved it anyway. I mean, hot dogs in a dip? On chips? Weird.

But so good. Seriously. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but this is good stuff. I cut my hot dogs lengthwise and then sliced them maybe 1/2″ thick so they weren’t super noticeable but they still added that unmistakable hot dog texture and taste to the dip.

7-Layer Chili Cheese Dog Dip
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adapted from Rachael Ray via Taste and Tell
Ingredients
  • For the chili:
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 1 can (14-oz) diced tomatoes
  • For the Dip:
  • Chili
  • 1/2 pound bacon
  • 4 hot dogs, diced
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup diced red onion
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1 bag tortilla or pita chips
Instructions
To make the chili:
  1. Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large pot. When the oil is hot, add the ground beef and onion. Cook, breaking up the beef, until it’s browned and the onions have softened. Drain, if needed. Add the chili powder, cumin and coriander; cook another minute or 2, just until the spices are nice and fragrant.
  2. Add the beef stock and tomatoes and allow to come to a boil. Cook for about 10 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.
To assemble the dip:
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook, flipping as needed, until the bacon is crisp. Drain on paper towels; crumble once cool. Set aside.
  3. Pour off all but about a teaspoon of the bacon fat. Add diced hot dogs and cook, stirring frequently, until the hot dogs are browned. Remove from the heat and set aside.
  4. Spread the chili in the bottom of an 8×8-inch baking dish. Top with the hot dogs and then the cheese. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
  5. Top with bacon, sour cream, red onion, and cilantro. Serve hot.

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Farfalle with Bacon and Endives

February 16, 2012 in pasta, pork

I have to be honest with y’all.

I haven’t been cooking or baking lately. Last night I cooked for the first time in a week. We have been going out every night because my husband won’t tell me what he wants to eat in his last little bit of time at home. So I thought about what I would want if the situation was reversed and I was going to be living off MREs for the next 9 months, and decided that I’d want to stuff myself with burritos the size of my head and drive-thru Chinese food before leaving. Home cooked meals? Psssh! I’d totally miss restaurants.

But the day before Valentine’s Day, this showed up on my doorstep:

It’s a bouquet of endives! How stinkin’ cute is it?!

Before those showed up, I’d never given endives much thought and I don’t think I’d ever tried one. But I couldn’t just let them go to waste.

So that’s how I ended up cooking after a week of not turning my stove on. (Except to boil coffee. Which my husband says doesn’t count as cooking, no matter how much I insist it does.)

The great thing about this pasta is that it’s really creamy without using any cream! You take a quart of chicken broth and boil it down – it gets really thick and makes your house smell amazing. Then at the end you stir in just a little Parmesan. Seriously good. If you have endives you don’t know what to do with, I definitely recommend this.

This was one of those recipes that could’ve gone either way with my husband but he LOVED it. As we speak, the leftovers are packed in his work bag so he can eat it for breakfast today.

Farfalle with Bacon and Endives
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adapted from Food & Wine
Ingredients
  • 1 quart chicken broth
  • 1 pound farfalle
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 pound thickly sliced bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 3 medium Belgian endives, cored and sliced 1 inch thick
  • 3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup parsley, coarsely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, boil the chicken broth over high heat until reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 20 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the farfalle until al dente.
  3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the bacon and cook over moderately low heat until slightly crisp. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add the endives to the skillet and cook over medium high heat, stirring, until the endives are just wilted but still crisp, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
  4. Drain the farfalle and add it to the skillet. Add the reduced chicken broth, parsley, lemon zest and bacon and toss well. Remove from the heat. Stir in the Parmesan and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large bowl and hot with extra Parmesan sprinkled on top.

 

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Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011 in holiday

(2 cups pomegranate juice, 2 cups orange juice, + 1 bottle of  champagne)

(mac + brie)

(husband’s turkey! Nicole suggested we cover it in bacon – turned out awesome!)

(Yes that is a river of gravy and 2 drinks by my plate. Judge me if you wish.)

I hope everyone enjoys lots of food and lots of family time today! Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating! :)

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Cornbread, Bacon, Leek, and Pecan Dressing

November 21, 2011 in sides

Other than the green beans, dressing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. I’d tell you that you can also find me standing in front of the fridge chowing down on dressing for breakfast the next morning but that would be a lie. Because I eat the entire container of leftovers on Thanksgiving night. Just so I don’t have to share. ‘Tis true. Shameful, but true.

I made this dressing recipe because it calls for many of my favorite ingredients: cornbread, bacon, leeks, and pecans. With that combination of ingredients, how can it be anything but delicious? It’s also very simple to prepare – I would bake the cornbread the day before Thanksgiving (I used Jiffy mix, btw) and then all you have to do is saute the bacon & leeks and mix everything together on the big day.

Cornbread, Bacon, Leek, and Pecan Dressing
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Ingredients
  • 2 cups pecans
  • 2 cornbreads (rounds, squares, or loaves, 8 inches each), coarsely broken into 2-inch pieces (16 cups)
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for dish
  • 8 slices smoked bacon, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 4 leeks (white and pale-green parts only), chopped into 1/2-inch pieces, rinsed well
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
  • 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spread pecans on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in oven for 7 minutes. Let cool slightly; coarsely chop. Mix together pecans and cornbread in a large bowl.
  2. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Cook bacon in a large high-sided skillet over medium-high heat until almost crisp, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; add leeks. Cook until leeks are tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Stir in thyme and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt; season with pepper. Transfer to a large bowl.
  3. Return skillet to medium-high heat, and add stock; bring to a simmer, scraping up brown bits and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add to bowl with bacon-leek mixture. Stir in eggs. Gently mix in cornbread mixture. (Do not overmix.) Transfer to baking dish. Dot top with butter. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes.


from Martha Stewart

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Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

September 30, 2011 in cookie

Last weekend I realized what a little food blog bubble I live in. Let me explain.

We, as food bloggers, like bacon. We like adding bacon to things like cupcakes or brownies or cookies. We get excited when we’re watching Top Chef: Just Desserts and they put bacon in ice cream. It’s just how we do it.

I made these Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies last weekend to munch on during football games thinking they would be an immediate hit. I mean, dark chocolate chips and bacon? Who wouldn’t like that?! (See, food blog bubble.)

So throughout the day we had a lot of people come by to watch a game or 2 and each time, someone would say “Oooh cookies” and I’d warn them that they had bacon and then they would say, with disgust on their face, “Bacon?! In cookies?! You try them first” and they would push whoever they came with towards the cookies.

No lie. Everyone was disgusted by the idea of bacon in cookies.

But guess how many cookies I had left at the end of the day. ZERO. All 5 dozen cookies were gone.

Because bacon belongs in everything. Especially chocolate chip cookies.

Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
5.0 from 1 reviews
Print
Yield: about 5 dozen cookies
Ingredients
  • For the candied bacon:
  • 6 slices thick-cut bacon
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • For the cookies:
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 cup butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 cups semi-sweet (or dark!) chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Place bacon in a single layer on a foil lined sheet.
  3. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of bacon strips. Bake for 18-25 minutes or until crispy, making sure to turn bacon over after 10 minutes.
  4. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack for cooling. Once bacon has cooled chop it finely.
  5. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.
  6. Sift flour and baking soda.
  7. In a medium bowl, cream butter with the white and brown sugar.
  8. Add vanilla, egg, and egg yolk to the bowl and beat until light and creamy.
  9. Add flour mixture and mix well.
  10. Add diced candied bacon and chocolate chips and stir until just combined.
  11. Place tablespoon sized balls of dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes or until edges are brown. Remove from oven and let cookies sit on the pan for a couple of minutes before placing on a wire rack.


adapted from Tablespoon

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