Category Archives: snacks

February 9, 2014 · 4:07 pm

What happens on the mountain, stays on the mountain

Cheers from the Women of St. Paul's

Cheers from the Women of St. Paul’s

Yes, the Women of St. Paul’s are dressed in pajamas. Why wouldn’t you combine a pajama party and a wine tasting? What’s wrong with you?

IMG_3611Every year, the Women of St. Paul’s adjourn to Monteagle (otherwise known as “the mountain”) for a weekend of renewal, fellowship, eating and drinking. The first year there were about 50 of us, but the word got around and this year’s retreat numbered almost 100. We learned to arrange flowers, we made felt flowers, we practiced yoga, we belly danced, we learned a newfangled form of doodling, and we made appetizers. We ate every three hours whether we needed to or not. And we had a wee bit of wine, a few appletinis and maybe one or two shots of vodka. Maybe. I know, I know. Those of you ladies who don’t attend St. Paul’s are wondering, “Where do I sign up?”

The appetizers class made all the finger food for the wine tasting. While we swapped tales, told lies and gossiped. In the nicest possible, most Christian-like way.

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato CanapesWe made Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Canapes.

Marinated CheeseAnd marinated cheese trays.

IMG_3624And adorable little mini shrimp cocktails in plastic shooter cups.

Leslie and garnishesOh, and Leslie taught our class how to make garnishes for the platters. Yes, we are Episcopalian. There must be garnishes.

Well, I will modestly say that everyone had a great time and our efforts were very well received.

Buffet 1Salami-rolled mozzarella sticks, shrimp shooters and marinated cheese…

Buffet 2Bacon, lettuce and tomato canapes…

IMG_3651Meatballs in a sweet and sour sauce…

Buffet 4Saltine toffee…

Nacho BarAnd the very popular nacho bar…

The Women of St. Paul’s had dinner not 20 minutes after the wine tasting ended. We are nothing if not troopers.

Becky and BeckyAlrighty. By now I assume you think all we do is carry on and tipple and eat. And belly dance. But you’d be wrong. I did a bad thing today. I took a picture in church during a service. That is so not correct. But I couldn’t help myself. Even with all our frivolous fun, the Sunday morning Eucharist is maybe the best thing that happens all weekend. Instead of a sermon, women tell their personal stories. Kleenex is abundant. The music this year was from an all-woman band. Amazing Grace. Who doesn’t cry while singing Amazing Grace? Not us. Instead of receiving communion from a priest, we give it to each other. Even if you didn’t know to say, “Body of Christ…Bread of Heaven” and “Blood of Christ…Cup of Salvation,” it was just fine to offer the wafers and wine with a “Here you go.”

Sunday Church“I’m gonna let my feet go dancing to my very favorite songs,

‘Cause I know my time for leaving is bound to come before too long.

And there ain’t no way of me knowing how tomorrow’s gonna be,

So I’ll just dance the shores of Jordan ’till the angels carry me.”

Shores of Jordan as sung by the Women of St. Paul’s on February 9, 2014.

 

 

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Tagged as appetizers, bacon, cheese, lettuce, marinated cheese, meatballs, nacho bar, saltine toffee, shrimp cocktails, tomato, wine tasting

February 6, 2014 · 7:34 pm

Saltine Toffee and the Women of St. Paul’s annual cocktail party

Saltine Toffee 2It is time once again for the Women of St. Paul’s annual retreat, spiritual revival and continuous cocktail party. There will be the opening night appletinis, kind of like the Opening Ceremonies at the Winter Olympics but safer and more enjoyable. There will be Saturday night’s wine tasting, “tasting” being a relative term. There will be flower arranging, candle making, yoga, a make-up tips class and general frivolity.

And my friends, Leslie and Marida, and I are doing an appetizers class. First, you must understand that Episcopal women are, without  a doubt, the world’s leading producers of appetizers. We have receptions for one thing or another almost every week – births, deaths, anniversary celebrations, the Bishop’s visit – they all require nibbles.

So I am a little intimidated. But I am more fearful of something the retreat committee had not anticipated. Last year’s group numbered around 60. This year’s crowd is creeping up on 100. And our humble appetizers class is providing all the food for the “wine tasting.” Do you know how many sausage balls it takes to soak up the alcohol intake of 100 Episcopal women? I cannot even count that high.

I told Marida the other day, we’ll just make what we make and when it’s gone it’s gone. How existential. But I do worry that we’ll turn the class participants into hors d’oeuvre slave laborers. Get that cheese sliced for the marinated cheese tray stat. Faster, faster! 

I’ll be demonstrating mini BLTs, for which I cooked three pounds of bacon tonight and only stole one slice (thank you very  much), and saltine toffee. Marida’s making her world-famous baked onion dip and her coveted marinated cheese tray. Leslie…what an over achiever. She started with individual shrimp cocktails in shooter glasses, followed with marinated meatballs and then started thinking of two or three other things to add. Faster, faster!

So we’ll let you know how it goes. It will either be a triumph or a disaster. But about 30 minutes into the “wine tasting,” no one will remember. Thanks be to God.

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Saltine Toffee
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Serves: 15
 

Ingredients
  • 4 ounces saltine crackers
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • ¾ cup chopped pecans

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
  2. Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in single layer.
  3. In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread to cover crackers completely.
  4. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 6 minutes.
  5. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes.
  6. Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts. Cool completely and break into pieces.

 

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February 1, 2014 · 2:42 pm

Game day recipes

So here are some fun Super Bowl food factoids (thank you, Reuters):

  •  Super Bowl Sunday is the second-largest day for consumption of food and drink for Americans, behind Thanksgiving Day.
  •  Dips and spreads are the top choice of food to eat during the Super Bowl, followed by chicken wings and pizza.
  •  Americans will consume an estimated 50 million cases of beer on the day.

I don’t want to be a party pooper, but King Daddy and I are not Super Bowl Party kind of people. We are solitary football watchers. We don’t even watch games together as King Daddy’s incessant yelling upsets my delicate nature. However, if I were having a Super Bowl Party, I’d be serving mini BLTs, roasted red pepper dip with crudites and skirt steak quesadillas.

Now here’s a few of the dumbest questions of all time that reporters asked Super Bowl players on media day. I am sad to say I used to belong to this profession.

Question to Broncos Defensive End Shaun Phillips: “Is this a ‘must-win’ game?”

Question to Cardinals Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald: “Who has the better hair, you or Steelers Safety Tony Polamalu?”

Question to Cardinals Quarterback Matt Leinart: “Can I measure your bicep?”

Sports Illustrated has got a million of them (well, 25 actually) right here.

 

Mini BLTs

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Mini BLTs
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Serves: 10-12
 

Ingredients
  • 1 loaf of white bread, crusts removed, cut into 2-inch circles with a biscuit cutter
  • Mayonnaise (Duke’s)
  • 2 cups shredded lettuce
  • 2 containers cherry tomatoes, sliced thin
  • 1 pound bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled

Instructions
  1. To assemble the mini BLTs, spread mayonnaise on the bread rounds.
  2. Top each bread round with shredded lettuce, a couple slices of cherry tomato and crumbled bacon.

Red pepper dip

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Roasted red pepper dip
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Serves: 10-12
 

Ingredients
  • 1 15-ounce can navy beans
  • ½ cup roasted red peppers
  • 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • Juice from ½ lemon
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and mix until creamy.
  2. Chill for 30 minutes.

 

flat iron flip

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Skirt steak quesadillas
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Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
  • A few dashes of hot sauce
  • 1 1-pound skirt steak
  • 2 green peppers, seeded and cut into large chunks
  • 1 large onion, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 4 6-inch flour tortillas
  • 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions
  1. Combine the vegetable oil, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and hot sauce in a small bowl. Put the skirt steak in a large plastic bag, add the marinade and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
  2. Preheat the grill to medium high.
  3. Sprinkle the green pepper and onion with a little olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Grill the vegetables until they are nicely charred and crisp/tender. Reserve.
  4. Remove the steak from the marinade and pat dry. Salt and pepper the steak and grill it for 5-6 minutes with the grill lid up. Flip and continue grilling until the internal temperature of the steak is 140 degrees (if you press on the steak it will feel like a half-deflated tennis ball).
  5. Remove the steak and let rest, tented with foil, for 10 minutes. Cut the steak into thin strips against the grain.
  6. Cut the reserved green pepper and onion into thin strips.
  7. Heat a large frying pan on medium high on the stove. Assemble the quesadillas with the vegetables, steak and cheese on one half of each tortilla. Fold and brush one side with oil. Fry the oiled side until the tortilla begins to brown. Brush the other side with oil and flip to brown the other side.

 

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January 16, 2014 · 4:11 pm

We might starve: Part two

We are getting ready for the Mayhew/Harbin/Mayhew Family Reunion. And, as always, if we do not lay in enough supplies, we might starve. Tammy, my daughter-in-law, has already stockpiled the entire freezer section of the Piggly Wiggly because she is the snack lady and a pox will be upon her if she runs out of Pigs in a Blanket and Stuffed Potato Skins.

We barely made it through the last reunion with the few ingredients we had in the refrigerator

We barely made it through the last reunion with the few ingredients we had in the refrigerator

So I made a little trip to the grocery store just in case Tammy forgets the cheese puffs and Bunny, my mother-in-law, does not produce adequate amounts of ham dip and chicken biscuits.

Just a few things. Let’s see. Bacon-flavored smoked almonds. Protein and pork. Have to have those. Crunchy Cheetos – a nice contrast to the softer cheese puffs my granddaughter prefers. Thirty-two ounces of sour cream to make two “servings” of onion dip. Josh, my stepson, has a habit of sneaking out to the refrigerator in the middle of the night and absconding with the onion dip. I shall leave a container under my bed for safe keeping.

Cheese. Five different kinds of cheese. And crackers. Two kinds. Little Smokies. One must have Little Smokies for that mid-morning pick-me-up. Tammy and I need to keep up our strength for the long drive (two minutes) to the spa for our pedicures. Dark chocolate Reese’s peanut butter cups. Quick energy for making our way out to the porch to read. Bacon. Seriously, how can you survive in the wilderness that is just five miles from Dollywood without bacon?

Oh, and Danish Butter Cookies. Honestly, King Daddy should not be eating Danish Butter Cookies. Well, none of us should. But we will. And dried apricots. Because we want to set a good example for my granddaughter, Puddin’.

Sydney Funnel CakeBy the way, here’s a photo of Puddin’ eating a funnel cake. Because we don’t have enough food in the house, Bunny always takes her and Noah to get funnel cake.  I realize when she’s 13 Puddin’ will hate me for this. But right now Nana is willing to take the risk.

Bunny and SydneyAnd here’s Bunny teaching Puddin’ how to create a massive sugar overload by dumping three pounds of candy sprinkles into canned icing for cupcakes. As I said, we try to set a good example.

I can’t even remember how many reunions there have been, but not a single one of them involved kale or carrot juice. I believe we have our priorities straight. Bless our hearts.

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Tagged as bacon, butter cookies, cheetos, family reunions, funnel cake, ham dip, little smokies, onion dip, peanut butter cups, potato chips, sour cream

January 4, 2014 · 6:43 pm

We might starve

weather map

The Peoples of the South are, of course, petrified. As you can see from this weather map of tomorrow’s weather, there are “minus” signs. The Peoples of the South do not understand. What is a minus? And there are dangerous arrows around Memphis pointing directly in my direction. What are those arrows? I do not know, yet I am very afraid.

So I went to stock up at my beloved Publix and I could see that other Peoples of the South had seen the same map. We understand these life and death situations better than most. A few weeks ago we had flurries. I don’t even want to talk about it.

Storm 1As you can see, there are exactly three buggies at the Publix where there are usually about 180. Yes, that means others sense the impending disaster. And they’re all inside. I think I hear screaming.

Storm 2It’s just as I feared. The Peoples of the South are most fearful of running out of milk and bread during a disaster. The woman next to me fainted when she realized there was no 2 percent left. Fortunately, the paramedics revived her and assured her she could get by on skim until the thaw.Storm 5

Eggs. The symbol of life. And death. Death by starvation. I take the last carton, even though I already have two in my refrigerator. Perhaps I will attempt to whip up a frittata as my frigid hands grasp the cold handle of a cast iron skillet never to be warmed again because the power is now off and my life is ebbing away. Oh, the iron. Or irony.

Storm 4But I must live on for King Daddy, for he would surely starve without me. So I load my buggy with staples such as cornbread mix, chili fixin’s, bacon, lingonberry preserves, Smokehouse Almonds and the latest issue of People magazine. As I said, the Peoples of the South have our priorities straight. As I huddle under a blanket with my dying flashlight, I will at least dimly perceive the brilliance of Kim Kardashian’s make-up tips.

 

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Tagged as almonds, cornbread, deep freeze, eggs, impending doom, Kim Kardashian, milk, publix, south

December 6, 2013 · 6:14 pm

Cheddar Bacon Swirls

Cheddar Bacon SwirlsIf you had asked me 20 years ago why it was a bad idea to buy our house I would not have been able to give you these answers.

In hindsight:

  • It was a bad idea to buy our house because it’s made entirely of wood and our roommates over the years have included squirrels, birds, skunks and groundhogs. We liked the groundhogs best. They were quiet and they didn’t smell.
  • It was a bad idea to buy our house because it is surrounded by forest. Let no light penetrate the lot at 5117. That means no vegetable garden or beautiful flowers. Hope you love hostas as much as we do.
  • It was a bad idea to buy our house because it has an incredibly steep driveway. People visiting us have actually refused to drive up it. Poor Noah did not have a natural childhood because if he attempted to play catch at the top of the driveway and missed, he’d traumatically watch the ball roll about a mile downhill before stopping. And in inclement weather it ices over at the blink of an eye.

Here is a brief illustration of the steepness of our driveway.

Char-Broil Delivery 2This poor man had to deliver a grill to me last spring. It was painful to watch. It took him about half an hour to get the grill up the driveway. I did not offer to help. By the way, he’s only about a third of the way up.

Which brings to me to the Women of St. Paul’s Christmas Party at the Austin/Faulkner home. It may be the best Christmas Party ever. The food is fabulous, the wine flows and all the guests genuinely like each other. It is tonight and the weather is crappy. It’s rain right on the edge of turning to ice. Rain at the bottom of 5117 can be ice at the top. I call my friend, Claire. “What do you think? Should I make my appetizer?” She checks the weather and is uncertain. I stew about this for far too long before deciding I just don’t want to end up as a sad statistic. My obituary would read: “The deceased met an untimely death as she slid down her driveway into a telephone poll but her Cheddar Bacon Swirls were delicious!”

But I did make them, chewing over whether to go to Helen and Katie’s until the last minute. They are delicious. I’ve already had three.  If I put one on edge at the top of the driveway it would roll all the way to Franklin Road.

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Cheddar Bacon Swirls
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Ingredients
  • 1 pound of center-cut bacon
  • 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed but still cold
  • 1 jar seedless raspberry jam
  • 2 cups finely shredded Cheddar cheese
  • Parchment paper

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Arrange the bacon in a rimmed, foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Drain and cool. Finely dice bacon by hand or using a food processor.
  2. Unfold one sheet of the puff pastry. Spread a thin layer of the raspberry jam on the puff pastry. Top with half the bacon, spreading it evenly over the pastry. Top that with 1 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese, also spreading it evenly.
  3. Roll the puff pastry up as you would a jelly roll. Using a serrated knife, cut the pastry into ½ inch rounds. Place the parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put the swirls on the parchment paper, leaving room for them to expand. If you have leftover swirls, refrigerate them.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry begins to brown. Remove the sheet from the oven, gently loosen the swirls from the parchment paper with a rubber spatula and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

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Tagged as appetizers, bacon, cheddar cheese, puff pastry, raspberry jam

November 9, 2013 · 6:22 pm

International day with Noah

How many of these foods do you recognize?

How many of these foods do you recognize?

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault

Which is how Noah and I visited six countries in less than two hours without ever leaving Nashville.

Noah’s in town for the weekend and he wanted to go to the Farmer’s Market for some of West Wind Farms’ super yummy sausage. That boy’s a smart one. He may shop the “manager’s special” in the meat case at the Kroger in Knoxville, but he knows quality and when The Bank is in close proximity he will not hesitate to make a withdrawal on his own behalf. The Bank goes along with this cheerfully. Noah wants to know where his food comes from. That works 100 percent of the time at the Farmer’s Market.

But he also wants to know where other people’s food comes from, as in people from other countries and cultures. Which led to our little thing that I will remember as a big thing.

“You want to go to the Russian store?” I ask as we’re pulling out of the market. Noah has taken Russian three years at the University of Tennessee and he adores Russian food. I cannot tell you how happy I am that there’s a Russian store in Nashville. We head down the interstate to Aleksey’s Market in Berry Hill. Russian butter, cheese, rye bread, pelmeni (sort of like tortellini) and birch juice (a traditional Russian soft drink) go into the basket. We are happy.

“Hey, you know the Mexican place I get chorizo is pretty close,” I say as we load our stash into the car. “You want to head over there?” Of course, he does.

Five minutes later we are walking into the Super Mercado at La Hacienda. LaHa, as it’s known around here, was one of the first authentic Mexican restaurants in Nashville and the grocery next door carries all the good stuff.  Chorizo, an uncooked loose sausage with a spectacular red chile flavor, has seen many a pizza at the Mayhew homestead and has also found its way wrapped into tortillas mixed with scrambled eggs. Mexican melting cheese is a modern (or maybe not so modern) miracle. We buy both.

Bun Thit Heo Quay

Bun Thit Heo Quay

“Have you ever had a Banh Mi?” I ask Noah. “You know, the Asian grocery store is just down the street. And on the weekends, they have special Vietnamese meals, too.” He has never had a Banh Mi, which is a traditional Vietnamese sandwich with roasted pork and pickled vegetables on crunchy French rolls. Another two minutes and we are walking into the wondrous InterAsian Market. One Banh Mi, please, and a container of Bun Thit Heo Quay (crispy roast pork with fresh shrimp over a bed of rice noodles with fresh herbs, peanuts and a spicy sauce).

I am very proud of the boy. He’s gone up and down every aisle at every market we’ve been to, marveling at the diversity of ingredients and sad that he doesn’t know what to do with most of them. Nor do I. But I love the opportunity to learn.

“Well, Noah , if you want to see the Mac Daddy of international markets we need to make one more stop,” I tell him. A few minutes later we pull into the K&S World Market, which has no website and why should it? Everyone in the international community shops there already. From exotic produce to meats hoof to tail to fish so fresh they’re still swimming in tanks, K&S has everything. Since Noah can’t figure out how to transport a live fish from Nashville to Knoxville, he settles on some Pocky (chocolate-covered biscuit sticks from Thailand) and Cholula hot sauce from Mexico.

OK, so I asked at the beginning of this post how many products you recognized. Here are the answers:

How many of these foods do you recognize?

From left to right, rye bread (Russia), Rossiyskiy cheese (Russia), Russian butter, birch juice (Russia), Pocky (Thailand), Kirin beer (Japan), chorizo (Mexico), Bun Thit Heo Quay (Vietnamese), Banh Mi (Vietnamese), pelmeni (Russia), West Wind Farms sausage (America), Kale (America) and Mexican melting cheese.

Enjoy the little things. And get out of your comfort zone. There’s a world of flavor out there, folks. And sometimes you don’t even have to leave home to taste it.

 

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Tagged as banh mi sandwich, chorizo, mexican food, pelmeni, pocky, russian butter, rye bread, sausage, vietnamese food

August 12, 2013 · 6:49 pm

Bacon Bar – Ta da! (and the winning recipe)

Bacon Bar SBLet’s just get right  to it. From left to right: peanut butter, chocolate chip and bacon cookies, maple-glazed bacon, Bacon Classic, pimento cheese and bacon crisps and spiced bacon twists. The culmination of four days of non-stop bacon baking.  The Bacon Bar at the Swine Ball. I have whined and moaned through the last week over this thing and for that I truly apologize. I am sorry.

Bacon Bar Classic SBBut I will show off a few photos because, at the end of the day, bacon is pretty. It makes you smile. Here are a few things I learned about bacon that I will call upon next year for the Bacon Bar. First off, there is a great deal of difference between the beautiful, uniform strips of bacon you get at the supermarket and the slightly horrifying completely random strips you get when buying it wholesale in a 15-pound box. I spent probably 50 percent of my time trying to piece together bacon shreds that had been subjected to some kind of merciless slicing machine that knew not restraint or respect for our fine friend, the pig. Bacon Bar Maple SB Next, I will find a commercial convection oven and boil this whole process down to one day. Poor King Daddy couldn’t get a decent meal for days because my entire refrigerator was given over to bacon in one form or another. And, let me tell you, it is unsettling to see your cats parked at the front of the icebox, waiting for the door to open so they could pounce on that porcine perfection.

So here it is – the Bacon Bar winner, the most popular bacon treat at the Swine Ball. I give you pimento cheese bacon crisps. And the recipe.

Pimento cheese bacon crisps

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Pimento cheese bacon crisps
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Cheese and bacon. Enough said.
Ingredients
  • 8 slices of bacon
  • 1 thin baguette French bread
  • 1 11-ounce container Mrs. Grissom’s Pimento Cheese Spread

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Put the bacon slices on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until the bacon is brown and crispy. Remove and let cool. Crumble.
  3. Slice the bread into ¼-inch rounds. Place the slices on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in that same 400-degree oven until bread begins to brown, about 7 minutes.
  4. Remove and let cool.
  5. Move an oven rack near the broiler and preheat the broiler to high.
  6. Place the bread slices on another foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet and spread each slice with pimento cheese. Top with crumbled bacon.
  7. Broil until the cheese melts and begins to brown, about 4 minutes.

Notes
It’s important to use a pimento cheese that will melt quickly and the kind made with processed cheese food works best. My colleague, Betsy, made the pimento cheese for these snacks from her grandmother’s recipe and it’s very smooth and melty. But she’s not coming to your house to do the same, so Mrs. Grissom’s is a good substitute.

 

 

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Tagged as bacon, bacon bar, French bread, mrs. grissom's, pimento cheese, Swine Ball

June 10, 2013 · 5:13 pm

Cheese squares

Cheese squaresCheese. Cheese elevated by a few eggs. See the pockets in the photo? Expanding cheese. Crispy bits on the pieces by the edge of the pan? Oh, dear. Those are the best.

During the summer at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church there is no Sunday School. So after the 8:45 a.m. service, we have coffee hour. Different people do it on different weeks. Last week was my turn. I made the infamous peanut butter, dark chocolate chip and bacon cookies. And the cheese squares. Oh, and I had a bowl of fruit, but nobody ate it. I don’t know why I always think I’ll look like a dietary horror story if I don’t serve fruit. I have done coffee hour in the summer for almost 20 years and nobody ever eats the fruit.

One of our priests is a vegetarian. We have a hard time processing that type of information at a church where the main fundraiser is a summer BBQ featuring 8,324 pounds of pulled pork. But to each his own. Or her own. “Tracy, if you come to coffee hour don’t eat the cookies,” I warned her. “They have bacon in them.”

Tracy weighs approximately 57 pounds, a testament to vegetarianism. So it was with great delight that I observed her trying a cheese square. And then another. And then one more. And so on and so forth. And as I was leaving, she asked what was in the cheese squares.

Cheese. Pretty much just cheese. This recipe originally came to me from my friend, Kim Council. But I’ve modified it to add Sriracha. Everything’s better with Sriracha.

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Cheese squares
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Fattening
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Cheese and cheese. With a few other things thrown in.
Ingredients
  • 4 eggs
  • 16 ounces grated Cheddar cheese
  • ½ cup dried smoked tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
  • 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Blend eggs in a a blender or food processor until frothy (you will see bubbles form). Transfer to a bowl and add the cheese, tomatoes, onion and Sriracha. The mixture will be very dense and you will wonder why this is ever going to work.
  3. Pour into a 9-by-9 inch pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is beginning to turn golden brown. Cool and cut into 1-inch squares.

 

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Tagged as appetizers, cheddar cheese, cheese, onion, Sriracha sauce

June 7, 2013 · 5:52 pm

Bacon Bar!

Peanut butter, dark chocolate chip and bacon cookies

Peanut butter, dark chocolate chip and bacon cookies

This is tremendously exciting.  I am reviewing my options for the Bacon Bar that is part of the Swine Ball this year. If you live in Nashville, you may know that there is a Swan Ball, which is attended by extremely wealthy people and to which hardly anyone, relative to the size of the city, is invited. And then there is the Swine Ball, which requires that you wear pig noses, participate in a hog calling contest and get pretty sloppy drunk. My kind of party as long as you have a designated driver or a hotel room within walking distance.

Bacon-wrapped cocktail weenies

Bacon-wrapped cocktail weenies

This year, my nonprofit is a beneficiary of the proceeds. And since the Community Resource Center is renowned worldwide, or at least within a three-block radius, for our Bacon Wednesdays the Chicks are sponsoring a Bacon Bar. I guarantee you that the sad people attending the Swan Ball who must make do with some catered steak meal would be shoving each other out of the way to get to a Bacon Bar.

So here’s what I’ve got so far (Spoiler alert! Recipes at the end of this post!): bacon-wrapped cocktail weenies; spiced bacon twists; peanut butter, dark chocolate chip and bacon cookies; and what Betsy/Chick II calls Bacon Classic (just your basic cooked bacon unadorned). Yes, I love that part of my job is to stay home and cook bacon.

Spiced bacon twists

Spiced bacon twists

But I need a couple more options. What have you got for me? Here are the rules. It can’t take a long time to prepare because I’m making all the Bacon Bar offerings myself for 150 people (anyone want a free jar of bacon grease – I’ll have about 20 of them).  And it has to taste good, even sitting at room temperature for an hour or so. No, I am not worried about food safety. Bacon is cured.  And the Swine Ball patrons will already be pickled.

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Peanut butter, dark chocolate chip and bacon cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: Really?
 

Peanut butter, bacon and chocolate – match made in Pig Heaven
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup butter, softened
  • ⅔ cup smooth peanut butter
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon whole milk
  • ½ cup dark chocolate chips
  • 4 slices cooked bacon, cooled and chopped into small bits
  • ½ cup sugar, for rolling

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Shape dough into walnut-sized balls, roll in sugar and place on a parchment-covered baking sheet. Gently press the tines of a fork horizontally and vertically on the cookie.
  3. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes until cookies are just beginning to brown.

Print
Spiced bacon twists
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: You’re kidding me
 

Spiced bacon twists are completely addictive.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 pound sliced bacon

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set a wire rack over the foil. Use a baking sheet that has sides to catch the grease.
  2. In a small bowl stir together the brown sugar, mustard powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. Press each slice of bacon into the mixture until coated. Twist each strip a few times and place on the baking rack.
  3. Bake until bacon is browned and crisp enough to hold its shape, about 30-40 minutes.

 

 

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Filed under pork, snacks, Uncategorized

Tagged as bacon, chocolate, cocktail weenies, peanut butter cookies