Camera Cleanup #12

I know, I know, I'm a bad blog guy. I haven't been posting like I said I would and this time I even have a few things I could post about. But instead it's more random pics I'm afraid.

This was a buffalo chicken pizza, it was fricking awesome. I had a roasted chicken breast in the fridge and I just pulled it into chunks and tossed it on some pizza dough with buffalo instead of tomato sauce. And some onions, because why the hell not?

This was a sub I made for breakfast, I'm working on using up the last of the bacon I have in the freezer since I'm really not supposed to be eating it much anymore. But I'm not throwing it away, that would be criminal. It's cheese, sauteed onion, a couple sunny side up eggs and bacon. So very good.

Well, that's it. With any luck next week I'll be feeling it a bit more for writing and will post about the steak sandwich with greek yogurt sauce or maybe green chili shredded pork and bean casserole I made. They were both wicked good, I really should share.

Barbecue, Bacon Cheeseburger with Chipotle Onions

Yeah baby. Devastating isn't it? Great for breakfast too. Heh.

Ok, who else loves chipotle? I'm assuming most hands went up. This isn't really a recipe, more of a serving suggestion. I'm also assuming that you kids all know how to make a burger so I won't hold your hand through the whole thing, just what I managed to get pics of. So. I made the burger just like I would any other. Note that for me "any other" almost invariably includes sauteed onions. Because they are the bomb. But after I sauteed the onions for a bit I splashed some chipotle hot sauce on them. Then I stirred them around a bit more and let them sit until the sauce had evaporated or been absorbed or whatever happened. While they were doing that I put some bbq sauce on the burger which was almost done (used the fat that come off it to saute the onions. It's awesome.) and a slice of cheese. It's not a cheeseburger without cheese, you know. Pro-tip: putting something like a bowl or lid over the burger after you put cheese on it helps it melt faster.

Then came assembly: toasted rollcheesy burgery goodnessbaconchipotle onionsthen to finish it off, a little lettuce. Now it's healthy. Heh.

My, but there's a difference between the light in my kitchen (all but the first and last pics above) and the light in my living room. Maybe I should get a hot plate so I can cook in there. Hell, there's more prep space than in my kitchen. Anyway, I'm sure you could flavor up onions with any kind of hot sauce that isn't too thick. I think if you used something tomato based like bbq sauce it wouldn't coat right and might burn and stick. Or it might caramelize and be awesome. Hm. Next time. In the meantime, I strongly urge you to try this. It's wicked good.

Chipotle Jalapeno Beans

2 cups dry pinto beans
2 slices thick cut bacon, chopped
1 cup diced bell pepper
1 cup diced onion
1 clove diced garlic
1 tsp chipotle powder
1-2 jalapenos, sliced
salt and pepper

Rinse the beans, pick out any debris. In a good sized pot start the bacon for a minute or two then add the onion and pepper. Once they are tender add the garlic. Saute for ~30 seconds, then add the beans and enough water to cover them ~ 2". Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and let cook for about an hour. Add the jalapenos, black pepper and chipotle. Cover again and let cook til tender, checking the water level periodically. Don't let it get too low, but don't add too much, it should be thick. Salt to taste.

adapted from Spicy Beans by Pioneer Woman

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Wow, I'm actually posting something I said I would and only several weeks late. Heh. So, like the recipe up top says, this is adapted from the legendary PW. Her recipe looked lovely (although I'm not sure why she added all the veggies raw in the middle of cooking, but I'm sure she has her reasons), but since I have to be me I changed it up. With bacon.Because I love bacon. I also wanted to cook at least the onions, garlic and peppers (my jalapenos were canned, so I figured whatever for them) because... well, because I wanted to. And since I'm the only one I'm cooking for I can do that, dammit. None of you can stop me! You don't even know my real name! Ha! Ahem. Excuse me.

So I don't have many prep shots, this was made before I got a table and this is what I had to work with. That's the most stable place for the cutting board (and the entirety of my counter space) and it still rocked back and forth. Hm, does the danger make this extreme cooking? Maybe I should be doing it in a moving vehicle of some sort...

Anyway, I did get a few shots, like this one. Note, everything is better when it comes from a Lord of the Rings glass. Studies have shown it although I'm far too busy to look them up right now. And here we are, ready to sit and simmer for hours, making my apartment smell awesome and my neighbors jealous. And this is the jalapenos. Since I'm cooking for just me I added lots and left in the seeds and ribs. It was almost too spicy actually, but it tasted like... freedom of choice. Heh. So, here it is all done. Not too pretty, really. Looks ways better when you spoon it over some corn bread, even if the corn bread is crap from a grocery store. Might as well be yellow cake with cornmeal in it, stupid jerk bread. But! The beans are still awesome and they freeze really well. So I suggest you make some, you can make mine or PW's or create your own. They're beans, do what you want to do. Just make sure there's some pork fat in there, beans aren't the same without it.

Camera Cleanup #7

Found some shots of this years Christmas dinner, which was as always, wicked good. My sister in law does the lions share of the cooking, which usually features classic brown sugar/mustard glazed ham with pineapple and cherries. Good times and killer sandwiches later.

This year she made this awesome pumpkin cake with a chocolate glaze. The glaze was like a ganache and it was also wicked good.

Then there's these. These are called Holiday Bacon Appetizers and they're from Ree, the illustrious Pioneer Woman. It's bacon, crackers and cheese all heated and crisped and fatty and stuff. Look, they're rich enough that even she only makes them for the holidays. That should tell you something. Something good.

Bacon Grease. Do You Keep It?

I know there are people out there who won't even make it past the post title. Heh.

But this is something I've been curious about, how many of you folks out there keep bacon grease on hand? I do. I don't use anywhere near as much of it as I do olive oil, but I almost always have a mug at least a quarter full in the fridge. A little goes a long way, but it adds the best flavor when you're cooking eggs, burgers or sauteing onions. I've used it as the fat in breads, cooked pancakes in it and brushed in on top of calzones before putting them in the oven instead of olive oil. It's essence of bacon, people, it can add deliciousness to anything.

So come on, who else?

I know I'm not alone.

Update: A few people have asked some basic questions about storing bacon grease, which is really something I should have covered before. Heh. So, here we go, a quick bacon grease faq:
Q: How do you store bacon grease?
A: I like to store it in a ceramic coffee mug, covered in plastic wrap, (sometimes I wrap a rubber band around if it won't stick) in the fridge.
Q: How long does bacon grease stay good for?
A: Many months in the fridge and when it goes bad you know since it smells rancid. My rule thumb for it is if I don't know if it's still I just toss it. More can always be made by frying up some bacon.
Q: What other ways can you store it?
A: Well, my dad used to store it at room temperature and we never had any issues with it. Of course we also used it pretty quickly. You can store it in a coffee can, although I think it gives it off flavors. My suggestion is to keep it in either glass or ceramic, covered and in the fridge.

A Quick Sandwich and an Announcement

First, the sandwich. This is my regular bbq pulled chicken with bacon, but I added about a third of a cup of orange juice to it at the end and let it reduce/absorb into the chicken. It was a great addition, added some nice brightness to what is otherwise a really rich dish. Plus that's an asiago bagel it's on, which makes it insane. That was a really good combo.

Now, my announcement. I am on Facebook. This is something I had actually been resisting for some time, but I figure that right now I have all this free time so it's the perfect time to do it. Heh.

Bacon and Butter Cake French Toast

Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is. I was looking at this chunk of bundt cake that was sitting on my counter (a butter cake mix that my girlfriend had really wanted me to make) and I just thought to make this.

Butter cake, dipped in a mixture of egg, milk, vanilla and a pinch of salt. You know, french toast. But I sprinkled some crumbled bacon on it before frying. And then I ate it with maple syrup. It was ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome. I'm going to make it again, repeatedly, but with pound cake. The sandwich loaf shaped slices would be better, they would hold more egg and bacon. And more bacon is a goal worth striving for, don't you think?

This could just as easily be dessert as breakfast, since it is pretty rich and sweet. And I do count this as breakfast kids, cake is a perfectly fine breakfast food. The way I see it, if donuts are ok to eat for breakfast, anything is.

BLT Pizza

Alright, quick and easy kids. Get a bacon pizza. Homemade, store bought, it doesn't really matter. Whatever you feel like doing.

Now, option one: let it get cold. This makes it more like an actual blt (leftovers also work great right from the fridge).

Option two: leave it warm. That way it's warm. Which is also good. But either way is awesome. Now, take a slice (or just do up the whole pizza, if you like) and put a little mayo on there. And some lettuce. Fold it in half and eat. Blt pizza.It's wicked good, I highly recommend it.

Easy Breakfast Burrito

I love breakfast burritos. See, I don't want to do a lot of stuff when I first get up. Frying bacon and scrambling eggs is about my limit until I've been up for several hours. I can only even do that much because scrambled eggs are the easiest thing in the world to make and I just love bacon. But, I can toss some frozen potato pancakes in the oven and slice some cheese, too. That's not so bad. Mix it all together, put it on a tortilla and there it is. Breakfast. People pay good money for stuff that's nowhere near as good.

Not to mention that this whole thing takes maybe twenty minutes. Maybe (and most of that is waiting for the potato pancakes). And in that same amount of time you can make one breakfast burrito or many. It doesn't really take that much longer to scramble eight eggs than two or cook twelve slices of bacon instead of three. Or however much bacon you put on it. I like lots. Assuming you have a big enough pan, of course...

But, I would have loved a jalapeno in there. Or salsa is always nice. Broccoli, onion, asparagus, peppers, all of that would have been good. I suppose you don't need bacon in it... but I have a hard time getting my head around the idea. Heh. So who else out there makes these? What do you put in?

Spaghetti al Amatriciana For One

1/4 lb spaghetti, cooked al dente
2-3 slices of bacon (or more)
3 tbls diced onion
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 8oz can plain tomato sauce
1 tbls grated romano cheese
1 tbl chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
black pepper to taste

Cut the bacon into 1/2" pieces and brown it to your liking over medium heat. Move it to a paper towel lined plate and pour off most of the grease, leaving a tbl or so. Brown the onion in the skillet then add the vinegar, tomato sauce and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine, then add the cheese. Let it simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the basil and black pepper, stir, then add the pasta and stir to combine. Serve with more cheese.

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So, I'm afraid I'm not going to be doing step by step pictures anymore, at least not for the foreseeable future. I just don't have the space in my kitchen to get set up to do it right. It sucks because I enjoyed that a lot, but I have a total of three feet of counter space and it's broken up into one foot lengths. One foot by the stove and a foot on either side of the sink. It's simply inadequate for the job. But I'm hardly going to stop blogging altogether, I'm just going to simplify a bit.

In fact, not only am I not stopping blogging but I even have a new blog. Well, sort of new. I've been sitting on it for a while, waiting for the time and motivation to do something with it. But being currently unemployed I now have plenty of time. Heh. It's about houseplants, mostly ficuses. So, if you're into that, feel free to stop by. There's not much there as of now, but there will be more soon, I assure you.

And speaking of unemployment, want to show a dude some love? Make his stuff a little more visible? You could go to my page at Foodie Views and vote for my pictures. You don't have to register to vote there. If you really wanted to you could always favorite any of my pictures you like over at Foodgawker and Tastespotting. If you wanted. Heh. But anyway, that's all the self promotion I'm going to subject you to, here's the deal with the pasta.

This is my standard amatriciana, but pared down for one person. No, my girlfriend hasn't stopped putting up with my crap or dumped me because I'm a jobless bum, she just doesn't like this dish the same way I do. You know, spicy. So I usually wind up making it when I'm just cooking for myself. After a little trial and error I've gotten it just right. At least for my tastes. It's funny, when I started making this for just myself I never thought to do the math and cut the original by three quarters. And it's a good thing too, since this isn't a quarter of the original and it's really good as it is.

I've found you can use that canned pre-grated Parmesan instead of romano and it works ok. It's not as good, clearly, but it's totally fine. Same with dried basil instead of fresh. You could even use diced dehydrated onion, although I'd open the can of tomato sauce, dump in the dried onion and let it soak for a while before you started cooking. This is a great pantry meal, assuming bacon is one of your pantry staples. I know it is for me.

Barbecue Chicken Calzone

Here's a quickie, kids, since I'm wicked busy. It's just a little something that I tossed together with the rest of the pizza dough that was leftover from the other calzones I made. I made some barbecue bacon shredded chicken and wrapped it up, as I have a wont to do. It was awesome. A little cheese is in there, although you can't see it. Is it technically a calzone? I say yes, although others will say no. But definitions are a weird thing and I want to know what you think. What makes a calzone a calzone?

Egg, Bacon and Cheese Biscuit Cups

1 tube of large size, flaky biscuits
3 eggs
2-3 tbls heavy cream
1-2 strips of bacon, cooked and cut into 1/2" pieces
sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Prep a muffin tin by spraying it with nonstick spray (or rub it down with butter). Open the biscuits and and separate each biscuit horizontally into two rounds. Gently pull or roll them until they are big enough to line the tin to the top and press them firmly into the muffin tin. Whisk together the eggs, salt, pepper and cream. Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way with the egg mixture and top with cheese and some bacon. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the eggs are cooked all the way. If the biscuits start to get too brown around the edges cover the pan with foil.

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Ok, I wasn't going to make these quite so soon but I really couldn't help myself. I was thinking about it all night last night and when I got up today it just had to happen. I had some concerns, mainly how the timing of egg vs biscuit would work, but it all turned out fine. In fact, more than fine. Phenomenal. As in "I'll give you my car if I can have the last one" kind of good. I ate six of them in about two seconds and still wanted more. But, I had to save the rest for my girlfriend or else she would harm me. And besides, those ones didn't have cheese, so they'll only be spectacular instead of phenomenal. This version is very simple, but you could put anything in the egg, provided you diced it small enough. Anything you would eat in an omelet would be awesome. But less talk, more rock.

First I cooked some bacon. I believe my feelings on bacon are fairly well known to anyone who reads my blog. Then I cracked three eggs into a bowl and added some heavy cream, salt and pepper. I had wanted to use milk, but we didn't have any. Tragic, isn't it? Mixed that up well and moved on to the biscuits. These are the ones I used. You can use any brand you like, but they need to be flaky and large. I'm sure you could use homemade too, but part of the thrill of these is the ease. Plus homemade aren't quite as pliable as the tubes of goo are. Now, if they aren't flaky you can't pull them in half horizontally like this. Which is important, if you don't do that then the cups will be too thick. You should also use two hands, it makes it much easier. Now you just pull them, a bit like pizza dough, till they are big enough to fill the muffin tins all the way to the top. It takes two hands and my girlfriend wasn't home, so I don't have pictures of that I'm afraid. You also want to be careful not to rip the dough, holes in the cups let the filling ooze out. Then you just fill the muffin tins. Like this. Press them in pretty firmly, don't be shy. It's pretty hard to hurt tube biscuits.Then you fill each one about three quarters of the way with the egg mixture. It took about one and a half tablespoons, I think. I would also like to point out that I guessed at how many eggs I would need and it came out exactly right. Score. Then you just put a little cheese on top and some bacon. I like sharp cheddar with eggs, but you could use whatever you like. It's all good. Then it was into the oven for ten minutes. I pulled them out and the egg hadn't finished cooking, but the cups were already pretty brown. So I loosely covered them with foil and popped them back in for another couple minutes. Then they were done. There was a little overflow, I think from when I covered them and stuck my thumb in one. But whatever. Here's a cross section, for those who like that kind of thing. So like I said, they were amazing. I would make them over and over. Next time I'm going to put some finely diced peppers and onions in, like a Western omelet. What would you put in them?