Bacon

Bacon and Corn Stuffed Shells

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

The pantry and fridge in our home has been pretty empty since Thanksgiving. Before the holiday the only food items on the shopping list were those required for my Thanksgiving contributions. And for the cookies that needed to be made as soon as we returned. I provided 107 cookies for a Cookie Drive for the local unaccompanied airmen who will be spending the holidays without their families. The cookies were due on the 3rd so December 1st and 2nd was Operation Cookie in my kitchen. Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing the recipes later this month!

I’ve also been slowed down with a wonderful December cold – which I have unfortunately passed on to my 5 month old. He’s taking it like a champ though and it’s not slowing him down.

And to top it all off my car’s check engine light came on before Thanksgiving and is finally awaiting its “doctor appointment”. Which means I have no means of going to the grocery store. I don’t think Sparrow appreciates the cold.

So I found myself brainstorming what I could possibly do with whatever I had in the fridge. I had some bacon, I had my staple of corn in the freezer, and I always have onions, there was some ricotta cheese left over from the twice baked sweet potatoes, and I had plenty of heavy cream. I also thought I had some jumbo pasta shells so that’s the direction I went. I still had to have Stuart hit the grocery store for a couple finishing ingredients (like more jumbo pasta shells, 7 wasn’t going to cut it, and Parmesan cheese) along with groceries for the rest of the week.

recipe 1

This recipe, I am proud to say, is a Lauren original. And one that turned out quite well, if I say so myself! Loaded with cheese and cream it doesn’t exactly fit on a diet plan, but it’s a wonderful comfort food dish. This filling would also be great in ravioli for a quicker meal. Serve these shells with a side salad for a complete meal. The filling stuffed 14 shells perfectly, and we had 2 left over. So I’d say it feeds 2-3.

An Original Recipe

Bacon and Corn Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:

  • 4 strips center cut bacon, chopped
  • 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 C chicken stock (or white wine if you have it)
  • 1 1/3 C heavy cream
  • 14 jumbo pasta shells
  • 1 C whole-milk ricotta cheese
  • 1/2 C frozen corn, thawed
  • 1/4 C + 1/3 C shredded Parmesan cheese, divided use
  • 1 egg, beaten

Steps:

  1. Cook bacon in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. When crispy, remove to a paper towel lined plate. Saute onion in bacon grease until translucent. Season with S+P. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 60 seconds. Deglaze the pan with chicken stock (or wine), scrapping up delicious brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a bubble and let reduce, about 3 minutes. Slowly add in the heavy cream, whisking. Reduce the heat and let simmer 7-10 minutes, until reduced. Stir occasionally to prevent from burning.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. Cook pasta shells according to package directions until al dente. Drain and set aside.
  4. Prepare the filling: In a bowl combine ricotta, corn, 1/4 C Parmesan cheese, and cooked bacon. Season to taste with S+P. Stir in 1 egg.
  5. Spoon a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish. Spoon the filling into the shells when cool enough to handle and place in the casserole dish. Top shells with sauce, reserving 1/2 C for serving and/or leftovers.
  6. Bake shells for 20 minutes. Top with remaining Paremsan and bake another 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.

shells 2

SRC: Broccoli and Grape Pasta Salad

~ lk529 ~ 26 Comments

newsrcbanner

I love the Secret Recipe Club so much that when the opportunity presented itself to help someone out in Group B’s reveal day I jumped on it! There are four groups in the Secret Recipe Club. We each post on a different Monday. As I am a member of group D, my reveal day is the fourth Monday of every month. As you can tell, group B posts on the second Monday of the month. Today!

My assigned blog for this “bonus” posting is Flavors by Four, a mother daughter blogging team. I started searching through their blog and found over ten things that piqued my interest. They have a wonderful selection of appetizers which is perfect now that the holiday party season is fast approaching. If you like stuffed mushrooms I encourage you to head on over to their blog, they have a multitude of recipes to choose from including French Onion Soup and Spinach Artichoke. With American Thanksgiving on the horizon I was tempted to pick their Orange Cranberry Bread and Mini Gobbler Pies are a fantastic idea for leftovers! I’m actually making their Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes tomorrow night.

I ultimately settled on Nicole’s Broccoli and Grape Pasta Salad. Frozen grapes are my favorite healthy dessert and we are on a grape kick right now. I also really like broccoli but never seem to buy it. I knew that this pasta salad would be great for me to have in the fridge as a quick lunch during the week. With a four month old I never know when I’ll be able to eat and this pasta salad sounded like a great alternative to my bagel. Of course, this would be a perfect dish to take to a potluck!

Broccoli and Grape Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

  • 6 strips cooked center cut bacon, chopped
  • 1/2 lb pasta, cooked and drained
  • 2 heaping cups halved grapes
  • 4 C broccoli florets
  • 2 heaping tbsp finely diced red onion
  • 1 C mayonnaise
  • 1/3 C red wine vinegar
  • 1/8 C sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

Steps:

  1. In a large bowl toss together cooked bacon, cooked pasta, grapes, broccoli, and red onion.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.
  3. Toss pasta salad in dressing and chill in the refrigerator over night.

*This recipe is adapted from Nicole at http://flavorsbyfour.blogspot.com/2013/09/broccoli-grape-pasta-salad.html *

Pasta Salad FG1

To see the other bloggers who participated in the Secret Recipe Club this month click here:

Strawberry Balsamic Pizza

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Earlier this month a Publix opened up across from our neighborhood. I absolutely love Publix. Growing up in Southwest Florida it was pretty much the only grocery destination – sure we had Walmart, an Albertson’s, which I don’t even think exists anymore, and Sweet Bay. Every Sunday after church we’d go to the grocery store. (I am not looking forward to moving away from the land of the Publix.)

Grocery shopping is not my favorite thing. Despite my efforts to remain organized I always manage to miss something and have to back track throughout the store. But, now that I have a Publix within walking distance I use the Publix App on my phone. Not only can I browse the circular to find what’s on sale this week, but I can create my grocery list. Yes, Winn-Dixie and other grocery apps have the same ability, but Publix – the place “where shopping is a pleasure” – has surpassed customer service in the app alone. When you input your specific store, it’ll tell you what aisle that item is in. Not just “baking” but “aisle 9”. It might just be the best thing since sliced bread.

I apologize greatly for my Publix add, but there is a point! I used pre-made pizza dough from the Publix bakery instead of making my own. And it is delicious. Almost every grocery store does offer dough in their bakery, so don’t fret if you don’t live in the land of Publix. (Other alternatives include making your own, refrigerated pizza dough, or even the dry pizza dough usually hanging on an end cap in the store with pepperoni.)

Another benefit of living in Florida is that I can still find beautiful, ripe, Grown in Florida Strawberries at the store. I hadn’t thought strawberries to be in season, but Winter Strawberries are harvested between November and March. I swear, these are more beautiful than the ones I get in July. So, again, I apologize if you cannot find fresh strawberries in your local area – pin this recipe and save it for the summer. I promise you it’s worth it!

This pizza rivals any that you find at a gourmet pizza shop, and although you can roll your dough to your desired thickness, a thicker crust works beautiful with this masterpiece. Stuart questioned this dish – he thought strawberries on a pizza would be weird. But they complement the chicken and bacon and the cilantro provides a note of lightness. He pointed out, and I agree, that mint would also work well here (if you happened to have that instead).

Strawberry Balsamic Pizza

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 C balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 C strawberry jam
  • 1 tsp sriracha
  • cornmeal, for pizza peal
  • 1 ball pizza dough, rolled out to approximately 14″
  • 1 C diced, cooked chicken
  • 3 strips, cooked thick-cut bacon, diced
  • 1/4 red onion, finely diced
  • 2 C shredded Italian blend cheese
  • 4 large fresh strawberries, diced
  • fresh cilantro (or mint), for garnish

Steps:

  1. Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 475 degrees F.
  2. In a small saucepan bring balsamic vinegar to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 4 minutes. Add in jam and sriracha. Toss chicken with 2 tbsp of sauce and set the remainder aside.
  3. Sprinkle cornmeal onto a pizza peal, if you don’t have a a pizza peal an edge-less cookie sheet works well too.  Place dough on peal.
  4. Top dough with balsamic sauce, leaving a 1″ crust. Top with chicken, 3/4 of the cheese, then the bacon and onion. Top this layer with the remaining cheese.
  5. Bake for 10 minutes.
  6. Garnish with fresh strawberries and cilantro (or mint). Allow pizza to cool a few minutes before slicing.

*This recipe is adapted from Chris at http://www.thecafesucrefarine.com/2011/07/strawberry-balsamic-pizza-with-chicken.html*

Strawberry Balsamic Pizza 1 Strawberry Balsamic Pizza 2

Bacon Wrapped Dates

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

It’s the time of year for cocktail parties. Saying goodbye to 2013 and hello to 2014.

Bacon-wrapped anything is always a safe appetizer to take with you to your New Year’s parties. And bacon wrapped dates are your best bet. The dates caramelize in the oven and turn into candy. The bacon crisps up. What you are left with is essentially a chewy centered candy.

I have a big lesson learned to tag along with this recipe. Bake your bacon wrapped anything on a cookie sheet with a rim! Why? Bacon releases fat/grease. This grease is not solid. This grease will most likely drip off of a flat cookie sheet. In a 450 degree oven this grease will catch fire. Now what?! Turn off the oven. According to dummies.com keep the oven door closed and the lack of oxygen will cause the fire to die. But if want to save your bacon wrapped anything quickly and carefully remove them from the oven and throw either baking soda or salt on the flame. DO NOT USE FLOUR. Apparently, flour will cause an explosion!

Bacon Wrapped Dates

Ingredients:

  • dried dates
  • bacon

Steps:

  1. Soak toothpicks in water, to prevent them from catching fire. Preheat oven to 450 deg.
  2. Cut bacon in half. On a plate, microwave bacon for 2 minutes (covered with a paper towel).
  3. Wrap each date with bacon and skewer with a toothpick.
  4. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until bacon is cooked and crispy.

*This recipe is adapted from Beau at http://oursavorylife.com/a-delicious-paleo-snack-recipe-bacon-wrapped-dates/*

Bacon Wrapped Dates

BLT Salad

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

How do you make Salad Night exciting? Bacon! Bacon makes everything better, right?

The game of sandwich to salad and salad to sandwich is a fun one to play – caprese salads make great panini so why not turn the BLT into a salad? BLT Salad 1

This BLT Salad is better than the American classic BLT Sandwich because this salad has a balsamic-mayo dressing!

BLT Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 romaine hearts, chopped
  • 2 on-the-vine tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 6 slices of bacon
  • 2 handfuls croutons
  • 3 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • zest of 1/4 lemon
  • S+P

Steps

  1. Cook bacon until extra crispy (in your preferred method – in the oven, on the stove top, or in the microwave). Transfer to a paper towel to absorb extra grease. When cool enough to handle, break up the bacon.
  2. Whisk together mayo, balsamic, lemon zest. Season with S+P to taste.
  3. Assemble salad and top with dressing.

*This recipe is adapted from Lyndsy at http://www.dinnervine.com/2012/09/blt-salad/*

BLT Salad 2