Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies (and a dog video!)

Happy 2013! It has been far too long since my last blog adventures and to those who read this, I am so sorry! Since my last post I started a new job as kitchen manager at Pleasant Pops Farmhouse Market and Cafe. As the name implies it is an amazing store that is part cafe, part coffee shop, part local market and all delicious. Part of my job running the kitchen has been coming up with recipes for our lunch and dinner menu. As much as I have wanted to share all the amazing soups, salads and sandwiches I have come up with the pesky business of business has prevented me from doing so! I have loved my job, but there is also something about cooking all day that makes cooking for fun (or for a blog) less appealing at the end of the day.

No more! 2013 is a return of a great many things I hold near and dear to my heart. I will cook more, share more and most importantly blog more! In a few days I will be returning to grad school to complete my degree in international development which means I will be part time at my job giving me more mental space to cook for fun and blog about it. With that said, I still hope any of you that are local will come check out Pleasant Pops. Your taste buds will thank you.

January 1st, 2013 wasn't just the start of this year, but also the "birthday" of a somewhat recent friend of mine. Her name is Coco. I could try to describe her, but why tell when I can show, right?

I stole this picture of her from the
dictionary definition of adorable.

Coco entered my life about six months ago at the same time as her absolutely beautiful, amazing, funny and smart owner who happens to be my girlfriend: Caitlin. How lucky can a boy get! A girlfriend and a dog...2012 was pretty wonderful.

So why am I talking about Coco on my cooking blog? Well for her birthday I decided to bring back a recipe I've been working on throughout 2012 and bake her some peanut butter bacon cookies for her birthday. If you don't have a dog in your life I urge you to keep reading! You see, even though I made these cookies with dogs in mind, I can't stop eating them myself. I mean what's not to like?

Peanut butter? yum!
Bacon? delicious!
Cookies? Yes please!

My inspiration was a basic peanut butter cookie. After some research I found out dogs are naturally gluten intolerant, dairy sensitive and even more sensitive to excessive sugar than humans are. With that in mind I replaced the butter with bacon fat, cut out some sugar and turned the cookies gluten free by using oat flour and adding xanthum gum.

What I was left with was a delicious peanut butter cookie with a hint of bacon flavor that was irresistible to all the dogs who tried it and alluring to all the bacon loving humans out there too.

If you're wondering how Coco like her cookies, see for yourself:

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies (a.k.a. Coco Cookies)

by Leran Minc

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert dog treat gluten-free bacon peanut butter cookie

Ingredients (Approximately 15 cookies)

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup bacon fat, melted (see below for instructions)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup oat flour or gluten-free flour (see below for instructions)
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

For cookies

1. Whisk together sugar, bacon fat and eggs until creamy. Mix in vanilla extract

2. Mix together dry ingredients

3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Since you're not using glutenous flour over mixing is less of a concern.

4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. This step will allow the moisture in the cookie dough to redistribute more evenly. You can skip this step, but I think it's worth the wait.

5. Preheat oven to 375°F.

6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Measure about 2 tablespoons worth of cookie dough and using either a disher or a spoon and your hands roll out balls. Press the balls down to form cookie shapes. These cookies won't collapse and like some cookies so you need to help them out. They will spread though so make sure to keep a few inches between cookies.

7. Bake on 375°F for 9 to 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. They may be extremely soft at first so be careful, but don't be fooled! They will harden as they cool so don't make my mistake and over bake them.

You can also freeze these. I would suggest rolling out the balls and placing them on a cookie sheet on parchment paper in the freezer. Give enough space for air to flow between them. Once frozen you can transfer them to a container or a freezer bag. Just let them thaw enough to press into cookie shapes before baking.

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Brussels Sprouts Two Ways With Orzo

A few weeks ago I happened to be on my old grad school campus on a Wednesday, which happens to be the same day there is a small farmer's market on campus. Typically the market is breads, cookies and a few other items from Upper Crust Bakery and variety of produce, nuts, dried fruits and other products like honey and maple syrup from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania. A good rule of thumb for aspiring locavores out there is to never pass up a farmers market especially in winter. Fresh local foods are hard to come by and while the market was unsurprisingly dominated by root vegetables I did stumble across a recent addition to my repertoire: Brussels sprouts.

Early last year I embarked on what I called my foodie resolution. While I failed to systematically try or retry foods and post about them, I did grow a new fondness for many foods I previously never had or previously didn't like, blueberries being chief among the items I now love and previously was staunchly ambivalent about.

The two items that did make it onto this blog were Brussels sprouts and bacon and both happen to be in today's dish. Vegetarians, do not fret. I think this dish would be quite delicious without the bacon, but if you happen to be an omnivore and have some bacon in the fridge I would totally encourage it. Also please don't be daunted by the "two ways", I simply wanted to highlight the two things I like best about Brussels sprouts, but you could just pick one if you're crunched for time or wanting to keep things simple.

I "poached" half of the sprouts in butter and garlic until tender and soaked up the flavors. A friend made similar Brussels sprouts for me once and they tasted like a buttery vegetable version of a meatball.

The other half I shredded and roasted in the oven with bacon, olive oil and bacon fat until they turned crispy.

Finally I tossed it all with orzo, toasted pine nuts, sea salt, pepper, red chili flakes, oregano, basil, shaved Parmesan and fresh mozzarella. I particularly suggest fresh mozzarella because the flavor is killer, but the so is the contrast. The outside melts a little, but the inside retains its cool freshness. The best part, though, is that if you get the small balls of fresh mozzarella (ciliegine) they are roughly the same size as the whole Brussels sprouts!

In the end you get a fairly healthy dish dominated by the different flavor profiles of the Brussels sprouts with a little crunch, lots of cheese and lots of flavor.

Brussel Sprouts Two Ways With Orzo

by Leran

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 1 pound brussel sprouts
• 1 small white onion, diced
• 4 strips bacon (optional)
• 1 pound orza (or other preferred pasta)
• 2 oz pine nuts
• 1/2 cup olive oil (if you're using bacon you can replace some of this with bacon fat)
• 1 cup butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppered
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes

For garnish (all to taste)

• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Red chili flakes
• Parmesan cheese (shaved or shredded)
• Small balls of mozzarella (technically called ciliegine)

Instructions

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Toast pine nuts while the oven warms up.

3. If using bacon, cook diced bacon in heavy skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes. The bacon won't be fully cooked, but it will be in the oven for awhile. This initial cooking will ensure it gets crispy.

4. Trim bottom, yellow leaves and discolored leaves from sprouts. Wash well. Use half a pound if adding the butter poached sprouts, use full pound if made alone.

5. Using a food processor, grater or mandoline, shred the sprouts until they're individual leaves or Brussels sprout "confetti".

6. Toss sprouts with bacon, bacon fat, olive oil, chili flakes, sea salt, pepper and a bay leaf.

7. Roast until leaves brown and the mixture has a crunch to it. About 30-35 minutes.

For Butter Poached Brussels Sprouts

1. Trim bottom, yellow leaves and discolored leaves from sprouts. Wash well. Careful while trimming and washing to keep sprouts hole. Use half a pound if adding the roasted Brussels sprouts, use full pound if made alone.

2. Melt butter in the tallest, but smallest pot you own.

3. Add garlic and sprouts. Reduce to a simmer and cook until sprouts are tender, about 5 minutes, but no more than 10.

4. Remove from heat. Drain sprouts from butter. You can save the butter to use for garlic bread.

Assembly

1. Prepare orzo (or pasta of choice) regularly.

2. Meanwhile saute onion in olive oil, bacon fat or combination over medium heat until clear.

3. Mix pasta, onion and above recipes together in a large bowl with oregano and basil.

4. When serving add additional seasoning and Parmesan. Add mozzarella last.

5. Serve and enjoy alone or with bread.

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Bye-bye Bacon Bonanza

Don't worry vegetarian and vegan friends, the vicious cycle of bacon is wrapping up. I just wanted to thank everyone who contributed ideas for my week of bacon exploration.

There were a lot of ideas so I couldn't make all of them. I also didn't want to make anything that incorporated another resolution type food (one I haven't had or didn't previous like). Only using familiar ingredients let me really explore the flavor of bacon. It was also a busy week so I admit I went for some recipes where I had all the ingredients and/or didn't need to expel a lot of energy toward. Perhaps I'll do this again sometime and explore bacon more. I still don't love it, but it certainly isn't bad!

In honor of all the ideas, I'm going to share all of them below. I will not use names unless, but please comment if you want to share details on any of the recipes you might have proffered. I'm sure others would love these just as much as I did.

Chipotle Lime Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp

Bacon Muffins

Bacon wrapped dates.
Bacon wrapped dove breast.
Two eggs sunny side up with a bacon smiley face.
Two pieces of french toast with bacon in between.
Bacon stuffed mushrooms.
Classic BLT.
Bacon asparagus quiche.
Dip bacon in melted dark chocolate.
Roast a whole chicken with bacon layered on the outside.

Peanut butter bacon burger (my friend swore by this, but bacon or not... I'm skeptical of PB+burger)

Bacon wrapped jalepenos

Bacon Fried Rice

Peanunt bacon fudge

Peanut butter bacon cookies

Bacon cheddar grits

Brussel sprouts roasted with olive oil, salt & pepper, bacon chunks, a little bit of red onion

Bacon-wrapped chicken kebobs

Bacon in salads (especially with pear and blue cheese)

Bacon with mussels

Pig Candy (similar to my brown sugar variation of basic prep)

And if you are a foodie who can't take a joke or a vegetarian, for the love of god do NOT watch this suggestion my friend Stu sent me (along with 1/4 of this list):

Bacon Bonanza #3: The BBC (Bacon, Broccoli and Cheese)

Now for the final recipe in the bacon bonanza. This one was inspired by my friend Lauren who told me I should ad bacon to mac & cheese. I could also say that this was inspired by another friend, Michelle, who I made mac & cheese with a few weeks ago. She suggested we add extra cheese and broccoli, which seemed painfully obvious to me after hearing it but for some reason I've never really done.

Thus the BBC was born: Bacon, Broccoli and Cheese. I hate to admit I used a box for the mac & cheese, but if it is any consolation it was a Trader Joe's variety! I am pretty confident I will be exploring homemade mac & cheese recipes soon enough so I may very well replace this at some point. But if you're a fellow grad student, undergrad or simply breaking the glass to grab that emergency box of mac & cheese here's a good way to jazz up your cheesy cheap dinner.

This was by far my favorite bacon application. The added texture, saltiness and slight meat flavor of the bacon really added to the whole dish.

Bacon, Broccoli and Cheese

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• One box of your favorite macaroni and cheese/shells and cheese/whatever shape and cheese. (I used Trader Joe's Organic White Cheddar and Shells. I highly recommend finding an organic variety. They're not much pricier and I like to think the cheese is real or more real despite still being a powder.)
• Milk (amount as specified by box... I really discourage using water if you want to a good creamy sauce)
• Butter (amount as specified by box... this really adds to any box brand. Why oh why do they claim this is optional?)
• 1 cup Cheddar cheese, grated. (I used a slightly sharp yellow cheddar, but you can pick what you'd like. I thought it was a good compliment to my white cheddar box flavor.)
• 1-2 cups Broccoli, chopped into small florets. (I used one head so unless it's tiny or massive just use one head's worth).
• 3-4 strips of Bacon, diced into bacon bits.

Directions:

1. Follow recipe on box.
2. After mixing in cheese mix, milk and butter, add additional cheese, broccoli and bacon.
3. Cook on low heat and stir until cheese has melted and broccoli begins to tender.
4. Enjoy!

Bacon Bonanza #2: Bacon Between Bread

One of my favorite things in the whole world is a good grilled cheese sandwich with real cheese, whole wheat or fresh baked bread and tomato. In many grilled cheese recipes I have found online, seen on TV or at restaurants I have noticed bacon included in some fashion. At some point I will write about my the glorious concoction we all call grilled cheese, but this is not that post. This is about using bacon in grilled cheese.

As one note about my general philosophic approach to grilled cheese is that the cheese MUST be the star. You can't be loading up the deli meats or the bacon, add one slice of cheese, grill and call your sandwich a grilled cheese. THAT, my friends is a MELT not a GRILLED CHEESE.

So on to the bacon. I wanted to make two sandwiches. Both almost identical except for the cheese used. My logic was to combine the sweetness of from white Spanish onions, the saltiness bacon and the fruity acidity of tomato to really accentuate the deliciousness of cheese.

My roommate thinks I'm over thinking these things. What do you think?

For first sandwich I used a sharp Wisconsin yellow cheddar. I thought this would be a nice classic approach to a grilled cheese. It was a quality sandwich.

For the second sandwich I used one of my all time favorites: brie! This was an excellent choice because of how brie melts, but I think it has notes of both salty and sweet in its flavor. Paired with the onions, bacon and tomato all the flavors really combined to pack an incredible taste. This was also one of my favorite bacon application both for taste and texture... in all that creamy brie a little bit of a crisp bacon was nice.

TECHNICAL NOTE: Do not follow the pictures for the cheddar sandwich unless you are really skillfull at flipping a grilled cheese. I made a huge mess and did something different with the brie, that I think is better. I kept it open faced and after the cheese was melt I then pushed it together on my plate.

Grilled Cheddar Sandwich

Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon Vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white Spanish onion (or other sweet varieties), chopped finely
• 2 strips Bacon, diced into bacon bits
• Two slices bread (I used whole wheat. Use whatever you like, but a simple sliced white bread might not hold very well)
• Butter, enough to spread on inner side each slice of bread
• 1/4th lb Cheddar, sliced as thin as possible (this will make it easier to melt)
• 2 thin slices Beefsteak tomato (or another large variety)

Directions:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add onion.
2. Cook onion on medium heat until they start to become transparent, about five minutes.
3. Add bacon and cook until warm.
   


4. Place bread side by side in a large frying pan or skillet.
5. Layer cheese on both slices of bread. On one side layer tomato slice to cover the length of bread. On the other spread mixture of onion and bacon.
   
6. Cook on low to medium heat until cheese begins to melt.
7. Bring slices together. I recommend keeping the one with the onion/bacon mix as the bottom (imagine flipping that mess over!).

Grilled Brie Sandwich

Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon Vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white Spanish onion (or other sweet varieties), chopped finely
• 2 strips Bacon, diced into bacon bits
• Two slices bread (I used whole wheat. Use whatever you like, but a simple sliced white bread might not hold very well)
• Butter, enough to spread on inner side each slice of bread
• 1/3rd lb Brie, as much rind removed and sliced as thin as possible (this will make it easier to melt)
• 2 thin slices Beefsteak tomato (or another large variety)

Directions:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add onion.
2. Cook onion on medium heat until they start to become transparent, about five minutes.
3. Add bacon and cook until warm.
4. Place bread side by side in a large frying pan or skillet.
5. Layer cheese on both slices of bread. On one side layer tomato slice to cover the length of bread. On the other spread mixture of onion and bacon.
   



6. Cook on low to medium heat until cheese begins to melt.
7. Bring slices together. I recommend keeping the one with the onion/bacon mix as the bottom (imagine flipping that mess over!). I also recommend doing this on a piece of foil or a paper towel over a plate. While eating the brie will ooze out so being able to wrap it might be nice!
   

Bacon Bonanza #1: The Bacon Basics

Don't worry, I didn't JUST make the bacon so no food poisoning or rotten meat here. Just a case of the lazy blogger. This will be the first of a 30 days blogging blitz. In effort to make blogging a habit I'm going to post something everyday until March 16th. Ready? Set? Eat!

Last time on the blog I was trying to figure out what to do with 12 strips of bacon. After consulting with many friends and summoning the wise oracle of Google I settled on baking them. Some friends urged me to fry them, but others assured me baking was a good idea and many blogs from both experts and fellow amateurs said baking was the best way to get quality bacon without lots of mess or energy.

I ate two strips plain just for the sake of tasting and then two the only way a grown man can properly enjoy his bacon served plain: with eggs forming eyes and the bacon forming a smile for a smiley face breakfast!

At least one friend and one blog also suggested baking the bacon with brown sugar on it. I have to say out of this first bacon-y morning this was my favorite thing. The combination of the sweet and meaty saltiness was actually good. Everything else was only ok. I can see why people love bacon, but I'm still not converted.

Basic Bacon Prep

Prep Time: 11 minutes | Servings: Based on the package/your bacon capacity

Ingredients:

• Bacon
• Yeh, that's really about it for this one.

Brown sugar variation:

• 1 tablespoon Brown sugar per bacon strip. (I highly suggest dark brown)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Line a cookie/baking sheet with foil. I recommend using one that has at least some depth (the fat will render out).
3. Lay bacon strips flat without them touching each other.
   
4. Bake in middle rack for 6 minutes
5. Using tongs or a spatula flip bacon over.
   
   
6. For brown sugar variation: Sprinkle tablespoon of brown sugar on each strip desired
7. Return to oven for another 5 minutes
8. Let cool on paper towel (to soak up excess fat. As it cools it will continue to crisp.)

Bacon: The Final Frontier! (Sorry Mom)

I want to apologize to the dozen or so of you that have been following my blog. School started and I became both busy and lazy, but I assure you that I have a January Monthly Muffin coming soon. If it's any consolation this entry is going to be a good one!

Bacon! Every non-vegetarian, non-religious Jew I know seems to be obsessed with it. What is it with cured, salty meat? I wish I could tell you. I grew up in a traditional Jewish home. We weren't strict about kashrut (or keeping kosher for you goys), but we ate what many call "kosher style". "Kosher style" is a practice many reform, conservative or traditional Jews adopt where you don't stress about getting certified kosher meat or separating your kitchen, but you also don't eat non-kosher meat such as pork or mix dairy with meat.

Because of this "kosher style" upbringing, I never really gained a taste for Porky the Pig. Yes, I have had bacon and other pork products, but as you may have read my resolution is to try or re-try such foods. As part of this quest I have bought some....

So according to the package I have 6 servings of 2 pieces of bacon each. So dear blog readers, I need your help! How should I prepare my bacon? I am happy to grab one or two simple and cheap ingredients, but otherwise want to use what I have around here. So far I think I'm going to make the following dishes:

1. Just some simple fried bacon. You science types can call this a control.
2. A grilled brie, caramelized onion and tomato with bacon sandwich
3. A grilled cheddar, caramelized onion and tomato with bacon sandwich
4. Some sort of bacon and egg traditional breakfast
5. ?
6. ?

Looking forward to hearing your ideas. I'll obviously be posting once or twice with the results.

P.S. If any of my readers happen to be vegetarian, I'm probably going to do tofu next month so I'll be looking for ideas then!