Bacon Cinnamon Rolls

I have lots to say to you. Really. I do.

But life hasn't just creeped in the way, it's stomping around with bells and singing boisterously, making sure that I'm paying attention.

More on that later.

Honestly, I think it's fitting that when I come back to write to you all that it's about bacon. Because priorities.

I had seen this recipe around the web for a while, but I wrote it off as outlandish and extravagant. Who really needs bacon IN their cinnamon rolls? THIS GUY.

In a stroke of culinary luck I had a small tupperware of cream cheese frosting left over from baking a carrot cake the other week. That's enough excuse to make cinnamon rolls, right? And when you have an unopened package of bacon...it all just rolls together, pardon the pun.

These days I'm feeling the urge to "Rachel Ray" everything- make my life easier by using pre-made ingredients, working with what you have. We bought Pillsbury crescent rolls for Lil' Smokies, but never got around to using them. So our recipe is sort of janky- and could be upgraded for those who have the desire.

Bacon Cinnamon Rolls
1 tube Pillsbury crescent rolls
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp sugar/cinnamon mix
4-6 slices of bacon

Instead of using the pre-formed triangles in the rolls, I used a pizza cutter to make slices. I then microwaved the butter and sugar/cinnamon mix together until it was completed melted and brushed it all over the dough.

You need to cook your bacon for a few minutes before adding it to the rolls- you don't want to rely on the dough/oven to cook your bacon for you. Just enough that it's not raw, but not so much that it's stiff. You want something that will roll. We didn't do real well with that step, but breaking it into pieces seemed to work too. Besides- then you have ready made snacks while the rolls are cooking. I'm just sayin.

Roll up and cook for approximately 12 minutes at 375 F.

Ours turned out a nice dark gold and very flaky on the outside- and since we had rolled them up so tight to keep the bacon in, some of the middle wasn't cooked as well, but it was just a little soft and squishy, not necessarily doughy.

Top with frosting and enjoy!

Groupies for the Blue Men

I know that fall has hit the rest of you, but I'm still sort of holding on to summer. Sure, night is coming a little faster and pumpkin-spiced anything has become a marketing epidemic, but it's still pretty warm here in the valley!  As sort of a last hurrah to the season we never seem to get enough of, Mr. E and I trekked to an LA tradition: the Hollywood Bowl.

We went to see the Blue Man Group play a special Bowl-only performance with (something) orchestra. What a fun date! We sat in nosebleed seats and waved off second-hand pot smoke from the bushes and enjoyed the antics of those crazy blue PVC performers.

Some shows at the Bowl are open early for show-goers to bring food and picnic. As we traveled the four escalators to our seats we watched ragtag groups unpacking kabobs, ribs, chow mein, sandwiches and bottles upon bottles of wine. In honor of the occasion (and the venue!) we made a summer pizza: dates, bacon, goat cheese and nectarines.

Yeah, sometimes I like to get a little crazy.

The original recipe called for figs and bacon and goat cheese, but you make do with what you have, amirite? The crust was brushed with balsamic vinegar, topped with stuff then drizzled with honey and baked til melt-y. I will enjoy you, LA, even if I have to stuff myself with bacon to do it.

Shepherd's Pie (with a twist!)

Hi! We haven't died! Though it kind of came close this week if you count stress-induced heart attacks (which you should).

When I'm not drowning under packing tape or cardboard boxes, I like to find the time to cook with the crazy canned food we don't want to move (can you say heavy?). Project numero uno? Shepherd's Pie. Except the poultry staple was substituted for pork and bacon, obviously, so we'll have to find another idyllic name for my creation. I'm thinking Blacksmith's Pie, because blacksmiths are incredibly manly. And Mr. E said this dinner was incredibly manly too.

Blacksmith's Pie

1 package shredded pork

1/2 package bacon (cooked according to Megan's recipe)

1 cup (more or less) of frozen veggies

5 or 6 small red potatoes

salt and pepper to taste

BBQ sauce to taste

a little bit of flour

pie crust

I have pie crusts in my freezer because I like to whip them out at a moments notice. And by moments notice I actually mean I need to defrost these suckers on the counter all day. Roll out (dear autobots) and place in pie plate. Poke it!

Cook bacon. Please don't eat.

Cook pork in left over bacon grease, because we don't waste things, ya'll. We used a package of pork that had been pre-cooked then flash-frozen, so all we were really doing was browning the edges a little bit.

Mix meats with frozen veggies. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Ideally I wanted to make a soppy, gooey mess that spilled over the crust like LAVA, but the bacon was mysteriously disappearing, so we just stuck it all in the pie crust and cooked for 30 minutes at 425F.

Since this recipe is a little dry we added more BBQ sauce. Delish. I would work on making that gravy or adding a little bit of water and flour and butter to congeal things a bit in the pie.

Tomatillo Salsa

Is anyone else on a personal life quest to find the best salsa out there? No? Just me? Well that's okay. We'll fall on those swords salsa bowls like the martyrs chips we like to eat.

We've gone through quite a few different salsas in our time, young and inexperienced though we are. Fire-roasted, chunky, filled with veggies, more like ketchup, so hot you can't touch your nose, all shades of green, lime-flavored, now with mangoes, fresh from the garden and restaurant staples. Now, we can add making our own to the list.

Mr. E and I have this back-breaking addiction to lime. Can't get enough, squeeze it on everything to make it taste better (edamame, anyone?), drown it in juice and serve it up. I was singing to the salsa gods when the restaurant I briefly worked at had an amazing enchilada dish with tomatillo sauce- it was to die for. And then I got fired and now we hate them. I found a similar sauce at a different local restaurant and vowed that if THEY could re-create it, I could too.

I'm not sure I was entirely successful, but this salsa was pretty good all the same. I did a quick Google-search for green salsa and came across a Cafe Rio knock-off from Our Best Bites- great how-to there, too!

Green Salsa
2-3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 large onion, minced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 green pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and membranes removed if desired (and I desire. Always.)
8 tomatillos, husked and quartered or halved
1/2 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
4 c. chicken broth

2-3 Tbsp. sugar (optional and to taste)

Saute onions and garlic in a large pot until fragrant*. Combine tomatillos, cilantro and both peppers in the blender. If things aren't blending very well add chicken stock. 

Pour the tomatillo mix over the onions and add the rest of the ingredients. At this point I transferred to the crock pot to cook for four hours on low- I figured we liked slow-roasted stuff and there wasn't anything particularly raw in the mix, so I wasn't worried about thorough cooking. The mixture turns from a bright shamrock green to a deep Halloween-witch warty type of green and that's good.Serve with chips or on homemade enchiladas but make sure you make extra for your hungry father-in-law because he'll eat you out of house and home. At least he liked it. 

I really liked how much the chicken broth added to the salsa- not an ingredient I ever would have thought of. I think, in the end, there was too much chicken stock or not enough veggies on my end, so it was a little saucy and less chunky. Plus we could have always added more lime. The recipe says the tomatillo is enough, but I say never.

*In making this salsa I cried. Profusely. Mr. E is not an onion eater (of any kind, ever) so I've spent the last two years subbing out onions for radishes- similar texture, sometimes the same bite and not so bad! But I figured heck, it's salsa, you've gotta have the real thing. So in cutting an onion for the first time in 2+ years, that odor hit me like a ton of bricks. Mr. E walked into the room, glared at me and walked out again to leave me in a eye-leaking mess next to that damn onion. Once I started cooking them (and the garlic) it wasn't so bad, but it'll be a while before I try that again.

Link up! Wow-Us-Wednesday, Penny Pinching Party, Tutorial Tuesday, Not Just A Housewife,

Asparagus

You know what they say about asparagus? 
The tips are the best part.
Also, it makes smelly pee.
As in, why does the dog smell so awful after we just gave her a bath and she's on the other side of the door? Oh wait...that's me.

In my effort to add more veggies to our diet (vitamins! healthy! it'll make you feel good!) I found a recipe from the googiemomma (no, really) and I HAD to take that jump. She raved so hard about vinegar and feta I thought she must have been talking to me.

So Mr. E and I found ourselves at Ralphs, staring blankly at bunches of fuzzy-tipped branches as I tried for all the world not to think of eating Archibald Asparagus.

Mr. E was skeptical, but I figured if I could put on a bright face and convince him feta solves all taste problems, we might have a shot. And we did. For a while.

We washed and rinsed, then broke off the more woody parts from the stalk, just like googiemomma told us to- hold both ends and bend: wherever it breaks is good enough. This worried me that we would be getting much smaller stalks than what we bought, but when you get right down to it we didn't eat all that much anyways. 

Feta Vinegar Asparagus

one bunch of asparagus

1-2 Tbsp olive oil (I would rather have crunch so fry 'em up!)

two cloves chopped garlic

lemon juice

honey-ginger balsamic vinegar (make your own with honey. and ginger, duh)

pepper

crumbled feta (at your own leisure)

Preheat oven to 425F. 

Break asparagus stalks and rinse. Coat in olive oil and add chopped garlic. Add lemon juice and vinegar, pepper to taste. Lay on baking sheet in a single layer and cook 10-12 minutes until desired brown-ness. Top with feta, push back in for two minutes to allow ample melting time, then enjoy.

We drizzled in olive oil and garlic, then made our own vinegar mixture. Small difference here, which I think diverged from the recipe a little too much, we used apple cider vinegar (plus honey and ginger) because it was all we had. I really think that balsamic would have been a better choice (a much different flavor in retrospect), but I am all about using what you have.

Not too crazy about the smell through the house as these bad boys cooked- reminiscent of those nights when my mother was trying to cook healthy dinners and I had to sit in anxiety because I knew I wouldn't like it- but when we took them out of the oven that vinegar smelled HEAVENLY. Top with feta (much more than we thought we should do) and melt a little before eating.

The first few bites were tolerable...getting used to the new texture, the unusual taste and the smell. Again, the vinegar should have been balsamic, but all in all it was something I could definitely eat with the rest of my food. Mr. E was NOT crazy about it at all and insisted that we didn't have to try this recipe anymore. Even if the tips were tasty.

So, lesson learned. I like asparagus more than my husband. But he did suggest we try something like this with green beans (and I think we might try brussel sprouts this way too!), so all was not lost. Tasty, but potty breaks for the rest of the night were done by holding our breath.

Roll Out!

We've been on a little bit of a "What is Wheat to Me" kick lately. Which has been great as far as reminding us to take a closer look at the foods we're ingesting. I've never really been one for diets or food restrictions and I'm down to try almost anything (check chicken feet off that list!). I know this was a huge hassle when I was growing up since I preferred chicken fingers and Mac and Cheese...but I've grown up now! Really! I make my own enchiladas and pesto and spinach lasagna!

So trying to assess what has and doesn't have wheat has been a pain. There is SO MUCH that we consume that includes wheat or wheat products. Not just obvious things like bread and cakes and flour-full things, but canned products and pastas and cereals and sauces. Basically, if it's processed, it has wheat of SOME sort in it. And regardless of whether or not we have a medical condition against wheat, that's a pretty scary thing! 

I'm not sure how far we'll go with this wheat journey, but educating ourselves and working to eat more raw/simple foods is a big step for us. We're young. We just graduated so we don't have a lot of money to be spending on fruit/veggie diets. I'm the only one who cooks consistently since Mr. E relies heavily on his grill...eating unprocessed foods is a challenge! But there are definitely small steps that we've taken.

First of all has been home-made breads. Maybe not the biggest step considering we're still using that pesky flour, but they're made from scratch with wholesome ingredients and they taste much better. I definitely plan on substituting my flour at some point with something a little less gluten-y, but for now I enjoy (or don't enjoy as the case may be) making loaves and crusts and tortillas. Most of all tortillas. 

If I had known how easy tortillas are to make, I would have made these bad boys years ago. I actually really dislike store-bought flour tortillas, but Mr. E likes flour better than corn, so we were at a bit of a conundrum buying-wise. Thankfully, homemade tortillas only have 5 ingredients, take 30 minutes tops and leave me with a huge stack of left overs!

Flour Tortillas

3 cups flour 

2tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

4-6 Tbsp shortening or lard...or butter.

1 1/4 cups warm water

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut in butter until it kind of clumps when you squeeze it together. If clumpy, add more shortening. If it's a hard ball, add more flour.

Add water all at once and mix quickly. Knead a little bit to make sure it's all together. You're looking for a soft dough that isn't sticky. Cover 5- 10 minutes. 

Pinch of 1-inch pieces, kneading small round balls. Flatten these into disks with your hand, then roll out (Autobots?) on a floured surface. Make them as thin or thick as you want. I prefer mine thinner, but I'm having trouble laying them down nicely in the pan, so I opt for a little thicker- more like naan.

I cook the tortilla dough on my cast-iron skillet. This has worked so well that I haven't used any other pans or griddles, so I can't say from experience how well that works. I would imagine as long as you have even heat (good pans/good burners) you would be okay. Watch for the air pockets- it only takes about 30 seconds on each side. 

Also, don't drop any flour. Because then you get a dog who's learned to beg.

We primarily use these for tacos (fish or beef) but I've been known to whip up a batch for enchiladas, too. Stuff those suckers with beans and cheese, add olives and chicken and salsa? Mr. E are in Americanized Mexican heaven...

Sweet Potato Cookies

These are the cookies that almost didn't happen. If I had had a worse day- one more sink of dishes, one more load of laundry, one more missed train- these would not have made it into the oven. I follow Blissful and Domestic and she raved about using sweet potato in a loaf of bread and then in chocolate chip cookies, which works perfect because I can never figure out how to keep my sweet potatoes from going bad before using them. Why does this happen? My potatoes are fine, but those big hulking orange tubers ALWAYS go bad and soft and squishy. 


So when I'm having a bad day, I resort to baking. There is nothing that can't be fixed with fresh bread. Or a good batch of chocolate chip cookies. On the flip side, if the cookies turn out wrong then the whole day is ruined and you may as well go back to bed.

I realized that I didn't have any of the flax seed and shtuff like Blissful and I really didn't want to add oatmeal (I was thinking chocolate chip after all, not oatmeal). So I searched the web a little bit and came up with this. Except that in my hope of being pro-active I melted some butter on the stove. Actually melted two sticks of butter into a beautiful yellow fatty pool on the stove. I cleaned it all up (squeezing it out of paper towels) and later realized that this recipe doesn't even call for butter. But that didn't come until later.

Realistically I sort of changed this whole recipe around because I don't like oil cookies. So this is my recipe. And gosh-darnit these are tasty.

Ingredients

2/3 cup baked, mashed sweet potato (pierce skin with fork and bake at 400 for 40 minutes on tin foil-lined baking sheet)
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar (smells a little different but tastes great)
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup 'fresh' chocolate chips  AS MANY CHOCOLATE CHIPS AS YOU FREAKING WANT

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheet and set aside.

In large bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Set aside.
In medium bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together.  Add oil and vanilla; whisk again.  Fold in mashed sweet potato.
Add egg mixture to dry ingredients, all at once.  Using a spatula, mix until now flour remains dry.  Fold in chocolate chips.
Scoop cookie dough, by the heaping tablespoonful, onto greased baking sheet, 2 inches apart.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before placing on wire rack to cool completely.

So what if my pureed sweet potato actually still had the skins on? So what if I miscalculated the direction of my Pam spray and sprayed myself? So what if I used oil the first time around, wasting two eggs and a cup of brown sugar? These cookies are soft and moist and remind me of persimmon cookies like Great Grandma Evelyn's but they have chocolate so they're a million times better.

Link up! House of Hepworths, So You Think You're Crafty, Chic on a Shoestring Budget, Frugal Friday, Craftionary, Foodie Friday, Friday Flair, Pity Party

Savory Bread Pudding

This recipe was a lot of fun to try. We found it in a Bon Appetit magazine (courtesy of my coworker!) that was stuffed to the brim with fresh veggie recipes. Seeing as how I'm not a big fan of cooked vegetables--we're working on it, okay?-- each time I turned the page I met another recipe I wanted to try. This one got the seal of approval because the broccoli was surrounded by bread (how can you go wrong) and also, pancetta. Or, in our house, since we use what we have, bacon. 

Parmasan Bread Pudding with Broccoli Rabe and Pancetta
(that's a mouthful)

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 medium bunch of broccoli rabe cut into 1/2" pieces
2 tsp kosher salt plus some
1/2 tsp ground black pepper plus some
6 large eggs
1 1/2c whole milk
1/2 lb country-style white bread cut into 1" pieces (about 8 cups)
1/2c plus 2 Tbsp finely grated Parmesean
6 thin slices of bacon (pancetta or otherwise)

Oven at 350F.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir until garlic is softened, about 30 seconds. Add broccoli rabe; season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing until wilted, about 2 minutes; let cool slightly.
Meanwhile, whisk eggs, milk, 2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a large bowl to blend. Add broccoli rabe mixture, bread and 1/2c Parmesan: toss to combine. Transfer to a 1 1/2 qt baking dish. Top with bacon and remaining 2 Tbsp Parmesan.
Bake pudding until puffed, browned in spots and set in the center, 45-55 minutes.

Link Up! House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse Thursday, Best DIY Projects, 

Buttermilk Pie

Apparently the South, as a whole, has been keeping something from me. Granted, it's probably in my (and my waist-line's) best interest, but I'm a little disappointed. South, I thought we were friends. I'll agree YOUR fried chicken is the best, I respect your use of "ya'll" and I'll call it the War Between the States if you want. I just wish you would've let me know about buttermilk pie a little sooner. After all, I can cook up a pretty mean Paula Deen impression. 

Granted, I got the idea for this from Beautiful Creatures (awful, don't bother), but when I looked it up I realized it's an Amish recipe? It's all Greek to me, guys.

Buttermilk Pie
1/2c butter
1c sugar
3Tbsp flour
3 eggs (beaten)
1 pinch salt
1tsp vanilla extract
1c buttermilk
1 can of cherries packed in water
pie crust

Preheat the oven to 400F
Beat the butter and sugar together.
Add eggs, then vanilla. Beat well after each addition.
Sift the dry ingredients then add alternately with the buttermilk.
Drain the cherries and arrange in the pie crust. Pour the buttermilk mixture over the cherries and bake for 10 minutes. I added a foil cover here to make sure that nothing burned.
Reduce heat to 350F and bake for 50-60 more minutes. Knife inserted should come out clean when done. 
Serve warm or cool.

I couldn't quite stomach the idea of JUST buttermilk, so I added some cherries. And this was a fabulous choice.

Also, we used a frozen home-made pie pastry. I make them in batches so I can pull out pie whenever I want. Just sayin'.

The best part of this recipe was my little canned cherries floated to the top like red balloons. These were great! A perfect tart flavor to set off the intense cream/custard of the buttermilk mixture.

Link up! Keeping it Simple, Homemaker on a Dime, DIY Showoff, Craft-o-maniac, Not Just a Housewife, Hopestudios, What We Accomplished Wednesdays

Mr. E's Custom Potato Salad

Food around here can be a little tricky. I've had to get pretty creative to encourage healthy eating- vegetables, less processed foods, more home-made. A lot of the dinners we make are a mix of whats-in-the-fridge: tacos, nachos, salads, sandwiches, etc. Dishes are almost never the same twice depending on what we have on hand. Even our pizzas vary!

When Mr. E and I got married, we were sitting on a plane to Victoria, BC, talking about the things we wanted to do as a married couple. You know, things we could bring up in polite company. I mentioned making a potato salad for an event we were going to and Mr. E made a face. Apparently, Mr. E never met a potato salad he enjoyed, describing them all as mushy and mayonnaise-y with sweet pickles instead of dill. Well, as a new wife, the challenge was accepted. I promised to make one potato salad a month for a full year so we could find the perfect recipe. And also so we could gain that newlywed weight because we're nothing if not over-achievers.

Long story short, we never made 12 potato salads. I think it only took two.

Mr. E's Custom Potato Salad
6 red potatoes
bacon (notice no measurement here. Because you can't measure awesome)
celery
dill pickles
1/4c dill pickle juice
peppercinis
radishes
olives (sliced)
cheddar cheese (cubed)
2-3Tbsp mustard
1/4c mayonnaise
salt and pepper

Wash and cut the potatoes- roughly one inch cubes. Cook them in water for about 30 minutes or until you can insert a fork with no resistance.
Chop everything. 
Add the potatoes and veggies to a bowl. Crumble as little (or as much) bacon as you want. Add mayonnaise (enough to bind it, not enough to swim in), pickle juice and mustard to taste. We add A LOT of mustard. Season with salt and pepper.
Refridgerate to help set. Or, you know, just eat it out of the bowl. No shame.

This is seasoned according to our tastes: we like dill better than sweet pickles, radishes instead of onions and lots of mustard. Every once in a while we add hot sauce too!

I can never keep this around the house. From someone who "never remembers" when we have leftovers, no matter where I hide the tupperware he always sniffs it out.

Link up! Titus Tuesday, Not Just a Housewife, Tutorial Tuesday!, Mums Make Lists!

Cornmeal Cake

Pinterest recipe: nailed it!

I'm sure I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I love Pinterest. It is SO useful for wrangling all the things I want to try, to do, to make. Recipes, craft projects, sewing, decorations- I like supporting other blogs and their endeavors. I'd rather try a recipe that's been used and approved by a blogger I can relate to rather than food.com. 

So when I had to search "wheat free dessert", I wasn't disappointed. This cake seemed so easy, and I had all the ingredients (ultimately the deciding factor for ALL recipes).

We ran into a small snafu when I took my eyes off the melting sugar for a second and burned the resulting candy to the pan. womp womp But it was a quick fix after I was able to chip the sugar out of the pan. Lesson learned.

I followed the recipe pretty much to the T, the only exception that I used a mix of walnuts and almonds instead of pecans. #Usewhatyouhave Let me tell you, this tasted AMAZING. It wasn't strictly wheat-free because there was a 3/4 cup of flour in it, but on the whole it was mostly cornmeal and eggs. 

We enjoyed dinner with friends: meat and veggie kebabs, grilled shrimp, edamame and some sweet moscato. It was a pretty big hit with most people going back for seconds!

You could get pretty creative with it, too. Think peaches, plums or pears (didn't mean alliteration, there, guys) and different types of nuts. 

Link Up!: Savvy Southern Style, My Girlish Whims, Sugar and Dots, Girl Behind the Curtain, Lil Luna, Someday Crafts, Gingersnap Crafts, Creations by Kara