bacon – The Cookbook Experiment

Family News and Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Three weeks have passed since I last posted here. I can’t believe it has been that long! I seriously try to write more frequently, but it seems like 3 weeks is the norm these days! Here is what’s been happening on the home front.

Last week we did indeed get the freezing temperatures that I was afraid of. Most of the gorgeous blossoms that I showed in the previous post froze when our spring-like temperatures dropped into the 20s for several nights in a row. Our plum trees had bloomed a few weeks earlier than the peaches and were already showing tiny plums. They also froze and turned black in the freezing temperatures.

We had a bridal shower for Ben’s lady. I am so glad my sister was able to come for it! And we had a birthday party for Little Miss Mia’s daddy! She really wanted to blow out all the candles by herself, so he had to discourage her!

But the best news of all was that my girl’s man came home safely from his deployment! I just love this picture!

Now for the recipe! I had never made stuffed chicken breast before this try, and the guys loved it! It was not as hard as I had thought it might be. I didn’t follow a recipe, but just went by what I have read online about stuffed chicken breasts. I am sure that there are people out there who know tricks to make it easier!

3-4 boneless chicken breasts
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
2-3 tbsp. heavy cream
several large hands full of fresh spinach (sorry! I didn’t measure!)
salt and pepper
12-16 slices of bacon

Carefully slice open the chicken breasts making a small pocket in the side of each.Be careful not to slice all the way through. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the two cheeses and the heavy cream and mix well. Lightly steam the spinach to soften. Squeeze all the moisture out of the spinach and stir it into the cheese mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into the chicken breasts. Wrap each chicken breast with bacon, using about 3 slices per piece of chicken. The amount of bacon will depend on the size of each chicken breast. Place wrapped chicken in a slightly oiled pan. Bake at 350 degrees until juices are no longer pink and the bacon looks crispy, about 40 minutes. Again, baking time will depend upon the size of the chicken breasts. Thicker pieces will require longer baking time. Serve with a green salad on the side!

A New and Better Egg Salad

Welcome to November! I find it hard to believe that we are in the final 2 months of 2016! The year has just flown by! We are finally seeing fall colors here in the South, but our temperatures are still summery. We’ve had temps over 80 degrees every day for the last 2 weeks or so, and more are ahead this week! And it is so very dry! We’ve not had significant rainfall since July.

Before I share my creation for a new and better egg salad, let me share some news! My oldest son and his wife are now home owners! We are thrilled for them! There is quite a bit of work to be done before they can actually move in, but many hands make light work, and we are all doing what we can to help them on this journey!

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And, of course, I simply must add a new picture of my sweet little grandman. I can’t wait to squeeze him at Thanksgiving!

Last Saturday morning the ladies of our church prepared a great breakfast for the men who had been having a special service. I enjoyed working with friends to make the breakfast happen! We had very little left over when the 70 men were finished, but there were some bacon bits, grated cheddar cheese and chopped hard-cooked eggs. I decided that they could be used to make sandwiches for the church-wide fellowship we were having on Sunday evening. When I told my youngest son what I planned to make, he said that it sounded pretty good!

I don’t know amounts because I didn’t measure the ingredients, but I will give estimates.

about 2 cups chopped hard-cooked eggs
about 1-1/2 c. chopped cooked bacon
1 c. grated cheddar cheese
mayonnaise–just enough to moisten the ingredients and hold them together
salt to taste

Mix all these ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Spread on Wasa crackers for a great THM lunch! I used a good wheat bread and made sandwiches for our church supper. My youngest son said that they were just amazing! I think that we have a new egg salad recipe that I will probably use from now on!

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

Wow! It’s been several days since I’ve been here on the blog! I just checked the views and we are at 20,998! Almost to 21,000. I know that is just small stuff to those who are really into the blogging world. But for little old me, that is amazing!

Last weekend we had all the family together again!!!! I was so glad that it worked out for my girl and her man to come as well as son #2 and his favorite lady friend. It has been since last Labor Day that we were all together, and with one of my Blue Stars heading overseas for several months, and another one of my Blue Stars also leaving soon, it will be a while before we can all be together again. I cherish the times we can all be under my roof and around my supper table!

We decided to have our 4th of July celebration on Saturday since my girl and her hubby would have to travel home on the 4th. Saturday was such a fun day!! While some of the guys went for a run, the girls and I went shopping! Seriously, what else would we do, right? In the afternoon and evening we played some bocci out in the yard, played several very loud rounds of Scattergories, ate some amazing food, set off some fireworks, and laughed–a lot!

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In addition to grilled steaks, we had potato salad, baked beans, tomatoes, hummus and salsa with chips, watermelon, etc. You know, all the good stuff that goes along with 4th of July! For dessert I had gotten a birthday cake for Barbi, but she decided that it would be better to celebrate all the July birthdays instead of just hers. Our combined ages equal 106!

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On the spur of the moment I decided to put together some jalapeno poppers to add to the meal. These are very easy to make, and all the guys loved them! I really don’t have a recipe that I follow, but I will try to give close estimates on the amounts. They are THM-friendly, too!

The jalapeno peppers that I used were huge! Our local Aldi had them in a package of 5 for less than 75 cents! The bigger peppers are much easier to work with than smaller ones.

5 jalapeno peppers

2-3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 wedge of garlic and herb cheese (got mine at Aldi)

Sprinkles of onion powder, garlic powder, salt (to taste)

5 slices of bacon

Cut the peppers in half length-wise and remove the seeds. Combine the cheeses and spices and mix well. Spoon the cheese mixture into each pepper half, using all of it.

Wrap each stuffed pepper half with a slice of bacon and place on a jelly roll pan.

Bake in 350* oven for about 15-20 minutes. The bacon should be getting crispy. Enjoy!

Apple Crepes

Today I combined two recipes into this amazing breakfast! Top it with some whipped cream and serve it with a few slices of bacon.

I used this recipe as the filling for the crepes. While the apples were cooking, I made the crepes, following Leighann’s recipe over at Living with Four Hobbits and a Giant. They were pretty good, if I do say so myself!

Bacon Frittatas

I think I am finally feeling more rested after our wedding weekend of last week. I have spent time this week getting laundry done, putting things away, grocery shopping, and just generally being low-key. Nothing on the calendar means more time to relax!

Last night for dinner I made bacon frittatas. The basic recipe for this came from the hubby who saw it on one of his late-night cooking shows. He didn’t remember which one, and when I did an internet search, I came up with LOTS of similar recipes. As I searched, I learned that a frittata is Italian, not Mexican like I had thought. I also learned that it is like an omelette, but not folded over. And I also learned that just about anything that goes in an omelette can go in a frittata. It is a great recipe to make if you have leftovers in the fridge or if you want to make a breakfast supper.

It is best to use a cast iron skillet or any skillet that can go in the oven as well as on the stove-top. I am going to give you amounts for a large skillet, but you can adjust for a smaller size.

8 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. basil

1 large tomato, sliced

1 large onion, sliced into rings

4-5 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces and fried

Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, ricotta cheese (amounts vary to taste)

Olive oil

Beat the eggs with the spices in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

In a large cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil. Saute’ onion rings until tender. Remove to a plate. Add more oil to skillet if necessary and gently cook tomatoes, turning just once. Remove to a plate. Again add more oil if needed. Return onion rings and tomato slices to the skillet, arranging the tomatoes on top of the onion rings. Sprinkle bacon pieces over the tomatoes.

Pour the egg mixture on top of the onions, tomatoes, and bacon. Cook on stove top until mostly set. If using ricotta cheese, place small amounts over the eggs, evenly spaced. Place into a 325 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes to finish cooking. If using cheddar or Parmesan cheese, sprinkle it over the top after baking and let melt. Serves 4-5 depending on how large you cut the pieces. Serve with toast!

I neglected to take a picture of ours, but here is a link that shows what the final product looks like. It also uses other ingredients which will give you other ideas for your own personal frittata! Enjoy!

Bacon Bark

Merry Christmas to all my readers! Thanks to you, I am just 52 views away from 12,000 views to this blog…5,000 more than last year at this time! Believe me, this is pretty exciting to me…a stay-at-home-almost-empty-nester mom!!

One of my sweet Sunday school children gave me a bag of homemade goodies as a Christmas gift. At the bottom of the bag were 2 or 3 pieces of a delicious chocolate treat. I didn’t know what it was until my newly-wed son dropped by the house and decided to try some. “Mom, are you aware that this is chocolate covered bacon?” Um, no, I was not aware of that. I knew only that it tasted delicious. He thought so, too, and immediately told his brothers who devoured the rest of it.

Needless to say, I had to find out the recipe! It comes from another blogger here at wordpress. You can find this delicious treat here. I have not made this recipe yet, but I am sure I will soon. The boys just loved it!

Pillows for Breakfast

I love this recipe shared with me by my friend Cathy. These pillows are easy to make and taste delicious! Cathy filled hers with a sausage and cream cheese mixture, but since the only sausage I had was still in the freezer, I opted for bacon and eggs. You can use whatever you’d like for the filling. Try using a quiche mixture cooked in a skillet!

2 cans crescent rolls (8 each)

4 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled

6 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 c. shredded cheese

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until completely blended. Cook over medium heat in a lightly-oiled skillet. Add salt, pepper, and crumbled bacon stirring well.

Open crescent rolls and make rectangular shapes by pinching 2 pieces together. Put a spoonful of egg mixture in the middle of each rectangle. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of shredded cheese. Bring corners up to the center and pinch edges together. Place each pillow on cookie sheet and bake according to crescent roll package directions. Makes 8 pillows.

Bacon & Swiss Quiche

My friend Abi shared this quiche recipe with me a few weeks ago after she posted a picture of the one she had made. It looked amazing!! I knew that I needed to give it a try, so I made it for breakfast this morning. It tastes as good as it looks! The great thing about a quiche is that there are many different ingredients that can be added to the recipe. It is easy to come up with great variations. Try adding different cheeses, diced ham, broccoli, spinach or diced bell pepper! You can even add some chopped hot peppers if you like it spicy!

one pie shell for a 9-inch deep dish pie plate

1/4 c. sliced green onion

1 tbsp. butter

6 eggs

1-1/2 c. whipping cream

1/4 c. apple juice

16 oz. bacon, cooked and crumbled

8 oz. shredded Swiss cheese

salt and pepper

Place the pie crust in the pie plate and finish the edges. In small skillet, saute’ green onions in butter; set aside. In large bowl whisk together eggs, cream and juice. Stir in bacon, salt and pepper to taste, and green onions. Pour into pie crust and top with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until set. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.