Bacon Jam

Bacon Jam

Adapted from Tasty Kitchen. I loved the step by step photos provided here. The original recipe called for four whole onions; I cut that down to three for my taste.

3 pounds bacon, cut into 1-inch strips
3 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups strongly brewed black coffee
1/2 cup maple syrup (use the real stuff!)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until the bacon is browned and crisp, stirring frequently. Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up the grease. Drain almost all of the bacon grease from the Dutch oven, leaving about 2 tablespoons of grease for the rest of the recipe. Tasty Kitchen suggests saving the bacon grease — there’s quite a lot left over!

Add the onions and garlic into the Dutch oven, over medium-high heat. Stir well and reduce to medium. Cook for eight minutes. The onions will become mostly translucent.

In the meantime, whisk together the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl to a create the liquid base. Add to the Dutch oven and stir well. Bring it all to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil hard for two minutes. Stir in the bacon.

Leaving uncovered, simmer the jam, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. If it starts to dry out, add about 1/4 cup of water. Take it off the heat when the onions are super-soft and it’s all syrupy-thick (this took about two hours of simmering for my batch). Let it stand for 5 minutes.

Using a food processor, Vitamix, or blender, pulse several times until the jam is your preferred consistency . I used a basic blender, as it was all that I had on hand in the kitchen at the time. To make it easier, I did a little at a time, but with a  food processor, you can process all of it at once.

Scrape the jam into one or more jars with tight fitting lids. I put it into several to share with friends. Store in the fridge up to one month. I think it tastes best warmed up.

Originally published in “I Wanna Jam It With Bacon”

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PB&J Smoothie

PB&J Smoothie

1 cup almond milk
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 small banana
2 tablespoons peanut butter

Add all ingredients to blender and spin. Yes, it’s that easy.

This is much better cold, but since ice can make things a bit watery, try freezing the banana or strawberries. If you are using a blender, cut them up a bit first. A Vitamix can handle a whole frozen banana (in fact, ever tried banana “ice cream“? OMG!) but most regular blenders can’t. You can also play around with the ratio of ingredients, depending

on your tastes. This makes enough for one smoothie, but doubling is

easy and encouraged — though it’s much better fresh.

Originally published in “Peanut Butter & Jelly Does The Twist”

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Grilled Berry Pouches and Pound Cake

Grilled Berry Pouches and Pound Cake

Adapted from Food & Wine.  The recipe calls the pouches hobo packs. I absolutely love this. Maybe during a future hobo-themed month I will regale you with the tale.

1/2 pound strawberries, halved
1/2 pound blackberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 1/2 inch-thick slices of pound cake, the denser the cake the better
whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Prep the fruit: While the grill is warming up, combine the berries, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl.

Prep the foil pouches: Put 1/4 tablespoon of the butter on the foil and add the fruit mixture.  Form the pouches by bringing up two sides and folding together, then the opposite two sides. It doesn’t have to look pretty as long as the pouches are sealed.

Grill the pouches over moderate heat for about 10 minutes. The fruit will be bubbly.

Spread the remaining butter on the pound cake slices and grill on both sides until they’re toasted (about 1 minute). I noted that a denser pound cake would work better here. Mine was lighter, which caused it to break apart when flipping.

To serve, spoon the berries and juice over the pound cake.  Add ice cream, if you desire.  The juice was amazing with vanilla ice cream.

Originally published in “It’s Summertime And The Desserts Are Easy”

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photo credit to Aaron Otis Photography 2014


July
Watermelon is the perfect summer food. It hydrates, it cools, it's sweet and juicy. We have some great ideas for your table, including a salad, ceviche cups, popsicles and cocktails. Get ready to beat the heat with us!