Iceberg Wedge with Warm Bacon & Blue Cheese Dressing

It was one day a few weeks ago I noticed a chunk of Gorgonzola cheese in my refrigerator. I do really like Gorgonzola, and always have intentions of using it all whenever I buy a small wedge. I had about ¾ of a cup left over and needed a use for it. A stroll through my “to-try” recipes, and this popped up. Ah . . . crumbled blue (for me, Gorgonzola), bacon, red onion and a zesty mayo-based dressing. Sounded good to me. The recipe came from Bon Appetit in 2006, which you can find online.

A short bit of advice about Gorgonzola: until I took a class from an Italian chef, I didn't realize that when you buy Gorgonzola you definitely want to buy it when it's freshly cut from the big wedge, as you can start counting the days from that point, that it will last. Gorgonzola has a very short shelf life. If you see even a smidgin of mold inside the wrapper, don't buy it.

Nothing much was changed in my preparation of this salad – I used some less bacon than called for, and I didn’t have iceberg, but Romaine. The dressing is just mayo with fresh lemon juice, pepper, and a dash or two of Tabasco or hot chili sauce. I thinned the dressing down some – it was too thick. The recipe just calls for “buttermilk,” and you use your own judgment . . . about 1-2 tablespoons should be sufficient. You want the dressing to be more like pouring quality, so I did have to add something. Since I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, I used some milk instead.

The salad is easy. It’s definitely GOOD. This isn’t a “wow” kind of recipe – just simple, delicious homey food. Next time I might add just a touch of sour cream to the dressing, just to see if it would be a good addition.

Iceberg Wedge with Warm Bacon and Blue Cheese Dressing
Recipe By: Bon Appetit, January 2006
Serving Size: 6
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise -- can use fat-free
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 cup blue cheese -- coarsely crumbled [or Gorgonzola]
1 tablespoon buttermilk -- optional
1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon -- cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
1 head iceberg lettuce -- cut into 6 wedges, each with some core attached, or Romaine
1/2 red onion -- very thinly sliced [or green onions]
1. Mix first 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Add blue cheese and stir until well blended. If too thick, thin with buttermilk by tablespoonfuls to desired consistency. Can be made one day ahead. Cover and chill.
2. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until golden brown and beginning to crisp. Arrange lettuce on plates. Spoon dressing over. Using slotted spoon, transfer warm bacon from skillet onto salads, dividing equally. Garnish with onion. NOTES : You don't use all the dressing, so the calorie count is way off.
Per Serving (not correct per serving): 700 Calories; 71g Fat (87.7% calories from fat); 17g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 66mg Cholesterol; 1212mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 7 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
Printer-friendly PDF recipe.

Orzo Carbonara with Bacon & Thyme

You know, orzo is a rice-shaped pasta. Once it plumps up, it grows a bit in size, but still looks like large, very large, grains of rice. And carbonara is a rich, cream-laden Italian preparation of pasta with bacon as the primary flavor. Yet, risotto is a creamy rice preparation too, that can vary with the additions. So, Phillis Carey combined all of these culinary variations and created a great risotto-like pasta side dish. Since I like bacon a whole heck of a lot, and thyme is my most favorite-est herb, this satisfies like comfort food.

The preparation is fairly simple, although you do have to heat up the broth and be near the range when you're making this. But you don't have to stir for 30-45 minutes like you do with risotto. It comes together in about 30 minutes.

Cook's Notes: you may need to add more liquid to this - depends on how long it takes to cook the orzo. If you've run out of broth, just add water. This wants to be on the wet side - it should not be stiff when served, but creamy, soft. Once you add the cream and bring it to a simmer, have everything ready because you want to serve this immediately. I mean immediately.

Orzo Carbonara with Bacon & Thyme
Recipe By: Phillis Carey, cookbook author & instructor
Serving Size : 6
4 slices thick-sliced bacon -- 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound orzo
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth -- heated to a simmer
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup Parmesano-Reggiano Cheese -- freshly grated
1 teaspoon fresh thyme -- chopped
1. Cook bacon in heavy saucepan over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer bacon to paper towels and drain.
2. Pour off all but 1 T. of drippings from pan. Add butter and melt. Add orzo and toss in butter. Add 3 cups chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, adding more broth as needed to keep orzo from sticking to bottom the pan. Cook orzo until just tender and broth is absorbed, about 8-10 minutes.
3. Add heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Mix in cheese, bacon and thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Per Serving: 426 Calories; 15g Fat (29.5% calories from fat); 22g Protein; 58g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 31mg Cholesterol; 178mg Sodium. Exchanges: 4 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 1/2 Fat.

Printer-friendly recipe, click title at top.

Is a Quiche a Quiche?

Well, I'm here to tell you that not every quiche is created equal. And despite the fact that men may not admit to eating quiche, they do. And most of them like it too.

For years I used to make a quiche recipe that was good. Very good, actually, but then one day at lunch I ordered quiche at a French restaurant. After a couple of times, I determined that my recipe had to go. So a year or so ago I decided to try a different chemistry for my own home made one. More and different cheese, and whipping cream instead of half and half. Oh my. What a difference. This recipe is just really, really good. I found it on the internet somewhere, tweaked it to my own satisfaction, but I didn't make any notes, so I don't know where it came from. Sorry. Thick and creamy (well, yes, with whipping cream instead of milk or half and half). And although I enjoy other varieties of quiche - like broccoli or spinach, or mushroom, my favorite remains Lorraine (bacon).

We had a brunch here at our house today. In doing the menu planning, and after spending about 2-3 hours perusing all kinds of other recipes (to try something different) and building a menu from the entree, I kept going back to the quiche. I hadn't served it to this group before, so it was "new" to them. DH loves quiche any way, shape or form. Our gourmet gathering is a group of 4-5 couples, and we've been meeting for about 5 years or so, on a off and on basis, for a gourmet kind of dinner. We'd never done brunch. The hostess chooses the menu, and assignments are made with each couple bringing some part of the meal, so I only made the entree and the pink sangria (I'll tell you about that one in a day or so) we sipped on before we sat down to our meal. The other couples brought a soup, a vegie salad and a lettuce salad, a fruit side dish and dessert.

So, this quiche has all the "normal" ingredients of a quiche - cream, eggs, cheese, bacon in a piecrust. What's different about it? Maybe not much, except a bit of white onion, white pepper, paprika, some garlic, and the types of cheese. I used Gruyere (an imported cheese from Switzerland) and Gouda and real Parmegiano-Reggiano. This one is made in a tart pan, so the piecrust is not high - it's not a deep dish kind of quiche. I used a removable bottomed tart pan, and shhhh, I cheated and used Pillsbury's piecrust from the refrigerator case. It was quite lovely, actually. Better than the frozen shells, and very pliable, so it was easy to fit into my two different sized pans. I just trimmed some off one and pressed it into the other one. Simple really. Then you press all the grated cheese into the shells, the bacon, onion, the Italian parsley and kind of press it all down, then you whip up the custard base and pour it on. Quite simple, really. Note: if you use a different kind of pan, or regular pie crusts and traditional pie plates, you'll probably need more custard, so just add another egg and perhaps another 1/2 cup or more of cream. And another side note: if you use salty bacon, as some brands can be, you'll want to reduce the amount of salt.

So if a quiche is an appropriate item for a holiday breakfast or dinner, you'll be very happy to have tried this one. To see the tart shell recipe print out the PDF recipe. I didn't reproduce it here.

Quiche Lorraine
Servings: 16
2 Short Crust (Press-In) Tart Shells -- or use ready-made
12 ounces bacon
8 ounces Emmental cheese -- grated, or Gruyere
5 ounces Gouda cheese -- grated
3 ounces Parmesan cheese -- grated
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 whole eggs
1/2 cup white onion -- minced
1 clove garlic -- minced
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup Italian parsley -- minced
1. Prepare the short crust tart shells.
2. Fry bacon pieces until just crispy done, drain on paper towels, then mince into small pieces. Pour off most of the bacon grease, then sauté the onion in the bacon fat until just translucent. Remove and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 400°. Have all ingredients prepared ahead (grate the cheese, mince the parsley, etc.) before starting to fill the shells, as you do not want the liquid portion to sit very long in the shell.
4. Mix all the cheeses together and sprinkle in the pie shells. Gently press down so cheese is compacted. Sprinkle top with the grated, cooked onion, and the bacon. Press down. In a large bowl combine the eggs, whip them some, then add the cream, garlic, white pepper, paprika, and salt. Gently pour the cream mixture into the pie shells. Fill until the cream mixture comes just barely below the top of the pastry crust. Sprinkle the top with the reserved Italian parsley.
5. Carefully place the quiches in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325° and bake another 20-25 minutes, until the top of the quiche is golden brown. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow to cool about 10 minutes, or can be served at room temperature. Remove outside rims before placing on a serving platter or pedestal cake plate.
NOTES : You can use your own choice of cheeses, but you need to have at least half of it a sharp Swiss (imported) type, like an Emmental or Gruyere. Then use some other medium bodied cheese to make up the one pound of cheese called for. Do NOT use any of the Parmesan cheese out of a can. Use the real stuff. You can prepare all of the different parts of this the day or night before, then assemble it just before putting in the oven. I use the fluted sided tart pan about 1 inch high, and because I don't have two of the same size, I make one larger and one smaller.
Per Serving : 585 Calories; 48g Fat (73.6% calories from fat); 20g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 188mg Cholesterol; 732mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 8 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable PDF recipe (including the press-in pastry recipe I usually use) click title at top.

Twice Baked Cauliflower Take 2

Improvise. That's the word of the day. I had a head of cauliflower and hadn't decided what I'd do with it. Remembering how wonderful the twice-baked cauliflower is that I posted a few months ago, I looked at the list of ingredients and didn't have everything. When I made it months ago I'd adapted it from the recipe over at Kalyn's Kitchen. This time I had about 1/3 cup of sour cream, but no Parmesan. I had about 2 ounces of cream cheese, but no green onions. So, I improvized. The mother of invention, so they say.

This is the dish that is kind of like mashed potatoes, but it's made with cauliflower. You mash it up, kind of like you would with mashed potatoes, but it's not as smooth. Then you add in the fixins, like bacon, sour cream, etc. What I did have was: bacon, a tad of cream cheese, a bit of butter, and buttermilk (I often add buttermilk to my mashed potatoes, so my thinking went along that this would be a good addition to cauliflower too). So, here's an adjunct recipe for twice-baked cauliflower. You can use whatever cheese you have - I happened to have a nutty, but mild white cheese with truffles in it. I hadn't planned on cooking with this cheese, but it was beginning to grow some mold on the outside, so figured I'd best use it pronto. It was delicious. We had seconds it was so good.

Twice-Baked Cauliflower Take 2

1 whole cauliflower, cut into large florets

3 slices bacon, thick-cut, minced

4 ounces cheese, your choice, shredded, divided use

1/3 cup sour cream

2 ounces cream cheese

3 tablespoons buttermilk

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the cauliflower. Cook until the cauliflower is just tender when you poke the stem with a knife. Drain and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, fry the bacon until brown. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

3. Mash the cauliflower until it's relatively smooth, but will still have small pieces visible. Save some cheese to put on the top. Add all the other ingredients and stir until combined. Pour into a small casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. (This can be eaten at this point, but it's best if you bake it for just a few minutes, or pop it in the microwave to heat it up completely.)

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 515 Calories; 46g Fat (78.5% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 12g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 114mg Cholesterol; 590mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 8 Fat.

To view a PDF recipe, click title at top.

Drop Biscuits - a new method

It was just a couple of weeks ago I mentioned how FUN it is (for me, anyway) when I discover a new method for making some heretofore ordinary dish. That was the green beans with garlic and olive oil. So, now, I have a great new recipe for you. This one is compliments of Cooks Illustrated, the bi-monthly magazine. I've subscribed to this gem for many years. And I think I've mentioned before (also) that I truly enjoy reading the long treatises on individual subjects. It could be gravy for pork chops, or just the right texture for fudgy brownies. You get the drift.

The subject of this article was : "The Best Drop Biscuit," by Sandra Wu. The writer (food developer) explained the steps and stages she used to refine a favorite, the lowly drop biscuit. I don't make drop biscuits very often. Why? I don't know . . . I think I prefer the kind that you knead just a little bit, then pat out the dough and cut with a biscuit cutter. Plus, they're perhaps a bit easier to break apart without falling apart. And sometimes drop biscuits are unevenly baked because they're not all the same size or shape. An inherent problem with a drop biscuit. But this new method solves most of those problems.

The only thing you need for this recipe is butter (the real stuff) and buttermilk. (Although, to be fair, the recipe does indicate how to make clabbered milk instead of buttermilk.) I try to have buttermilk on hand. Once I've used whatever I needed it for, I freeze it in 1-cup freezer cups. My scones require exactly one cup. So do these biscuits, which will now become part of my regular repertoire. Now, whether this method for drop biscuits would work with defrosted buttermilk, I'm not sure. So, for now I won't recommend that until I try it. Once defrosted, buttermilk gets a bit watery. It works fine for my scones, but, as I explain below, it might not work for these biscuits.

I won't belabor all the explanation the author went through to finally GET to the final product. I found it very interesting. You might not. But, what's unusual is: you pour slightly cooled, but melted butter INTO the one cup of buttermilk before adding that to the dry ingredients. Who woulda thunk that coulda make such a difference? Certainly not me! Here's a picture of the clumpy buttermilk.

The writer is enough of a baking chemist to know that you need to stabilize - or equalize the temperatures of the butter and the usually cold buttermilk. She kept getting this clumpy mass (see picture), and probably threw away countless efforts of that combination. But one time she decided to go ahead and use that clumpy mess in the biscuit anyway. Voila! As you stir the moderately warm/hot butter into the cold buttermilk the little clumps in buttermilk that are there naturally attach themselves to all the little molecules of butter. And you have this heaping cup full of lumps. It's such an incongruous pile of stuff.

But anyway, you pour all that into the dry ingredients, stir just until mixed thoroughly (no kneading) and you're ready to make quick drop biscuits. She recommended using a greased 1/4-cup measuring cup. I used cooking spray, which didn't work all that well, I must say. Keep the waxed paper the butter is wrapped in and grease the measuring cup with that. The 2nd time I made these I used a narrow metal sandwich spreader to kind of scoop out the batter. Buttering the 1/4-cup measure didn't work any better than cooking spray. Whichever method you use, you scoop equal 1/4-cup measures of the batter and drop onto parchment on a baking sheet. Then you gently reshape any that aren't uniform.

Now, there's a side story (a sidebar) in the article about the use of parchment vs. a Silpat. I have bunches of silpats and I use them constantly. In the usual Cooks Illustrated's style, they did a study of these biscuits using both. They far prefer parchment because they believe silicone mats (silpats or others) can impart some off-flavors. Mostly that wouldn't bother me, but since biscuits are such a delicate flavored item, I took their advice and used paper. Then, I straightened all of the biscuits on the sheet - to make sure none were too high, or short, etc. That made a big difference - all the biscuits were perfectly, evenly browned.

Need I say they were a big hit? A BIG hit. These biscuits are so very light and tender. The master recipe is for a plain biscuit, but they also gave variations for both Black Pepper and Bacon Biscuits, and Rosemary and Parmesan Biscuits. I made the bacon and pepper version. We had leftovers of soup last night, and made the biscuits again, but also added some sharp cheddar cheese, at my son-in-law's request. Any way you make them, they're good.

Best Drop Biscuits
Recipe: Sandra Wu, Cooks Illustrated
Servings: 12
2 cups all-purpose flour -- unbleached, if possible
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk -- COLD
8 tablespoons unsalted butter -- melted and cooled slightly
2 tablespoons butter -- melted, for brushing tops

Bacon/Pepper Variation: cut 6 slices bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp. Crumble. Add bacon and 1 tsp. coarsely ground pepper to the dry mixture in step 1.

Rosemary/Parmesan Variation: add 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese and 1/2 tsp. minced rosemary to the flour mixture in step 1.

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl. (Or, you can sift it together.)
2. In a medium bowl (at least 1 1/2 cups or larger) combine the cold buttermilk and the melted and slightly cooled butter. Stir until buttermilk forms clumps.
3. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from side of the bowl.
4. Using a greased 1/4-cup measure, scoop level amounts of batter and drop onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, approximately 2 1/4 inches across and 1 1/4 inches high. Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, approximately 12-14 minutes.
5. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 T. melted butter. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, or serve immediately.
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 171 Calories; 10g Fat (52.4% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 17g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 27mg Cholesterol; 309mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable PDF Recipe, click title at top.

BLT Salad

Well, the good news is that I was able to stand up at the kitchen counter long enough to make one of our favorite summertime salads yesterday. So, my broken bone is still healing well. I'm glad, because I've truly missed cooking. Albeit, I only stood up for about 10 minutes, but that's longer than I've been able to do previously!

So, what is it about bacon that is so darned good? It's that crispy porky piggy flavor, naturally! As with most people, especially those of us trying to watch calories and fat, bacon became a treat, a once-in-awhile kind of treat at least 20 years ago. But I miss it. However, I've found that a little bit goes a long way. Of course, we know that, right? But when a recipe calls for 3 strips, I use 1. I've used turkey bacon and it's okay. I probably should use it always, but I'd rather have less of the real thing and get more of the real flavor. But, what do you do with a big package of bacon when you only need 1 slice? Here's one of Carolyn's tips coming your way. Once I open a package of bacon, I remove the slices I'm using for that meal, then the remaining ones are separated and rolled up, placed on a metal tray - raw - frozen, then the rolls are popped into a Ziploc bag and stored in the freezer. Then, when I need one slice, it's easy to pull out just one. Here's a photo of the bacon rolls currently residing in my freezer.

The photo looks blurry, but it's the vapor in the Ziploc bag you're viewing. Because bacon is mostly fat, it defrosts in a jiffy. And with these little bacon rolls if I really only want a half a slice, a sharp chef's knife will easily cut that one roll in half. If you cut it lengthwise, it's already cut into pieces. But you can chop it a bit more, easily enough.

I do want to talk a bit about bacon itself. I used to buy grocery store bacon. And for some, it may be all that you can afford. I understand - I've been there too. But I've never liked all the tinkering our food manufacturers do with our foods, so I try to avoid chemicals whenever it's feasible. Now that trichinosis is a thing of the past, we needn't worry about acquiring the disease from uncooked pork. So we don't need the nitrates and nitrites so commonly part of the curing process in bacon and other pork products. I avoid them whenever possible. And it's easy to do so if you have a source for Niman Ranch bacon. It's smoked, but uncured. Our Trader Joe's carries it nearly all the time. It's without preservatives, and has a gorgeous taste. It's thick-sliced too, which I prefer. There's a photo of the bacon above - it is a smaller package - 12 ounces I think, rather than a pound. That's to make it a bit more affordable, I'm certain. But I use so little of it, a package will last me months and months once it's in my cute little frozen rolls.

So now, the salad. The recipe for this was published in our local newspaper, The Orange County Register, in 1994. I clipped that little gem out and made it with some home grown tomatoes we had from our garden. It was absolutely fantastic, and I've been making it regularly ever since. I added the basil and the croutons to the original recipe. You can eliminate the croutons if you're watching carbs, but I enjoy the crunchiness of just a few of them. Add as much or as little of the bacon as you see fit. The recipe calls for more than I use, and we're content with it. Certainly you need good, flavorful tomatoes. But even in the dead of winter Trader Joe's and Costco both carry a variety of on-the-vine type that are quite good. So you can really have this year around.

I searched around on the internet today to just see what kind of recipes are out there for BLT Salad. What's unique about this one is the use of rice wine vinegar. It adds a lovely sparkle to the dressing. You can use low-fat or fat free mayo if you want, and it doesn't really make any difference in the taste. Normally I would say nothing but Best Foods (Hellman's) will do, but since the mayo is diluted, there's no appreciable change in the taste. What a great summertime treat. It was delicious for lunch.

BLT Salad (Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato Salad)
Recipe: adapted from the Orange County Register, 1994
Servings: 4
1/2 cup mayonnaise -- fat-free or low fat are fine
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 head iceberg lettuce -- or mix Romaine and iceberg
4 whole tomatoes -- fresh only
1/2 pound bacon -- meaty slices only
1 1/2 cups bread cubes
2 tbsp fresh basil -- minced
1. Allow bread cubes to stale slightly at room temperature, or you may toast them in the oven briefly. You don't want to have real soft bread, as it will absorb too much dressing and get soggy.
2. In small pan sauté bacon until thoroughly brown and crisp; drain on paper towels and set aside. Break bacon into small pieces when cool. It is best to do this just before serving as bacon won't stay crisp more than about 30 minutes.
3. In a small bowl combine mayonnaise and rice vinegar and stir (or shake in a small bottle) until thoroughly combined.
4. In a large salad bowl chop lettuce, add chopped tomatoes, basil and bread cubes. Add dressing, toss, arrange on serving plates and sprinkle bacon pieces on top.
NOTES : This salad is deceptively easy and delicious. I use half the bacon, but then I always use thick-sliced and it's very meaty bacon. Tomatoes need to be very ripe, so this is a salad I prepare mostly in the summertime. The basil and bread cubes are an addition I've made over the years.
Per Serving: 605 Calories; 52g Fat (76.0% calories from fat); 21g Protein; 16g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 58mg Cholesterol; 1176mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 6 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates. To view a printable recipe, click on the title at top.

Chicken Bamako - what's that you ask?

(photo from Food Network, Canada)

This photo, above, is about as close as I could find to my Chicken Bamako. This shows chicken drumsticks. I use boneless breasts or thighs. And the photo doesn't show all the jillions of herbs sticking to the chicken.

This is another one of those tried and true recipes I've been making since about 1970. Some friends, an older couple, served it one night. Ruth Cormack (now deceased) was a very good cook, and she inspired me to try any number of different food dishes when I was still a young bride. Believe it or not, this is a recipe that she acquired from one of her weight loss diets, likely a precursor to the all-protein diet. I have no idea where, so I can't give credit to anyone. I looked up the recipe on the internet and came up empty-handed. There is a place called Bamako in Africa (on the Niger River), but this kind of chicken combo doesn't sound African to me. So I really don't know its origin.

But nevertheless, it's very easy. Incredibly easy. Even my DH who is cooking these days, could make this. I'll have to remind him about this one, which he likes a lot. Very flavorful. You all know I like bacon already. You can vary the herbs you use - whatever suits your fancy, although the recipe calls out specific ones. If you don't like rosemary, leave it out. Put in what you like. But use lots of herbs. Lots and lots. I never seem to make enough of the dry herb mix, no matter how much I concoct, and always have to sprinkle out some more to go around. So, in other words, be generous with the herbs.

It can be thrown together in a big hurry. If you don't have time to marinate the chicken meat in the lemon juice, that's okay too. Marinate it as long as you can and add the lemon juice to the pan, dribbled over the chicken instead. If you are concerned about the fat and calories in bacon, use 2 pieces instead of 4 and cut the bacon into small squares and toothpick those pieces to the top of the chicken instead of using a half slice each. Or use turkey bacon instead. Usually I serve this with rice and a veg. If you marinate overnight, don't allow it to sit any longer than 24 hours or the chicken will start to become mushy.

Generally I use this vacuum box, pictured below, when I marinate - providing the meat is small enough to fit in the thing. It won't do a roast or tall things or a lot of pieces of anything, but it would do 6-10 boneless chicken pieces. You put the chicken pieces inside, place the lid on top, then pop that tall handle on top and pump the handle, which sucks all the air out of the box, thereby creating a vacuum. Supposedly this forces the marinade to be absorbed into the meat faster than otherwise. It's called a Vacu Multi Dish, made by VacuVin, and I bought it at Sur la Table some years ago when it was demonstrated in a cooking class. Allow it to sit in the refrigerator for an hour or so. If you don't have this box, just use a ziploc plastic bag.

Then you drain the chicken, dry it off with a paper towel and slick some olive oil (using your hands) over each piece, then dip and roll in the multitude of herbs. Mound the meat up a little bit and place on a foil or Silpat lined cookie sheet or baking pan and top with bacon. That's it. Ideally you should cook the thighs longer than the breasts, so to have them come out perfectly juicy, add the breasts later. Usually I use either breasts OR thighs, so I don't have to make those adjustments. Obviously thighs take the longer cooking time - the 30-35 minutes noted in the recipe. Happy herbing.

Chicken Bamako
Recipe from: Ruth Cormack
Servings: 6
4 each skinless boneless chicken breasts
4 each skinless chicken thighs
1/2 cup lemon juice, fresh squeezed

salt and pepper -- to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon bay leaves -- powdered
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
2 tablespoons parsley -- minced
4 slices bacon
1. Place the chicken pieces into a plastic bag and add the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate a few hours, or at the most overnight. Drain well before continuing.
2. On a large piece of waxed paper combine the dry herbs. If time permits, combine the herbs in a mortar and pestle and grind them together to release their flavors a little. The measurements are estimates - you may need more.
3. Rub the chicken pieces with a little oil, then roll in the herbs and place a half slice of bacon on the top, securing it with a toothpick. Place the chicken pieces in a baking dish in one layer and bake in a 350 oven for 30-35 minutes, or until tender, but not dry.
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 299 Calories; 10g Fat (32.3% calories from fat); 47g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 133mg Cholesterol; 210mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 6 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 1 Fat.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Kalyn's Twice Baked Cauliflower

I'm a fan of Kalyn Denny, a fellow food blogger of the highest order. I've mentioned her before, over at Kalyn's Kitchen, and her success with the South Beach Diet. So this was a recipe posted some months back, and since I'd tried another of her cauliflower recipes, the one with bacon and mushrooms, I was sure this one would be a winner too. She got it from The Low Carb Gourmet by Karen Barnaby.

The first time I made this I thought my DH was going to lick the baking dish. He thought it was that good. So last night, with me in a wheelchair in a cast with my fractured foot, and a cauliflower in the refrigerator, I suggested he could make this. It was a simple meal otherwise - citrus salt rubbed grilled pork chops, green salad and the cauliflower.

Well, let's just say the whole meal was a challenge for him. He's never been much of a cook. Put him behind a barbecue and he's king. And in front of the sink with a heap of dirty dishes, and he's a master. But put him in front of a recipe with a head of cauliflower, and he becomes frozen in place. He invited a friend, Bob, to come over and join us. His wife is out of town. Now Bob admitted he's not much of a cook, either, but he admirably made the green salad. I cut up the cauliflower, leaving tatters of it on the floor all around the wheelchair. But Dave was required to put together the rest of the vegetable dish. And you need to know that Dave didn't start the dinner until the doorbell rang.

Normally I wouldn't go into such detail about this, but I can only laugh about it. We didn't have any sour cream. I suggested plain yogurt, which we had. He forgot to add it. You're supposed to add the green onions to the cooked cauliflower. He put the green onions in with the raw cauliflower to boil/simmer, so it completely boiled off the flavor, I would assume. He couldn't find the cream cheese, so we used some of the Boursin herb cheese spread we had out as an appetizer. We had cheddar, so Dave grated that up with no problem. He couldn't find the Parmesan, even though I told him exactly what size plastic bag it was in the cheese drawer, so that was eliminated. And he'd completely cooked the cauliflower and added everything else before he remembered he had to prepare the bacon (in little frozen rolls in the freezer), chop it up and cook it crisp. Short 10-15 minute delay there. Where was I during most of this? My foot was aching, so I was laid out on the sofa 20 feet away with my leg elevated above my heart.

Dave reminded me of the phrase - a one-armed paperhanger. He kept saying the instructions weren't there on the recipe. He read it clear through - aloud I might add, but he was distracted, making conversation with our guest, trying to juggle getting things out of the refrigerator, thinking about setting the table outside, firing up the barbecue, getting the chops on the grill, me working the temperature probe, then him not overcooking the chops, keeping the temp in the barbecue at the right level, washing dishes in between (which he'd much rather do than cook), talking some more, with me piping in advice all the way through. (Welcome to the everyday world of cooking, my darling.) He got very frustrated - at me for giving him advice - and more likely at himself.

All I can do is laugh. He said, as we were finishing our meal (which was delicious, and Bob said the cauliflower was to die for), that he has a whole new appreciation for what it takes to cook even a simple meal! (YES!!!) This cauliflower dish is NOT hard to make. I assure you, it isn't. It just sounds like it from my description of my DH preparing it. He might beg to differ with me about that, but if you're even a basic cook, this will not throw you. And what it tastes like is those fabulous mounds of baked potato with all the trimmings. The bacon makes it, in my book, but you can reduce how much you use (recipe below shows less bacon than Kalyn's version). So, once again, thank you Kalyn.

Twice Baked Cauliflower
Recipe: adapted from one at Kalyn's Kitchen, a food blog, originally from The Low Carb Gourmet by Karen Barnaby
Servings: 4
1 head cauliflower
2 ounces lowfat cream cheese, or Boursin herb cheese
1 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup lowfat sour cream
1/4 cup minced green onions
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese -- grated
2 slices bacon -- cooked and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 350°. Cut out stem and core from cauliflower, and cut into small pieces. Cook in large pot of boiling water until cauliflower is tender, but not overly soft. Drain well and mash with potato masher, leaving some chunks. Mix in cream cheese, butter, sour cream, green onion, Parmesan, and 3/4 of the bacon. Spread evenly in an 8 X 8 inch glass casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and reserved bacon. Bake 20-30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Or heat in microwave for about 7-8 minutes, covered.
NOTES : Apparently this recipe came about from the South Beach Diet since it consists of a vegetable, fats, but no carbs. The original recipe called for double the amount of cream cheese, sour cream, onions, Parmesan and bacon. The only ingredients left as is are the cauliflower and the Cheddar cheese. This dish is very flexible - if you don't have every ingredient, just substitute. No sour cream? Use plain yogurt. No Parmesan? Use more cheddar. No green onions, cook up 1/2 cup of yellow onions, chopped. No cream cheese? Use Boursin herb cheese instead. Or leave it out.Per Serving: 239 Calories; 19g Fat (69.8% calories from fat); 13g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 55mg Cholesterol; 472mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Bacon & Tomato Dunk

At least 15 years ago I attended a cooking class taught by Michele Braden, and bought one of her cookbooks at the class, Fast & Fabulous Hors D'Oeuvres (the book is out of print, unfortunately). I have no recollection as to what items she demonstrated for the class, but I remember being very pleased with the wide variety of recipe ideas in the cookbook. I've made a number of things from the book in the ensuing years, but this one I've prepared umpteen times.

What's unique about the cookbook is that each recipe offers three options. First, there's a Fast one. Then she gives you a Flashy method, and lastly, a Fabulous presentation. At the time, I suppose, it was her little corner, or niche to make her cookbook different. From what I read now, anyone not amongst published authors who wants to submit a cookbook for possible publication must have something very creative and unusual, otherwise it will never get past the first editor.

So back to the Dunk. Wonder why this little number is called a Dunk? Once Braden began cooking as a young adult, she definitely didn't like the word "dip." It conjured up the ubiquitous onion dip or clam dip etc. So, she decided to elevate the genre of appetizer to a new level, and calls it a Dunk. Whatever it is, dip or dunk, this particular one will make you think you're having a part of the BLT. Just no lettuce, and you either dip/dunk a cracker into the mixture, or spread it on toast, or even celery. It's the BACON, however, that makes this. The original recipe calls for 5 slices of bacon (to make about 1 1/2 cups of dunk). If you're using thick-sliced, obviously reduce the amount. And I've found that I can use considerably less bacon and still get the flavor. If you hand chop the bacon, every bite will have a bit of bacon in it, so don't leave the bacon in larger pieces. And whatever you do, don't just whiz up everything in the blender or food processor and think it will work. It doesn't. You lose all the texture and it becomes a very loose liquid. Not pleasant. Trust me on this, okay? Sometimes I just make it by hand rather than mess up the blender.

In the case of this recipe, Braden's recommendation for FAST was to prepare up to 4 days in advance and refrigerate. The FLASHY preparation includes using pita chips, crackers and garnishing with minced green onions, parsley, more chopped tomatoes and bacon. For the FABULOUS method, add avocado, stuff it into raw mushrooms or cold hollowed-out potatoes. Normally I just use pita chips from Trader Joe's, or the little bite-sized toasts, although I usually do garnish the top with some minced tomatoes and a little bit of extra bacon.

As noted in the recipe, I have made this with low-fat mayo, but it just doesn't taste all that good. If you're going to splurge and have a little bit of bacon - go for the gold and use Best Foods mayo. Enjoy.

Bacon & Tomato Dunk

Recipe By :Michele Braden, Fast & Fabulous Hors D'Oeurves, 1992

Servings: 6

5 slices bacon
2 medium ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup mayonnaise -- Best Foods brand or homemade
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons green onions -- coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons parsley
1. Cook bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels and cool. Chop into very small pieces and set aside.
2. Combine in a food processor the green onions and parsley and process until it's a fine mince. Scrape out into a medium bowl.
3. Cut tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds as much as possible. Process the tomatoes in the food processor until they are minced, but not pureed. Pour out into the same bowl and add the mayonnaise and Dijon mustard. Add the bacon and stir it into the mixture, then cover, and refrigerate for up to 4 days. It's best if allowed to chill for at least 8 hours.
Serving Ideas : I have made this with low-fat mayo. I'd be lying if I said it's "just as good." It isn't, but if you crave a BLT, it will satisfy. Serve with baked pita chips, crackers, or baguette slices, toasted. You may garnish the dunk with minced onions, parsley, additional minced tomatoes or crumbled bacon.
NOTES : This dip/dunk is sinfully delicious. If you are using thick sliced bacon, use about half the number of slices. Don't overblend or it loses its appeal, and if you have any leftovers, it's delicious on leftover pasta or rice, or even as a salad dressing.
Per Serving : 172 Calories; 18g Fat (90.2% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 11mg Cholesterol; 209mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.To view a printable version, click on the title of this posting.

The story of my blog, and then Cauliflower with Bacon & Mushrooms

Since today I'm posting a recipe that came from another blogger, I thought I'd explain a bit about how I got to doing this blog in the first place. Sometime last Fall I read an article in a magazine that listed the URL addresses for about 4-5 food blogs. I'd never heard of a blog before that. I took a look at them and found I was reading their entire blogs, sometimes years in the past. I was fascinated. Mesmerized. Greedy for more. Hooked on more and more blogs. Nearly every food blog has a list of other food blogs that those bloggers read (sometimes called a "blog roll"), and I quickly began looking at all of those too. Then I heard about Google Reader and decided to give that a try. Once you have a Google account you access the Reader and as you find blogs you want to read (the blogs have an RSS feed, it's called) you simply add them to a subscription within Google Reader. Then I added the Google Reader to my Favorites so it's only two clicks away and I now have a list of all the blogs I frequent. I don't have to go to each individual blog site. New postings show up within Reader when they've been updated. They're viewable in a shortened version, usually, and if I want to see the full read, then I click on to see the actual website itself. Otherwise, I read the blog from the Reader.

As I read the stories other people wrote, I was intrigued, but kept talking myself out of being a blogger. It looked like it would take too much time. Writing stories every day??? How could I fit that into my busy schedule? And doing photos all the time? Whoa! Yes, I have a digital camera, but I don't have photos of most of my recipe collection (which now numbers over 400). Most of the bloggers use a free blog service (like this one at blogspot, another is typepad). The only limitation is whatever the provider allows in html conversion. I know nothing-zippo-nada about writing computer language (htm and html) which is actually how these stories get into the ether so you can view it. I type into a limited word processing kind of window, and I can add photos and links, make something bold or italic, but that's about all I can do. My words and photos get converted into html and somehow, magically, when I click the button called "publish" it appears on the website. One of my watercolors graces the top of the blog, and I can add elements, they are called, like my list of books I'm reading. Then I created a place on FileDen, which is a file repository web site for my recipes in pdf format. Anybody can upload files to FileDen (free), so I output the recipe from within my MasterCook recipe program (more on that on another post) and print it to a pdf file, then upload it to Fileden. The link is available, so I paste that into the blogspot cell and when you click on the recipe title, you get my pdf file from my recipe collection.

So six months have gone by since I began following the long list of bloggers I read, and suddenly one day I decided I wanted to do this too. I've always wanted to write, but never found a niche that was right for me. I don't have the creative bent to actually write fiction, but explaining cooking, or telling stories about our travels and food, etc. would be a cinch. I just hope I won't become too long winded and you folks out there get bored reading my stuff.

I'm working on perhaps having my own domain, not using one of these free blog services, but it may require more of a learning curve than I'm willing to do. I'm working on it. If I change, I'll post a message to that effect, but it won't be for awhile. I'm trying to learn Expression Web, the sequel to Front Page, to create my own complete web page. It's not easy for this old brain, but I'm trying.

Only one other thing: at the bottom of every post there is a little line that contains the date and time I posted it, but also there is a COMMENTS section. That's a place for you to add something. Any of you who would like to comment, I'd be very appreciative. Otherwise I have no clue whether my posts are even being read. I've subscribed to a free service (Feedburner) that is supposed to give me stats on my readers, but I don't believe it's working correctly. But I do know that several people have subscribed (oh, thank you!) and I hope to be worthy of your reading time.

So, now on to today's recipe. One of the early bloggers in bloggerdom, I suspect, is Kalyn's Kitchen. Kalyn Denny lives in Salt Lake City and is an avid advocate of the South Beach diet, which works for her. Her recipes are usually low on carbs, and she uses a lot of vegetables, which I like. I've been trying to incorporate more vegetables into our diet. We eat them every day anyway, but now I'm often making two vegetables and a protein with no carbs except those contained in the natural vegetables themselves. Since Dave is a Type 1 diabetic and has been for nearly 60 years (yes, really), he needs to watch carbs - at least count them carefully to calculate how much insulin to take at each meal - and it doesn't hurt me a bit to reduce carbs either.

Now don't get me wrong. I really, really like vegetables. But cauliflower wasn't up there on my yes-list at all. So, until this and one other recipe, cauliflower wasn't one of the vegetables I prepared very often. Steamed, plain cauliflower is not something I'd ever order. I eat it because I know I should, but not usually with much interest. So when I read Kalyn's recipe for the vegetable with bacon and mushrooms, I thought ah-ha. I like mushrooms. Bacon is something I like a lot too, and have found that even half of a slice of bacon can impart tons of flavor. I buy lean, thick sliced bacon without sulfates (Niman Ranch is probably the best, available at Trader Joe's and I also buy some from Whole Foods that's without additives). Normally I buy a package, use a slice or two, then roll up each remaining bacon slice and freeze them individually on a cookie sheet, then pile them into a Ziploc bag to pop back in the freezer. It takes no time at all to defrost a slice of bacon.

As I prepare this dish (I've made it innumerable times in the last 6 months) I have a very hard time keeping my fingers out of the pan. As the cauliflower begins to brown, I just have to test it often - you know - to find out if it's the correct texture of done-ness, right? This is best eaten just after making it. Although I have reheated it, it gets a bit soggy. So, try to make just enough for the one meal. I also have added garlic to this and enjoyed it too.

Cauliflower with Bacon & Mushrooms
Recipe: Kalyn's Kitchen (blog), but originally from "Vegetable Love"
Here's Kalyn's writeup: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/02/weekend-herb-blogging-20.html
Servings: 6

4 slices bacon, thick sliced, chopped (I usually use 2 slices)
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets or bite-sized pieces
8 ounces mushrooms, halved, then cut into slices
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 cup parsley, chopped (I use Italian)
Salt & pepper to taste

In a large sauté pan add the bacon and cook until quite crisp and remove to a paper towel to drain. Pour out most of the bacon grease, but do not wipe out the pan. Add the prepared cauliflower and mushrooms and cook over very high heat (important), stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. Add the pre-chopped onions and cook about 2 more minutes, or until the vegies seem nearly done and are starting to brown a bit. This is when you need to test the cauliflower for tenderness, knowing you're going to cook it for another 2-3 minutes :) Add the bacon and parsley and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes more. Taste again - he-he - for tenderness . . . Add about 1/4 cup water, then scrape the pan to get any browned bits off and cook until the water has evaporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve piping hot.

To print just the recipe, click on the title at the top.