A Gilt Nutmeg

I have to admit that, when cooking, I’m not very adventurous when it comes to flavor combinations.  I think that’s why I was so proud of my alterations to this recipe: there are so many flavors that, despite being such a simple food to grab off a platter, the taste ends up being quite complex.  Balsamic vinegar and strawberries are actually quite an old combination, but one I still find awfully strange.  Basil and strawberries is an even less common combination and one that is shockingly perfect–you’ll have to taste it to believe it.  Add in some lemon goat cheese, a good baguette and a crack of fresh pepper over the top and you’re going to have such a crazy and delicious moment going on in your mouth that you’re just not going to know what to do with yourself!  You’d never think those flavors would go well together but you’ll find you and your guests reaching for these bruschetta over and over again.

Strawberry Basil Bruschetta with Lemon Goat Cheese
Adapted from Annie’s Eats
Makes 2-3 dozen pieces

• 1 good quality baguette
• 1 lb of strawberries, sliced
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 package (4 oz) of lemon goat cheese (or 1 package plain goat cheese combined with zest from half a lemon)
• balsamic vinegar
• handful of whole fresh basil leaves
• fresh ground black pepper

1. Up to a few days before or at least a half hour before you need them, slice the strawberries, add them to a large bowl and mix the sugar in until thoroughly combined.  Set in the fridge until ready to use.
2. The day you plan to eat the bruschetta, slice the baguette into slices, cutting at an angle.  Toast the baguette slices under your oven’s broiler until golden brown on each side.  Set aside and allow to cool.
3. When cool, spread a thin layer of lemon goat cheese on each baguette slice, top with a spoonful of strawberries.
4. Drizzle a small spoonful of balsamic vinegar over each slice with strawberries on it.
5. To cut the basil, lay the leaves flat on top of each other, fold the pile in half and with a sharp knife or with kitchen scissors (I prefer the scissors), cut the basil in to thin strips.  Sprinkle the basil strips over the strawberries.
6. Crack fresh pepper over the top of each bruschetta and enjoy!

On Saturday I had the honor of making the food for the bridal shower of my dear friend’s sister.  I learned a very important lesson this weekend: catering is EXHAUSTING.  I also learned that you should NOT leave something as finicky as Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting to the very last minute because you will be literally running on foot to the closest mini-mart for butter to start a backup American style Buttercream that will have you leaving 2 hours later for San Diego than planned.

Since the party was for 2pm on a gorgeous spring day, I had planned out a menu that would be very light and all non-fork foods for the guests to snack on.  Would you believe that out of all of the different items, the hit of the party were the cucumbers?  Also, a green and red theme inadvertently emerged and yet the table somehow didn’t look like Christmas, which is a miracle–instead all the green just reminded you that Spring was getting underway.  I’ll be posting the recipes throughout the week; any one of them would be a great appetizer to a Spring dinner.

While tiring, the experience was very rewarding and I’m so proud and happy to have been able to do this for my friend’s family.  I wish nothing but the best for Amanda and Christian!

Menu

• Herbed Cucumber Bites
• Strawberry Basil Bruschetta with Lemon Goat Cheese
• Shaved Asparagus, Prosciutto & Parmesan Tea Sandwiches
• Margarita Cupcakes (it was Cinco de Mayo, after all)
• Watermelon Gin Fizz

Since I don’t have a great photo of the drink, I’ll post the recipe here and save the other recipes for their own posts.  It is going to be perfect for a hot summer’s day with friends and I can’t wait to drink it all season long.

Watermelon Gin Fizz
Adapted from Eating Well

• 1 medium sized watermelon (the melons a little bigger than a soccer ball)
• 2 bottles (2 liter size) of ginger ale
• about 1/2 a  bottle of gin (you can, of course, adjust this to taste)
• Juice of 3 limes
• extra limes to cut for garnish, if you wish

1. Cut the watermelon into large chunks.  If you wish (and I highly suggest it) set aside about 1/3 of the melon and neatly cut those slices into 1″ cubes.  Put the cubes in a bag and put them in the freezer to act as edible ice cubes later.
2. Puree the remaining watermelon in a blender or food processor (although the processor isn’t liquid proof so it may make a bit of a mess) and strain the watermelon puree in a sieve; discard the fibers and seeds left behind in the sieve.  You should end up with about 12 cups of juice.  This step can be done a few days ahead of time; refrigerate until needed.
3. When ready to serve, combine the watermelon juice, ginger ale, gin, and lime juice.  Stir, add the watermelon “ice cubes”, and enjoy!

Another great hostess tip: In addition to the watermelon ice cubes, fill a cupcake pan with one round slice of lime (or lemon) in each of the 12 cupcake wells, then fill each well about half way with boiling water (boiling the water means the ice will freeze clear instead of looking white).  Put the tray in the freezer and voila!  Some of the cutest decorative ice cubes ever for your punch.  If you have trouble getting them out of the cupcake pan, run some warm water over the pan to loosen them.

Popcorn is, without a doubt, one of my favorite treats in all the world.  When we get within 100 feet of a movie theater, The Boyfriend has to take me by the arm and drag me in the opposite direction just so we can carry on with whatever it was we were doing before I smelled the popcorn.  If movie theater popcorn is my first love, then caramel popcorn is my secret mistress (clearly I just finished watching MadMen).  I usually go for the salty, buttery crunchy deliciousness of normal popcorn, but when I get that off craving for something sweet, caramel corn is one of the first things I turn to.

This recipe is special, though, because it’s not your typical coated-in-corn-syrup-just-so-you-get-a-sugar-fix caramel popcorn, but instead something much more sophisticated.  The flavors here are complex–honey, vanilla, and just enough burnt sugar to remind you there’s still caramel here.  In a word: phenomenal.  Making popcorn at home is much simpler than most people realize, so I encourage you to give it a shot; turning it into this deliciously coated popcorn is just a few extra steps.  I promise, you’ll think it’s worth it when you’re munching away and are surprised to find it all gone in minutes.

Vanilla Honey Caramel Popcorn
Adapted from Eat the Love’s amazing Wordless Recipe

• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 1/3 cup popcorn kernels
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (extract will do, as well, but it’s fun to see the beans on the popcorn!)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tablespoons butter

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a large pot, add the oil and 3-4 popcorn kernels.  Once those kernels pop, you know the oil is hot enough; dump the 1/3 cup of kernels into the pot and put the lid on the pot.
3. Immediately pull the pot off the heat, count to 30 seconds, shaking the kernels around in the pot every once in a while, then return the pot to the heat.  The popcorn will begin to pop very shortly–make sure the lid is tilted ever so slightly so that steam can escape but not so much that popcorn flies out!
4. Once most of the kernels are done popping, turn off the heat and dump the popped popcorn into a large mixing bowl.  Sprinkle with the salt, and set aside.
5. In a medium saucepan, add the honey, vanilla, cream, and butter.  Using a candy thermometer, heat the mixture to 245-250 degrees (the Firm Ball stage if you’re a candy maker).  While it’s heating, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. Once it’s reached the right temperature, pour the mixture over the popcorn and toss until the popcorn is evenly coated.
7. Spread the popcorn over the parchment covered baking sheet in an even layer and put it in the oven for 15 minutes.
8. Take the popcorn out and let the baking sheet cool on a wire cooling rack.  You won’t be able to resist taking a nibble as soon as its out of the oven, and I can warn you now that it will be soft and not appealing at all.  As it cools it will harden into the crunchy deliciousness you expect.
9. Once it cools, break the popcorn up, if it cooled into clumps, and serve.  Enjoy!

Note: I made this recipe two days ahead of time for a weekend get-away treat and, just my luck, we had a rainstorm and the humidity went through the roof.  I watched sadly as my popcorn got progressively soggier and soggier.  Luckily, all it took was a pop back in the oven for 15 minutes at 300 degrees and it crisped right back up again!

I’m a pretty picky eater.  And because of that, when I buy certain ingredients for recipes, I buy them in the smallest amount, knowing sadly that some of it will go to waste.  I try to encourage The Roommate and The Boyfriend to eat up, but to no avail.  So here I was with a partial container of sour cream, a partial carton of buttermilk, a partial package of chives, and a partial container of blue cheese crumbles in the fridge.  I also bought beautiful asparagus yesterday, spur of the moment, because whereas a pound is normally around $5, it was on sale for 99 cents!  (I had to explain to my East Coaster friends that it wasn’t discounted because it was gross, but that So Cal is having a lovely warm mild winter so asparagus is growing early like crazy and they’re trying to sell it as fast as they can.)

So here I am browsing Pinterest and I see a pin for crispy asparagus with dipping sauces.  Curious, I scan the recipe and I start thinking, “…buttermilk, I have that!…sour cream, I have that!…blue cheese, I have that!” and so all of that, paired with the fact that this beautiful asparagus needed to be eaten, I knew exactly what I was making when I got home.

and now I can say, this is a phenomenal recipe!  I have never had so much fun eating asparagus.  Roommate, Boyfriend, and I couldn’t stop eating them and I honestly can’t believe that ingredients I normally don’t like (mayo, sour cream, etc…notice a white gloppy pattern?) all come together to make such a delicious sauce.  Bonus: the asparagus is baked so it’s super healthy–and let’s just leave it at that and not think about whether the dipping sauce is healthy or not, shall we?

Baked Crispy Asparagus with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce
Adapted from SpoonForkBacon
Makes 1 lb of asparagus and almost 1 cup of dipping sauce

Asparagus

• 1 lb of thin asparagus spears, tough ends removed
• 1 cup almonds
• 2 cups panko bread crumbs
• 2/3 cup flour
• 4 eggs
• cooking spray

Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup light sour cream
• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chives, chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, process the almonds and panko bread crumbs until finely ground and combined (I used whole almonds because they were on sale, so I processed them up first for a few seconds before adding the panko crumbs.  If you buy pre-sliced almonds, just throw the panko and almonds all in at once).
3. In three separate dishes, put the flour in one dish, put half the almond-panko mixture into another and 2 of the eggs, beat with a fork, into the third.  I started with just half the almond-panko mixture and half of the eggs in the pans because the panko gets a little clumpy when the egg drips in it and then the egg gets a little clumpy when the panko falls in it.  Basically, you need a half-time to rinse the pans out and start fresh.
4. Roll the asparagus in the flour, dip it into the egg, then dip it into the almond-panko mixture and lay it in rows on the cookie sheet.
5. Once all the asparagus is rolled, dipped and dipped again, lightly spray the asparagus on the cookie sheet with cooking spray and then put it in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
6. While the asparagus is baking, put all the ingredients for the dipping sauce into a small bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.
7. Serve the asparagus hot and dipping sauce cold and enjoy!

I will begin this blog post with a sincere apology to anyone I may be offending with the name that stuck to this recipe.  Namely, my Aunt Christy and Uncle John, who so lovingly shared this recipe with me years ago (actually, it was less ‘loving’ and more like “YOU’VE NEVER HAD QUESO!??!?!”) and who are certainly not trailer trash, as far as I know.

But really, this has Velveeta in it and that’s why it has become named as such– when my friends ask for my queso recipe, I have to ask in return “do you want the white queso or the trailer trash queso?”, because that was the only way I could figure to distinguish the two recipes clearly.  I have to admit: no one ever wants the white queso recipe.  This queso recipe is probably my most famous recipe of all time amongst my friends; if a friend mentions they’ve never had queso, the other friends give each other knowing looks and say “your life is about to be changed”.  I tried to get Ace to make white queso this year for the Super Bowl and her response was “…but this one has SAUSAGE“, as if I had just suggested she serve celery sticks and carrots instead.

Although I may be a traitor to the foodie blog world by sharing a recipe that has fake cheese in it and is made in the microwave, make this for your Super Bowl Party for a sure-fire hit, whether it’s a party of 20 or a party of 1 (but just know that if it’s for a party of 1, you’ll still finish the bowl because you won’t be able to stop).

Trailer Trash Queso

Makes a large bowl that will feed a good sized crowd, or a group of 4 gluttonous college girls watching Project Runway

Note: the queso will unappetizingly harden as it cools, so be ready to serve it immediately after you make it.  If you’re taking it to a friend’s house for a party, I fry the sausage at home and bring it in a tupperware so that I can easily assemble the rest of the recipe at the other location.

• 1 tube of hot sausage
• 2 lbs Velveeta (the large box), roughly cubed or if you’re lucky enough to find “Velveeta Mexican”, substitute that instead! (it comes only in the 1 lb boxes so you’ll need 2)
• 1 package (8 oz) of cream cheese, roughly cubed
• 1 can of Rotel or other brand of diced tomatoes and green chiles
• tortilla chips

1. Fry up the sausage, trying to chop it up into pieces as small as possible.  Once cooked through, transfer the sausage on to a thick stack of paper towels on a plate to drain (clearly the last thing you need is additional fat in this recipe).
2. Add the Velveeta cubes, cream cheese cubes, Rotel, and sausage into a large microwave safe bowl (I try not to leave the cream cheese on top because it tends to pop).
3. Microwave for 4 minutes, stir vigorously (yes, it will look DISGUSTING at this point), microwave for 4 more minutes and stir vigorously again.
4. Serve with tortilla chips and be prepared to be grossed out at a) what you are putting into your body and b) how much of it you will willingly eat and crave again later.

With Super Bowl Sunday coming up, I thought you might want a really really good chili recipe for your party this Sunday…or for a cold winters night…or for basically any time you just want something delicious.  I know there are raging and almost violent debates out there about what makes an authentic chili–beans vs. no beans, ground beef vs. chopped beef, are tomatoes or tomato paste allowed, and so on and so forth; I also know that this chili breaks almost every one of those so-called “chili rules” and that I don’t care.  There is nothing more satisfying than a bowl of this chili–especially  because after simmering it for 3 hours, you’re STARVING unless you started way ahead of time (and when have you ever known me to do that?)

The recipe comes from Jack Westbrook from Texas.  I’m not sure where the name came from, but the recipe was given to my dad from a friend, Ed Jednacz, and as my family moved across the country from Oklahoma to Missouri to Pennsylvania to Georgia and now me in California and my sister in Washington DC, the chili recipe has maintained its revered status and traveled with us, which is certainly a testament to great chili.

My only rule with this chili: we don’t eat it with spoons.  Tortilla chips are all that you need to get this chili from bowl to mouth–and be sure to put lots of extra cheese on top.

Racer’s Macho Chili
Serves 6-10 approximately
Adapted to family tastes from Jack Westbrook’s original recipe

• 2 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 can (15 oz or as close as you can get) of diced tomatoes
• 1 can (6 oz) of tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons of chili powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon of cumin

• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons flour

• 2 cans pinto beans, drained
• 1/2 lb Colby Jack longhorn cheese, grated, plus plenty of extra for sprinkling on top

1. In a large pot, brown the beef and fry the onions until clear.
2. If you’re using a crockpot, transfer the beef and onions to the pot and add the rest of the ingredients except for the water, flour, beans and cheese (I added helpful breaks in the ingredient list so you don’t accidentally just throw everything in).  If you don’t have a crockpot, just add the ingredients to the pot you were browning the beef in.
3. Bring contents of pot to a simmer, then add the flour and water.  With the pot lid ON, simmer on very low heat for at least one hour. (If you don’t keep the pot lid on, all the liquid boils away and you’ll be very sad.  I know, I’ve done this.)
4. Add the beans, then continue simmering on low heat (with the lid on) for another two hours at least.
5. Add the grated cheese to the pot and stir into the chili 1-2 hours before serving.
6. Serve with tortilla chips and extra grated cheese thrown on top.  Enjoy!!

This pizza has been haunting me for months and months–it combines so many of my favorite things, how am I supposed to resist it??  This is definitely a meal idea you want to keep on hand because it’s fast, delicious, and uses ingredients that you’ll likely already have (and if not, it’s just a quick run to Trader Joe’s).  I’m not sure which part I like best–the rosemary (my favorite herb), the mozzarella (which is light and not too much), the creamy potatoes or the crispy chewy crust.

This was also the first time I tried a secret trick to get a crispy pizza crust without a pizza stone…and wouldn’t ya know, it worked!  By putting the baking sheet into the oven ahead of time, while the oven is heating up, it helps the bottom of the crust crisp up while the top bakes normally–it was perfect!  I admit I didn’t make the crust dough myself, but I think sometimes it’s more important to get healthy, stress-free food into you than making EVERYthing handmade and, besides, Trader Joe’s refrigerated pizza dough is delicious!

Rosemary Potato Pizza
Adapted from Stone Soup via Elephantine

• refrigerated pre-made pizza crust (Trader Joe’s suggested – you’ll find it near the pre-made salads, it should make about 3 decent sized pizzas or 4 slightly smaller pizzas)
• 1 small-medium red potato per pizza
• 1 sprig rosemary per pizza
• 1-2 small balls of fresh mozzarella (the kind floating in water)
• olive oil for drizzling
• salt for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 450 and place a lightly oiled baking sheet in oven as it warms
2. Divide the dough into the number of pizzas you want and gently stretch dough into thin rounds, leave on counter workspace while you prepare the other ingredients
3. Slice the potatoes extremely thinly (this is another job the mandolin slicer came in very handy for) and slice the mozzarella balls as thinly as they can go, likely 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick.
4. Once the oven is preheated, using oven mitts, take the hot baking sheet out of the oven and place on a safe surface.  Transfer the dough rounds to the hot baking sheet (you may have to bake in batches) and brush olive oil over the raw dough.  Arrange the potato slices in a single layer, slightly overlapping, sprinkle rosemary leaves over the pizza, arrange the mozzarella bits and drizzle with a second round of olive oil.
5. Put sheet with pizzas back into oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese and crust are just starting to brown.
6. Sprinkle with salt to taste.  Enjoy hot out of the oven!

Fall in Southern California is a little hard to find sometimes, but I certainly found it while camping in Sequoia National Park this weekend!  It was just coolenough that I needed to wear a jacket while hiking and there were hints of snow on the mountain tops.  The trees there are mostly conifers, which meant we didn’t get beautiful orange and red Fall foliage, but it did smell just like Christmas was around the corner and that was good enough for me!

While preparing for the camping trip, I was considering different snacks to bring for the hike: homemade granola?  just hope that fruit stayed intact in our backpacks?  and then I came across homemade fruit leather on Pinterest and I was sold (especially because the Boyfriend was out of town and he LOVES fruit leather and I knew he’d love the surprise).

This recipe can be made to accommodate almost any fruit you can think of.  I was headed for strawberries but went with raspberries because they were on sale at the grocery store and my brain has already started thinking up crazy cool combinations (cinnamon-peach-blueberry would be fantastic!)  I must admit, I thought these were the sweetest raspberries I’d ever tasted and thus decided to forego the sugar…which turned out to be a poor decision because it meant that these leathers were EXTREMELY tart (I think I may have used extra lemon juice on accident as well…).  That said, plenty of people loved them, so it really will have to be up to your own judgement how sweet you want to make these–just taste the puree before drying and know that sweetness is concentrated once the leather is dry.  These are super simple to make and, while it SEEMS like they would be time consuming, it’s really hands-off for the most part, so I’m sticking by my “these are super easy” statement.

I can say for sure that these certainly didn’t take as long to dry as other people suggested, which surprised me a little, but I think if you just keep a close eye on it, you’ll be fine.  I just stacked the strips in a plastic baggie and threw them in my backpack and they didn’t stick together at all–no powder coating needed AND no sticky fingers after eating, so I was pretty delighted with how they turned out. 

Happy Hiking!  (or Happy School Lunches…or Happy Quick Snack Break at the Office…)

Homemade Cinnamon-Vanilla Raspberry Fruit Leather
Adapted from Tasty Kitchen
yields one 12″ x 16″ pan

• 2 cups raspberries (or other chopped fruit)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 0 – 1/4 cup sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (adjust according to taste)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (adjust according to taste)
• vegetable oil

1. Heat oven to lowest temperature setting possible.  My lowest setting is 180 degrees, so I just set the dial to about a 1/4″ short of the lowest temperature and hoped it would work (it did).
2. Add fruit, water, and lemon juice to saucepan and stew for 10-15 minutes until softened.
3. Add cinnamon and vanilla extract and let simmer for 5 more minutes.
4. Using a stick blender or a food processor, blend fruit until smooth and let cool for a few minutes while you prepare the pan.
5. Using a 12″x16″ rimmed baking sheet, line it with parchment paper (I used Martha Wrap, which I thought was perfect for the job) and brush prepared pan with a layer of vegetable oil.
6. Pour the fruit puree through a sieve (it is definitely necessary for raspberries–those little seeds are tough!) over the prepared pan and spread it evenly over the pan with an offset spatula.  It’s like frosting a cake, only easier–the only goal is to make sure that you have a very thin, very even layer of fruit puree.  A bit of liquid separated out of the puree when I sieved it into the pan, but I was able to gently incorporated it back in with my offset spatula before spreading the layer even again.
7. Carefully put the pan in the oven and walk away–it’s going to be in there for a number of hours.  Know that if you’re impatient and you poke it to see how it’s coming along, you’re likely to poke a hole in the leather, so I tested it by tilting up a corner of the parchment paper and seeing if the puree ran off the paper towards the center.
8. I think my leather was in the oven for about 4-5 hours, but don’t quote me on that–all ovens are different and you really just need to keep an eye on things.  Many people who made fruit leather said they actually left the leather in their ovens on low all night, so I’m not sure why my oven was so fast.  About half way through the process I pulled out the leather and found it was getting a bit crispy and brittle on the edges.  Generously brush the leather with water and stick it back in the oven–this trick honestly works like a charm.  There was not a brittle edge to be found when I took the leather out for a second time, just chewy goodness!
9. As I was about to go to bed, I decided the leather was done on top and that the underside was just a little sticky, but that all it needed was air-drying.  I carefully flipped the whole sheet of fruit leather over upside down and put it back in the pan, turned off the oven and put the leather back in to rest and dry in the oven so that it wasn’t taking up counter space.
10. When you wake up in the morning, voila!  Homemade fruit roll-ups that you won’t cringe at when you put it in a lunchbox.  I used a pizza cutter to cut mine into strips with no problems.  Enjoy!

I absolutely love recipes like this: easy to make, easy to clean up, perfect to whip up for a group of friends and DELICIOUS.  I already have a spiced nut recipe that I swear by, but this recipe is a game changer.  I will definitely be turning to this one when I want something a little sweeter.  I added extra pecans to the recipe since I find it hard to believe you can have too many pecans but left the amount of glaze the same and I think it turned out fantastic.

These will be great to throw together before any Fall parties you may have coming up!  And, if you’re like me and planning your Thanksgiving menu already, these would be wonderful to make a few days ahead and have sitting on the coffee table for your guests to munch on while waiting for the big event.

Maple Vanilla Nut Clusters
Slightly adapted from Pinch of Yum

• 1 cup whole raw almonds
• 3/4 cup chopped raw pecans
• 1 tablespoon salted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tbs water
• 1/4 sugar

I really don’t know if much can be said about these brownies.  Bacon + Bourbon + Brownies = Mad Deliciousness.  They speak for themselves!

While I love a good BLT just as much as the next person, I have to admit that I’m not fully on the bacon train that has chugged through the foodie world (and, thankfully, seems to be on its way out), but this just seemed like a no brainer.  The brownies are soft and fudgy, the nuts are soaked in bourbon, and the bacon is a great crunchy contrast to the brownie texture.

I’ll be spending my weekend at the Hicksville Trailer Park Palace (really) for my good friend’s birthday and I think these fit the bill exactly for properly themed food.  That said, these will be great for any sort of ‘manly’ event, too–bourbon and bacon makes any fancy dessert more Y-chromosome friendly!

Bourbon Bacon Brownies
adapted from Baking Illustrated and SlashFood
Makes one 8″ x 8″ pan, approx 16 brownies

• 1/2 a package of bacon
• bourbon, at least a 1/4 cup
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 5 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into quarters
• 3 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1¼ cups sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Place an oven rack in lower-middle position and preheat the oven to 400° F.  Line an 8-inch square baking dish with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray; set aside, line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
2. Set pecans in a small bowl and cover with bourbon, about 1/4 cup, set aside to soak.
3. Arrange the bacon on the tin-foiled covered rimmed baking sheet and pop into the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.  When you take it out of the oven, transfer it to a plate lined with 3 or 4 layers of paper towels and blot dry.  The bacon will turn crispy as it cools.  Stack the bacon and slice into 1/4″ wide slices.
   
4. In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally until smooth.  Whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth.  Set aside to cool.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt; whisk until combined, about 15 seconds.  Whisk in the warm chocolate mixture until incorporated.
6. Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing in gently.
7. Spoon the nuts out of the bourbon and fold nuts into batter (save bourbon for later).
   
8. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread with a spatula to make an even layer; sprinkle bacon slices evenly all over the top of the brownie batter.
   
9. Bake until slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, 35-40 minutes.
10. Pour reserved bourbon evenly over the top of the hot brownies.  It will soak into the brownies and spread deliciousness all over.
11. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.  DIG IN!