The Super Bowl is in 3 days, so today and tomorrow, I’ve got a few party dips to share with you. These first two represent the two teams I’d rather see in the Super Bowl. Number one is, of course, my Arizona Cardinals. And the second would be the Green Bay Packers. I do realize that these two teams could never be in the Super Bowl together since they are both in the NFC (along with the New York Giants). But still, I’ve created a couple of dips as my show of support for next year. It was great coming up with the ideas for these recipes while looking online for fantasy football news and updates about the two final teams.

Tomorrow I’ll share the dips I created for the actual teams in Super Bowl XLVI, the New England Patriots, and the New York Giants.

Here in AZ, we love our heat and peppers. In Wisconsin, they love their cheese and beer. And we all love bacon…

[Read more →]

…small packages! Really, not much more to say other than that!

[Read more →]

If you have ever eaten at Chelsea’s Kitchen, here in Phoenix, then you have most likely enjoyed or watched someone else enjoy the out-of-this-world Brussels sprout salad.  The only thing I can’t get over is the price… $14 for a salad seems a tad pricey. Luckily this delicious salad is easy to make at home for just pennies on the restaurant dollar.

And this mustard vinaigrette… one of the best and most versatile vinaigrettes you will ever make. So although you don’t use even half of it for this salad, you are going to want to use it on salads from here on out!

[Read more →]

Cookies for breakfast?  Sure, why not?  These particular cookies are packed with healthy stuff – dried fruit, almonds, cereal… and…. bacon. OK, not healthy bacon, but yummy breakfast-time bacon. Plus they aren’t too sweet, just right.  Great to eat if you have no time in the morning. Pop them in the freezer and just grab one or two on your way out the door and you have breakfast!

[Read more →]

Remember my Maple-Bacon Cupcakes? They are SO good, that even skeptical Marissa fell for them. Well today we have another sweet item featuring bacon… toffee.  Trust me, it works. I’d heard of toffee with bacon before, but had yet to taste it. I’ve decided to give bacon peanut brittle a try. Trust me again, it’s good… I promise.

[Read more →]

This in another recipe I’m recreating from that restaurant we love in San Francisco, Gitane Restaurant and Bar. It is one their Catalan Flatbreads.

Merguez is a fresh sausage made with lamb, beef, pork, or a mixture of two or all three. It is heavily spiced with harissa, garlic, peppercorns, cumin, fennel, and more. You can buy it online from several sources or make the homemade version, provided here.

For some insane reason, I forgot to sprinkle my finished flatbread with the fresh cilantro. It could have had something to do with all the martinis I was making (and enjoying) all night! Don’t follow my lead, it is the cilantro that truly makes this flatbread exceptional. Oh, and no worries, I promise that the martini recipes using my infused vodkas will be posted on Sunday.

[Read more →]

Bacon Bonbons – prunes stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in smoked bacon, in a spiced port glaze

That is the full description on the menu at Gitane Restaurant & Bar in San Francisco – which I used to make these delicious and addicting little morsels at home. I served them on Tuesday night at the Blog Anniversary Party and they disappeared quicker than anything else on the table.

The one change I would make, is to cook them a little longer than I did for the party. Although wonderful as they were, I’d like for the bacon to be a bit crisper. I’ve increased the baking time in the recipe below as compared to what I did the other night.  Please keep that in mind when you make them. The bacon will look and be more “cooked” than reflected in my photo.

The name, Bacon Bonbons, is so cute. I can’t just steal it, so I’d like to come up with a new clever name for my version. I haven’t found it quite yet… as you will see. So, any help – from any one of you – would be graciously appreciated!  (Thank you JoAnne Halberg for coming up with a better name!)

[Read more →]

The cobb salad was created nearly 80 years ago at the famous Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant and has been an American favorite ever since. I prefer to serve it as individual salads as opposed to presenting it on a large platter. That way it looks lovely for each guest. If served on a platter, it looks great for the first guest or two, but by the end of the line, all the “goodies” on top are either gone or mashed into a nasty-looking mess.

[Read more →]

On the last day of classes each week, I ask the kids, “What was your favorite thing you ate this week, excluding desserts?” (I have to say, “excluding desserts” or all ten of the kids would rattle off one of 8 desserts we had made, trust me, I know – I was a kid once too and I’ve made the mistake before!) Six of the ten kids from last week said that the potato and bacon soup was their favorite dish.

Darn it, if I would have known that before, those six kids would have automatically been my teacher’s pets, because as you know… I Love Soup!

We made a couple of other soups too, and I’ll post those in the coming days, plus a few more of the pastas, cupcakes, and sweets – stay tuned…

[Read more →]

So much for my Meatless Monday postings over each weekend. I think that lasted all of 2 or 3 weeks. I’ll keep trying to get up at least one meatless option each week, but scheduling it on a specific day seems to be useless for me.  Of course, you could make this salad meatless just by leaving off the bacon, but the dramatic visual effect of the whole thing would be lost without the bacon jetting out of the ring.

For the julienned carrots, I used a new and really effective little tool I found at Sur La Table called the Kinpira Julienne Peeler.  It is pictured below in case you want to run out and buy one, or you can order it online HERE.

[Read more →]