Bakin' Bacon

We eat alot of bacon at my house. But weekday mornings frying bacon can be a challenge, so what to do? Bake an entire package and keep it in the fidget to zap quick in the microwave is what we do. Baking the bacon cooks it beautifully with no burning, required no babysitting and allows me to collect the dripping to cook with.

Here is how I do it: First take two cookie sheets (technically they are called jelly-roll pans but I am not getting into that right now) but you know what I am talking about, right? The wide pans with the short lip that most people use to bake cookies on? Alright now that we are all confused take two wire cooling racks and set one in each cookie sheet (Jelly-Roll Pan!) the lay your bacon out on each rack. Next move your oven racks to the top and bottom third of the oven and set it to 250°F. Put each sheet/rack/bacon apparatus on each oven rack.  Depending on how fatty you like your bacon it will take about  1½ to 2½ hours to roast the bacon. I go about 2 hours most of the time.  After it's done let is cool on the counter a bit then bag the bacon and toss in the fridge. If you feel inclined pour off the drippings into a canning jar and pop that in the fridge as well for future use as well.

For breakfast place 6 pieces or so on a plate and nuke 30 seconds to a minute. It doesn't take long to heat it up once its cooked. You can also chop it cold for topping a salad or for a bacon broccoli cheddar omelet (one of my favorites)

I use the bacon grease for high heat frying (cold pressed olive oil for low heat) or for dressing spinach salads. I would also like to go on record saying that since dropping grains from my diet, the bacon grease has not had any adverse effects on my cholesterol. In face when I last saw my doctor I had blood work done and the nurse said my numbers were 'Ideal' (a direct quote, that is what she said).

So go put some bacon it!

Squished Squash

We have been eating alot of squash lately. Squash seems the most appropriate substitute for grains and starchy vegetables. The main stumbling block is that it takes over an hour to roast one and being summer I am not too thrilled to turn on the oven for any reason. But I have found a solution to the weeknight squash dilemma; The Miracle Of Radiation!
  Microwaving squash reduces the cook time from over an hour to fifteen minutes. The three main squashes I cook are acorn, butternut and spaghetti. The first two cook very similarly: halve them, scrape out the seeds and nuke the halves cut side up about 12 minutes on high (times may vary with microwave wattage) Butternut I hurl forcefully down upon my cement driveway, peel, seed, cube and nuke 10 minutes. (That is the easiest way to get into one of those that doesn't require high caliber firearms or a chainsaw) Now that we can cook squash quickly, what to do with it?

Mash butternut squash with some butter, coconut milk, cinnamon and top with chopped nuts and you have: Breakfast!

Spaghetti squash topped with Bolognese (Italian Meat Sauce) or Marinara with meatballs and it's Italian Night!

Fry shreds of spaghetti squash on a pan with little butter or bacon grease, maybe add a little diced onion and bell pepper and you have Squashbrowns. (lovely with a few poached eggs)

Load halves of acorn squash with cooked bulk sausage or corned beef hash for an autumn feast. 

Spin butternut squash with coconut milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a blender for a 'Pumpkin' Pie Smoothie.

Let's Salsa!

We go through a lot of salsa in this house. On eggs or in Mexican food, it is a healthy topping adding more vegetables to the diet. I set out to make my own but it needed to be good so the 4-year-old would eat it and it needed to be easy so I could easily pick up the ingredients with the weekly shopping trip and whip up a batch when we ran out. Would you be interested if I came up with a fire roasted salsa recipe that didn't require any fire roasting or barely even a knife? All that is needed is a can opener, bowl, spoon and a quart mason jar to keep it in. Just make sire you read the ingredients of those cans to make sure nothing unpronounceable is getting in your salsa.

Easy Squeezy Fire Roasted Salsa

  Two 14.5 cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes
  Two 4 oz cans fire roasted green chilies
  One 6 oz can tomato paste
  1 tsp ground cumin
  One minced canned chipotle pepper (one pepper not one can) or more to taste
  Juice of 1 lime

Mix everything in a bowl and transfer to a quart mason jar. Allow flavors to meld overnight in the fridge before serving. Not sure how long it will keep in the fridge but I would guess it would last a long time.