Sweet and spicy… bacon?

My former roommate and I used to cook a lot together (and a lot of pretty yummy food at that). Ever since we moved out though, we haven’t been able to cook together. However, we were able to change that with some pretty awesome food. Enter: Millionaire’s bacon.

This luxury is quite simple to make and is an amazing appetizer. You start with some thick-cut bacon, rub it with a mixture of brown sugar and spices, and throw it in the oven. Adjust the spices depending on how much sweet and spice you like ;).

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Ingredients:
1 pound thick-cut bacon
3 stalks asparagus
5 tbl brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper

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Before you start, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. While the oven is warming up, mix together the brown sugar, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Then rub the bacon and asparagus with the sweet and spicy mix. Lay out the bacon and bake for about 20 minutes (the asparagus only needs to be baked for 5-10 minutes). Voila!

D-Pain OUT

Too fast, too frozen: potato slicing.

Ever since I injured my knee (temporarily named Dragon 2 – thanks to Chef Bleucheese) and have been hobbling on crutches (go ahead and say “hobble” aloud), cooking has been difficult. I’ve been pretty fed up with eating fast food and frozen food. Instead of going to Wendy’s to get more chicken and fries again, I made something simple with a potato. As you may have seen recently on Facebook/internet, sliced baked potatoes are super simple but delicious.

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Ingredients

1 potato
Slices of cheddar cheese
Diced onion
(Turkey) bacon
Basil + whatever seasonings you’d like to add

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Just slice a potato however you’d like and toss it in the oven at 425°F for about 30 minutes.

While the potato is baking, dice and sautee the onions. Cook the bacon and then chop it into small pieces to top the potato. Take the potato out and separate each slice of potato slightly. Carefully add basil and the onion/bacon mixture in between the slices. Top the potato with the cheese and add more onion/bacon (nom).

Return the potato to the oven and wait for the cheese to melt. After a few minutes, you can enjoy this lil ditty.

Not the prettiest but it’s a nice reprieve from frozen pizzas and microwaveable dinners…

Sidenote: I do NOT encourage cooking with crutches. I’ll be taking a brief break from this blog while learning how to train my Dragon 2 hah 😉 (credit to bleucheese!)

Chef D-Pain

Po-po-po-tae-toe souppppppppppp

I normally use some of the required ingredient or take lots of pictures, but this time, I made it in a hurry.  I just got back from not one, not two, but THREE intense games of volleyball.  I went from hardly-being-able-to-hit-the-ball-and-losing to hardly-being-able-to-hit-the-ball-but-still-winning!  Looks like hard works pays off! 🙂  Or meeting friends who know how to play, hahaha.  But I digress…I had work the next day and I just wanted to get this out of the way for lunch at work tomorrow.

Bowl of Awesomeness

Ingredients:

• 3.5 cups of potatoes
• 1/3 cup of diced onions
• 3 delicious pieces of bacon
• 1/2 cup of mushrooms
• 2 tbsp of chicken bouillon
• 5 tbsp of button (paula dean style)
• 5 tbsp of all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of milk
• 3.25 cups of water
• salt and pepper to taste

To start, I put the water and chicken bouillon on the stove and set to med temp for low boil.  I proceed to dice the potatoes and put them in the pot to let them soften up.

As I fried the bacon, I diced the onion and mushrooms. When the bacon is done, remove the bacon onto a sheet of paper towel and use the leftover grease to sauté the onion and mushroom.  You may want to add celery for some extra crunch (I wish I did!).  Cook until onions are clear and proceed to pour into pot, along with the ba-con.

Now you wanna create a roux (new word I learned from my roommate as I made it! hehehe).  To do so, melt your 5 tbsp of butter on your stovetop in a nonstick pan, (which by the way is a LOT of butter…).  After melting it, slowly add in the flour, stirring it till you get a nice…mash potato like substance.  Then proceed to add milk in slowly, yet again, creating a milky mash potato like substance.  I wish I took a picture because it looked pretty awesome.  Anywho, pour this into your pot and mix away!  You can add salt and pepper  to taste and just cook until you the potatoes are at the softness level you like!

Ta-da!  Potatoe Soup!  Nomnomnom.

❤ Chef “jKilla”