Bacon Vegetable Soup

There's been a little illness going around the house the last few weeks - stomach bug, head cold and body aches. When I'm sick, all I want to do is eat soup....lots and lots of soup. Last night I came home to a grumpy and sick boyfriend and decided he needed a good dose of soup to lift his spirits. I looked around the refrigerator and cupboards and came up with this soup, full of rich broth, hearty vegetables and bacon. I served it with a loaf of homemade cornbread and watched as the soup was eagerly devoured by all. This is the perfect soup for saying goodbye to winter, root vegetables, and illness, and hello to spring!

Bacon Vegetable Soup
(serves 4-6)

6 slices bacon, raw
4 slices bacon, cooked
1 C onion, chopped
2 T butter
1-2 C potato, cut into 1" pieces
1 C carrots, sliced
2 C spinach, chopped
8 C stock/broth
garlic salt & pepper to taste

Cook 4 slices of bacon in the oven set at 400 degrees until crispy. Set aside. In a large pot over medium heat, cook the raw bacon for 5 minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom. Stir in onions and butter and continue cooking for about 10 - 15 minutes, until a nice sweet aroma is being released by the onions. Stir in potatoes and carrots, the broth. Bring to a boil and then drop to a simmer and cook until veggies are tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in spinach. Chop cooked bacon and stir into the soup right before serving. Season with garlic salt and pepper.

Spicy Bacon Cheddar Cornbread
(makes 2 mini loaves)

1 C cornmeal
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 C milk
1 egg
1 T bacon grease (or vegetable shortening)
1 C cheddar cheese
8 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
2 T hot sauce or chopped jalapenos (we used some chunky spicy pepper relish my boyfriend made)

Put 1/2 T of bacon grease in each mini loaf pan and put in 400 degree pre-heated oven. Meanwhile, mix cornmeal, baking soda and salt together in a bowl. Add in milk and egg and stir thoroughly. Then stir in cheese, bacon and hot sauce until well combined. Pour into hot mini loaf pans and bake for 30 minutes.

Nachos w/ Horseradish

I had a craving for nachos last night so I sent my boyfriend to the store, with a short list: chips, cheddar cheese, ketchup and horseradish. What? Ketchup and horseradish? That's right. Over a decade ago I had a roommate the introduced me to this concept, when we were broke and living in the Old Port, living off of spaghetti and Parmesan cheese, and nachos with horseradish sauce. I figured today is the appropriate day to post about this, seeing as though it's Super Bowl and people all over the country are rushing about their kitchens whipping up goodies to consume during the game. This is simple, few ingredients, and you can adjust the spice of the horseradish to your liking.

Nachos w/ Horseradish

1 bag of corn tortillas (blue corn chips are especially delicious)
1 8oz bar of Vermont Cheddar (the sharper the cheese the better), shredded
1 bottle of ketchup
1 bottle of horseradish (not the type with the mayo added)

Preheat oven to 350. Place a layer of chips down in a glass baking dish, top with half the cheese. Repeat with another layer of chips and cheese. Bake about 10 to 12 minutes. To mix up the sauce, add about 1/4 cup of ketchup in a bowl and a tablespoon of horseradish. Stir and taste, add more ketchup or horseradish, to suit your liking. Spread over the top of the nachos and enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Molasses Cookies

I was craving cookie today, which doesn't usually happen. I'm not much of a baker, as my boyfriend can attest to. Actually, he had to bake cookies for Santa this year as I burned the living crap out of the ones I tried to make....and although I assured the kids that Santa and his reindeer didn't mean black peanut butter cookies, my boyfriend could not agree. He baked wonderful cookies and I decided on the spot that from there on out he would be the baker in the house. However, tonight he is sick with a wretched cold and I really wanted cookies, so I braved the oven and came up with theses little yummies. They actually came out quite good, but I realized that perhaps it's not my poor baking skills that make for dark cookies, but my terrible cookie sheet. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Peanut Butter Molasses Cookies
(makes 16)

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C peanut butter, crunchy
1/2 C molasses
1/3 C brown sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1 C flour
3/4 C quinoa flakes
2 T carob powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl add butter, peanut butter, molasses, brown sugar and vanilla and beat for 1 minute with a hand mixer, until well combined. Make a well in the center and pour in flour, quinoa flakes, carob powder, baking soda and salt. With hand beater, mix for 2 minutes, until everything is mixed in thoroughly. Make balls of about 2 tablespoons of batter and place on ungreased baking sheet. Take a fork and press down cookies gently with a criss-cross pattern. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 1 minute on the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool until they harden just a bit. Enjoy!

Poutine Bacon Pizza

I'm from Maine, and we have a rather large county up north....so large we simply call it The County. Up in the county, on the border of Canada, mostly everyone is of French heritage. Somehow I have managed to befriend a great deal of folks that have moved from The County, down to Portland, and the one thing I see them post about constantly on Facebook, after trips home for the holidays, is Poutine. This is a traditional Quebecois dish that consists of french fries, cheese curds and gravy. It's heavenly. Sometimes, it's even served with bacon!

I have been craving Poutine since I went to The Great Lost Bear the other day for lunch and they had it on special. I didn't get it, however, and have been dreaming about it ever since. Then, as a simple twist of fate, I saw a Poutine Pizza on Reddit and I knew, this must be made. And it was everything I had hoped it would be, and more.

Pizza Dough
(makes 2 medium pizzas, or one large thick crust)

3 C flour
1 t salt
2 T sugar
2 T olive oil
2 1/4 t active dry yeast
1 C warm water

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add in water and oil and mix into a dough. Let rest while making the bacon, gravy, cheese sauce and fries.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and spread a 1/2 package of bacon over it. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until done. Set aside.

Fries
 Potatoes - as many as you need to get about 1 cup of fries

Slice into fry shape and size and put on the same baking sheet that you cooked the bacon on. Toss in the grease and bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes, until golden, but not crispy. Set aside.

Gravy
(makes 1 cup)

1 T unsalted butter
1 T flour
1/2 C broth
salt & pepper

In a saucepan melt butter, add in flour and whisk until a golden brown. Slowly add in broth while whisking over medium heat. Once it's a gravy consistency (if you need to add more water, go ahead), add a sprinkle of salt and some pepper, stir thoroughly and set aside.

Cheese Sauce
(makes 1 cup)

1 T unsalted butter
1 T flour
1/2 C cheese (any type - I used cheddar)
1/2 C milk

In a saucepan melt butter, add in flour and whisk until golden brown. Stir in the cheese until combined, then whisk in milk slowly. Only add as much as you need to make a thick sauce, you don't want it too runny. Set aside.

Put it all together as such:

Press out the dough into a pizza pan and top with cheese sauce. Cover with french fries and bacon, then drizzle with gravy. At this point, you can choose to add a bit of mozzarella over the top, but it's not necessary. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Slice and devour!

New Year's Breakfast Pizza

The morning after our New Year's Eve party we all needed a protein and bread filled breakfast. I was amazingly clear-headed after a night of drinks, 8 kids, 8 adults, fire crackers and sparklers, so I put my quick thinking to the test and came up with this deliciousness. I used my go-to no rise pizza dough, whipped up a white sauce and tossed on some left-over turkey. Voila! A New Year's breakfast feast. We served this up with some fresh fruit salad to balance it out.

Pizza Dough:
3 C flour
2 1/4 t yeast
2 T oil
1 t salt
1T sugar
1 C warm water

Preheat oven to 375. Mix all the ingredients together and pat into a pizza pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven and let cool gently while preparing the toppings.

White Sauce:
4 T butter
4 T flour
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 T milk

In a pan heat the butter until melted. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Whisk in flour until a nice golden roux forms. Slowly add in milk and bring to a boil, whisking, for a full minute. Remove from heat to let thicken. If it doesn't thicken, over medium heat add in 1 T flour and whisk. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toppings:
Cheese - I used a tangy cheese from Ireland, but a creamy goat cheese, or feta would work too.
Cherry Tomatoes
Turkey
*You could use anything for toppings - spinach, bacon, arugala, sausage, onions, etc. Experiment!

Lastly, take 8 eggs (or however many you want and will fit) and crack over the pizza. Make sure there is a nice high edge crust so the eggs don't run off the pizza. Sprinkle with a bit more cheese and any herbs you want. Bake 15 minutes for soft, runny eggs (watch carefully so as not to overcook them). Bake 20 minutes for hard eggs.

Eggs Benedict Deluxe

The team of Baked Baking came together again, this time with an added set of hands, and I think we created one of the best meals together yet. We had a house full of friends with hungry mouths and they played music while we created this delight. Overall, it was a very inspiring and delightful morning, and the flavors of this delicious meal still linger in my mouth.

I have not included amounts for the ingredients because it all depends on how many people you are making it for.

EGGS BENEDICT DELUXE

English muffins, toasted (1 per person)
Eggs (2 per person)
Prosciutto, thinly sliced (2 slices per person)
Shitake Mushrooms, sliced
Spinach (for 7 we used 4 cups of uncooked)
Asparagus, sliced into match sticks
Scallions, chopped
4 T butter
Garlic, sliced
Onion powder
Salt & Pepper
Gouda Cheese, sliced
Goat cheese

The first step is to poach the eggs, two for each person being served. Bring a large pot of water to boil, adding 1 teaspoon of white vinegar. Once it's boiling, drop it down to a rolling simmer - right before dropping an egg into the water, use a whisk and create a whirlpool. Cook each egg for 2 minutes and immediately drop in an ice bath - a large bowl filled with ice water. To reheat eggs once the rest of the brunch is complete, drop each egg into simmering water for 30 seconds.

In a frying pan or on a griddle, cook the slices of prosciutto until crispy. Set aside in a warm oven wrapped in tinfoil.

In a large skillet, melt butter and toss in Shitake mushrooms, cooking until brown. Add in asparagus, garlic, cook for 5 minutes until soft. Next add in the scallions and spinach and cook until wilted, toss with onion powder, salt and pepper. Keep on low.



HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
This is enough for about 5 Eggs Benedict's.

4 egg yolks
10 T butter
1 T fresh lemon juice
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp white pepper
Salt to taste

Beat egg yolks and lemon in a stainless steel bowl until fluffy and they are doubled in size. Meanwhile, melt butter in small sauce pan. Temper the eggs with 1/2 the melted butter, stirring constantly.
Pour eggs and butter back in sauce pan and heat on low stirring constantly. Add spices, and season accordingly. Stir until done.

To construct the eggs benedict:

Toast the English muffins. Place the prosciutto on top of each muffin piece, then a piece of Gouda on top of it. Spoon vegetables on top, then a poached egg, drop a gob of goat cheese on top of it all. Cover with Hollandaise sauce. Serve with a side salad and a mimosa.

Get Your Flax On Bread

I don't usually post recipes as basic as bread, but this one was too good to pass up. I've been baking our own bread as of late out of necessity, and it's hit or miss with the quality. I am admittedly not the best baker, but I want to be. So I try, try and try again. Finally, I have completed a loaf of bread I can be proud of. I don't have any pictures, and my crappy camera wouldn't do it justice anyway, but trust me, it was gorgeous looking. This can be adapted with other flours, but I think the combination here works perfectly.

Get Your Flax On Bread
(makes 1 loaf)

1 C warm water
2 1/4 t yeast
2 T sugar
1/2 C flax meal
2 1/2 C unbleached white flour
1 T safflower oil
1 t salt

In a bowl proof yeast by pouring water over it and stirring in sugar. Let sit at lest 10 minutes, until the entire top of it is frothy. Add flax meal, flour, salt and oil into yeast mixture and knead about 10 minutes. You can use your bread machine for this part if you like. Grease a bowl and place dough in it, covered, somewhere warm and dark to let rise. When dough has doubled, punch it down gently and place it in a well greased bread pan. Set in warm dark place to rise again, until top is about an inch or two over the pan. Place in oven and turn oven on 375 to heat. The bread will rise a bit more as the oven heats up. Cook 25 - 30 minutes, until the top is a golden brown. Dump out of pan on a cooling rack and let cool completely before you cut.