culinary exploration

emphasisadded:

Yup, this is Top Chef, Rick Bayless laughing with us about avocados and such!

Chef Bayless came to new job yesterday for a cooking demo, question time & book signing.  He was totally and completely delightful as he talked to us about roof top gardens and the challenges facing boutique farmers.

It was a really neat experience watching one of my culinary heroes talk candidly while whipping up guacamole, shrimp cocktail and ceviche for us to taste.

Very cool day.  Very cool man.

And as a treat for all my readers, I share with you one of the recipes he made from his new book, Fiesta at Rick’s:

Bacon and Tomato Guacamole

• 5 strips medium-thick bacon
• 3 medium-large ripe avocados
• 1/2 medium white onion, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (WHITE onion…not yellow.  Chef was very specific about this!)
• 2 or 3 canned chipotle chiles en adobo to taste, removed from the canning sauce, stemmed slit open, seeds scraped out and finely chopped
• 1 medium-large round, ripe tomato cored and chopped into 1/4 inch piece
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (thick bottom stems cut off), plus a little extra for garnish
• Salt
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Cook and crumble bacon.  Mash the avocados in a bowl.  Rinse and strain onions, transfer to to the bowl along with the chipotle chiles, tomato, cilantro and about 2/3 of the bacon.  Gently Stir to combine all ingredients.  Season to taste and add just enough lime juice to “add a little sparkle.”

Que Bueno!

So much win in one post.  Bayless + guac + bacon = WIN! 

Make-Ahead Muffin Melts from The Pioneer Woman

Now THAT is what I call BREAKFAST!  :)  This recipe will be put to use in a month… once the pre-wedding diet ceases. 

the almighty FIVE GUYS “little bacon cheeseburger”

It’s a single patty with cheese and I get mine “all the way - minus grilled onions” which means lettuce, tomato, mustard, ketchup, mayo, pickles and grilled mushrooms.

so… much… YUM!

noraleah:

Who hasn’t stood in front of the fridge in the morning, maybe a little hungvoer, munching happily on a slice of cold pizza?

Smitten Kitten makes it official. Ladies and gents, the breakfast pizza.

a pizza with BACON and eggs on it?  i fully support that! 

mom’s breakfast plate.  she likes black raspberry jam on her english muffin.  :)

vacation breakfast: scrambled eggs with sauteed onions, red peppers and hot peppers, english muffin with butter, fresh florida orange segments (picked from a neighbor’s orange tree) and low-sodium BACON*

mom and i made ourselves breakfast one morning because she had a bunch of bacon she wanted to use up while she had company. 

*although the bacon was “low sodium” it still tasted like regular bacon.  the only difference was, we weren’t parched and chugging water for the rest of the day.  low-sodium bacon FTW!

^also related to bacon - i showed my mom how to cook bacon in the oven on the broiler pan so that 1. the bacon comes out flat, evenly cooked and crispy, and 2. the bottom part of the broiler pan catches the bacon fat to save for future use (or easy disposal - but that is blasphemy!)

baconbaconbacon:

Bacon Apple Pie

Seriously, if you like Bacon, you need to have tried this at least once.

Here’s a good recipe from elicooks.com

via theprocrastinator: foundshit.com

baconbaconbacon:

Bacon Peanut Brittle

snacky-snacky:

“Peanuts. Maple syrup. Some spices—cayenne and thyme. And bacon. All tossed together and roasted until the tacky bacon bonds with the crunchy peanuts, creating what may be the best beer nut in America, now being served at Redhead in New York’s East Village.”
- Esquire Magazine

- Jess (Thanks Dave D. for the tip)

i will be making my own version of this very soon…