Bubble Pizza

I'd seen Bubble Pizza floating around the interwebs and it's been on my list of 'things to make' for a little while now.

I needed something to feed my pack of teens, plus Jon & me on Friday night. I also didn't want to spend a fortune on it. Then I remembered Bubble Pizza.



Bubble Pizza
2 (12 oz) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 (14 oz) jar of pizza sauce (Or your own homemade pizza sauce)
1 lb ground Italian sausage, cooked & drained
1/4 lb sliced pepperoni
1/4 lb bacon, cooked drained & diced (microwave bacon is perfect for this)
1 1/2 - 2 C shredded mozzarella/provolone cheese blend
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400F.
Grease a 13 x 9 baking dish.
Open canned biscuits and cut each uncooked biscuit into 4 pieces and put them into a large bowl. Toss with pizza sauce until well coated. Add sausage, pepperoni and bacon and mix well. Pour into greased baking dish. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake at 400F for 20 - 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Cut up the biscuits in to quarters and place in a large bowl.


Add pizza sauce


Toss until well coated


Stir in the cooked sausage, bacon and pepperoni


Ok... that's not very pretty, but pour it into the greased baking dish and bake 20 - 25 minutes.

I missed the timer and this was a little more cooked than intended. But I like my pizza cooked well anyway!


I made the Meat Lovers version


And I made one with Pepperoni & Pepperonicinis


I'll be honest with you. The dinner reviews were kinda mixed. No one disliked it. I think one or two kids did like it. But everyone mostly thought it was just ok. I was a little disappointed, because it sounded like a fun easy dinner. And it DOES feed a lot! I doubled the recipe to make two different kinds, but we had about a full pan left, between the two of them. And my crew can really roll through pizza! So this really does feed a lot. One pan will definitely satisfy 4 teens & 2 adults.

But the good news is, it's an awesome room temperature leftover! So much tastier that way!

If I knew I had a swarm of hungry teens descending on the house later, this is definitely something I'd make ahead and cut into squares for their arrival.

So there ya go. Not a fail... and it made a very nice comeback as a leftover!

Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

Yup... I said Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

This recipe showed up on my Facebook news feed from The Cooking Channel last week. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to make them! Jon wasn't quite as excited as me, but he definitely wanted to try them!



Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies
12 oz bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1/2 C reserved bacon fat, chilled
3/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
2 TBLS bourbon liquor
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 ounces dark chocolate 65-percent or higher cocoa content, chopped into small pieces

In a large pan, cook the diced bacon until the bacon pieces are golden and crisp. Remove the bacon pieces from the fat and drain on a paper towel. Strain the fat through a fine sieve and measure out a 1/2 cup bacon fat and chill the bacon fat until it congeals and is set.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl. Beat the butter, chilled bacon fat, granulated sugar, light sugar, dark brown sugar, bourbon, and vanilla, in a large mixer bowl, until it is well combined.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the cooked bacon pieces and chopped chocolate bits. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto parchment-lined baking sheets at least 3-inches apart.

Bake in the oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Keep in a dry, airtight container for up to 5 days.

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A few notes. I had drippings from 2 pounds of bacon chillin' in the fridge when I first read this recipe. So I knew I'd be making it very soon. When I cooked the 3/4 of a pound that the recipe calls for, I definitely didn't have 1/2 cup of drippings from it. It might have been close, I didn't measure, but I'm sure it would have come up short. So if you're gonna make these... have a some bacon with breakfast... then maybe make some BLTs for lunch... then fry up the bacon for the cookies... just to be sure you have enough fat. *shudder* Is sounds so gross when you call it fat instead of drippings! But FAT is definitely what it is!! If you spill some on your recipe, it becomes see-through and a little slippery! These are definitely ~not~ heart-healthy cookies. But they are definitely cool every once in a while!

The starring ingredients for these cookies, ladies & gentlemen, I give you Bacon & Chocolate!


Dice up your bacon and get it into the frying pan.


Chop up that chocolate and set it aside.


I only used 7oz of chocolate because those bars were 3.5oz each. But the cookies were definitely not lacking in chocolate flavor for the missing ounce.

Drain your bacon pieces (and try not to eat them all)


I don't keep paper towels in the house... so I used a paper bag.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream together chilled bacon fat & butter.


Beat in sugars.

I didn't have any dark brown sugar, so I just added a little bit of molasses.

Beat in vanilla and bourbon

I used Fighting Cock Bourbon


I like to buy the little airline sized bottles of booze and usually pick them by if the bottle is cool... or if I like the name.

Fighting Cock... yeah... I'm immature... but I had 2 tablespoons of bourbon when I needed it! Plus 2 extra tablespoons that Jon sipped while I baked cookies!

Beat in eggs one a time.

Ugh... that left me with one egg from an 18-pack! I hate that! Now I have that big box in my fridge with one egg in it! At least we roll through eggs in my house. So it shouldn't be in there, takin' up all that space for long!

Ok... now gradually beat in flour mixture.

When that's well combined, stir in cooked bacon pieces and chocolate bits.




Now drop by spoonful onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.


Now bake for 9 - 11 minutes or until golden brown.


Cool on wire racks.


That's it!

So when you tell people you're making Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies the reaction seems to be either "Hell yeah!!" or "WHY would you do that???".

Jon and I tried them first.

My initial reaction was that they are too chocolatey. I really don't care for chocolate. But you totally get the bacon flavor. The bacon pieces are a little chewy, so it's kind of an odd texture thing, but not off-putting. At least not to me. I think I might have liked this cookie if it had craisins (dried cranberries) instead of chocolate. I also wished a little more of the bourbon flavor was in the baked cookie. It made the batter smell amazing!!

Jon thought they were interesting. But he did eat a few of them. So I guess not bad!

Lilly was one of the "WHY would you do that???" reactions and really didn't give the cookie a fair taste and didn't like it.

Bobby didn't like it. But he doesn't like dark chocolate, so I didn't expect him too.

Tawny & Ryan thought they were weird.

I brought some to work. My co-worker Bill says he's never met a cookie he didn't like. These didn't change that! He also brought some home for his kidlets to try. He gave them to two of kids without telling them what they were, but that there was a special ingredient in them. His teen daughter knew immediately bacon was the ingredient. Both liked them. His other teen daughter tried them after being told what was in them and didn't like them. Her boyfriend didn't even want to try them.

My boss George liked them. He said you could taste the bacon. My co-worker Ed was another one of the people with the "WHY would you do that???" reaction, but did give them a fair taste and didn't like them.

Jon also brought cookies to work. His co-workers, Jamez, Carrie and Matt all liked them. His boss Lester thought they were odd, but brought one home for his wife to try. She didn't like it. Jon's co-worker Linda LOVED them and brought some home to her husband who also LOVED them!

So it's really a split. But I guess you get that with any kind of cookie right?

If you love bacon and you love chocolate you should definitely try these! If nothing else, they are are interesting conversation starter!

Three Bean Casserole aka Bean Shot

My friend Susie brought this to a potluck a long time ago and I had to have the recipe. She just called it "Three Bean Shit". Her title definitely doesn't describe it. So one day at work, she rattled off the recipe while I wrote it down. Tawny was just a toddler at the time, so I wrote the title like this...

Susie's Three Bean Sh*t

Well sometime in my kitchen, I got that paper wet and parts of it blurred, including the title.

I was making it when Tawny was probably in the 5th grade or so and she looked at the recipe. She said, "Bean Shot? That's a weird name." My asterisk had blurred to look kinda like an "o". She still calls it Bean Shot. I renamed it Three Bean Casserole for the blog because I try to get a G rating around here.

Without further adieu...



Susie's Three Bean Casserole aka Three Bean Shit aka Bean Shot
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. bacon chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1 can (15oz) pork n beans
1 can (15oz) lima beans
1 can (15oz) kidney beans
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dry mustard
2 Tbsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste.
(do not drain the juices from your cans)

Preheat oven to 350F
In a large skillet, cook ground beef, chopped bacon & onion. Drain.
Move meat mixture to a large baking dish along with all other ingredients.
Stir until well mixed.
Bake 45 minutes at 350F.
Enjoy!

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This is wicked easy and can totally be done ahead of time!

Chop your bacon and onions.


Toss it into a skillet with the ground beef, when cooked through, drain fat.


Add beans.

Add them juice and all.

Add remaining ingredients.


Mix well


Now bake at 350F for about 45 minutes. You could also just cook it in a dutch oven over a fire!



We served it up with some haluski, broccoli salad and grilled chicken!



This is wicked good! It's awesome at a BBQ or potluck... make it on gameday for tailgating or for the crowd at your house... It's beefy bacony baked beans... like baked beans on steroids!

Try this! You won't regret it!

Fried Potatoes ~ Why do you mock me?

Ok... so I can't seem to make fried potatoes to save my life.

My mom makes awesome fried potatoes.

She cubes raw potatoes. Shakes them in flour. Fries them up.

They end up being golden brown crispy cubes of deliciousness.

My friend Whitney (who you've met at my Wine Tasting Parties) also makes awesome fried potatoes.

She boils the potatoes, then slices them, then fries them up with butter or bacon fat.

Again, golden brown crispy deliciousness.

On very rare occasions, I have slight success with Whitney's version.

So tonight I wanted to make them. I was making one of my mom's standard dinners. Her friend used to joke with her that you could tell the day of the week by what my mom was cooking for dinner.

Ok... not a lot of variety growing up. But it never occurred to me to care. (although if I did complain about it and I probably did, I just don't remember... but I'm sure my mom will let me know when she reads this)

So, tonight's dinner, one of Mum's standards.

Ham Steak, Fried Potatoes and Peas.

I loved that!

And it was peas from a CAN. Yup. I love canned peas.

I never make them, because Jon says they're gross.

He said they aren't even green. But they are green. They're pea green. At least that's the color I think of when I think of pea green. Canned Peas.

Anyway!

I decided to make Ham, Fried Potatoes, Peas and Balsamic Bacon Brussel Sprouts. (I added brussel sprouts because really no one else likes canned peas)



I boiled the potatoes last night and just popped them into the fridge.

Tonight, I just had to slice them and fry them.

Boiled baby potatoes.


Cut into slices and sliced an onion too.

(Obviously working in a different part of the kitchen as you can tell by the big shadow!)

Whitney often has some bacon fat left over from breakfast that she uses to fry her potatoes. So I fried up some bacon. I figure bacon would good in there in addition to cooking them in bacon fat. Sounds good right?



Fried up some bacon and set aside.

Put the potatoes & onions into the bacon fat... just like Whitney does.


Now I want golden brown crispiness. So I try really really hard not to touch them.

They cooked for a little while.

Then I shook them.


Like my new oven mitt?


I picked that up at Sur La Table on my last trip there with Ericka (you've also met her at Wine Tasting!)

I LOVE it!!

But the potatoes... they mock me.

Look at them... starting to stick in my well seasoned cast iron skillet.


Oh well... just add bacon... that should help right?


Mmmmm.... bacon...


Not crispy... not golden brown...


Ya know why?

The golden brown crispies are here...


Yup... on the bottom of my pan.

They tasted fine... but not crispy.

mock mock mock... damn you non-crispy fried potatoes!!!

Sigh... at least the leftovers are PERFECT for breakfast burritos!!

What's the secret?!!!