These simple ingredients make for one hell of a sweet and salty dessert. Inspired by Paulie Gee's dessert the other night, I attempted to make a similar sweety at home tonight. It was the kid's movie night, so i had a little left over popcorn on hand. And we also made too much bacon (yes, its possible) for breakfast, so i had a spare slice already cooked in the fridge. I minced the bacon, and picked only the smallest popcorn bits from the bowl, salted of course. Mixed together, i had this:   I heated up some delicious argentinian caramel sauce, and then set to work:  Mixed a scant tablespoon of warmed caramel with the popcorn and bacon mixture to arise at this:  Which by the way needs to be its own dessert. Little golfball-sized bacon caramal popcorn balls. OMG. But that's for another day... tonight i was on a sundae mission. So i simply poured a little more caramel on a couple scoops of vanilla icr cream, and sprinked the bacon caramel popcorn mix on top: 

I swear there is ice cream in that bowl. And I also swear this is perhaps the best dessert ever created. Well, my wife's Bluebery pie might actually win that contest, but for a guy that's more of a cue cook, this was one damn fine after-dinner treat. I'd make it immediately if I were you. 

I love baked beans: Sweet, smokey, spicy, warm, filling, addictive, cheap... what's not to love? But until recently, my only experience with them in the kitchen has been to pop open a can and heat them up. Considering the volume of burgers, ribs, and steaks I serve up at home, I felt it was time to end my canned-only experience. So I set to trying various recipes, and I've now made a handful of batches. My latest attempt was a combo of a few recipies, and then my own spice blend... and I think we're onto something. These are a bbq style pot of baked beans. So think a traditional kansas city type thick and sweet sauce, with a little kick to it. I've used an applewood-smoked thick-cut bacon in here as well to add a smokey/savory element, but if by chance you happen to be barbecueing some brisket, pork shoulder, or ribs, tossing in a handful of burnt ends into the pot will go beautifully. Recipe is at the bottom, but here is a blow-by-blow of what I did:

I started with a pound of dried great northern beans, boiled then, and then simmered covered for about 2 hrs until nice and tender: 

I then brought out the cast iron skillet, and fried up six slices of bacon. Once fully cooked (you want these very well done) i removed and chopped the bacon roughly. I then added 1 1/2 cups chopped onion to the skillet and cooked over medium heat in the bacon drippings for about 5 minutes. I then added 2 cloves of minced garlic and stirred around for another minute before adding the sauce ingredients to the pan. A few shots of bacon and onion frying: 

Now for the sauce. I added the following bbq sauce inspired items to the same skillet: 1 cup chili sauce (I still stand by Heinz), 1 cup Ketchup (Gotta be Muir Glen), 1/2 cup molasses (Grandma's Robust!), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire, 1 Tbsp Spicy Brown Mustard (Gulden's, a nod to Fenway Park),  2 Tsp paprika (smoked is best), 2 Tsp chili powder, 1 Tsp cumin, 1 Tsp coriander,  1 Tsp kosher salt, 1 Tsp fresh ground black pepper, 1 Tsp cayenne pepper. I then cooked this down for about 5 minutes just to make sure all sugars and spices have dissolved evenly:

Then I simply poured the sauce into an oven-proof pot over the cooked beans, and tossed in two cups of water: I baked this for an hour covered in a 350 degree oven, then removed the cover and continued to cook for another 1 1/2 hours. The end result looks like this: 

These are definitely a stick-to-your-bones kind of baked bean... pretty sweet, but some great tang and a little heat from the cayenne. I've made these with about a cup of chopped barbecued brisket and they were even better. But even without additional meat, the bacon adds a ton of smokey flavor and these beans will stand up well to any spring time barbecue. Recipe follows... give it a shot! 

Ingredients: 

• 1 lb dried great northern beans
• 1 cup chili sauce (i.e., Heinz Chili Sauce, which is essentially a spiced up ketchup)
• 1 cup Ketchup 
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp worcestershire
• 1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard 
• 2 Tsp paprika
• 2 Tsp chili powder
• 1 Tsp cumin
• 1 Tsp coriander
• 1 Tsp kosher salt
• 1 Tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 Tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 cups water

Process:

• Pour the beans into a large soup pot and cover with 4 inches of water above the beans
• Bring the bot to boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low
• Simmer for 1-2 hrs, adding more water if needed, until fork tender. 
• Drain, and put the beans into a large oven-proof pot. 
• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. 
• Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minuntes. 
• Remove bacon, chop, and reserve. 
• Add the chopped onion to the heated skillet with bacon drippings, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes
• Add garlic, and stir for 1 minute
• Add the chili sauce, ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, worcestershire, mustard, and spices to the skillet, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. 
• Pour the sauce over the beans in the oven-proof pot, add the bacon, and 2 cups water and stir thoroughly.
• If using, now is the time to add a cup of barbecued burnt ends. 
• Cover the pot, and place in the 350 degree oven
• Cook for 1 hr, then remove cover and cook for another 90 minutes. 
• Enjoy!  

 

 

 

 

Sometimes a meal just gets too insane. This was an absurd meal that i thought was delicious, but should probably be illegal to make: Grilled hot dogs with a bacon mac and cheese on top. I spotted this originally on a "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" episode. It's Nick Suarez's - aka the Brooklyn Hot Dog King - recipe and apparently a competition winner. I have a hard time thinking someone could make a richer dog.... here's the low down: 

The mac is what adds the intensity, check out these pics of the process (thanks to mp for taking better pics than me!):

So you basically start with equal parts butter and flour to make a roux. Then you add in a bunch of milk, and a ton of Gruyere, a smaller amount of Parm, and a pinch of nutmeg and cayenne. Then you add a bunch of bacon chunks, and leeks (cooked in the bacon fat of course). And you finish it off with a lot of macaroni. (Original recipe at the end of the post.)

While all that is going on you grill up some hot dogs. I went with Schaller & Weber all beef dogs in the hope they would have a good beefy flavor and a "snappy" casing. They were perfect, along with some grill-toasted buns: 

I wish i was able to find some top split buns around here.... but no luck. These still worked, but you just can't pile it on like you can in a top split. Though come to think of it, maybe that's a good thing. So the layering process consists of bun, dog, mustard, mac, panko/butter flakes (for crunch), fresh parsley, EAT. Here's the production line served up at the table: And here is the final dog: 

These were pretty killer. The full recipe can be found here. We had J & T over to help consume... in my mind this is the perfect meal for them. Its mac and cheese overload, and a perfectly snappy hot dog. They left by rolling themselves down the street. While all 8 dogs were in our bellies, a good pound of mac and cheese was left over. That stuff was nuts! 

I was making a Cobb salad on Saturday, and planned to grill some chicken breasts. But I also had to make bacon, and the thought of having to clean a pan of grease was making me want to go get a slice of pizza instead. Then it occured to me that I should grill it. Awesome. I made a small tray out of foil:

And tossed it on the weber kettle for about 10 minutes over indirect heat, and then a final 5 minutes over the hot coals:

And then i had relevation number two: I dipped the fully cooked chicken breasts in the bacon fat for their last 2 minutes on the grill. Good stuff! This was all for this meal: 

And it served true... no cleanup of the bacon pan! I even used the leftover foil as the cover for the leftover chicken and bacon. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... Rebacon.

 

Lori made a bittman waffle batter last night to let it rise overnight. It had yeast in it. Unheard of! But the promise was a crispy exterior and moist interior after coming off the waffle iron so she gave it a shot. And they were delicious... Crispy and moist, a great, great waffle:

Then there was the suggestion to add strips of bacon right on top of the batter in the waffle iron. What? Again, unheard of! We had to try:

And after a couple minutes, here's what we had:

The bacon was completely fused with the waffle. Totally nuts. An entirely different thing than having bacon with your waffle. The fat and meat soak right in... It almost looks processed:

We ate them with our hands in quarters. Really satisfying. Totally weird. Would be great for a big appetite, crowd pleasing surprise. I can't imagine making these things frequently, but once in a while I'm sure we're going to crave them. If you haven't tried, you gotta go for it. Bacon Waffles!