Pasta with Bacon and Mushrooms

Need a good recipe? Head over to The Pioneer Woman's blog. Every single recipe I've tried from Ree's blog or her cookbook has been wonderful. I'm not one to buy cookbooks anymore. I have more recipes bookmarked on my computer than I could ever make in my lifetime. But when I saw that The Pioneer Woman had a cookbook, I ran right out to Books-a-Million and picked it up. For full price. (If you know me, that's a big deal. I never pay full price for anything!) It was sooo worth it. Beautiful pictures. Step-by-step instructions. Delicious food. What more do you want?

This recipe for Pasta with Bacon and Mushrooms was easy to throw together. In fact, it uses ingredients I keep on hand all the time. I didn't have a chance to stop at the store to pick up ingredients for my planned meal so I fixed this instead. Pasta in a creamy sauce with mushrooms (I used Baby Bellas) and bacon. Bacon makes everything taste better! Even the picky girls liked it. This is definitely my new go-to recipes.

I found this recipe through Joy in Cooking. Lisa tweaked the recipe a bit by adding some chicken cubes and spinach. (Love that idea!) I was feeding the picky girls so I didn't add the spinach (but I definitely will next time. Just didn't want tit to look to scary the first time. LOL!) I did add the chicken and it added a little heft to the meal. The girls got a little extra protein and dh was satisfied as well. Win-win.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Bacon
Recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 slices Thin Bacon, Cut Into 1/2-inch Pieces
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 package (10 Ounce) White Button Mushrooms, Sliced Thin
1 cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth (OR Dry White Wine)
1 cup Half-and-half
¼ cups Heavy Whipping Cream
3 whole Green Onions, White And Light Green Parts Sliced
¼ cups Flat-leaf Parsley, Minced
½ cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
Salt To Taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
1 pound Thin Spaghetti Or Angel Hair Pasta
Extra Parmesan, For Sprinkling

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add bacon pieces and cook until light brown but not crisp. Remove bacon from pan and set aside. Do not clean pan.
Add mushrooms and garlic to pan. Toss/stir around and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes; increase heat to high if needed to help mushrooms begin to turn golden brown.
Pour in chicken broth. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits. Cook over medium-high heat for several minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half.
Reduce heat and pour in half and half and cream. Stir and allow to bubble and thicken for a couple of minutes. Add sliced green onions and parsley, then cook for one more minute. Finally, add Parmesan and stir, allowing cheese to melt and incorporate into the sauce. Turn off heat.
Add cooked pasta to a large bowl. Add half the sauce from the pan. Toss with tongs. ***Add 1/2 cup hot pasta water at this point if the pasta mixture is too thick and gunky. Toss and add more water until it reaches the consistency you need.***
Serve pasta in individual bowls, topping each helping with the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with extra parsley and extra Parmesan.
Enjoy!

Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza

We were supposed to go to a party but I got sidelined with another headache. What do you fix when you weren't planning to fix anything and you have a house full of hungry people? Why pizza, of course! Since we love pizza, I usually keep pizza dough in the freezer and you can usually find a tube or two in the fridge. Lately I've been trying to keep a prepared pizza crust in the pantry for times when I need to get dinner on the table super fast. Tonight it definitely came in handy.

For this Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza, I looked in the fridge to see what we had and this was what I ended up with. Simple, with just a couple of ingredients but by caramelizing the onions you get a surprising depth of flavor: sweet onion-y deliciousness, smoky bacon, creamy cheese and a little added zing from the red pepper flakes.

Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza 

1 prepared pizza crust (We prefer Boboli)

Cream cheese, softened

1 T olive oil

1 onion, sliced

4 slices of bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled

Shredded Mozzarella

Red pepper flakes, to your taste

Heat oil in a skillet. Add onion slices. Caramelize the onions, stirring occasionally. The longer the onions caramelize, the better they taste! Spread softened cream cheese in a thin layer on pizza crust. Top pizza with the caramelized onions. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella and top with crumbled bacon and pepper flakes. Place in a preheated 400 degree oven and bake until heated through and cheese is melted. Serve warm.

Chicken with Cider and Bacon Sauce

In a hurry to get dinner on the table the other night, I pulled out a recipe I'd bookmarked earlier: Chicken with Cider and Bacon Sauce. It was definitely was a hit. Of course it was. It's simple, quick to prepare and has a sauce made with bacon. How much better could it get? The sauce has a salty-sweet flavor that compliments the chicken and was quite tasty with the rice. This one will definitely show up on the menu rotation around here again soon!


Chicken with Cider and Bacon Sauce

Recipe from Cooking Light Magazine, January 2005


4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 bacon slices, chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh onion
3/4 cup unsweetened apple cider
1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper.

Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan. Add chicken to drippings in pan; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.

Add onion to pan; cook 2 minutes or until tender, stirring constantly. Add cider and broth; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook until broth mixture is reduced to 1/2 cup (about 5 minutes). Stir in cooked bacon; serve sauce over chicken.

Italian Breakfast Panini

I didn't do much cooking over the weekend but I did find a great way to take a simple BLT to the next level. I was browsing through some of my favorite blogs when I came across a recipe for an Italian Breakfast Panini over at Inn Cuisine. One look and I was hooked! It sounded so delicious that I bookmarked it and willed myself to remember it the next time we needed dinner in a hurry.

Well after a long day shopping with the girls while dh and ds rode dirt bikes, quick, easy and filling were definite requirements. This panini fit the bill perfectly. Cripy bacon, juicy tomatoes, fluffy scrambled eggs, spinach, cheese, all on some good whole wheat bread. And as if that wasn't enough, the bread is given an extra shot of flavor by brushing it with a mixture of olive oil and Italian seasonings. Delicious!

I also blogged about this sandwich over at my new blog The Good Life: Live Well on Less where I explore ways to save money without resorting to hideous mac 'n cheese in a box or forgoing shopping trips!

Italian Breakfast Panini
Recipe from Inn Cuisine, originally courtesy Aska Lodge B&B, adapted from Relishmag.com

3 eggs
1/8 tsp. salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
2 (3/4 oz.) slices sharp Cheddar cheese
1 small Roma tomato, thinly sliced
1 small handful baby spinach leaves
4 slices cooked bacon or Canadian bacon
2 (3/4 oz.) slices Provolone
4 slices oatmeal, sourdough, or any dense bread
Balsamic glaze
3 T Olive oil mixed with 1 tsp.Italian seasoning

Scramble eggs with salt & pepper. Brush one side of each bread slice with olive oil mixture (this side will be out). Layer cheddar cheese, tomato, spinach, bacon, eggs (drizzled with Balsamic glaze) and Provolone on 2 slices of bread, top with remaining bread. Cook 3-5 minutes on panini grill or in a grill pan. Slice diagonally in half.

Yield: 2 servings or 4 half servings.

When Things Don't Work Out Quite the Way You Planned:

I was listening to my iPod while I was working out the other night and didn't even realize I'd run three miles, which was farther than I'd intended to go. I was preoccupied listening to the Great Cooks Radio Podcast, hosted by none other than Jill from Simple Daily Recipes. She was interviewing one of my favorite bloggers, Ben from What's Cooking? They started talking about their failures. You know, recipes that don't turn out well. Photos that are hopeless, even with Photoshop. It got me thinking. There are a lot of things I'd intended to blog about but didn't for one reason or another.

There was the Adobo Chicken Salad from Picky Palate. It was delicious. So delicious in fact that we ate it ... twice... without ever once thinking we should take a picture of it. Duh! At the other extreme there was the Chicken and Rice with Black Beans from We [Heart] Food. It was delicious as well. A bit spicy for the kids , of course but dh and I really enjoyed it. I took pictures. Dh took pictures. We took lots of pictures. Really. Really. Bad. Pictures.

This Pork Scallopini by Mario Batali was terrific. Sure wish I could find the recipe again. It tasted great and was easy to make. Apparently I got it from a library book that has long since been returned and I didn't have any luck Googling for it. Not to self: Be sure to write down good recipes!




Oven Baked Bacon from Simple Daily Recipes is probably my single favorite recipe and the one I make over and over and over. Quick, easy, no mess. Crisp, perfect bacon in 20 minutes. Put it in the oven and walk away. And yet I've never blogged about it. I've mentioned it several times but this one definitely deserves it's own post. If you haven't tried it, you should. You can make a whole package of bacon in 20 minutes. Woohoo!


I went shopping at a Penzy's Spice store on my last trip to Indianapolis. It was an awesome store. I intended to blog about all the incredible spices they carry. All the unusual spice mixes. The exotic spices you can't get at your local Kroger. The amazing smell that hits you when you walk in the door. I was gonna. But now it's been so long, I can't remember what I was going to write! Heck, by now I can't even remember what I bought. I went to to Trader Joe's and found something really cool on that trip. Now I can't remember what that was either.


These Mini Taco Appetizers were great. I made them twice in the same week. I even made them when my Mother-in-law came for dinner. I remember where I got the recipe but I waited so long to post it, I can't even remember what they were like! I mean, we must have liked them. I made them for my MIL after all. But I just can't remember anything about them. ::sigh:: I really need to not procrastinate (and to make them again so I can take a decent picture!)

This one was yesterday. I found the recipe for Eggplant and Tomato Appetizer over at Laylita's Recipes. Incredibly simple. grilled eggplant slices, topped with a juicy slice of tomato and a dollop of creamy, garlicky mayo. Definitely an OMG moment. So good that I took a few pictures and then ate them all. Every. Single. One. Before I looked at the pics and saw how really bad they were. ::sigh::

Crispy Bacon and Corn Quesadillas with Avocado-Cherry Tomato Relish

Sometimes something that initially doesn't sound like it's going to be good, turns out to be absolutely delicious. Chef Bobby Flay's Crispy Bacon and Corn Quesadillas with Avocado-Cherry Tomato Relish is one of those recipes. I mean, I like bacon as well as the next person, but on a tortilla? With corn? I was a little iffy about it but after reading Alysha's glowing review of the recipe over at The Savory Notebook, I decided to try it. I mean, bacon on the grill? Who wouldn't be curious about that?


Dh was game to try so we loaded the bacon onto a well oiled grill ... and the inevitable happened.

Needless to say, our first foray into grilling bacon is most likely going to be our last. By the time we could get the bacon off the grill, it was pretty much charcoal (though the dogs did appreciate it!) Fortunately, given my bad bacon history, I picked up some extra bacon while I was at the store and once again, Jill from Simple Daily Recipes came to our rescue with her incredibly simple recipe for Oven Fried Bacon. I slapped a couple of cookie sheet's worth of bacon into the oven and in 20 minutes were were back in business.


While the bacon was a dismal failure, the corn on the grill turned out really well and added just the right amount of smoky, charred sweetness to the quesadillas.

Aside from having to re-make the bacon, this recipe goes together pretty quickly. And to be honest, I don't know that grilled bacon would really add anything to the recipe. It was terrific with regular bacon and a lot less of a hassle. The Avocado-Cherry Tomato Relish was yummy as well. Definitely a keeper!


Crispy Bacon and Corn Quesadillas with Avocado-Cherry Tomato Relish
Bobby Flay's Boy Gets Grill

Relish:
2 ripe Haas avocados -- halved, pitted,
peeled and diced
4 ounces tiny cherry or grape tomatoes -- halved
1/2 red onion -- thinly sliced (I
used chives)
2 jalapeno chiles -- seeded and minced
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Quesadillas:
16 thick slices bacon
3 ears corn -- husked
Canola oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
12 tortillas -- (6-inch)
2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup grated white Cheddar cheese
2 scallions -- thinly sliced
2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
Cilantro leaves

Combine relish ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. The relish can be made a couple of hours in advance, covered and kept refridgerated. Bring to cool room temperature before serving.

Heat your grill to medium.

Grill the bacon, laying it across the grate of the grill, for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy but not blackened. Remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels (leave grill on), let cool slightly, and crumble.

Brush the corn all over with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the corn on all sides until lightly charred, about 8 minutes total. Remove from the grill and set aside (leave the grill on). To remove the kernels, stand the corn on end in a large bowl and cut downward with a small, sharp knife.

Place 8 of the tortillas on a flat work surface. Divide the cheeses, scallions, crumbled bacon, and charred corn among the tortillas and season with salt and pepper.

Make 4 quesadillas by stacking the filled tortillas by twos, then placing one of the remaining plain tortillas on top. Press lightly to help the quesadilla hold together. Brush the tops of the quesadillas with oil and sprinkle with the ancho powder. Carefully place them oiled side down on the grill and cook until golden brown on the bottom, about 2 minutes. Carefully turn the quesadillas over with a large spatula, close the grill hood, and continue cooking for 1 to 2 minutes, until cheese has melted and the tortillas are crisp.

Remove the quesadillas from the grill, cut into quarters, and top each quarter with a dollop of the avocado relish. Garnish with cilantro leaves.