Try Try 'Ems

Ingredients:

bread or pizza dough
crumbled bacon
alfredo sauce
fresh ground black pepper

Directions:
prepare your dough as directed, then roll it out and cut into 2" x 10" or so strips - maybe a pinch narrower. create an even number of strips. cutting the dough with a pizza cutter works well. brush on alfredo sauce atop each strip. sprinkle every other strip with crumbled bacon. grind pepper over all strips. turn over non-baconed strip onto a baconed strip (alfredo side down). this will make a long, skinny alfredo-bacon-pepper sandwich of sorts. lightly press together, and maybe even pinch the edges together a bit to help it stay together. do this for each pair of dough strips. give 2-3 half twists for each strip. then bake as directed for your dough... or maybe about 400 degrees for 15 minutes or so (convection), at least until dough is golden. remove from oven. brush the twist-strip with alfredo and pepper again in the edge/cracks where you see the bacon inside part.

consume. (he go, eh?)

notes: when brushing the final alfredo, you can also choose to use butter. the alfredo / pepper combo makes the twist taste similar to biscuits and gravy. experiment with maybe... ground beef/pizza sauce/cayenne... bbq sauce/cheddar/pulled pork.

* what's with that name? ...well, instead of something obvious, like "alfredo bacon twists", i happened to be watching an episode of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. they were in hawaii making "dirt shirts". the silk screen lady, had a shirt that said "try try em" on the front and "he go, eh?" on the back. "try try em" is a means of encouragement/suggestion to try whatever it is you're doing. "he go, eh?" is a response/confirmation stating that what you just try-tried was a success. (of course if what you tried wasn't good, then "he no go". anyway, as i was making these, watching the show and then eating this new creation, and in the spirit of hawaii/my inventive recipes, i named these twists as such! give this (or any of my recipes) a shot. you might just like them. Try try the Try Try 'Ems!

Have You Tried That With Bacon? (HYTTWB)

This is just a quick post to plug a spin-off site of RumYumYum... called Have You Tried That With Bacon?

HYTTWB is dedicated to BACON. Not just anything BACON, but new recipes and concoctions involving, revolving around BACON.

http://haveyoutriedthatwithbacon.eloph.com/

BACON, the other white only meat.

Spicy Caramel Bacon

Ingredients:

1 cup Caramel Sauce
1 tbsp Cayenne Pepper
Bacon

Directions:

line a cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper. preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut bacon into pieces, or halves, or just leave whole. place on pan. mix caramel sauce and cayenne. (of course you may reduce the cayenne a bit, maybe 2 tsp instead of 1 tbsp so it's not so spicy) brush the caramel sauce on the bacon. bake for 20-25 minutes. 20 minutes for chewy bacon, 25 for crispy bacon.

devour.

Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

1/3 cup water
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream (40%)

Directions:
in small saucepan, the heavier the better, combine water and sugar over medium heat. stir to combine with wooden spoon. once all the sugar is dissolved, put heat on high for about 5 minutes, or until a light-brown/amber color starts to appear. do not stir during the 5 minutes, and be careful not to let the amber get too dark. then reduce to low heat and add a few spoonfuls of the heavy cream, a spoon at a time, while stirring. be very careful, as initially the mixture will bubble and foam up. once you've added a couple of spoonfuls, you may pour in the rest of the cream. continue to combine, then remove from heat and let cool.

once cooled, pour on your favorite ice cream, meat or just go at it with a spoon.

Strawberry Mascarpone Toast

Ingredients:

fresh strawberries, sliced
mascarpone cheese
bread

Directions:
toast bread. spread mascarpone on toasted bread. top with sliced strawberries.

* Inspired from a dish i saw in a movie, this recipe sounds simple, but I'm working out some of the details to make the flavors mesh well. A few things... mascarpone is a cheese, but is often used in place of butter. It has a mild flavor and can be flavored easily. Very spreadable, like a soft cream cheese, just not as strong of a flavor. Honey makes a good flavoring. With that in mind, initially i chose to use a "sweet honey wheat" bread. I used a "fancier" bread, not the cheap $1 loaves. This kind of bread is a little denser, but I found that while I was looking for a honey note in the bread, the dark wheat-ness flavor took over. So, next time I might try a honey-white, or a lighter grain bread. An oat-berry bread might go well also. But overall, I recommend a lighter-flavored bread. And as far as the strawberries go, I currently got mine out of season, so they weren't as ripe, and were a little tart, which I actually liked. But I could imagine some really fresh and ripe strawberries being very flavorful. And a final note about the toasting of the bread: i'd recommend letting the toast cool a bit so that you can get a better layer of mascarpone without it melting on still-hot toast.

Goes great for breakfast or a snack! Either way, delicious!

UPDATE: so yes, i bought and tried a honey wheat berry bread. much lighter in color and flavor, so it doesn't overtake the other flavors. and i did aim for something with honey to give the dish a little extra touch of sweetness.

Ghetto Brittle

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of sugar
16oz package of mini chocolate chips
1 cup chopped
1 package of saltines

Spread saltines on cookie sheet (line w/ aluminum foil)
Melt butter & sugar together
Pour butter/sugar mixture over saltines
Bake in oven at 400 for about 7 minutes (butter/sugar will bubble-remove from oven before it gets too brown)
Pour chocolate chips over crackers and spread as it melts
Sprinkle with pecans
Freeze for 1 hour
Break into pieces
Enjoy!

Yes, I stole this recipe from a friend of a friend at a party... so I didn't invent it. Wish I had though, these are delicious! Trust me... just give them a chance!

Cocoa-Cashew Banana Bread

Ingredients:

2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c chopped cashews
3 very ripe bananas
1/4 c vanilla yogurt
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons butter, melted & cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tablespoons cocoa powder


Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease loaf pan or even 9x9 glass dish.

Combine and wisk all dry ingredients. Set aside.

In mixing bowl, hand mix (or use kitchen mixer on low) to combine wet ingredients. Slightly lumpy is ok.

Combine wet & dry ingredients, folding until just mixed. Do not over mix. Put batter into your pan/dish.

Bake for 45-50 minutes. Err on the side of slightly less to avoid drying out the bread. Remove from oven, let cool 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack.

Enjoy!

* recipe adapted from "the best cookbook ever" p 391