Guilt-Free Pizza!

If you like pizza, but don't like the crust - or even if you like the crust but don't want all the calories and carbohydrates, this is for you!  Of course, you have to like mushrooms...

First, prepare the toppings you'll be adding to your meal.  Below there are two kinds of olives, two different peppers, onions and diced bacon bits.  Yes, REAL bacon.  Not shown are the sauce and mozzarella cheese. 

 

Of course, you'll need a base for your "pie".  On your baking sheet, lay out a matrix of mushroom caps from which you have carefully removed the stems.  Save the stems for use in another dish!  These happen to be Cremini mushrooms about 2" across, but any size will work, and the more alike in size they are the better.  White mushrooms will also work fine this way.

Fill each mushroom cap with a treasure trove of the diced bacon,  Cant have too much, and it makes sure every bite has some great bacon taste.

 Next, on goes the  sauce.  As thisk as it is, it will spread in the oven so you don't need a whole bunch.  Also remember that the mushrooms will give off liquid as they bake in the oven as well.

Mozzarella cheese time.  No need to be stingy, as whatever melts off is delicious in it's own right.  You'll see later.

Now, layer on your toppings.   I tried to keep them fairly even, but oh well.  If you get them too close to the edges, they will just slide off with the cheese.

Into the oven at 400° to finish.  You'll want to leave it in there until the veggies are done and the cheese starts to brown around the edged, as shown below.  After you serve up the mushroom pizzas, that crispy-edged cheese is a real guilty pleasure to snack on!

Here you go, plated and reaty to devour.  Note:  These are a lot more filling than you might think, I only ate 4 of them.  Hope you give this a try, and see how you like this way low carb version of your favorite pizza!

Hot Chicks

My friend Brian asked me for a simple but delicious appetizer that everyone will like.  So for Brian and his Christmas party, here is how to assemble some Hot Chicks.  You will need the following:

• Thick sliced bacon - one piece of bacon will do two Hot Chicks

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts - depending on the size, you can get six to eight slices from each breast

• Fresh jalapeno peppers - depending on the size, you can get eight to twelve pieces from each pepper

• String cheese (mozzarella) snack sticks  - each stick will do four Hot Chicks

• Toothpicks  - one per each

• Your favorite spicy hot rub - I use a rub I developed for my pork buttts and spare ribs on my smoker, but you can use any commercial dry rub you particularly like - there are hundreds of them out there.

Do the prep work:

1. cut each cheese stick in fourths
2. cut the bacon slices in half
3. cut the outer shell off the pepper and discard the stem and seeds, then cut pieces about the same size as the cheese
4. out of the widest part of the chicken breast, cut thin slices crossways as shown below;  they will need to be long enough to wrap around the cheese and pepper.  Save the remaining end pieces of chicken for other use.

Lay a chicken strip overlapping one end of the bacon strip, and then add a piece of cheese and of pepper as shown below.

Roll the chicken strip over the filling like this:

Continue to roll the chicken and bacon up fairly snug, keeping the cheese and pepper centered inside.  Secure the roll with a toothpick.

These go pretty fast once you get the parts all ready...

Sprinkle  the tops of these with the rub mentioned above

Here is a little tray of 16, ready to firm up in the fridge before hitting the oven.

 

I put these on a middle rack in my electric oven on high broil with the door open. Mine take about 15  minutes, but depending on your oven - Your Mileage May Vary.  I'd start checking them after 10 minutes.  

You can also top them with extras after they are finished - here I used slices of tomato and avocado and some coarse ground pepper.  I have also served them with an avocado cream dip, very popular.

SABOT Special

No, these don't have anything to do with wooden shoes or artillery. Instead, SABOT here stands for Shellfish, Avocado and Bacon On Telera roll.  Not hard to make, but an incredible melange of taste!

Ingredients:

Spicy Mayo (recipe below)

8 ounces lump crab, without shells

8 oz boiled & chilled shrimp, diced

2 scallions, white & green, minced

1 packed T fresh of fresh chopped cilantro

2 t  lime juice

3/4  seafood seasoning ( e.g. Old Bay)

1 t hot sauce (I prefer Crystal)

salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

bit of cumin

½ C mayonnaise

1 lg. avocado, refrigerated

4 slices cooked bacon, not soft, cut in half

2  lg Telera,Torta, or Poor Boy rolls

 

Spicy Mayo:

1 C mayonnaise

1½ T Sriracha Rooster Sauce

2 t coarse black pepper

1 T lime juice

1½ t kosher salt

½ t cayenne pepper

Method (makes 2):

Make the Spicy Mayo by combining all its' ingredients and mixing well.  cover and remove to the refrigerator for chilling, at least an hour.

Combine the shrimp and crab in a medium bowl, mixing well. 

Chop the scallions and cilantro as indicated and put in bowl.  Add the next six ingredients, and once you add the mayonnaise, mix well to incorporate.  This goes into the fridge to chill as well, and comes out when the Spicy Mayo does.

Once all has cooled down, taste and adjust salt and pepper as desired.  Next slice your rolls in half and lightly butter.  Actually, I use home-made ghee instead of butter because I like the results, but butter will do.  Once the bun has toasted, apply some nice squirts of the Spicy may across the face of each bun half. 

 

Apply a layer of the shellfish mixture on each half.  Prepare the avocado by halving it, removing the pit, and slicing each half into 4 thick slices.  On the bottom bun, toss on a nice thick layer of avocado topped with a layer of bacon.

 Assemble and chow down!

Putting up Canned Bacon!

Well, it will come to no surprise to those that know me that I would have learned yet another way to work with bacon.  Here you will see how I have learned, mostly from BexarPrepper, how to can bacon so that it can be safely stored without refrigeration.

I need to say that you MUST do this using a pressure canner, not a water bath canner.  There is no safe way to can meat products with boiling water, it must be done under pressure.  This article assumes that the reader is familiar with the process before attempting to duplicate it.  This bacon was in the canner at 10 psi for 90 minutes. 

First, you need parchment paper, and it definitely has to be parchment paper, NOT waxed paper.  They are two different things for different purposes.  What I have seen it comes in a 15" width. 

I started out by unrolling some parchment paper.  In the shot below, I have laid out the bacon flush with the bottom edge, and you can see that I have left a space at the left hand edge about the width of a slice of bacon.More on this space later.

Next, I have covered the bottom half of the the bacon with a piece of parchment the same length but cut down to half the width of the bacon strips.

Next, fold the flap on the left over the first piece of bacon, and then take the entire covered bottom half of the bacon layer and fold it up and over the exposed bacon, like this:
 

  Now, starting from the end without the fold, start rolling the bacon up, tucking it in to keep everything even and snug.  When finished, you will end up with something that looks like this:

Insert your bacon roll into a wide-mouth quart Mason jar, bacon end first, and then push the rest of the parchment paper in before applying the lid and band.  Don't add any liquid to the jar, as the bacon will give off both bacon grease and water as it cooks in the canner.

 

When you do open, you will be presented with some soft-cooked bacon, which you can eat as is or cook longer to your desired degree of done-ness.  As a bonus, you will also have all of that wonderful bacon grease that was rendered from the canning process for cooking with as well.  Win-win!

Caramelized Green Beans

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound of fresh green beans, plus or minus
• 2-3 tbsp of bacon grease
• 1/4 cup cooked crumbled bacon
• 2-3 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 cup onion, chopped small
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup of roasted red pepper, diced
• 1 tsp salt and pepper to taste

 

Method

Remove the stem ends of the green beans by either snapping or cutting them off.  Remove the strings, if any.  Melt the bacon fat in a skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and cook until starting to wilt.  Add the bacon and saute until soft.  Add in the beans and toss together until beans are coated.

 Cook for a few minutes until the beans brighten up green.  Add in the rest of the ingredients  and mix well, then stirring occasionally as the stock reduces.  Increase heat to medium high and stir until beans start to caramelize.  Remove from heat and serve hot.

 Here are the finished beans as part of a nice all-veggie dinner, a rarity for me.

Savory Texas Meatloaf

 

Everybody has a recipe for meatloaf.  Many people aren't happy with theirs, but are stuck in a rut.  Consider giving this one a try - there are a few tasty differences that make it mighty good.  And even better, it makes plenty, so there's lots left over for meatloaf sandwiches the next day!


Ingredients:
1 large onion, cut in small dice
1 carrot, cut in small dice
1 Poblano pepper, cut in small dice
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons pepper
5 teaspoons minced garlic

2 lbs. ground beef, 80/20
1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground lamb

1 cup breadcrumbs, unseasoned, fresh preferred
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup ketchup
3 eggs
1/2 cup (compressed) of finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped cooked bacon

1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper


Method:

Combine the breadcrumbs and milk together to create a mush. Prepare the vegetables as directed above.

In a large skillet, add the first 5 ingredients and sauté until the vegetables soften.  When soft, add the garlic and stir in well, cooking 1 more minute.  Remove from stove and allow to cool.  Gather your defrosted meats - clockwise from left, beef, pork lamb:

In a large bowl, separate and scatter the meats evenly in the bowl.  You don't want to over-mix the meat mixture, as that will make your meatloaf tough.  Add in the cooled vegetables, milk /breadcrumb mush, ketchup, cilantro and the eggs.  Heat your oven to 350°.

Mix until all parts are evenly distributed and then let it rest.  Divide the mixture evenly between two loaf pans, taking care to make the center a little lower than the edges.  This will help to cut down on the tendency for cooked meatloaf to have a large center bulge.

Finally, scatter half of the bacon across the top of each loaf.  Now pop the loaf pans into your oven, and set the timer for 45 minutes.  Combine the last 4 ingredients into a Texas Tang sauce so that it will be ready for the next step.

After an hour, remove the loaf pans and set on a cooling rack, and remove the loafs from the pans.  Place the loafs on a larger rimmed pan, and divide the ketchup sauce evenly over the tops of the two loaves.  Below you see the loafs after having been sauced, and ready for the oven again.

 

 Below is an oblique shot, and you can make out how relatively flat the tops are.  This will help a lot with making meatloaf sandwiches later!

Pop them back in the oven for another 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 155°.  Don't overcook or it will start to dry out!  The jalapeño garnish is, of course, optional as are the Pintos-n-Pico on the side.

Chicken & Sausage Cacciatore Carbonara

There’s a pretty decent little Italian restaurant on San Antonio’s far north side that has some very tasty offerings. In particular, I like their take on sausage cacciatore. After taking some home and having it for lunch the next day, I realized that I could probably do a pretty fair job of it myself. So here we go with an enhanced version…

INGREDIENTS
4 chicken thighs, boned, skinned, cut into chunks
4 links Italian sausage, about 12-16 oz. total; 2 wholes, 2 crumbled
2 green bell pepper – stemmed, seeded cut into half-strips
2 red bell pepper – stemmed, seeded cut into half-strips
1 lg. red onion, cut into strips
1 lb mushrooms, cleaned, cut in 1/3” slices - prepared
tomatoes 28 oz can, crushed, or 1 each 15 oz.r can of stewed & puree
4 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil
1Tbsp Oregano
1 Tbsp basil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 cup red wine – Marsala, Chianti, etc.
1/2 cup cooked and chopped bacon

Optional Garnish:
chopped flat-leaf parsley
s&p
Parmesan cheese, grated


METHOD
See Mushrooms 101 for mushroom instructions.

Set a large skillet over medium heat.I quickly put together a simple tomato sauce by adding some olive oil and minced garlic in a large skillet and adding the tomatoes. To this I added some salt and pepper and and the herbs let that simmer.

After simmering and reducing for a while, the sauce will thicken and darken, like this. Stir occasionally so that it doesn't scorch. Now's the time to add the wine and stir all together, then let simmer some more.

Remove cooked mushrooms from their pan. Fry the crumbled and the link Italian sausage until the grease has rendered and the sausage is just starting to brown. Remove the sausage and drain the grease.

Slice the link sausages into 1/4" slices and finish cooking the pieces. When done, drain the grease and reserve the sausage pieces with the crumbled sausage.

Next, take the cut up chicken thighs and pepper both sides lightly. Place the chicken in the pan, waiting until it is lightly browned to turn.

When both sides are finished, remove from the pan and drain. Remove meats to plate/bowl and reserve.

Reheat the pan and add about 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the peppers, onions and garlic.

When the vegetables are soft and start to brown, add the sausage stirring to incorporate it. Cook the vegetables and the sausage together for a few minutes. Once all incorporated, add in reserved cooked mushrooms and stir well.

By this point, the tomato sauce ought to be nice and thick.

Add your marinara sauce to the pan vegetables and sausage pan a little at a time while stirring, until the dish reaches desired consistency.

Finally, add in the bacon and mix it all well. Serve hot over pasta. I used whole wheat fettuccine, as it's a little better for you than the regular type.