Pan-Fried Cod Stuffed with Feta and Spinach over a bed of Asparagus and Rice

Happy Spring! I can't tell you how happy I am that it's finally arrived. In honor of the season, here's a spring green meal.

I don't really have a recipe for this one. It's steamed rice, plunked on a plate. Asparagus, cooked on a grill pan and slathered with butter. Cod, sliced down the middle and stuffed with carmelized onions, spinach, and goat cheese, then salted and peppered and pan-fried. Topped with pesto (which it could have done without), and bacon bits, which were absolutely essential.

Have I mentioned I've been on an asparagus kick lately?

Yesterday, and Today

I hope your had a wonderful New Year. Our big celebration was last weekend, so last night we took it easy. I made a decadent salad with spinach, beef braised in red wine, and bacon. It was dressed with a red wine reduction made from the braising juices, and some cheese. We also had more pie. Then we sat on the couch with some wine and watched a movie, and were asleep before 10.

This morning, we brewed gluten-free beer for the first time. It was a bit like making soap or canning vegetables. Lots of steps, precision, and sterilization of equipment required.

We didn't have a pot big enough for all the wort, so we split things between two as best we could. Hopefully it turns out alright, but it will be a while before we know.

Tonight, we'll have Hoppin' John for good luck. This year, I tried to grow blackeyed peas in my garden, but Odie tore them out of the ground before they could even get going. No matter - I scored some dried ones from my Dad's hometown.  When I cooked them this afternoon, I forgot to look back at my regrets from last year's Hoppin' John, and made a full batch again. Whoops. Looks like we'll probably end up with a frittata again.

Here's to hoping for a wonderful 2014! Hopefully all those blackeyed peas will bring oodles of luck!

Risotto alla "Bambi"

Last week, I made a shrimp risotto and utterly failed to take a decent photo of it. This week, I made some venison risotto. It was supposed to be my redemption photo shoot. Until the camera battery died. Ugh. This is as good as it's gonna get, I'm afraid:

Anyways, this is a "leftovers" meal. My brother shot the deer, and the tenderloin has been hanging out in my parents' freezer since last hunting season. When I was home last weekend for a dear friend's wedding, my dad cooked it for Sunday dinner. Which, if you're from the South, you know is just a big lunch on Sunday, but we call it dinner.

The original dish Dad cooked is a venison tenderloin, cut into 2-inch chunks, then wrapped with half a piece of bacon, and held together with a toothpick or two. It goes on the grill, turning a couple of times so the bacon gets crispy, until the venison is medium or medium-rare. The fat from the bacon helps keep the lean venison moist, and the whole thing is so delicious it'll make you swoon.

Creamy Corn Chowder

The days are getting shorter. Too short, if you ask me. And it's getting cold. Windy and cold.

All of this means that it's soup season. Not the light, thin soups of summer, but the hearty and rib-sticking stews of fall and winter. Like corn chowder.  Depending on how you make it, it can be light and delicate in flavor or thick, creamy, and oh-so-filling. I like it the second way, and topped with crispy bacon.

I love eating out on the porch, although the days we have left to do that are numbered. But with a piping hot bowl of corn chowder, it's possible to extend those days just the tiniest bit.

Creamy Corn Chowder

Yet More Goodies

I'm slowly cooking my way through Gluten-Free Girl Everyday, and boy, is it good. This time around, I made half a recipe of pizza dough. Half of that made two "personal" sized pizzas (they were just a tad big) and the other half made flatbread.

The pizza was topped with garlic butter (instead of tomato sauce) mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, and scallions. The crust was crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. Just the way I like it.

There was just enough left over for four smallish pieces of naan, something I thought I'd never have again. (At least not that tasted good.) It needed just a touch of salt once it came off the skillet, but it too was excellent.

Like most gluten-free baked goods, these really taste good when they're warm. But boy, are they good.

Pinterest Fail

Ah, Pinterest. Like so many others, I find it at once incredibly useful and terribly depressing. Why don't my projects come out like that? Why can't I shoot photos that well? 

I have an answer. I don't stay at home all day, I don't have unlimited resources, and this stuff I do is just a hobby. That doesn't mean that I don't care if it looks nice (I do), but it does mean that if a project's not working out, I go to plan B.

Like this recipe, as seen on Pinterest. I was going to make some stellar tortillas, and then make an awesome bacon-avocado-egg wrap with them. 

So I mixed up some batter, poured it in the pan, and let it do its thing. So far so good.

Until I tried to flip it.

Ick. And guess what - it tasted wayyyy too much like coconut for me.

At least my avocado was pinterest-worthy. And a nice change from looking at pictures of perfectly manicured hands curled around a bottle of nail polish.

So instead of my pinterest-inspired wrap, I had bacon, eggs, avocado, and a toasted gf English muffin. Maybe it wasn't perfect or even pinterest-worthy, but it was delicious.

And ultimately, isn't that the point of enjoying life? Not so much to show others how good it looks, but to actually enjoy it...

Cranberry Orange Salad

This one's not really much of a recipe:

Saute some bacon until it's crispy. Remove the bacon. Add to the bacon fat some sliced onions, and saute until soft.

Toss salad greens with fresh-squeezed orange juice and olive oil. Sprinkle on salt and pepper, and some herbs. Sprinkle the bacon and onions over the salad, add some cranberries and pieces of orange.

Not much of a recipe, perhaps, but an excellent way to spend lunchtime.

Charred Corn and Bacon Salad

How have I not shared this salad with you yet? It's easily one of our favorites. Whenever I make this salad for dinner, Mike's eyes light up and he says something like, "Awesome! I really like this salad!"

Even though it is technically a salad, it's a hearty and satisfying meal for two. Even better, I usually have all the ingredients in the fridge or freezer, if you don't count the avocado. Avocado is a little pricey, but this recipe only takes one, and it really has a chance to shine in this salad. It could be easily doubled to feed more people as a meal, or stretched to feed more folks as an appetizer.

Charred Corn and Bacon Salad

• 4-6 slices bacon
• 1/2 medium or 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup corn
• 1/2 jarred roasted red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• Juice of one lime
• 2 tablespoons dried or 1/4 fresh chopped cilantro
• 1 avocado
• 4-6 cups mixed greens
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the cilantro and lime juice. Set aside.

Fry the bacon in a medium-large skillet. Remove from pan and dry on paper towels. Reserve several tablespoons of the bacon grease, and pour the rest into a glass jar, storing it in the fridge for later use.

(You could also use several slices of pre-cooked bacon and bacon grease from your grease jar, if you have one. Just make sure to re-heat the bacon in the skillet so it gets nice and crispy. If you don't have a grease jar, just use a tablespoon of butter and tablespoon of olive oil for the next part.)

Add the onions and the reserved bacon grease to the skillet and saute until soft and beginning to turn golden. Next add the peppers, saute about a minute, then add the corn, cumin, paprika, and chili powder. Saute 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.

Put greens on each plate. Chop the bacon and scatter on top of the greens. Peel and dice the avocado and scatter on the greens. Scatter the corn mixture over the salad. Pour the cilantro-lime dressing over the salad, then sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serve immediately.

Bacon All Around

Mike came across a poem the other day, and we've been quoting it ever since. It goes something like this:

Roses are red

Bacon is red

Poetry is hard

Bacon.

Bacon.

There's just something utterly primal and satisfying about bacon. The pop and sizzle of the grease, the smell, the way it crumples up in the pan, and the taste. Oh, that taste.  

I'm listening to bacon pop and sizzle as I write this, and the only think that's keeping me from gobbling it all up is that I had some leftover bacon before I started cooking the new bacon. 

It took me a long time to figure out how to fry decent bacon. Like so many others, I turned the heat up too high and burned the crap out of it. What a waste. Bacon needs long, slow heat to get just right.

My dad, who cooks the best bacon I've ever had, fries it at the absolute lowest setting on his gas stove and just waits. I've never been that patient, but I like to think I'm coming along. 

There is an easier way: Lay the bacon in an ungreased jelly roll pan in a single layer. Put it in a cold oven, then turn the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook it until it's done, which will depend on the thickness of the bacon and your own personal preferences. (I use a thicker-cut style, which takes 15-20 minutes, but thinner cuts can be done in 8-10 minutes.) Remove from oven, let the pan cool for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a paper-towel lined plate. Strain the grease left in the pan through a fine mesh strainer into a glass jar, and store in the refrigerator for later use. Enjoy the bacon right now, or save in the fridge or freezer for later.

You might be totally grossed out by saving the grease to use it later. I know, I used to be weirded out by it too. But it turns out that the grease (a.k.a. lard) is actually quite useful for cooking. It has a much higher smoke point than butter or olive oil, meaning you can get it a lot hotter. Plus it makes for wonderfully browned veggies. Eggs fried in lard are a-maz-ing. Seriously - give it a go!

Bacon!