WHISKY MAPLE BACON CHILI

This recipe was spawned from a moment of ADD at work during my lunch break. As I was eating my chilli I thought to myself, what would taste good in chilli? Obviously my answer was bacon. But what else tastes good with bacon? Maple does. So does whisky. What if I put all those delicious things together? Well this is the result.

What you will need:
1 pound bacon, diced
1 pound ground beef (or any other ground meat, really)
1 large can tomato sauce
1 large can diced or whole tomato
1 can black beans
1 can mixed beans
1 can corn kernels
Note: Aside from the meat, you can pretty much put any combination of things into your chilli
2/3 cup of your favourite whisky (I used a Canadian spiced whisky)
1/3 cup of maple syrup
5 tsp. chilli powder
1 tsp. each salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and oregano (adjust to taste)

1. Start by cooking the bacon in a large frying pan. It will need to be big enough to handle the pound of beef as well. Cook the bacon about 2/3 of the way through then add the beef.

2.Stir and continue to brown until the beef is thoroughly cooked and the bacon is nicely crisped. Drain the excess oil (very carefully) and transfer your manly meat mixture into a slow cooker.

 You could use a large pot, but I prefer slow cooking my chilli because you can cook the meat then let it cook all day long, filling your house with delicious chilli aroma.

4. Top the meat with your other chilli components, pouring the sauce on last. You can try to stir it now, or wait for the sauce to trickle down as it cooks. The only thing left to do is let it cook on low for roughly six hours, or until you get really, really hungry. Feel free to taste and adjust the flavour with more spices, whisky, or whatever else you feel the need to put in it.

I would have liked to get some more photos of this recipe, but it was made for family and we did not have our camera around when it was being enjoyed.

BACK TO BACON

After a bit of a break from blogging I have bacon on the mind again. Our third floor apartment is too hot in the summer to even think about turning on the oven. Now that the days are starting to cool off, I have big plans to make some comfort food dishes to get the family through harvest season . Look for some new recipes from The Baconmeister in the next few weeks!

FAILED MISSION

Tonight we tried a recipe I had found for caramelized bacon wrapped pears. It sounded really intriguing and I was really excited to make them. The pears looked amazing while we were going through the baking steps and our excitement grew. After making the recipe together, my husband and I sat down to eat our pears.We were both surprised to find out that they just weren't for us. I guess not all of our adventures can turn out to be great ones.

STUFFED TATER TOTS WRAPPED IN BACON

What person doesn't like tater tots? Or bacon?  Since finger food and games go so well together, I decided to make these for a games night we attended last night. It would also give us a chance to share some bacon-love with a different group of people.Once we got to our friends house, he told us he had not had supper. We pulled out these amazing appetizers and within 10 minutes the entire recipe was eaten.

To make this recipe you will need:

• tater tots (slightly frozen, pull out of freezer 15 minutes before using)
• 1 lb bacon slices cut in half
• toothpicks
• cheese cut into thin sticks
• filling 

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Prepare filling of your choice. We went with 2 flavours. I made a spicy cream cheese filling by whipping cream cheese and Franks Red Hot sauce.  I also made a ranch filling by whipping cream cheese with 1 about 1Tbsp dry ranch dressing.

3. Cut into the slightly frozen tater tot. You should cut about halfway through.

4. Put a line of filling and a stick of cheese into the cut.

5. Tightly wrap the tater with bacon and secure with a toothpick.

6. Put on baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes turning once.

7. Pull out of oven and let cool for a few minutes. These are mouth burning hot when you first pull them out of the oven.

Note: Can be made ahead of time. If making much earlier than you will be serving them, put them into the freezer to store before popping them in the oven. Just pull them out of the freezer when you start to preheat the oven. Also to make the filling easier to use, I piped it into the tots using a sandwich bag with a corner cut off.

BACON WRAPPED COCKTAIL SMOKIES

 When we decided to do a bacon wrapped month I knew that I had to make this recipe. My Mom made these for our annual Christmas Eve celebration and I loved them. They are super easy to make and are really, really tasty! I decided to make them for the big birthday party we had this weekend so I could share them with lots of relatives. These are an excellent bite-sized appetizer for those family get-togethers! Most of ours did not last until the party. Every time the lid of the slow cooker was lifted we would smell their delicious aroma. More and more kept going missing. At the end of the night all I had left was a very empty slow cooker.

                                                       

To make this recipe you will need:

• 1Lb bacon
• 1 pkg cocktail smokies
• 1 cup brown sugar
• Toothpicks (please make sure they aren't mint flavoured!)

1. Cut bacon into thirds. The bacon we used had fairly wide slices and we were able to cut into quarters and it would still wrap around the smokie.

2. Wrap each cocktail smokie with a slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Continue until you have run out of bacon.

3. Preheat oven to 325. Place wrapped smokies in one layer on large baking sheet.
4. Generously sprinkle brown sugar over them.

5. Bake for 45 minutes. The sugar should be bubbly.

6. Keep warm in slow cooker set to low until you are ready to serve. My husband says he likes them even more after they have been in the slow cooker for a few hours.

BACON WRAPPED EGGS

I have been wanting to make these for my husband for a while now, but he keeps waking up and leaving for work before I am awake. Today he was finally sleeping in, so I was sneaking around the kitchen to whip these up. Just as soon as they came out of the oven, he very quietly got out of bed and scared me half to death. Anyways on to the bacon.








You will need:

1. Bacon (enough slices to fill the amount of cups you want to make)
2. Eggs (you will need 2 eggs for every 3 cups)
3. Cheese (we used about 2 Tbsp for 3 cups)
4. Salt (I used a pinch of our Bacon Seasoning Salt)
5. Pepper
6. Muffin tray

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Wrap slices of  bacon around inside of each muffin cup.

3. Whisk together eggs, salt, pepper, and cheese. I also added a tiny bit of water to my mix to get nice fluffy eggs.

4. Pour egg mixture into the bacon lined cups. Only fill 3/4 full.

5. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes or until the cups are golden brown and don't wiggle if you shake the pan.
6. Use a knife to free the cups and enjoy right away!

Note: I only made 3 cups because I was only feeding 2 people. Increase amounts as needed to feed your hungry friends. Would make an excellent brunch or breakfast to serve to guests.

COMING SOON...BACON WRAPPED MONTH

June will be my family's "bacon-wrapped" month. We will be finding and trying different recipes that include items wrapped in bacon. There are so many ideas out there for this type of food, and we are super excited for our bacon-wrapped adventures. What are your favourite bacon wrapped recipes?