Blue Cheese Bacon Dip

Blue Cheese Bacon Dip

So it's a Friday night and we're going to our friend D Day's who usually has an open door policy for Friday nights in the barn. Boy I wish I had a barn like that it's more of a party palace. LOL. Always a fun time to be had there with great folks.

My original plans were to take over the Blue Cheese Cakes I made for our anniversary, but I came across this recipe I wanted to try instead. It has some of my all time favorite flavors, oh yum. You can't really go wrong with Bacon or Blue Cheese in my opinion.

Blue Cheese Dip 

Preheat oven 350*

2 Packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (room temp)

6 oz Blue Cheese 

1/3 cup Half & Half

7 Strips of thick cut Bacon

2 cloves Garlic finely minced + 2 Tbls bacon fat

1/4 cup of Green onion, or Scallions, or Shallots (I used Green Onion in this but am looking forward to substituting Shallots the next time.)

On medium heat in a skillet fry up the bacon until just crisp and remove from pan and let cool on paper towels. Cut bacon into bite size pieces once cooled. Reserve the bacon fat. Finely mince the garlic and brown in bacon fat on med. heat about 2 minutes, being careful to not over cook it. Remove garlic from hot pan along with about 2 Tbl spoons of the Bacon fat. Chop the onions into small pieces. Beat the cream cheese that  has been warmed up to room temp. on med speed with a mixer until soft. Add all ingredients reserving 1/2 of the onions for the top of the dish. Continue beating with mixer on med speed until all ingredients are combined. Place in a greased baking dish and top with remaining onions.

Bake 15-20 minutes at 350* until just brown on the top. Serve warm with Crostini's or Pita chips. 

All of the ingredients 

The dip prior to baking

The dip was huge success and we will definitely be making it again. 

Kale Chips 2 ways

Kale Chips 2 ways

Mark brought home a couple of bunches of Kale and we thought we'd try a second time to make Kale chips. The last time we made them on a dark cookie sheet and they browned too much. 

This time they turned out perfect. They are very easy to make and hard to stop eating at just a few, yet such a healthy snack. 

Parmesan Kale Chips

Sesame Chili  Kale Chips these have a great little zip because of the pepper

Sesame Chili Chips on the left and Parmesan Chips on the Right.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Parmesan Cheese Kale Chips

1 Bunch of Kale
1 Tbl spoon of Olive Oil
1 tsp Kosher salt
Parmesan cheese to taste

Clean and dry thoroughly the Kale and tear into bite size pieces being careful to tear out all ribs. On a cookie sheet (I used an airbake) pour 1 Tbls oil on Kale add salt and mix with hands. Layer in single layer on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes pull out of oven and grate Paremesan Cheese onto Kale to taste we used approx. 1/4 cup. Finish baking about 5-8 more minutes, checking frequently as they can become over cooked quickly. Let cool slightly on pan and then remove to serving bowl/plate.


Sesame Chili Kale Chips

1 Bunch of Kale
1 Tbl spoon of Sesame Chili Oil (can be purchased or we made our own just by infusing some sesame oil with Cayenne chili peppers we grew ourselves.)
1 tsp Kosher salt
Cayenne Pepper to taste may omit if you wish

Clean and dry thoroughly the Kale and tear into bite size pieces being careful to tear out all ribs. On a cookie sheet (I used an airbake) pour 1 Tbls Sesame Chili Oil on Kale add salt and Cayenne pepper to taste and mix with hands. Layer in single layer on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 16 minute checking frequently as they can become over cooked quickly. Let cool slightly on pan and then remove to serving bowl/plate.


A couple of hints if you use too much oil it will require a longer cooking time and they won't get as crisp. If you don't layer them in a single layer some will be cooked while others are soft. We prefer eating immediately they can be stored in an air tight container but can get stale quickly. If you stack them on top of each other while still warm the top ones will get soft from the steam of the bottom chips. 

 Enjoy your Thanksgiving and blessings to all. 

Hot spirits

Hot Spirits 

or Habanero infused booze

Last year on our vacation to Disney World we spent some quality time enjoying some great tequila and Margarita’s in the Mexican pavilion at Epcot. At La Cava del Tequila we did a tequila flight which was wonderful and then we each had a Jalapeño Lime margarita or two. 

These margaritas had your typical sweetness which was only enhanced by the slight heat of the Jalapeno without being overly hot, this paired so well together. After an hour or 2 of respite from the heat and sun of Orlando’s steamy September afternoons we were ready to head back out with new attitude’s to conquer the rest of Epcot. I will say after that much tequila our personal meeting with Donald Duck was hilarious. 

This year along with all of our herbs and Cayenne Peppers we grew several Habanero Pepper plants and had them coming out of our ears. So what to do with them but of course infuse some tequila so we can attempt to make our own version of that hot sweet sensation.  While we were at it we also infused some vodka so that our Bloody Mary’s had a little more zip.  We also finely diced up some Habanero and put it in our margarita salt for our glass rims.   

First let’s cover the infusion portion of this followed by the actual Habanero Lime Margarita.

We took about 3 Habaneros and sliced them in half and placed them seeds and all in the tequila, since our bottle of vodka was 1.75 size we added 4 Habanero’s. A word of caution please wash your hands immediately after touching your peppers or else you may end up with some burning eyes if you accidentally touch them. 

Our alcohol of choice was Cabo Wabo Tequila Blanco and Smirnoff Vodka. We let them sit for about 10 days and then strained all of the Habanero and seeds out.

       

Our first batch of tequila we tried we let sit for 14 days and this was a touch too hot for my enjoyment though Mark does enjoy his heat. This second bottle was a little smoother. 

Habanero’s are only surpassed in heat by Ghost Peppers so if you are using Jalapeño Peppers you may want to let them sit longer than 10 days, since they are not as hot as Habanero's. Just taste test your spirits until they are of the heat you wish. I know it's a hard job but somebody's got to do it, who better then you!!!!!

Habanaro Salt for a robust salted rim

Marks Habanero Lime Margaritas 

1 Shot of Cointreau

2 Shots of Tequila 

3 Shots of Lime Margarita Mixer we prefer Tres Agaves Organic Margarita mix it's not as sweet or as fake tasting as some other mixers on the market. 

Sprig of Basil leaves

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice cubes add above ingredients reserving basil for the top. Now shake, shake, shake and shake some more for that wonderful frothiness. Pour out into a glass that has been rimmed with salt. Top with a piece of freshly pinched Basil it add's an earthy note and a herbal fragrance to this marvelous marg. Enjoy immediately. 

Here’s to Happy Drinking Cheers