What You Should Have Eaten #50

Ham and Swiss Crepes with Chopped Salad

As all good conversations tend to do, talk between me and a buddy ended up turning to beer and bacon the other day. He wondered if anybody had brewed a chocolate bacon stout. I Googled it, and this was the second link that popped up. Challenge accepted! Oh, and in case you’re wondering, this brewery has made a stout with chocolate and bacon. I must try it.

I used two bottle of Left Hand Milk Stout for the recipe. It’s what I had in my fridge. That’s why I went with tiny marshmallows instead of the big ones: availability.

 My biggest recommendation for you if you’re going to bake one of these is to make sure you’re got a big mixing bowl; this is a lot of batter. I ended up making the bunt cake and 12 cupcakes with enough batter left over for probably at least six more cupcakes.

After a little Mario Kart and Pokemon with my son, it was time to get started on dinner. Dinner, of course, also means a cocktail. Tonight it was a New Yorker Apple. Calvados (well, Applejack) and red vermouth. It was sweet, but not sugary sweet. I don’t really like mixing with vermouth all that much because of the…offness…of it. Like I said, sweet but not sugary, and it cuts out the bit of any stronger liquor it’s mixed with.

I forgot to take a picture of the recipe. Here’s a link to another blog that’s got it.

I went with one container of red cherry tomatoes instead of two containers, one each of red and yellow, because a) I couldn’t find any yellow and b) they were damned expensive. I also went with a regular cucumber instead of a seedless one. I’ve never had a problem with the seeds in cucumbers, and neither have my kids.

Whenever I splurge on sliced ham from the deli instead of the pre-packaged stuff, I always go with Boar’s Head Maple Glazed Honey Coat Ham. It’s the best lunchmeat I’ve ever had.

I did not enjoy making the crepes. I’m thinking that I used to much batter as I tried to make each one. They were impossible to successfully flip and keep together.

The entire meal was…decent. Good, but I probably wouldn’t take the time to make any of it again. The salad wasn’t what I usually go for. I like leafier lettuces. I agree with the blog I linked to. This would have been much better with spinach instead of watercress, and I’d probably leave the parsley out altogether.

The crepes were good, but they weren’t what I was expecting. I told my kids they would be like thin pancakes, but instead they were like thick omelets. I would have enjoyed them more had they been fully one thing or the other, either pancakes or omelets.

The cake/cupcakes took some getting used to, but in the end I really enjoyed it. The bacon taste is pretty subtle, but you really have to be prepared for it when you’re eating the cake and all of the sudden you bite into a chunk of bacon. Once you get past that shock, though, prepare to enjoy yourself. I didn’t put any of the icing on cupcakes, instead using it all for the cake (which was unusually heavy, something I wasn’t prepared for). I took the cupcakes to work, and they seemed to be a big hit. My kids also really liked it.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Eaten #44

London Broil with Mushroom Vinagrette

The drink with this dinner was a Star Cocktail: Calvados, dry vermouth and Angostura bitters. I have yet to actually spring for a bottle of Calvados, so I substitute with Applejack, an apple brandy made in Virginia. It’s probably a tad harsher than Calvados, but it gets the job done. The next time I need a bottle, though, I’ll probably go with actual Calvados. I’ve been slowing gravitating toward slightly higher-priced, better quality liquors lately.

I usually balk at using the broiler (I tend to set things on fire with it), but this time everything worked out nicely.

I didn’t have any sherry vinegar, so I used 1/8 cup of cooking sherry and 1/8 cup of red wine vinegar. I think it was a passable substitute.

I probably should have cut a minute of cooking time off of each side of the steak. It ended up being a tad tough, but still quite edible. It was a moot point after the mushrooms were added to it, though. The combination of the fungus and meat was great.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Eaten #33

German Potato Salad with Kielbasa and Baked Beans

My grandpa “wrote” a cookbook a few years before he died. I’ve only made two dishes out of it, and that was when I was in college. One was a horrible, horrible concoction (BLT Soup), and the other, his German potato salad, was a big success. My grandpa opened a deli after he retired from the insurance game, and it was well-known and well-respected in Dubois County. Along with his Rueben sandwich, his potato salad was legendary. Heck, he was even a guest teacher one day for my middle school home ec class, and we all learned how to make his potato salad. I’m not expecting this recipe to be better than his, but dammit if it doesn’t sound tasty.

Tonight’s drink is a Calvados Cocktail. Calvados, grenadine, orange juice and orange bitters. I’m cheating a little bit. I’m using Applejack, a blended apple brandy, instead of actual Calvados. When this bottle is gone, though, I’m going to spring for the real stuff.

Three-quarters of an ounce of grenadine? I hope the OJ ends up cutting the sweetness/syrupiness of this concoction, because I’m already expecting this to be almost sickly sweet.

Yup, still too syrupy. Less grenadine, more OJ maybe, or even some more Calvados.

My kids balked at the idea of baked beans, so I let them dress up the boring old can that I bought. I’m going to include back, bratwurst, and a little experimental sauce of root beer and beer, with some cheese and bread crumbs on top. It’ll be prepared on the stove, then tossed in the oven for a bit to actually bake. I’m excited!

My homemade sauce includes A&W Root Beer, a little bit of Sweet Water Motor Boat Ale, some Dijon mustard, some Heinz 57 sauce (well, really, the Kroger equivalent), and a dash of Worchestershire.

This is only the second time I’ve cooked bacon in the oven. Last time it didn’t turn out too well because I was experimenting and not following any specific directions. Hopefully this time it’ll turn out different.

With the amount of pig I’m putting in these beans, I’m renaming this Super Pork n’ Beans. This is going to be epic.

Since I don’t like onions (and they don’t like me), I’m using a bit of garlic instead.

This is the first time I’ve worked with kale. I hope it doesn’t make the potato salad taste awful.

Did I also forget to mention that before the beans go in the oven, there’s going to be a layer of Colby jack cheese and a layer of crushed Lays honey barbeque chips added to it? Yeah, this is happening, people.

Holy freaking moley, that was a damn good dinner. I was a bit worried when the topping to the beans caught on fire in the oven, but I caught it before it burned too much, and I was able to scrape off the burned part. Next time I’ll know not to use the broiler.

My oldest son helped me come up with the ingredients for the beans. The root beer and bratwurst were his idea. He didn’t eat a damned bit of it. His loss, really. He also chose dessert: root beer floats with cookies ‘n cream ice cream. No happy plate, no dessert. My daughter at least tried everything, and she liked the potatoes and the meat from the beans. My youngest son ate his salad and his siblings’ salads. My sister and I made happy plates, though. I’m about to enjoy a float. I’ll also be enjoying leftovers all week.