A former love-hate relationship

Ever since I learned to eat one of my favorite foods to eat is bacon. The salty savory meat is one of those foods that makes everything taste a little better. Doesn't matter if you eat it by itself. On a sandwich. Crumbled and topping savory or sweet dishes. Bacon is one of those foods that makes my mouth happy.

The consuming of bacon is where the love comes in.

It used to be the cooking of bacon was where the hate came in. The grease. It found every surface of the kitchen to lodge itself for clean up long after the fragrant aroma and crumbly goodness has long evaporated. Cooking bacon sucked. Cooking bacon was a chore. So it eventually became one of those foods that was made rarely because the clean was not worth the flavor. Or bacon was eaten at a cafe. Anywhere that I didn't have to cook and more importantly clean up after the fact.

A few years ago I learned a secret. Since that time I don't cringe when I need to cook bacon.

I know some of you know this secret. But this is for those who don't know the secret.

I haven't cooked bacon on the stovetop in years. When I want bacon, I go to the oven. Yes. The oven.

Take the number of strips you want to cook and place them on a cookie sheet pan. Obviously one  that has sides.

You can also place a rack in the pan and that way the drippings drip away from the bacon. As you can see, I didn't do that with this batch.

If you Google how to oven fry bacon you'll find a lot of different temps and times to use. For this pan I used 350 degrees. Depending on the thickness of the bacon and how crispy you like your bacon the time will range from 10 to fifteen minutes, even up to 20 minutes.

Once finished you'll have not only aromatic, savory bacon but they'll look fabulous. None of that scrunchy twisty bacon you're used to getting from trying to get the slices to fit in a pan on the stovetop.

There. Doesn't that look yummy? And everything is confined to the oven. More importantly, the majority is confined to the pan, so you don't have to clean the oven unless you really want to.

Why am I writing about this now? Because I will share recipes here. Some of those recipes use bacon in them. Not all of them. Probably not a lot of them. But some of them will contain bacon. What good does it do to share a recipe that makes a huge mess, meaning one you won't make because of the mess it makes? It doesn't do any good. So before I share one of those recipes the first step is to share a trick I learned long ago how to prepare bacon in a timely, less messy way.

Last night when I cooked this bacon I used the pan and grease in the pan for a second ingredient. After removing the bacon, I sliced cherry tomatoes that I picked from my garden and placed them on the pan to roast in the oven. Since both the tomatoes and bacon were going on a pizza I wanted the tomatoes to absorb some of the bacon flavor while I roasted them.

If you've never cooked bacon this way, let me know how you like it once you've tried it.

Peanut butter filled chocolate cup cake

Yesterday I posted a picture of this cupcake. I was asked for the recipe.

I used Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cupcake recipe for these.

This is truly a one bowl cupcake recipe.

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

I sift all the dry ingredients into the bowl.

Then add:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (the original recipe calls for safflower oil, but I use Crisco vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I don't bother getting the mixer out for this recipe. I use my whisk to mix everything together. You can use your mixer if you wish.

The original directions state to use a preheated 350 degree oven. Since I use a fairly good sized toaster/convection oven, one that will hold a full sized muffin tin I set it to 325 degrees.

I use an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake liners so I get the same amount in each one. One scoop fills them between 1/2 to 2/3 full.

If you are using a regular oven bake for about 20 minutes. If you're using a convection oven bake between 15-18 minutes.

The cupcakes are done when the tops spring back when touched.

Let set in muffin pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

I used the peanut butter filling and chocolate ganache recipe that I found here to finish up the cupcakes.

One word of caution. Make sure the cup cakes are completely filled before attempting to fill them with the peanut butter mixture. If they are still warm they will melt the filling.

Peanut butter filling

3 tablespoons softened butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter (please use a good quality peanut butter)

Cream together in your mixer. Yes, I used my mixer for this. Once the butters have been blended, add 2/3 cups of powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. I walked away for a few minutes, not more than five to let it do it's thing.

For this next step I use Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus. I find it's easier to shove the filling into a tube instead of a pastry bag. I use the filling tip that is included in this set. I shove the filling tip at least half way through the cupcake, then squeeze the trigger pulling the tip out as I squeeze.

The next step is the ganache for the top. I used the one from the site where I found the peanut butter filling this time.

1 cup heavy cream

Bring to a simmer.

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped.

After the cream has simmered, remove from heat. Add the chopped chocolate to the cream. Let stand for about five minutes. Then whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Let the ganache cool for an additional 15 or so minutes.

Dip the cupcakes into the mixture, letting the excess fall back into the pan. Let the cupcakes set on the rack for another five minutes. Then dip them again into the ganache.

After they've set for another five or ten minutes you can change the tip on your leftover filling to a star tip or whatever design you wish to make. Add the decoration to the top. You're done. Except for the fun part...eating your cupcake.

Note: you might want to place the cupcakes into the freezer for a few minutes to let the ganache set before adding the decoration on top.

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. There is enough filling and ganache for this many cupcakes with a bit of each leftover.

Also, I store these in an airtight container in the fridge.

One Kansas Farmer

A group of online guys were discussing the use of energy. Who uses the most per country. One of the respondents lives in a pretty small country. Since most of our states are larger than his country it seems pretty natural that as a country we'll use more energy than his country. 

He felt that the USA no longer was holding up their end of the technology/manufacturing end of things. On some parts of his argument I tend to agree. I hate that so much of our manufacturing power has been shipped offshore. 

However, this is not about manufacturing. This is about one Kansas farmer. Not me. Not my family, but any Kansas farmer. 

Depending on what source you use, one Kansas farmer feeds more than 128 people and up to 155 people. 

The crop in the foreground is first crop soybeans which are being harvested now as I type. The crop in the background is milo a grain sorghum.

Off to the left is a pasture and across the road from that pasture is another pasture, where the cows graze. To the north and right of this area is an area that has a cover crop planted on it. The cover crops tend to serve two purposes.

Let me digress for a moment. We are a no-till farming family. There are some who argue against no-till but for our family farm it works. 

Crops are rotated. Each crops takes nutrients from the soil. To help put nutrients back into the soil crops are rotated. The crops we grow on our family farm include: winter wheat, soybeans, milo, corn and sunflower seeds. Each of these crops gives back specific nutrients, but also takes other nutrients from the soil. To give back the missing nutrients cover crops are grown. I'm not going to pretend to understand exactly what each cover crop gives back. We have a family member who goes to seminars a few times a year to learn more and more about no till farming and which cover crops are best for which nutrients. 

So the cover crop that is to the north and right of the area the above pictures shows is used to put nutrients back into the soil. The second use is this winter that area will be fenced off and the cows will be allowed to graze it. 

All of this does require the consumption of fuel to plant, grow and harvest the crops. But I have never met anyone better than a farmer who is more concerned or knowledgable about how to preserve the land they farm. Not only does your ability to buy groceries from the store depend on them having this knowledge but their own survival depends on it. 

Yes, I'm partial to the Kansas farmer. I come from a long line of Kansas farmers. But farmers from all the other states have to be just as smart, dedicated and reliable as each and every one of the Kansas farmers. 

Harvest

The last few days we've been busy with first crop soybean harvest. While many of the colors suggest fall, today the temps were hovering around 90 degrees in most parts of this area. Still, there is something special about harvesting the crops. For those who are confused about the first crop of soybeans, later we'll harvest the second crop. After the wheat was harvested last summer, some of the fields were immediately planted to soybeans. Those are referred to as second crop soybeans or beans. 

In between trips out to the field to run errands, help move from one field to the next, bringing lunches, I try to make something nice for the guys to eat when they come in after a long day in the harvest field. Today I made my take on a Reese's peanut butter cupcake. Not only is there the peanut butter star on top, the same peanut buttery goodness is inside the cupcake. I haven't cheated and sampled one yet. But if they don't hurry up and come in from the field, I will cheat and forget sampling one, I'll eat the whole thing. 

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures of a part of my life. Happiness is the farm and the kitchen.

What's cooking?

While I'm on the road working, the one thing I miss most is cooking. Cooking for myself and cooking for others. The kitchen provides a calming affect. It's more than just preparing food to feed our bodies. The preparation of food is where we get to add ourselves, a part of our spirit into the food to help feed the soul, too.

Some cooks can follow a recipe to the T. Me? Almost never. I have to put my own spin to it. It's who I am.

Tonight I'm making meatloaf and caramelized onions/mashed potato. When I caramelize onions I do it the slow way. Low heat, extra virgin olive oil and time. I don't add any sweetener to the mix. I use the natural sweetness of the onions. Tonight I'm using onions that I picked out of our garden. After I get the potatoes mashed, I'll mix the caramelized onions into it. Because it's that time of the year when I don't know when everyone will be in to eat...harvest time...I'll place them in a casserole pan, sprinkle shredded cheese on top and keep the potatoes and meatloaf warm.

Steamed asparagus is the veggie of choice for tonights offering.

What are you fixing for your crew tonight?

Leftover Ham

The other night I cooked a fairly large ham. Which meant I had leftover ham to contend with for several days. Okay, I still have left over ham. Sigh.

I spent plenty of time trying to figure out a way to make something out of the leftover ham. I went to Google and did a search. I found a lot of recipes that gave me ideas. None of the recipes were what I ended up making. Let's face it. The use of leftovers is very dependent upon what one has in their pantry.

I found a box that had various types of pasta in it. From bowties to elbow macaroni, all those little bits and pieces that were tossed into one box because there wasn't enough left of any one kind to do anything with it. All those odd pieces combined were enough for my leftover ham.

After cooking them in boiling water, I drained them and added a jar of alfredo sauce to them. Next I tossed in some chopped ham.

But wait, there's more. I got some asparagus from the freezer and chopped it into about one inch chunks. I mixed that into the pan with the pasta, sauce and ham. Then I poured all of it into an 8X10 glass pan for the oven. I sprinkled various bags of shredded cheese on top of the mixture. Then I baked it until it was bubbly and the cheese was melted.

I used some shredded cheddar and shredded Parmesan cheese.

Not only is this a great way to use leftover ham, once the cheese has melted if you're not sure when the rest of the crew will be ready to eat, you turn the oven as low as it will go and let it heat until you're ready to serve it to your hungry family.

What are some of your favorite ways to use your leftover meats?