Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Did you know today was National Bacon Day? Here's a tasty bacon treat that is super easy to make.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Preheat oven to 400. Spread about 1 cup of light brown sugar on a plate. Pat one side of bacon on the brown sugar. Roll the asparagus and bake until crisp, about 30 minutes.

Garlic & Eggplant Dip

I made a garlic and eggplant dip for a small gathering I'm having tomorrow and could have sworn I had the recipe on here. But since I don't and since friends are asking for the recipe, here it is. I've made so many variations of this, but here is this one.

Garlic and Eggplant Dip

Ingredients
1 large eggplant
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 grape seed oil
1 tbs of ground mustard

Preheat your oven to 350. Cut the eggplant into quarters. Stab with a fork. Lightly coat the eggplant with oil and roast for about an hour or until it's super soft. After it cools, remove the skin from the eggplant, and cut into big chunks. In your blender, blend the eggplant oil, mustard seed, and garlic.

Now, I have made variations of this. I normally use EVOO, but I had grape seed oil on hand. I've also added two hard boiled egg yolks to the mix. Sometimes, I'll add a splash of lemon juice. If I want it more creamy, I add about 1/4 cup light mayo and 1/4 tsp mustard.

It's great with crackers and veggie. Enjoy!

Cornmeal BBQ Breakfast Sausage Patties

It's a mouthful, but I was doing some reading for my ORG711 class for my doctoral program at #UOPX when I had an idea for breakfast sausage. My "ideas" come to me at weird times. And of course it happens when I'm studying. So I tried. it.

You'll need...

1 lb mild pork sausage

1 small onion--works better finely chopped

1 egg

1/4 cup honey BBQ--I use Sweet Baby Ray's

1/2 cup corn meal

2 TBS maple syrup

Mix, make patties, and fry. 

BBQ Bacon Meat Loaf

I was playing with stuffed mushroom recipe and had extra meat left over. So I made a meat loaf.

Ingredients
1 lb spicy sausage
1/2 lb bacon, chopped and fried
1 medium onion, chopped
6 garlic gloves, minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's)
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs

Fry bacon until crisp. Add onions and garlic and saute. Let bacon cool and mix with the rest of the ingredients leaving 1/4 cup ketchup and 1/4 BBQ sauce for topping.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

This is by no means healthy, but the bacon is really good. The BBQ sauce and sausage give it an extra kick.

Vegetarian Sarmale

My friend Jamie and her boyfriend came to Atlanta for a visit and I just had to make them something Romanian to snack on. I instantly knew that I wanted to make sarmale, but they're vegetarian. So I made vegetarian sarmale. Here's what I did.

3 grated carrots

1 large onion finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped kalamata olives
1 lb finely chopped mushrooms
1 cup uncooked rice
V8 or vegetable juice
1 cup lemon juice
3 tbs dill
1 tbs vegeta
1 jar grape leaves
1/4 cup olive oil

All the ingredients together with the exception of grape leaves, vegetable juice, and lemon juice. Put the grape leaf in one palm and scoop about 2 tbs of the mixture and roll  into the grape leaf. Place in a crock pot. Repeat until you use all the of them mixture. Add the bottle of vegetable juice and lemon juice. Cook on low for 6 hours.

Garlic and Dill Chicken

I love garlic, dill, and when I'm in the mood to eat meat, I usually always go for chicken. So I combined  all those in a pretty simple recipe.

Garlic and Dill Chicken

Ingredients:

2 TBS Vegeta

1/2 cup EVOO

10 cloves of garlic

2 TBS fresh dill

1 lb chicken breasts

2 slices mozzarella cheese

Start by finely chopping garlic and dill. In a bowl, smash in a mortar and pestle. Mix in EVOO and Vegeta. 

Cut the mozzarella in quarters. 

Grease a class baking pan. Cut slits in the middle of the chicken breasts. Fill with a quarter slice of mozzerella and 1 tsp of garlic oil. Pour left over garlic oil over chicken.

Bake at 350 for 30 min. 

Placinta Cu Mere si Branza: Yummy Romanian Apple and Cheese Dessert

It's been a while since I shared a recipe on here. I wasn't in the mood to cook for a while. I moved to Atlanta and now that I'm settled, I feel like cooking again. So last night, I had a girlfriend over. Her and I went to high school together. It's nice to have someone like her close by in a new city. She isn't much for sweets, but she liked this.

Placinta Cu Mere si Branza

This is actually pretty easy, but I never made it until now. Think of this like an apple lasagna. 

What You Need

1 bag of apples. I recommend Jonathans.

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

Cinnamon (to taste)

Cloves (to taste)

2 TBS vanilla

24 oz low fat cottage cheese 

1 package philo dough

Brown sugar

Peel and slice applies thinly and sauté in 1 cup sugar until soft. 

In a large bowl, mix cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, cinnamon and cloves to taste. 1 tsp would suffice.  

Grease a 13x9 pan. Add 1 layer of 8 sheets of philo dough. Spray with Pam and add sprinkle with brown sugar. 

Add another layer of philo dough. Spread half the apples over the dough. 

Add another layer of philo dough. Spread half the cottage cheese mixture over the dough. 

Repeat until apples and cottage cheese are gone. My top layer was cottage cheese, but you can top with philo dough, sprayed with Pam and sprinkled with brown sugar.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serve warm.