Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

I love the new "bacon goes with everything" phenomenon going on at the moment. I hadn't done any baking in a while so decided try this recipe I found in Food Network magazine for peanut butter chocolate chip bacon cookies. Plus, what husband wouldn't want to come home from a golf-filled morning to a house smelling of that heavenly concoction?

The original recipe only makes a dozen cookies, so I doubled it... why not? Here's the original recipe, double it if you feel so inclined. Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of chipotle or ancho chile powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 strips bacon (1/3 pound) (Be sure to use good bacon. Don't cheap out. Also, I used more bacon which was a good call!)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped honey- roasted peanuts (I did not add these and did not miss them!)
• 1/3 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, chile powder and salt in a large bowl.

Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 4 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; reserve 2 tablespoons of the drippings and set aside to cool. 

Crumble the bacon, discarding (or eating) any chewy bits.

Beat the butter and reserved bacon drippings in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in the peanut butter until combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the granulated and light brown sugar until creamy, about 4 minutes, then add the egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 more minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture in 2 additions, scraping down the bowl as needed, until just combined. Stir in the peanuts and all but 2 tablespoons each of the chocolate chips and bacon.

Form the dough into 12 balls and arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten with your fingers (the cookies will not spread in the oven); press the reserved bacon and chocolate chips on top (I forgot to do this step since I mixed all the bacon in with the dough... whoops). Bake until golden, 12 to 14 minutes. Let the cookies cool 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. 

*I recommend munching on these cookies with a big glass of ice cold milk. You'll need it!

Orange you glad I made sorbet?

With summer here, sorbet is a staple to have in our freezer. Homemade sorbet is even sweeter! Here's our quick and tasty sorbet recipe. This is orange sorbet, but we get creative sometimes but adding some freshly juiced lemon, raspberry or lime juice... yummmm!

The first step is to have an ice cream maker. One of our favorite wedding presents is our ice cream maker. It's a great tool to have in your bag of tricks.

Start by making a simple syrup by taking 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar and boiling in a sauce pan. Bring the syrup to room temp and mix with 3 cups orange juice (which we always have in the fridge.) Pop in the ice cream maker and let it do it's thing until it's icy and somewhat firm but fluffy (usually it takes about 30 minutes.)

When it looks like this...

...put it in some Ziploc containers, the kind with the twist on tops (they keep out excess air the best) and keep in the freezer for whenever your sweet tooth comes to visit.

Orange you glad you have this recipe now? 

Bread Pudding and a China Cabinet Re-Vamp!

I came home from our vacation inspired. Inspired to cook and to breathe some new life into our china cabinet. Random, I know. Let me explain.

While in the airport terminal in New Orleans buying pralines for my grandma, I had an impulse buy of bread pudding mix they had by the cash register (remember how I am with those impulse purchases? Dangerous.) I love bread pudding and make Emeril's Bourbon Bread Pudding abnormally often now that I think about it. It's just too flippin' easy and delicious and my husband is a bourbon drinker so everybody wins. Post said purchase, I realized that the mix is a "just add water" deal. Just add water, bread and raisins. Interesting.

So here's what you need:
- 1 packet of the mix
- 1 loaf of slightly old french bread torn into pieces (it calls for 8 cups)
- about a handful of raisins
- 2 cups water

Dissolve the mix in the water...

Add the liquid to the bread and the raisins and stir until everything's coated...

Put in an 8x8 greased pan and bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes. And here's the finished product.

And it was delicious. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of cool whip on top and you're in heaven!

I looked on the pudding mix company's website, The Praline Connection, and you can't order it online... bummer. But I did find this option online, or I'm sure you can find some sort of mix in the grocery store, I've just never looked for it, but I will now!

Ok, so onto the china hutch that I re-vamped. I adore our china hutch. It's beautiful and gives us some much needed storage. On our flight home, I was thinking about house stuff and reminiscing about how I was so thrilled with that side table I repainted last week... I decided to add a coat of paint to our china cabinet. One our way home from the airport, we stopped at Home Depot and I picked out a lovely shade of paint called Egyptian Nile. Doesn't it sound exotic?

Here's the before shot:

And here's the after shot:

Not too bad, right? We also moved it from our kitchen to our dining room which was a feat in itself but now the room feels much more complete. As a matter of fact, at this very moment I am sitting at our dining room table, eating my bread pudding and admiring my paint job as I type. Sigh... all in a days work.

Back from the Bayou!

Did you think that I up and left and forgot all about you? Well, I did skip town for a much needed vacation but certainly didn't forget about you. Here's who I hung out with while I was gone:

Ok, so it's not a person, it's a dish of creme brulée with a powdered sugar fleur de lis decoration on top... but it was worth the trip. While I ate my way through New Orleans this week (see photo above, don't be fooled by the two bites taken from the brulée. That baby ended up polished off. Of course, I had help so please refrain from judging me, thanks), not only did I come home with about 5 extra pounds that I didn't have before, but I also brain-filed away plenty of yummy recipes to try and ideas for how to add a bit of the South to our home style. 

One of the amazing restaurants we visited was Commander's Palace. Not only was it phenomenal, but I commented to the waitress that I loved the pepper jelly that came with their Shrimp and Tasso Henican and she gave me the recipe for it- Score! You can guarantee I'll be making it this week, in addition to busting out the pickled okra by brother made me that's been chilling in a mason jar in the fridge since Christmas. My to-do list is growing by the minute and I promise to document my adventures :)

On another note, in case that dessert photo above didn't make you salivate, perhaps this bread pudding pic will to the trick:

For what it's worth, I did finish the bread pudding on my own. (Credit goes to Commander's Palace for both of the fabulous desserts featured in this post.) 

Stay tuned, friends!