Italian Monday - Roasted Red Pepper and Asiago Cheese Sausage with Peppers and Onions

So it's Monday and what better type of meal to cook on a Monday then Italiano!  Now me being on this low-carb kick I couldn't make my homemade baked ziti (and let me tell you, my baked ziti is KILLER) so I decided to try another Italian classic - sausage, peppers and onions.

Here's how dinner went down tonight.  The traditional recipe calls for a sweet Italian sausage, however I had these Roasted Red Pepper and Asiago Cheese Chicken Sausages burning a hole in my fridge, so I went the healthy route and used those.  It's really simple - brown your sausage on all sides:

Once browned, set the sausage aside, melt some butter in the pan, then add your veggies - onions, peppers, minced garlic, basil, oregano and white wine.  Now, I'm going to give you the link to the recipe when I'm all done and if following a recipe is your thing, then don't let me lead you astray.  But let me tell you, when it comes to spices and seasonings, I don't listen to anything or anyone.  The recipe says 4 minced garlic clove, I put in 6.  The recipe says a teaspoon of basil and oregano, I shake out what's probably a good tablespoon.  This method has not led me astray thus far, but I don't bake either, so I'm sure down the road when I feel the need to bake a pie or something it will backfire tremendously in my face.  Wait, who am I kidding.  I'm not ever going to bake a damn pie.  

Add the wine (drink some of the wine), add some more wine, and let the veggies cook.

Cut up your sausage, add it into veggies, cover and let it all simmer for about 15 minutes.  

And serve!  

Here's the full recipe - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/italian-sausage-peppers-and-onions/

Enjoy!

-Heather, Xoxo

So this happened the other night...

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but I've been busy.  What, you ask, could be more important than cooking and bacon that would silence me for days?  Easy.  Peanut butter and jelly shots.  That's right, you read that correctly - PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SHOTS!  This was a life changing.  Seriously.  There is not one ounce of sarcasm in that sentence.  

So here's how this goes down.  I'm sitting at one of my favorite bars with my best friend and the bartender sits this bottle down in front of me.  Me, being the inquisitive individual I am (okay fine, I'm nosy), ask what it is.  He says to me "oh, it's Peanut Butter rum."  All casual, like I asked him what time it was, then starts to walk away.  At this point I have two choices in my not-so-sober mind.  Stop him and get a sample, or help myself.  Better judgement prevailed (it does happen sometimes) and I decided since this is one of my favorite bars and one of my favorite bartenders, I should ask for the sample.  

In my mind the conversation went like this:

Me: "Hey Adam, may I have a sample of this Peanut Butter rum, please?"

Bartender Adam: "Sure Heather, no problem."

This is actually how the conversation went:

Me: "Whoa whoa whoa!  Where do you think you're going?!  You can't just throw out that the bottle in front of me is Peanut Butter rum and then walk away!  We've got to do some sampling FOR THE LOVA GOD!"

Bartender Adam: "Heather, I'll be back in just 10 seconds."

Me: "You don't understand, the food pyramid goes, in this order - bacon, vodka, peanut butter.  WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS?!?!"

Now, I must say that I don't normally talk to my bartenders in this manner.  Having spent 6 years of my life bar-tending, I do have crazy respect for bartenders, all they do, and all they put up with.  But Bartender Adam has served me enough times to know me, so he knows that crazy, drunk, sarcastic Heather is harmless and just having fun, and more importantly, would never be disrespectful.  END DISCLAIMER!

Now, Bartender Adam, being the nice guy that he is, tells us how most people drink this fine fine liquor in the form of Reese's Pieces - Godiva Chocolate Liquor mixed with the Peanut Butter rum.  This sounds like a match made in heaven to me - Reese's Pieces cups are my favorite candy.  So we do a couple Reese's Pieces shots.  Delicious, refreshing, wonderful shot.  

Then he says "I personally like the peanut butter and jelly shot better."  To which I reply "Eh, I'm sure it's good" (read: sure, okay - you're telling me it's better than a Reese's Pieces in the form of an alcoholic shot - whatever).  But who am I to turn down a shot suggestion with Peanut Butter rum (okay fine, who am I to turn down any shot), so I order two.  This is where my the game changed.  Forever.  Chambord (raspberry liquor) mixed with the Peanut Butter rum.  So simple, yet I'm pretty sure that the moment we all tried that shot, it was so good, that everyone doing it actually stopped thinking about anything else for a good minute.  Even sex - and doesn't everyone think about sex when they're drinking in a bar?  I actually could only muster up an "Oh. My. God." then was silenced - and if you know me, you know how difficult it is to get me to stop talking - that's how good it was.  

So now it is my personal mission to drag the poor people in my life down to my bar for a taste of these Peanut Butter and Jelly shots.  But I promise to try not to let them get in the way of me not blogging, for the few followers I have right now on this new endeavor. 

-Heather, Xoxo

Lettuce Wrapped Elk Burgers

So here's how it all went down tonight.  I have more Elk than my tiny freezer, in more forms than one animal should be able to go into - ground, steak, sausage, sticks.  Why Elk?  Well, like many folks in this neck of the woods I have some family members that like to hunt.  A bunch of them piled in a truck and took a trip to New Mexico to hunt some Elk. The end result?  I have shit ton of Elk to eat.  So when I decided I wanted to make lettuce-wrapped (should that be hyphenated?) burgers I figured I may as well start to use up some of my stock.  Hence, elk burgers.  Now keep in  mind you can obviously use hamburger or turkey for this recipe.


So here goes.  And OH - I attempted to take pictures throughout the process! Yay me!

Ingredients.  I pulled my seasonings for the burger from what I had in my cupboard (something I do often, so prepare yourselves for many "umm, why in the hell did she do that" moments as this blog goes on).  These included a half a bag of ranch, minced garlic, chives (I would have used fresh had I had any) and salt and pepper.  Side note - I use fresh ground black pepper and ground sea salt ALL the time.  Anyway, you obviously need lettuce and I choose red onion and tomato for my veggies.  

Now after I lined, everything up, took the picture, started mixing the seasonings in the meat, I realized two things.  One - I wanted to put ketchup in the mix.  Not for the sake of taste, and not a lot, but because a little bit of ketchup keeps a burger moist and juicy (again, insert dirty joke here).  And two - HOW COULD I FORGET BACON?!?  Honestly.  Here I am naming this damn blog after bacon and buying 4 packs of bacon at the grocery store (seriously, I bought 4 packs of bacon at the store yesterday), and I don't even put it in the picture.  Shame on me.  

So mix it all together and form some patties.  This is where I'm going to get serious on you.  I know some of you like your burgers really thin.  Hell, sometimes I love them.  But PLEASE do yourselves a favor and make this burger a good 1/2 - 3/4" thick.  And, more importantly cook it for 3-5 minutes on each side.  DRY BURGERS ARE BAD!

Fry up the bacon.  Yeah, that's all I got.  And I could have put that in the paragraph above, but then you wouldn't get to see a bacon picture - duh!

So cook up your burgers and your bacon and pile all your toppings on.  Now you can really use anything you want for a sauce, I used salsa ranch.  A chipolte mayo would no doubt be delicious as well.  Whatever does it for you.  

Here's the money shot.  I wrapped the whole thing in aluminum foil for handling and eating purposes and HIGHLY recommend you use this little trick if you make these.  

INGREDIENTS:

• Hamburger, Turkey, Elk or Deer
• Chopped chives
• Minced garlic
• 1/2 pack of dry ranch dressing
• Lettuce (Iceberg or Leafy Greens - a stronger, bigger lettuce)
• Red Onion (Optional)
• Tomato (Optional)
• Dressing (Salsa ranch, chipolte mayo, etc.)

DIRECTIONS:

1) Mix seasonings and ketchup with meat in a bowl

2) Roll the meat in the palm of your hand, forming 1/2 - 3/4" patties.  Place in grilling pan or on grill

3) Cook burgers for 3-5 minutes on each side

4) Cook bacon at the same time

5) Place bottom layer of lettuce in aluminum foil and build burger to your liking 

6) Top with lettuce and secure with the foil

7) Dip in your sauce or dressing of preference

Enjoy!

Pork Chops with Garlic and Wine

I gots to play catch up from last nights meal because I'll be honest, it was ah-mazing.  It was an explosion of flavor in my mouth (insert dirty joke here) and totally on a food porn level.

So it all started with one of my favorite food bloggers/chef's/women that I've followed for a while now - The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.  She's pretty badass.  Ree lives on a cattle ranch and long story short has made herself a nice little career out of photography and cooking.  I completely envy her life of waking up and spending her days documenting new and interesting things, and experimenting with new and fun recipes.  Oh and I guess raising her kids (minor details).  Anyway, Ree puts up this recipe in February for pork chops cooked in wine and garlic.  And when I say that Ree puts up a recipe, I mean she has the most amazing photographs and step-by-step instructions.  So when you're done reading these ramblings, check out the link below and you'll see what I mean.

So I decide to make Ree's pork chops and whatever you do - FOLLOW HER DIRECTIONS!  The one caveat I will say is that her recipe calls for balsamic vinegar I went on this great trip to the grocery store, only to forget to buy balsamic. So I substituted apple cider vinegar and it was still wonderful.

Now I don't have pictures of this whole process, since I decided to start this blog after I cooked dinner, but going forward I will have more to provide than a final picture.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and check out the recipe
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/02/pork-chops-with-garlic-and-wine/

My first blog - a few housekeeping items...

Against what may be my better judgement, I've started a food blog.  I've been toying with this idea for awhile and after an amazing meal and plenty of wine - here I am.

DISCLAIMER - I am not a chef! I do not play one on TV.  I do not know any professional chefs. I just love to cook and will give FULL credit when I use a recipe I found from anyone else.  I am also not a professional photographer.  I will take all the pictures you want on my little Canon Powershot and my mobile phone, but if you're expecting some Pioneer Woman or Young Married Chic quality photos, you should lower the bar.  Oh, and you'll know those two blogs soon enough.

So why blog?  For one, it probably is going to annoy my Facebook friends and Twitter followers (the few I have) a lot less if I put my ramblings on here.  And I mean ramblings in the fullest sense of the word.  I love food, I love to cook, I love to drink and I will do my very best to keep the swearing to a minimum, but no promises.

Bacon and vodka - what's with the name?  It's pretty self explanatory.  I love bacon.  And vodka.  Equally.  If I could survive on a bacon and vodka diet, I would give it a try.  But I suppose that's not too healthy and I have this silly thing called a job that requires me to be sober, so here I am.

A few random, final things.

You'll have to be patient with me - I'm still figuring out how to use this site.

I tend to cook on the low carb side.  It's a personal choice.  I feel better when I'm not always eating lots of breads and pasta's, but remember I said 'low', not 'no' carb.  And I lose weight.  It's that simple.

So here it is - my food (and drink) blog.  I have no idea how many of you will show up to read this and go through this process with me, but for those that dare to put up with my nonsense - thank you and enjoy!

Heather XOXO