Bacon Chicken Caesar Salad

Before my parents moved up to the lake, I used to spend my vacation time in New England on Cape Cod with my aunt, uncle and little cousins.  It's a shame that it's becoming harder and harder to squeeze in any time on the Cape now that I've moved further away and my job doesn't have the flexibility of my college internships.  I miss lobster rolls, my daily serving of incredible ice cream, and especially my Aunt's Chicken Caesar Salad (which she got from Jamie Oliver).  So with the first bit of what felt like summer last week, I was craving this salad for dinner.



Obviously I didn't quite think through the fact that having our oven on 400 for 2 hours on the first day when Chicago had temperatures over 80 was probably not the best idea I'd ever had.  But when I got home from yoga and this salad was done, I didn't even care that I was sweating bullets.  I was transplanted to a summer day on the Cape when I could still carry my littlest cousin to the beach and when she saw me her face lit up like I was Santa Claus.  Nowadays I just get pictures of her wearing high heels and makeup.  Sigh.



There are a couple of things to note about this salad.  The first is that this is not a "look I'm on a diet so I'm eating salad for dinner" salad.  You just let a loaf of bread soak up chicken fat and bacon grease for 2 hours and then ate it.  Don't kid yourself.  On a side note, these are literally the best croutons in the entire world.

If you do burn them a little bit because you turn the broiler on and then get distracted doing something important like studying for med school finals (I'm not saying that the Monkey Scientist burned all of the croutons while I was at yoga or anything like that), try to salvage them and just cut off the charred bits.  They'll be just fine as long as you didn't burn the whole thing!



The second is anchovies.  Yes, I know you're scared.  Yes, they smell like cat food (and look like it once you mash them up).  No, they aren't something I want on my pizza.  But this is Caesar salad folks. And without anchovies, it just isn't Caesar dressing.  I promise they won't taste like cat food once you drown them in olive oil, creme fraiche, and lemon juice.  Just trust me on this one, OK?  On the bright side, who knew that a can of anchovies cost barely more than a dollar? I don't even feel that bad that I threw the rest of the can away (because what the heck was I going to do with leftover anchovies).



Now when I say this is my favorite Caesar salad ever, I'm not joking.  The dressing is creamy and delicious. The croutons soak up all that fat, get crispy in the oven, and then when you put the dressing on them they soak it up and become chewable without destroying your teeth.  Again, best croutons in the world.  I enjoy the baked, dark meat chicken on this about 1000 times more than the rubbery slices of grilled chicken breast you get anywhere else.  Although my aunt actually uses bone-in, skin on chicken breasts and it works great, too.  And despite the fact that the roommate made a side of pasta, I stand by the fact that this salad is a solid meal.  Even the Monkey Scientist had it for his whole dinner.  It's worth every minute of sweltering over the oven.



Bacon Chicken Caesar Salad
slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients
4-6 chicken legs, skin on
1 round loaf sourdough bread (about 9 ounces), chopped into 1.5" cubes
6 slices bacon
3 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped
1 large head romaine lettuce, chopped
dressing
1 clove peeled and smashed garlic
4 anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained
3 oz freshly grated Parmesan, plus a few shavings to serve
1 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
1 lemon, juiced (about 2 oz)
Extra-virgin olive oil (about 6 oz)

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large glass baking dish, lay out the cubed bread, then bacon, then chicken legs.  Drizzle with about 3 tbsp (or more) olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground sea salt, black pepper, and chopped rosemary.  Toss to coat evenly.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25-35 minutes, or until the chicken can easily be peeled off the bone.  Remove the chicken, and toss the bacon and croutons.  Make sure to leave all the fat drippings from the chicken and bacon in there.  The croutons will soak that up and that's what makes them delicious!  Return to the oven and allow to bake until the croutons and bacon are crispy but not burnt, tossing every 5-10 minutes or as necessary.  If this isn't happening at 400 degrees F, turn the broiler on low, but watch carefully as the croutons could start to burn quickly!
4.  When the chicken has cooled slightly, use your hands or two forks to peel off the skin and discard, then peel the meat off the bones and shred.  Chop the crispy bacon into bite size pieces.
5.  Add the lettuce, chicken, croutons, and bacon to a large salad bowl.
6.  Assemble the dressing: Using a mortar and pestle (or in my case, a small bowl and the handle of a lemon reamer), smash the anchovies and garlic into a thick paste.  Whisk in the grated Parmesan, creme fraiche, juice of 1 lemon, and 3 times as much extra-virgin olive oil as lemon juice.
7.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat evenly.  Serve with a few Parmesan shavings on top.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Dried Cherries and Israeli Couscous

Today's post is dedicated to the man who makes me smile each and every day. You're my bacon - you make everything better. Happy Birthday, Monkey Scientist.



You might notice that this recipe is not tagged as "healthy".  Sure, it has brussels sprouts.  Israeli couscous is pretty healthy.  Dried cherries are a great snack.  But when we finished eating these, the Monkey Scientist turned to me and asked where the grease went from frying up the bacon and I had to turn down and look at my belly.  You ate it, dear.



To be fair, it's only 2 slices of bacon.  If you wanted, you could even drain some of the bacon fat off.  I've even heard of a coworker who used oil instead of bacon grease.  But if you're eating brussels sprouts, don't you deserve to have them taste like bacon?  Isn't it worth an extra Stroga class?



I tried to keep the meal under control by serving it up with some trout that had barely any olive oil on it but was seasoned well with lemon juice, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Since I was up at Whole Foods to get the bacon, I bought my fish there as well so it was additive free.  The whole meal came together really quickly, which was very much appreciated since we've been pretty busy lately.



The taste was really outstanding.  Shredded brussels sprouts, as you know, are one of my favorite veggies and the Israeli couscous went really well mixed in.  I love Israeli couscous - the texture is one of my favorite things.  The saltiness of the bacon combined with the sweetness from the cherries was absolute perfection.



Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Dried Cherries and Israeli Couscous
from eat, live, run

Ingredients:
16-18 brussels sprouts, very thinly sliced
2 slices bacon, preferably black pepper-rubbed (available at Whole Foods and butcher shops)
1/2 cup Israeli couscous
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt to taste

Directions:
1. Bring 3/4 cup water to a boil and add the couscous plus a pinch of sea salt. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until no more water remains. Fluff with a fork and set aside.
2. Cook the bacon in a cast iron skillet until crispy. Remove bacon and roughly chop.
3. Add thinly sliced brussels sprouts to the hot bacon grease on the stove and saute for about five minutes, until the sprouts turn bright green.
4. Add back in the bacon bits along with the dried cherries and cooked couscous. Toss well and season with salt to taste.

Shredded Sprouts Salad

I have always been terrified of brussels sprouts.  They just don't sound good, and until recently they've only been featured as a weird ingredient on the menu that no one really orders, like liver and onions.  But these little veggies, they've made a comeback!  And with good reason, they're actually delicious!



My mom makes a brussels sprouts recipe where she keeps them whole and then cooks them in bacon fat.  I much prefer the shredded version.  When it's whole, the outside gets cooked and caramelizes but the inside often remains a bit raw.  Raw brussels sprouts have a very strong cabbage flavor, which is probably the flavor that gave these babies a bad rep in the first place.  So step 1 in making them delicious - shred your sprouts.



Of course, everything tastes better with bacon.  Step 2 is to fry them up in bacon fat.  Sprinkle back in the crumbled bacon.  You won't be sorry.  Even 1 piece of bacon in the whole batch goes a long way.  If you don't eat pork, use turkey bacon and fry them in butter or oil, still does the trick.



Step 3 is balsamic vinegar.  It gives the perfect bit of acidity while adding some sweetness to the sprouts. Sprouts need balsamic.  They were meant to be together.

Finally, cheese.  Like bacon, everything tastes better with cheese.  Asiago is fantastic because its a little salty and it's plenty hard to grate in easily.  I'd like to say you can never have enough cheese, but a little goes a long way here.



This recipe is my favorite vegetable side dish, maybe ever.  I can gobble up a whole batch on my own.  I almost never make a dish more than once (I love trying new things) but I've made this probably 5 times now and I'm dreaming about making it again tonight.  Even the Monkey Scientist, who claims to hate brussels sprouts, loved this dish.  Leave it to Jessica, a self-proclaimed veggie hater, to bring me the best thing to happen to brussels sprouts since...well ever.  Now go home and make these, you won't regret it!



Shredded Sprouts Salad
from How Sweet Eats

Ingredients
2 cups whole brussels sprouts
1/2 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon butter or bacon fat
1 slice bacon, fried and crumbed
1/2 ounce grated asiago cheese

Instructions
1. Cutting the stems off of the brussels sprouts.
2. Add sprouts to a food processor and pulse until sprouts are tiny shreds. Do it manually so you can control the size of the shreds. You want some larger pieces and you don’t want them to be crumbs!
3. Melt butter or heat up bacon fat in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and shredded sprouts, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and saute for about 5-7 minutes, or until sprouts are browning. Add vinegar, salt, and pepper while stirring and make sure sprouts are all coated. Saute for another 1-2 minutes. Remove and plate.
4. Top with crumbled bacon and a small sprinkling of asiago cheese. Devour!

Chorizo-style Pork Chops

I'm a bit of an early bird.  I love getting up early, even on the weekends, and seizing the day.  By 11 pm on a weekday, I'm already asleep.  It's a little bit of a struggle, since most of my friends aren't exactly excited when I call them at 9 am on a Saturday to go to the farmer's market.  I can't understand why...the morning is always so gorgeous and sunny!

Sometimes on the weekend, I'll try to quietly entertain myself for an hour or two and let the Monkey Scientist sleep a little later before I wake him up.  I'll read a book on my iPad or, lately, brainstorm recipe ideas.  A few weeks ago, lying in bed on a Saturday morning, I had the inspiration for this dish.  Yes, I was thinking about pork chops at 9 am on a Saturday.  I might like food a little bit.



If you didn't notice, I have been a little bit obsessed with chorizo lately.  I would love to eat it fried up for dinner, but pork sausage isn't exactly the healthiest protein in the world.  So I wanted to create a pork dish that could serve as the main course while incorporating all of those spicy, warm chorizo flavors into it. I decided the best way to do this was to make a marinade with all of the ingredients that go into my favorite chorizo sausage (except the ground pork) and smother some boneless pork chops in it.



Do you know what gives chorizo that unmistakable red/orange oil?  I couldn't quite figure it out until I started making this recipe.  It's dried chiles!  If you live in DC, you can find dried Mexican chiles in the produce section at most Giant supermarkets.  The best place for dried chiles though is the new Georgetown Safeway.  The Monkey Scientist stopped by there and found a wide selection at very reasonable prices.



This recipe turned out better than I ever expected!  The sauce was amazing - I could have licked it off the plate.  It did have a solid kick to it - which we love - but you could tone it down by using milder chiles and less cayenne.  It wasn't exactly the same as eating chorizo, but it certainly was healthier.  Except for the whole frying in bacon fat thing - but that was totally worth it. We didn't grow up eating pork chops, but they're fairly inexpensive and super easy and quick to make.  We ate it with my favorite brussels sprouts recipe - I'll share it with you later this week.  This was one of my favorite meals to date!



Chorizo-style Pork Chops
adapted from Homesick Texan and Simply Recipes

Ingredients
3 dried New Mexico chiles (or other Mexican dried chile peppers)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon oregano
3/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons salt
4-6 boneless pork chops (about 3/4" thick)
1-2 tbsp bacon fat (or olive oil)

Instructions
1. Rinse the dried chiles, and then remove the stem and seeds. Heat the chiles for a couple of minutes on each side in a cast-iron skillet on high heat. Remove from skillet and let soak for half an hour in water.
2. After chiles are moist, drain the water and place the chiles and vinegar in a blender or food processor, also adding the diced onion and chopped garlic. Puree until a smooth, bright red paste is formed (can add a splash of water or vinegar if it's too dry to blend). It will look like ketchup.
3. Combine the remaining spices in a separate bowl.  Rub the pork chops in a heavy coat of the spice blend.  Place them in a Ziploc bag, then add in the chile mixture.  Seal the bag, then shake to coat the pork chops and place in the refrigerator to marinate for about 2 hours.
4.  Heat a skillet over medium high heat until hot.  Add the bacon fat (fry up some bacon, remove it and leave the fat behind) or oil and then the pork chops.  Do not crowd the pan.  Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, until you see a brown sear around the edges (it won't turn very brown because of the marinade).  Juices should run clear and there should be no pink inside when done. Serve immediately.

Lentil Pot Pie

I know, yet again, it's been a while.  I know you've felt neglected, and I'm sorry. I have some excuses.

For one, I had some terrible stomach thing going on where I'd be starving, I'd eat 2 bites and be full.  It was not fun.  Then, I had to enjoy my last few times going out to eat in DC with one of my favorite coworkers, who's left me to move to New Haven and work from home. We also had to go out to dinner to say goodbye to the Monkey Scientist's roommates, some of whom have left us for med school.  It was a big Chinese-food-in-Rockville week. And after all that, the Monkey Scientist has been moving into a new apartment and I've been trying to help him.  There was lots of packing and box-carrying.  I really hadn't cooked anything since my roast chicken.



That's not entirely true, I did make one meal...but it wasn't exactly blog-worthy and I didn't exactly have time/energy to take photos.  The night we moved the MS into the new apt, at 10 pm when we were exhausted and starving, I cooked with the only food he moved from the old house.  Which was frozen fish, Ritz crackers, and spices.  I defrosted the fish, crushed and seasoned the crackers with Caribbean jerk seasoning, coated the fish with the crumbs, added some olive oil and baked.  See, not blog-worthy. (But yes, I was impressed with myself for throwing that one together!)



To be honest, I wasn't even really going to cook dinner again last night, but I had this great idea.  Really, my idea was to make up my own recipe with lentils and puff pastry, which I already had at home.  I was going to cook the lentils with onions and then add tomato paste and somehow wrap them up in puff pastry... well I wasn't quite sure.  So I googled "lentils puff pastry" and this is what came up.



When I made it, I realized it looked a lot like pot-pie, so that's why I named it that.  Plus, my Lentil Sheperd's Pie was such a hit, I figured this could be like a follow up post.  If you liked that you'll like this - it also is a great way to use lentils, is SUPER inexpensive to make, has a warm, comfort food feel, and tastes great!   And of course, I kicked the spice factor way up in both recipes.  If you're not a spice person, you can leave out all the cayenne and red pepper flakes I added here (but that'd be bo-ring!).  The one comfort food joy it does lack that goo (...err gravy?) inside a real chicken pot pie.  I need to work on that.



So some caveats.... The puff pastry was left over and the box was already open, so it was a little dried out.  It tasted fine, but that's why it looks crackled in the pictures.  Also, the original recipe called for French green lentils.  Being the good American I am, I used American brown lentils.  I think they cook a lot quicker than the French green ones, so I adjusted the recipe that you see below from the original - mainly that I didn't soak them.  The lentil bag said I didn't have to! Just be aware depending on the kind of lentils you use.  Finally, I added bacon because...well like I said I'm a good American.  If you're a vegetarian, you can totally take it out. But then it won't taste at all like bacon...which may be a crime.



The MS was working pretty late, so I prepped the filling earlier in the evening and then brought it over to the new apartment to add the dough topping and bake them.  This worked out perfectly (can you see his new kitchen in the background of some of the photos?).  The filling filled all the ramekins I have (2 big, 4 little) with some leftover.  The puff pastry only covered the ones I filled, but I probably could have rolled it out thinner to cover one extra.  The MS ate 2 big ramekins, and I ate 1 little for dinner, in case you're wondering how many portions you'll get.



This one was a pretty good recipe.  When they were fresh out of the oven, I was thinking some cheese probably could have helped this.  If you make your own puff pastry, maybe add some shredded cheddar into the dough.  As I mentioned, I would have liked a little more liquid as well.  There has to be some way to imitate the gravy in pot pie for these.  I think the extra spice was totally necessary to give it good flavor. I enjoyed this one - and the little pies are super cute! A big version would be a good thing to bring to Thanksgiving (and man that's coming up sooner than I'd like to believe!).



Lentil Pot Pie
adapted from Whole Foods

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 dried bay leaf
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2-3 shallots, finely chopped
10 baby carrots, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, diced
2 pieces turkey bacon (you can use pork bacon, but then you probably don't need the oil)
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine (I used Manischewitz)
1/2 package puff pastry, defrosted (you can make your own if you like!)

Instructions
1. Put lentils in a medium pot with 3 cups water, bay leaf, and 1 tsp cayenne pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until lentils are tender but still hold a little texture, about 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Heat oil over medium heat in a larger pot. Add shallots, carrots, bell pepper, bacon, salt, pepper, cayenne, red pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, until browned, 7-8 minutes.
4. Add garlic and tomatoes, stir well, then add wine to deglaze.  Scrape up all the bacon goodness.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Add lentils and any remaining cooking liquid to pot with vegetables.  Simmer over medium low heat, uncovered, until sauce has thickened, 10-15 minutes.  Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and red pepper flakes.
6. Pour lentils into individual ramekins (or one deep pie dish).  On a lightly floured surface, roll out puff pastry dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut into circles just slightly larger than the tops of the ramekins. Place dough over lentils and make a few slashes over the top to allow steam to escape.
7. Bake until golden brown and piping hot, 25-30 min (ramekins on the higher oven racks will be done faster).

Roast Chicken with Lemon and Bacon-Rosemary Roast Potatoes

I've finally taken the plunge.  I roasted a chicken.  I realize my timing for this couldn't be worse, since - as my coworker described it - there's some sort of jello-mold type weather pattern of heat and humidity making the outside unbearable today. Probably not the type of weather you want to turn the oven on for, but you can just save this recipe for when the heat finally passes (it's going to pass right?).



In any event, before the heat really came, I roasted my first chicken.  I'd make a turkey before, for a Thanksgiving feast at my apartment in college, and it actually came out really good. But roasting a chicken is..well it's just different.  When I roasted a turkey, I used a turkey-bag to keep the moisture in...but that didn't seem necessary with the chicken. This was uncharted territory.



Now, of course there were some deals to be had.  The organic chicken was on sale, so it actually cost less than the regular, Purdue chicken.  $1.39/lb for organic chicken is a pretty good deal.  Also, my store had local, organic rosemary for the same price as the imported, regular stuff, so I got that as well.  I'd love to grow my own, but I haven't quite figured it out on my balcony.  Finally, I had a $0.75 off coupon for turkey bacon, plus it was on sale 10 for $10 so I got the pack for $0.25.  Too bad they didn't double my coupon or it would have been free!




Once I got my nice organic chicken home I discovered something... not so pleasant.  When I made the turkey in college, the giblet and all of the organs were in a nice little bag.  It was gross, but I could pull out the bag, dump it in the trash, and adios!  But in this chicken, everything was just hanging out in the cavity. Not bagged. Which meant hands, pulling organs, out of a chicken's butt.  Several times.  Now I love chopped liver...but it doesn't look or feel like a liver...here I could see and feel every organ. I think the lungs were even in there.  Nasty.




Once that little step was over, everything else went pretty swimmingly.  I wanted to really have that rosemary taste in the potatoes, so I added dried crushed rosemary to the water I boiled them in.  I figure, if I'm going to boil something, I better boil it in flavor.  I feel that way about a lot of things (have you ever boiled your pasta in water mixed with red wine? mmmm!!)




Also, I kinda forgot to stab the lemon before I shoved it up the turkey's butt... I mean inserted it into the cavity.  This wasn't a huge deal... we stabbed it after the first 45 minutes and I think it was still fine.  I also decided to squeeze the lemon onto the potatoes at the end....it'd probably be wise to check the temperature of the lemon before you do this so that you don't get salmonella poisoning.




I tried to get a little pretty with the bacon (actually I thought this was how I remembered it in the picture... I was wrong).  This meant that where the pieces all crossed, the lower pieces didn't get crispy.  I just didn't use these sections when I added it back into the potatoes.  Next time I'll use strips across the chicken so that they crisp up really nicely.




We really loved this recipe overall.  It's a pretty easy thing to throw together... as long as you account for needing about 2 hours before you're ready to eat.  The ingredients are fairly minimal... you may even have many of the ingredients in the house. The chicken was incredibly moist and the potatoes were tender and flavorful.  Plus, since I met the Monkey Scientist, I rarely have leftovers from dinner to bring to work for lunch the next day...but with this I had lots!  This recipe is definitely a go-to dinner.  And if you wanted to have it for Friday night dinner,  you can totally leave off the bacon (although that really would be a shame...).  Bacon, YUM.



Roast Chicken with Lemon and Bacon-Rosemary Roast Potatoes
adapted from Ezra Pound Cake who adapted from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners

Ingredients
1 4- to 4 1/2 lb chicken (mine was about 4 3/4 lb)
salt (I used table, but next time I'll use sea salt)
freshly ground pepper
dried crushed rosemary (optional)
4 lb Yukon gold potatoes
1 large lemon
1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves (I peeled them)
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, on the stem
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
2 slices of pork bacon or 4 slices of turkey bacon

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Prep the chicken: Remove the giblets and liver from the chicken's cavity.  Rinse the chicken under cold water, set it in the roasting pan, and dry it well with paper dowels, inside and out.  Rub it inside and out with a generous amount of salt and pepper.  Let the chicken rest in the roasting pan at room temperature while you prep the potatoes.
3. Prep the potatoes: Season a large pot or Dutch oven with salt and dried rosemary, if using, and bring to a boil.  While you're waiting, peel the potatoes (if you haven't already) and cut them into golf ball-sized pieces.  Put them into the boiling water, along with the whole lemon and the garlic cloves.  Cook for 12 minutes (I cooked closer to 15 because it took a while to get the water back to boiling).
4. Drain, and return the potatoes, garlic and lemon to the pot to steam dry for 1 minute.  Transfer the lemon and garlic to a small plate.  Grab a wooden spoon, and toss the potatoes in the pot, so their outsides get a little wrecked and shaggy looking (and you can find all the garlic). This will make your potatoes nice and crispy later.  Set aside.
5. Rub the chicken all over with olive oil.  Stab the lemon about 10 times, and push it into the chicken's cavity, along with the garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs.  Add the potatoes and sliced onions to the pan, spreading them around the chicken. Cook for 45 min.
6. Remove the pan from the oven.  Transfer the chicken to a large plate, but leave the potatoes in the roasting pan.  Add the rosemary leaves to the potatoes, and using a wooden spoon or spatula, toss the potatoes and rosemary with the chicken fat in the pan.
7. Return the chicken to the center of the pan.  If you're adding the bacon, lay the slices over the chicken breast, and roast for another 45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165 degrees F. If you're not using a thermometer, look for the thigh meat to pull away from the bone easily and the juices to run clear.
8. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes.  Remove the bacon slices from the chicken, and crumble the bacon over the potatoes.
9. Remove the lemon, rosemary, and garlic from the inside of the chicken.  Squeeze the lemon over your potatoes and crush the garlic into your potatoes.  Toss the rosemary sprigs.
10. Carve the chicken and serve with potatoes.

Baby Bacon, Leek, and Cheddar Quiches

For my coworker's baby shower, I made mini quiches.  Since it was a baby shower, I decided to call them baby quiches.  I thought they'd just be an adorable treat for everyone!

I decided to try to lighten this recipe up a bit. Instead of pork bacon, I used turkey bacon.  As a result, I had to add in a little vegetable oil when I went to sauté the leeks.

Man, I love leeks.  They are just one of the most wonderful things I've ever discovered.  Remember that soup I made back in March? This is like a spring version.

I have to find some more leek recipes after this one - they add another dimension to every meal that you can't get from similar ingredients.  They aren't oniony but they do have that carmelized texture.

As long as I was lightening up this recipe, I also used fat free half and half.  I think it didn't affect the taste at all. How do they make it fat free without it getting watery?

The hardest part of this recipe was keeping the filling moist.  I had to stir it between filling each and every quiche to spread the egg evenly.  I also filled a little too much so I was about 6 quiches short.  I also had extra puff pastry - I probably rolled it too thin.

The preparation is pretty simple, although filling all of the muffin tins does take forever. I finished one of my 24 muffin tins and then baked them off while I filled the rest so I didn't have to spend too much time in my hot kitchen.  It's amazing how hot it gets in the summer with the oven on!

These were definitely a hit at the baby shower.  They are salty and a little bit sweet, and definitely savory.  Plus they're so much easier to serve than a full quiche. Mine weren't quite as pretty as Tracy's but they sure were tasty! I tried one hot, which was really good, but they were just as good cold or at room temperature.  They're the perfect appetizer to bring to a baby or bridal shower.  Since 3 people we work with are having babies in late July, I imagine you must know someone getting married or having a baby too!

Baby Bacon, Leek and Cheddar Quiches

Lightened from Tracy’s Culinary Adventures

Ingredients

3/4 lb turkey bacon, cut into medium dice

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 cups medium-diced leeks, washed and drained (about 3 leeks, white and light green parts only)

1 1/4 cups fat free half and half

1 cup (4 oz) grated extra-sharp Cheddar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves or 2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 1.1-lb packages frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed (homemade puff pastry would work too)

Instructions 

Set a skillet over medium to medium-high heat and cook the bacon until crisp.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate.  If there is almost no fat in the pan (which is likely) add 1 tablespoon in the skillet (if there is fat, add oil to have total 1 tbsp of liquid).  Return the pan to medium heat and add the leeks.  Cook until softened, stirring occasionally, then set aside to allow the leeks to cool a bit.

Meanwhile, add the half and half, cheese, eggs, egg yolks, thyme, salt, pepper and nutmeg to a medium bowl.  Use a fork to break up the eggs and yolks and mix the ingredients.  Add the bacon and leeks (both of which should be cooled) and toss to distribute evenly.  Set the filling aside.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Spray your mini muffin pans with cooking spray.

Unfold one sheet of puff pastry and place on a lightly floured work surface. Roll the sheet into a rectangle approximately 10x18 inches big. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter (or the top of a glass cup), cut 12 circles from the sheet of puff pastry. Fit each round into one well of the prepared mini muffin pan, making sure that the dough extends to the top of well. Fill each well with about 1 tablespoon of filling (it's fine to fill it just about to the top). Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling puffs and the crust is golden brown. Remove the quiches from the pans and serve.

Alternatively, you can prep the quiches ahead of time and freeze them (for up to a month). After assembling them, pop the mini muffin pans in your freezer for a few hours, until the quiches are set, then transfer them to resealable freezer bags. When you are ready to bake, transfer the frozen quiches from the bags to the mini muffin pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes.