Wednesday, February 23, 2011

When I'm dancin' the hoedown and my boots kinda slow down/Or anytime I'm week in the knees, I hanker for a hunk of/A slab, a slice, a chunk of/A snack that is a winner/And yet won't spoil my dinner! Cheese souffle

Remember how I said more souffles where definitely in our immediate future? Nothing else sounded good today so it occurred to me it was time for a savory souffle. Oh, and candied bacon too. The last few times I had been grocery shopping, I had sidestepped the bacon area, trying to resist buying any. But a couple of days ago, I could resist no longer.

Since the Real Simple recipe for chocolate souffle turned out so easy and so tasty, I went there first for a cheese version. After checking a few others for comparison, I decided to stay with Real Simple again. While the cheese version is slightly more work than the chocolate, it's still relatively easy. You make a bechamel with cheese, blend in the egg yolks, whip the whites and mix it all together. Oddly, even though I filled both cups to the same level, one of mine sort of erupted and spilled over the edge while baking, even while it raised the same as the other. So, my advice is to always put your souffle container[s] on a baking sheet or pan for safety.

As far as the candied bacon goes, I combined several recipes and ended up dredging the raw bacon in a mixture of flour, brown sugar, dried mustard, cinnamon and chili powder, twisting each piece and laying in on a rack placed in a foil-covered cookie sheet (make sure you use one with sides!). Then you bake it till it's done (which means brown and crisp).

So, basically, we had a kind of fancy bacon and eggs for dinner.


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