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Bacon Power
An article about a cookbook prompted me to buy a cupcake yesterday. The photo on the cover of “The Butch Bakery Cookbook” shows a cupcake topped with bacon. I immediately remembered reading a blurb about maple bacon cupcakes being sold at The Cup this month.
I had some errands to run, one of which put me in the same shopping center as The Cup’s Bearden store. I bought one cupcake to split with my wife, despite the staff’s suggestion that I buy two.
It was a great cupcake, that I would highly recommend. Candied bacon is used as a garnish on top. If there was more bacon under the icing, I didn’t notice it. Pecans were infused into the cake and more were placed on top. The delicious maple icing was the most dominant flavor. The combination of tastes reminded us of breakfast, not dessert. I had poured us each a glass of milk but my wife said she would have enjoyed a glass of orange juice instead.
Comedy Comestibles
The conversation in Sid’s Lounge turned to food after Tuesday night’s Einstein Simplified show. My wife and I were talking with Lori and her friend Amber, who are managers at the Chocolate Monkey in Kodak and Pigeon Forge, respectively. I introduced the ladies to Jennifer, who works as a personal chef and also served up an amazing dish at the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction on Sunday.
Jennifer described some other meals she had prepared recently, including one that combined peaches and bacon. Lori told us about chocolate-covered Twinkies and other decadent treats at her store. I challenged them to make something with Marshmallow Peeps, ideally Peeps brûlée. My wife told them about the time we used leftover Peeps Ghosts to cover our sweet potato casserole on Thanksgiving.
Side Splitters co-owner Bridgette O’Dell is running a special during our November 29th show. Fill a table of four and everyone at the table gets 10% off their total bill. Reservations are required, especially since there will be a large group from the FBI Knoxville Citizens Academy Alumni Association in the house that night. Use the promo code CHAIR when booking your table online or by phone at 865-934-LAFF.
Baconian Method
Bacon was featured on three of my favorite dishes at the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction on Sunday night. Dr. Donetta Poisson and her team from the UT Culinary Institute prepared a bacon-wrapped shrimp on a bed of polenta with a smear of Korean barbeque sauce. Chef Chris Moore of the Knoxville Convention Center served chicken and waffles topped with bacon crumbles as big as postage stamps. Kathleen Robinson of Scrumps Cupcakes had a variety of mini-cupcakes, the best of which had a maple icing and bacon garnish.
When my wife and I are given tickets to a fundraiser, we usually make a bid on a silent auction item or buy a raffle ticket at the event. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t. This time, my wife had the top bid on gift bag of Clinique skin care products. She also bought a small teddy bear in a chef’s outfit. One item struck me as particularly odd until I realized that one of the many doctors in attendance would be the likely high-bidder for the disposal of 24 boxes of medical waste.
Butcher and Baker
The recent addition of three items to my small collection of 1982 World’s Fair memorabilia made me want to revisit Sweet P’s Barbeque and Soul House. The World’s Fair logo is everywhere at Sweet P’s. In addition to the collectibles on the walls and shelves, the logo is displayed on the shirts and hats of the employees. A shelf in the dining room is filled with cans of World’s Fair Beer.
Last month I had an excellent chicken sandwich but the rib I sampled didn’t meet expectations. My wife and I gave Sweet P’s another try on Friday night with much better results. The chicken was once again perfect. This time, the ribs on our sampler platter easily separated from the bone. We really liked their Tomato N’ Blues Salad as a side item. For dessert, we split a bacon chocolate chip cookie. The unusual treats are made for Sweet P’s by Magpies Bakery. I’m sure our son will want to try one when he’s home for the holidays.
Rib Tease
Cooking Channel is not available in high-definition on my cable system but several of their shows can be seen in HD via On Demand. As a high-def snob, I chose not to watch the standard-definition version of “United Tastes of America.” Instead, I have been waiting for the HD version of the “Ribs” episode to show up in the On Demand menu. I’m guessing that it might be there Tuesday, assuming they delay it one week from the air date. That also means I’ll have to wait until October 25 to watch this week’s “Cookies” episode.
The online version of “Ribs” became available today. I had to log in to my account to see it. I like the feeling of getting added value from my cable subscription. While many businesses have complained about giving away their content for free online, consumers don’t necessarily think of the Internet as free. Yes, there are ways to get online at work, at the library or at a coffee shop but most of us pay for Internet access at home and we have done so since the dial-up days of Prodigy and AOL.
Sweet P’s Barbeque and The Shrimp Dock in Knoxville were featured in the “Ribs” episode. As I was looking for “Ribs” On Demand, I found “Bacon.” In that episode, which is also available online, they visit two places in East Tennessee. Blackberry Farm is considered one of the best resorts in the world. It is on my wish list of places to see someday. The other “Bacon” location, Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams, is a place my son and I visited a year and a half ago. It was well worth the trip.
Shining Time Station
East Tennessee PBS hosted a small party for some public-relations big shots on Wednesday. Executives from Ackermann PR, Moxley Carmichael, The Tombras Group and Z11 Communications enjoyed a gourmet lunch provided by Holly’s Eventful Dining. The point of the gathering was for them to hear a little about “Smoky Mountain Magazine” from Taz Cable and me. Our new weekly show debuts Saturday, October 15 at 10:00 a.m.
From the salad to the cupcake, the food was nothing short of amazing. The main course was chicken wrapped in Benton’s bacon with a moonshine molasses reduction. There’s a photo on the new SMOMOtv Facebook page. Benton’s bacon is a popular conversation topic with almost everyone in East Tennessee. I told one of the PR execs how much I preferred cooking bacon in the oven rather than on the stove. She’s going to make her husband try it that way.
The guests received some 80-proof parting gifts from Troy & Sons Distillers, a moonshine company based in Asheville, North Carolina. They also got an East Tennessee PBS mug filled with Sharpie markers, which are made in Maryville, Tennessee.
Egg Around
Before opening gifts on Christmas morning, my family ate a delicious wreath. No, we didn’t go all Euell Gibbons or anything. My daughter suggested the breakfast using Pillsbury Crescents and some ingredients you might think of as omelet fixin’s. She was inspired by a recipe she saw online a few years ago but has modified it to make it her own. We used Benton’s bacon because we’ve been hooked ever since my field trip there last March. During the cooking process, my wife ran upstairs to ask me for the camera, saying “you’ll want to put this on the blog.” Once it was done, they put a bowl of fresh fruit in the middle to make it look healthier. Here is my daughter’s version of the recipe:
Breakfast Wreath
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2 cans of Pillsbury Crescents
7 large eggs
¼ cup milk
¾ lb bacon
½ cup chopped zucchini squash
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped red or green bell pepper
¾ cup chopped, blanched broccoli
1 cup shredded Asiago cheese
2 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp basil
¼ tsp oregano
Pinch of rosemary
Extra virgin olive oil
Egg wash: 1 egg and 1.5 Tbsp of milk whisked together
1. Preheat oven according to directions on crescent roll package (375°F).
2. Cook bacon and pat with paper towel to remove excess grease. Crumble into small pieces and set aside.
3. Coat bottom of large skillet with oil and add chopped zucchini, onions and bell pepper when oil is hot. Sauté until soft.
4. In large bowl, beat eggs, milk, spices and ½ cup of cheese. Pour egg mixture into skillet with sautéed veggies and cook on medium heat until eggs are barely runny (do not cook eggs all the way or else they will dry out in the oven).
5. Arrange 23 of the 24 precut triangles of crescent roll dough on a non-stick cookie sheet in a circle pointing outward and with the bottoms of the triangles overlapping slightly. There should be a void in the center of the circle about 7 or 8 inches wide.
6. Sprinkle remaining ½ cup of cheese on overlapping portion of the dough ring. Place broccoli over cheese.
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7. Carefully spoon egg mixture on top of the cheese around the ring.
8. Sprinkle the bacon pieces on top of the egg mixture. Add more cheese if desired.
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9. Wrap the points of each triangle dough piece inward, over the mound of eggs, cheese and bacon and gently press the points to seal with the inside of the dough ring.
10. With the last piece of dough, form a festive bow and gently press it onto the wreath. If you are really ambitious, make a poinsettia bloom or holly branch. Be sure not to show off, however; it’s breakfast, not an art show.
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11. Use a pastry brush to coat the dough with the thin layer of the egg wash.
12. Bake for about 15 minutes or until dough is golden brown.
13. Serve hot.
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