Wrap it Up!

So, I am not really a big meat eater. Fish? Always! Chicken? Not a huge fan. Red Meat? Sometimes. Turkey? Ew. In fact, I used to be pescatarian, meaning the only meat I ate was fish. I did this for many reasons. Some due to my freakishly high cholesterol, some due to the hormones put in meat these days, and some due to the oftentimes disgustingness of the large meat-packing corporations. My allergies have left me needing meat, otherwise there wouldn't be much else to eat a lot of the time. I am still not a big fan of most meats though.

One meat I have always been a fan of and will always be a fan of, however, is bacon. And lately I have been craving bacon. And I've been in to wrapping things in bacon...

Here are two recipes for things wrapped in bacon. I used the same sauce for both as well because why change what works, am I right?

First up we got some veggies...

Green Bean Bundles:

Ingredients:

Green Beans or Hericot Verts

10 slices of bacon, cut in half lengthwise

1 stick vegan butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Next, cook the green beans. You can do his by steaming them on the stove or my favorite way is to be the steam in bag kind and do all the work in the microwave.

After the beans are cooked, wait for them to cool a little bit then gather them in bundles of 6-8. Wrap each bundle with a piece of bacon, wrapping it together in a kind of knot.

Place each bundle, knot-side down on a baking sheet sprayed lightly with cooking spray.

Now that the bundles are prepared, it is time to make the sauce. Combine the minced garlic, butter and brown sugar on the stove over medium heat. Melt the butter and stir everything to combine. Cook until it starts to resemble cooking caramel, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Once the sauce is ready remove it from the stove and pour it over the bundles.

Bake the green bean bundles for about 35-40 minutes until bacon is crispy.

These are a staple for holiday meals and special family dinners. No one ever complains. Unlike me, my family s full of major meat eaters.

And next at bat we have a little seafood...

Bacon-Wrapped Scallops

Ingredients:

12 scallops

6 slices of bacon, cut in half lengthwise

12 skewer sticks

1 stick vegan butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup brown sugar.

First set your oven to broil.

Next take the half slices of bacon and pre-cook them a little in the microwave. I zapped mine for bout a minute and a half. You still want the bacon to me easily bendable.

Wrap the slice of bacon around each scallop and stick a skewer through to hold it all together.

Once all of the scallops are wrapped and skewered, it's time to make the sauce. Start by combining the butter, brown sugar and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook until it starts to look kind of caramely, stirring almost constantly.

When the sauce is done, remove from the stove and pour slowly over the scallops. spoon any sauce that fell to the bottom of the pan back onto the scallops.

Broil the scallops for about 6 minutes, or until bacon is crispy.

Yum Yum Yum it's BACON (please tell me I am not the only one who has seen that dog treat commercial?)

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night

Well, it is officially Christmas (at least here on the East Coast). And I am proud to say that the christmas baking and cooking is over. Everything is prepped and ready to drive to Nashville tomorrow. We are meeting my mom's side of the family there for Christmas lunch then packing up again that night and heading off to West Tennessee to stay with my dad's side of the family for a few days.

For those of you who don't know my family all to well, one thing you should know is that there are a lot of us. And we all really like food. This means a lot of food must be made. For lunch we all split it up, so that wasn't too bad, but then we had to do Christmas Eve dinner at my house, and Christmas breakfast for the next morning, and so on and so on. I think I have spent the past two days shuffling back and forth between the grocery store and our kitchen. I think I have lost my sanity. I am currently laying in bed remembering why scoliosis is so awful. Standing all day can do that to my back (an yes, I know I sound like I'm 85 years old).

Its a good thing I love cooking, right? Otherwise I may not have survived. My mom's a trooper because she doesn't enjoy cooking and suck it out with me in addition to cleaning the kitchen about 5 times.

Here is a little recap of some of the things we made for Christmas, and over the next week or two, I will probably post most of these recipes because they all turned out so good.

For tonight we made bacon-wrapped scallops, fish and chips, and bread pudding with a brown sugar sauce for dessert.

For tomorrow we made pecan and apple pies, one gluten an dairy free and one regular of each. I also made green bean bundles, a recipe which my mom's friend, Myra, sent me and has recently become a family favorite.

Lastly, for tomorrow we made sausage-egg casserole for breakfast. I am still not quite sure why this food took so many hours in the kitchen but I guess I have always done everything in my own time. I consider it one of my better qualities :)

I can't share with you all of the recipes just yet, but I would love to share the recipe for the pumpkin bread pumpkin because it is absolutely delectable. This is the first bread pudding I have ever eaten, let alone baked, and it has turned me into a believer.

Pumpkin Spice Bread Pudding

Ingredients

vegan butter

Gluten-free white sandwich bread torn into small pieces (6 cups more or less)

2 cups soy milk creamer

3 large eggs

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree

1 cup dried cranberries

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter an 11x7 inch baking dish with the vegan butter.

Put the bread pieces in a bowl and pour the soy creamer over them.

In another bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin, melted butter, spices, and vanilla with a hand or stand mixer. Stir in the cranberries.

Pour this pumpkin mixture over the bread and cream mixture and stir to blend. Now pour this mixture into the buttered baking dish and sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar.

Bake for about 50-55 minutes or until pudding is set. It should look like this out of the oven:

Serve with this brown sugar sauce drizzled over it:

Brown Sugar Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1/4 cup vegan butter

1/2 cup soy creamer

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let boil for about five minutes. Remove from heat and let cool as the sauce will thicken as it cools.

Here is the bread pudding served into little glasses and layered with light drizzles of the super rich and yummy brown sugar sauce. Doesn't it just look lovely. I was planning on putting a little dollop of whipped cream on top but I couldn't get my soy cream to whip. If any of you have any tips on making dairy-free whipped cream, please let me know! I could really use the help on that front.

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you get to spend it with the people you love and reflect on the blessings that God has given each and every one of you, including the greatest blessing of all, sweet little baby Jesus (said ricky bobby style). But in all seriousness, Merry Christmas and God Bless!