We have been looking for new ways to do pork chops and a breaded version seemed cool. The skillet potatoes have scallions, bacon, red pepper, and were awesome. More pics below and some info.

I did not get pics of it, but I cut bacon into diced and cooked them first. It makes for an evan cook and crisps up the bacon well. I took about 90% of the grease out with a paper towel and added some clarified butter and olive oil mix to coat the pan.

Diced some scallions and red bell pepper

Sauted the pepper for a minute and added the shallots. Mostly to get them soft, but they imparted a great flavor to the oil I will cook the potatoes in. Pulled the peppers and shallots and put in a ramekin.

A lot of flipping on medium heat browned the potatoes well.

Trimmed the fat from the chop and had a breading station. The final breading had parm cheese, crushed crackers, panko crumbs, and lots of seasoning.

Fried in clarified butter and olive oil. Finished in the toaster oven.

All of it was amazing. Those potatoes are right in our go to sides for sure. The breading was pretty awesome, but did not stick too well. I bet it was from the continued baking. Still great.

So we went to best buy and decided we should pick up something for dinner while we were out. Got to the supermarket and still had no clue what to make. Theresa suggested potato soup and it sounded like a cool thing to make. We have made potato and bacon soup a couple times. Our attempts have been hit and miss. Could not find a smoked ham hock so I decided to pick up some smoked turkey legs. Figured I would try and tweak this one so I put some celery, garlic, onion, peppercorns, bay leaf, and a piece of bacon in the pressure cooker. The broth was intensely flavored.

Peeled and diced these potatoes. boiled for a long time with some milk added to the broth. Dug them out and blended them up.

Some bacon. Two kinds

It was still really flavorful and kind of salty. Asked Theresa if I should throw some corn in there and some cheese. She thought that sounded awesome so in they went.

More potato cubes and slowly cooked it till they were ready. It was the best soup I have ever made. So packed with flavor. Oh man. Going to try that again and again.

Thanks to the washtub player in Diamond Kazoo for helping me with the mayo vs miracle whip decision. Picked up some mayo and chipolte peppers and blended them up with a bit of black pepper and it made a delicious spread for a BLT. Nom

I call it a fat parfait

Two really thin burger patties with grated year old white cheddar, sauteed mushrooms, 1.5 pieces of Neuskes apple wood smoked bacon, and a fried bologna wheel between stone ground whole grain bun.

Nom

Theresa went with wonder bread and kraft american cheese. I kicked mine up a notch.

We watched some food network and both knew what we were having for dinner. Some rocking grilled cheese and tomato soup. Theresa was on soup duty and I was sammich man.

Picked up some Super Saver Italian bread and sliced it with the slicer.

Theresa mixed some crushed tomatoes, chicken broth, table cream, tomato juice, salt, pepper, and some fresh basil to make a good tomato soup. It seemed to miss something till we realised it needed more salt to bring out the flavor and some shredded garlic.

I used 4 cheeses in two sammiches making each different by the 1/2 so we had 4 variations. All had some apple wood smoked bacon, 1 had thinly sliced tomatoes, and the cheeses were gouda, sharp chedar, aged white cheddar, and Monteray Jack.

We made up a garlic butter to toast them.

I tried to make a honey mustard spread with some killer mustard Mr. T got me a while back. I had no honey, and used sour cream as a base. It was not enough and the sammiches were rich enough. I will make a much better effort to use up the fancy mustard here soon.

like the hat good eats vids on the episode
part 1
part 2

no bake mac and cheese with bacon from beerorkid on Vimeo.

Theresa is more of a sausage girl when it comes to breakfast. She likes farmland pork and bacon brand sausages. I wnted to see if I could come close to them. Got some sheep casings from the 27th and pine lake super saver and some bacon ends and pieces. Ground a pound of bacon and added it to a pound of boston pork butt I had frozen. Some black pepper, cayenne, and paprika to season. Fried up a patty and it was close, but still far away. Pulled out the tender quick which I was scared to use and added some brown sugar. The cure in the tender quick made a huge difference. Stuffed it up, froze them, and peeled off the casing.

They came out pretty darn close. Theresa liked them and said more salt, fat, and sugar would make them even closer to the farmland brand. I wuv her

After finding the perfect bacon I have decided to try and replicate it. Last night begins 2 weeks of a dry cure consisting of only brown sugar and salt. That gives me two weeks to come up with a way to rig my old bullet smoker up to be the smoke chamber with flexible vent ducting to cold smoke for a few days in the big smoker. It should be awesome.

Anyone have an industrial slicer I can use for 30 minutes?

We love baked mac and cheese. We have tweaked the recipe a bit and are going to try making up the sauce and freezing it for quick dinners. Not too sure how well it is going to work and I forgot we were going to test a small batch, but I kind of forgot while making it. Used the same recipe as above, doubled the recipe. Boiled up some noodles and liked what we made. Filled up 5 bags worth of sauce.