Bacon Wrapped Thanksgiving ... Gobble it up and wash it down with some gravy!

You ever have that hankering for a good holiday meal but A. It's not the holidays and B. You don't really have the time to make all that fanciness? Problem solved with Bacon Wrapped Thanksgiving. And, as usual, you probably didn't think Thanksgiving dinner could get any better but, as usual, you never thought to wrap bacon around it, did you?

Now, I'm not one to slave over a hot stove cooking up a Thanksgiving storm in the middle of a gorgeous summer afternoon so instead, we take the semi-homemade route. In the frozen food section of the neighborhood grocery store I found these great, seasoned, "grilled", thick potato slices. Snag some of those, boxed cornbread stuffing mix, a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, turkey gravy, and a package of thick-sliced bacon. I contemplated turkey bacon since it is "Thanksgiving" but I ended up going with regular ... and I'm not looking back! These were seriously so amazing that I wouldn't make them any other way!

I probably don't need to say this but I will. It's like the warning on the hair dryer, someone out there needs things spelled out to them so .. cook your stuffing. Take the skin off the chicken and pull it apart. Cook the potato slices.

Like the Bacon Wrapped Breakfast, I went ahead and took one slice of bacon and cut it in half. I'm sure you'll notice in the picture below that some look a little bigger. I did make the intial one with two whole slices and just wasn't feeling it. I prefer my balls to be bite-sized. In the picture above, the potato slice is on the bottom. Switch that up too. Having the slice on the top provides a nice flat spot so the ends of the bacon meet there. Flip it to place it on the cooking rack. Then the flat spot makes it easier to keep the bacon from curling or it rolling when cooking.

Oven that all up on 400 for about 30 minutes.

My previous ventures were broiled. I've determined, if you have the patience to wait 30 minutes, baking is considerably better. No burnt spots, no cold food on the inside, and a lot less smoke from the grease in your oven!

Take a look at those babies! Little balls of perfection! When you take them out of the oven, let them cool down for a little bit. All those wonderful bacon juices and stuffing flavors need to meld together. I know, you had to wait 30 minutes for it to cook and now I'm asking you to wait 5 more before eating them but trust me. It's worth it! These are so good that I wouldn't be surprised if my taste tester starts stalking me! Just kidding Mr. Tester .. now stop knocking on my door.

Before you start eating, don't forget the one thing that brings all of Thanksgiving together. Gravy! Make sure you're sitting down before you try these cause they'll knock your socks off .. or flops off if it's the summer time and you're wearing summer appropriate footwear. Cut, dunk, and enjoy! :)

Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots ... Cause I haven't tried wrapping mashed potatoes, yet!

Fourth of July is near and who wants to be that friend that doesn't show up with some sort of side dish? Ok, I'm usually that friend but if you're a better person than me, here's something awesome! Bacon wrapped tater tots! Bet you didn't see that one coming, you know, unless you read the title.

I'm sure you're thinking, "Yes Bacon Me, that does sound awesome but what do I do? Frozen tots? Cooked tots? Whole slices of bacon? Half slices of bacon? I'm overwhelmed!" Here's the great part of all of my wrapping ... I do the trial run, and the trial tasting, and you reap the benefits!

Let's play 'just the tip(s)' ;)

* Cook your tots half way

* Full slice of regular bacon

* Flavored tots are best, like those onion ones

*Toothpicks are helpful .. or so I would imagine had I thought of it beforehand

I wrapped half of these bad boys frozen and the other half pre-partially-cooked. If you like your tots a little soft, go frozen. I like mine crunchy ... hence the tip above.

Thick bacon is too hard to wrap around such a tiny tot but, if you take a whole slice of regular, you still get the full flavor. No recommendation on skimping with half a slice as it's just not enough bacon. I shouldn't have to explain why. If I do, you shouldn't be reading this blog.

Broil. Take out of oven. Throw in a crock pot on warm.

Ladies: Remove the "Everyone's beautiful. I love being loved" crappy wallpaper from your phone.

Men: Remove the "Here's the hot chick and/or cool car I'm never going to obtain" wallpaper from your phone.

When you show up to the firework shindig with these tots from heaven, people will be taking your phone to make sure you get their number!

Ok, they probably won't but remove the wallpaper anyway. Look at that, bacon goodness and social tips all rolled into one! Can I wrap that roll in bacon?

Bacon Wrapped Breakfast ... Wakey wakey, love some bac-y ..?

That title didn't seem to work out the way I planned but I leave it because writing about bacon wrapped breakfast is too important to be worried about the little things! And yes, I said Bacon. Wrapped. Breakfast! What an awesome idea, right? If I'm going to eat pancakes, sausage, and potatoes .. I might as well wrap it all in bacon and kick start my day the right way!

I would already figure everyone knows how to make pancakes and potatoes but just in case you don't ... buy a package of "just add water" pancake mix and frozen diced potatoes ;) I'm an advocate for the semi-homemade scene. If it helps any, I like the frozen potatoes that have green peppers and onions already added so they aren't so bland. Little garlic, little pepper ... you get the point. Since this is about wrapping things in bacon, not how to cook the things you're wrapping in bacon, I'm going to go ahead and move on.

Potato Balls! Serious deliciousness! Cook your diced potatoes. Take a strip of bacon and cut it in half. Cross your bacon halves. Pile the potatoes in the middle. Fold the bottom piece of bacon over the top. Fold the next piece of bacon over the top. Admire your work! Hint: Admire your work now because once it's cooked you'll be too busy trying to figure out how to shove it into your mouth without burning yourself. Place those on your broiler pan or cooking rack or what-nots and let's continue ...

Pancake rectangle ready? Sausage cooked? The rest is easy peasy. Step one: Wrap that sausage link with the pancake. Step two: Wrap the pancake roll with the bacon. It's crucial you do the steps in order! Cause honestly, how are you supposed to wrapped the bacon around something that hasn't been created yet? Put those on the cooking rack!

Wrap some bacon around plain pancake rolls. Throw those on the cooking rack!

Wrap some bacon around plain sausage links. Throw those on the cooking rack!

Wrap some bacon around the dog ... err, wait. Don't do that.

Now we've got potato balls, pancake-sausage-bacon wraps, pancake-bacon wraps, sausage-bacon wraps ... throw that rack in the oven on broil and watch the magic!

My taste tester and I decided the sausage stuffed pancakes weren't as good as the plain pancakes. Crazy, I know. There was just something about the flavor mesh that didn't work. Sausage overwhelming the bacon flavors? I'm not sure. A friend told me that he puts ground sausage in his pancake batter. Maybe worth a try instead of the link.

The potato balls? Did you not read the entry above? Serious deliciousness! I think the green pepper/onion mix really made the ball flavor pop! (I couldn't help myself)

Also, I didn't have any eggs but I imagine that if I did, I might have diced a hard boiled egg, mixed it with the potatoes, and then made the bacon ball. Or tried to stuff scrambled eggs in with the potatoes. Or maybe just wrapped a whole hard boiled egg in bacon. Heaven only knows. There are unlimited bacon wrapping options in the world.

So there it is ... breakfast foods wrapped in bacon! What better way to start your morning? Maybe throw a little bacon gravy over everything ... and make sure you have EMT's on speed dial ;)

Bacon Wrapped Pizza Rolls ... Pillows of Love!

 

What is one of your favorite foods? Is it pizza? I'm sure most people think that there's no way to make pizza even better but they're wrong! What do we do? Wrap it in bacon, of course!

I wasn't sure how to go about doing this so I tried it two ways. Cooked half of the pizza rolls first and left the other half frozen. Both ways, success! Now, my number one suggestion is to let them sit and cool after they come out of the broiler because any impatient pizza roll eater knows you will burn your mouth on that delicious filling when it bursts out of the sides. (Yes, I made that mistake. I was just too excited to try them.) And once you let them sit, all the flavors seem to come out more too. You can really taste the bacon versus the pizza roll that way.

When picking out the pizza rolls, I went with the only option I thought fitting ... three meat! The bacon was just regular sliced, regular flavor. I think if I did this again, I would go with thick sliced bacon just to have more of a bacon flavor.

Frozen vs Precooked: Both were successful. There were no cold spots with the frozen ones, nothing burnt with the precooked ones. Definite personal preference. The frozen ones were softer and the precooked ones had a little bit of a crunch. I guess comparable to microwaving pizza rolls vs baking them.

All in all, I would say these are pillows of deliciousness! If you love pizza rolls and bacon, why not combine them? It would make for something fun and different during get-togethers. Easy to transport plus, football season is coming up. Have patience and want to get really crafty? Turn these into little footballs. Get thick shredded mozzarella cheese and make laces on top of the rolls ... or if you have a piping bag and a fine tip, you could probably use cream cheese to make "laces". Whichever option, make sure they're cooled down first so your cheese doesn't just melt into an unrecognizable line. :)

Whether for yourself or for a party .. just wrapped or turned into little footballs ..  whatever you do, go out and enjoy some bacon!

Left: frozen; Right: precooked

 

Bacon Wrapped Pickles ... In a pickle? Wrap some love around it!

 

Let me kick off this first post by saying, I love puns and cheesy jokes .. I also love pickles and cheese .. but the point is, these "in a pickle" style blog titles will happen every now and then so just be warned and embrace it :)

Bacon wrapped pickles!!! .. and some with cream cheese! D.E.licious!

I bought whole kosher dill pickles. No, I don't know if Kosher tastes better than regular. And yes, I stood at the store for a while trying to decide which one to buy. I ended up with Kosher because I remember having that in the house when I was little. Since there was no solid basis for my purchase, I'm sure you could go ahead and buy whatever dill pickles you want. I figure buying the whole ones, instead of spears, is ultimately what helped my pickle stay crunchy. Fresher, maybe?

Bacon, I've just recently discovered, has many forms. Hickory smoked, double smoked, thick sliced, less sodium, etc ... For these, I bought double smoked bacon. Why? Because it was in stock and on sale. I considered the apple smoked bacon because it might have added a fun flavor but decided to leave that purchases for other fun uses. In a previous experience, it was decided that thick sliced bacon doesn't wrap the best. At least not around smaller items.

Everyone loves cheese! .. You ever have those pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham? Usually people take a slice of ham (proscuitto and corned beef have been used too), spread it with cream cheese, and wrap it around a pickle spear. People usually start picking at it before you can even get them all sliced! Point being, I thought of that and decided cream cheese would be a lovely addition to these bacon wrapped pickles. Just use a knife to cut a little bit of the center out. (I tried to use a spoon at first. Unsuccessful. Pickles aren't as soft as I would've thought.) Stuff that pickle with cream cheese and you're good to go!

I tried making things on a cookie sheet once and the bacon grease prevented it from getting crispy so anything with a drip pan that can withstand the heat of the broiler will work great! Broiler pans are made for that but I can't seem to find mine so I use a roaster pan that has a rack .. drip tray .. wire looking thing. I don't know the technicalities of what it's called. Just use something so your food isn't cooking in it's grease :) Place it on the top rack of the oven. Set to Broil. And try not to burn your face as it's pressed it up against the oven window waiting for the awesomeness to cook!

Those are all my tips and tricks to the wonderful, bacony, deliciousness of bacon wrapped pickles! The pickles stayed crunchy and kept their zingy pickle flavor. The cream cheese added goodness .. and I think it soaks up some bacon grease which, of course, adds it's own deliciousness! 

Side note: I took some to a friend the next day. I think the leftovers might lose their crunchiness so I would recommend a re-broil if needed but I was informed by the friend that they can be microwaved for 15 seconds on each side and they're still good .. he doesn't mind that it wasn't crunchy. :)

Now go out and enjoy some bacon wrapped goodness!