Bacon | Adventures in Thyme

Crockpot Baked Beans

December 10, 2015 by Dan Leave a Comment

Crockpot Baked Beans

This week, lets bring a bit of summer indoors. These baked beans taste great, make your house smell wonderful and are good addition to your own dinner or a holiday potluck party.

2 pounds Navy or Great Northern Beans
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
28 oz (2 12 oz bottles) Hard Apple Cider
1/2 pound Bacon, cut into small pieces
1/2 Shallot, chopped
1 cup dark Molasses
1 cup dark brown Sugar
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
1/3 to 1/2 cup good Balsamic Vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
1 teaspoon granulated Garlic
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Mustard Powder
3 cups hot Water

Place your beans in a large pot, add the baking soda and enough water to cover by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes or so. Turn off the heat and let the beans stand for an hour or two. Drain the beans.

Add the beans and all of the other ingredients to your crockpot. Cook for 10 to 12 hours. For this set to High for 4 to 6 hours, then turn down to low for the remainder of the time. Stir periodically if you’re home. you can also cook these over night, just set to low, stir in the morning and off and on during the day so they don’t stick or burn to the bottom of the crock.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

April 8, 2015 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Cheeseburger Casserole

I’m always game for a juicy burger n’fries, but the bread is sometimes a turn off. So if you find yourself wanting a yummy burger but firing up the bbq isn’t a good solution, you’ll enjoy tonight’s recipe. A cheesy, bacony “burger” with fries all cooked in one dish.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground Beef
1 lb ground Pork
8 slices of Bacon fried bacon, slivered
1 Egg, beaten
1.5 cups of Ketchup
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Liquid Smoke
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp dried Thyme
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp dried Garlic
Roux (4 Tablespoons butter & 4 Tablespoons flour)
80z shredded Cheddar Cheese (we used goat cheddar)
Bag of frozen Tater Tots

Set your oven to 400 degrees and let’s get cookin!

Fry the bacon in a skillet until done. Remove bacon and set aside on a paper towel to drain. Pour off most of the bacon grease and then add the beef and pork back into the skillet and fry until done. While the meat is cooking mix together the ketchup, Worcestershire, liquid smoke, salt, thyme, oregano and garlic, and set this aside. Carefully spoon the meat into a large bowl and set aside to cool.

In a frying pan melt the butter over medium low heat and then slowly add the flour, stirring constantly. Cook, stirring constantly until golden brown. This will help bind the burger together. When the roux is ready remove from the heat, pour in the liquid ingredients from the step above and mix well. To the cooled meat mixture add the beaten egg and also mix well. Now add the ketchup-roux mixture from the pan into the meat and combine. Time to assemble!

Into a baking dish pour in the meat mixture and level with a spoon. Now add your layer of shredded chedder, then layer on the slivered pieces of crunchy bacon. Finally add rows of tater tots until the casserole is covered.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 mins or until the tater tots have cooked. Serve immediately with burger fixin’s: tomatoes, lettuce, onions, avocado and a splash of tabasco – if you dare!

Bacon Wrapped Smoked Pork Tenderloin Roulade

April 23, 2014 by Dan Leave a Comment

Bacon Wrapped Smoked Pork Tenderloin Roulade

This week’s recipe is a scrumptious porky-extravaganza – pork wrapped in bacon. Seriously, we’ve got “major” amounts of bacon here. Oh and there’s cheese, tangy goat cheese in the middle. Did you see the smoke ring? This is one tasty treat. Let’s get cookin’!

2 to 2 ½ pounds pork tenderloin
1 lb bacon (I prefer thick cut)
1 firm cooking apple (Granny Smiths are good)
4 to 6 oz. soft white goat cheese, at room temperature
Cinnamon
Salt
Pepper

Useful smoker tip: Be sure to prepare the wood for your smoker by soaking it in water over night.

Light the fire in your smoker so it can come to temperature while you work on the rest of the food preparations.

Cut the apple into thin slices, the thinner the better.

The pork tenderloin usually comes with two pieces in a vacuum packed package. You will take both pieces and cut them so they can be laid out flat. Do this by cutting lengthwise down the tenderloin, pulling it open and taking another cut, etc. until it has rolled out into a flat piece. (see images)

Now, lay out the two pieces of tenderloin so they roughly make a rectangle. Spread the goat cheese on the meet as shown, then lay out the apple slices as I’ve demonstrated, covering the meat completely. Sprinkle the apple with cinnamon. Add a slice of bacon on the side towards you, this is where you will start rolling up the pork loin to make the roulade.

Carefully roll up your tenderloin and temporarily tie to keep it from unrolling. This is just to hold it in place while we do the next step.

Now lay out your bacon as shown and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tenderloin on the bacon and begin wrapping the bacon slices around the tenderloin. Use a toothpick to hold the bacon in place. Remove your ties as you go, you don’t want to have someone cut into their dinner and find the string under the bacon. Wrap the entire tenderloin in bacon slices.

Once the tenderloin is wrapped up, get your kitchen twine and start tying your roulade so it will stay rolled up during cooking. A few loops of twine around the tenderloin at even intervals along its length will do fine.

Place the tenderloin in your smoker and smoke until an internal temperature of about 155 degrees is reached. (Mine took a little over 2 ½ hours). Remove the tenderloin from the smoker and carefully wrap in heavy foil, being careful not to puncture the foil with the tooth picks. Let stand for at least 15 minutes.

To serve, remove the string and slice.

Bacon Wrapped Smoked Pork Tenderloin Roulade in the Smoker