Daily Loaf

Whenever I talk to someone not originally from Florida, especially a recent transplant, one of the first complaints I’m likely to hear is that they miss the change of seasons. Well, guess what? The seasons change here in Florida, too. The signs are just a lot more subtle, so you have to pay closer attention. Sure, we don’t get that “in your face” lavish display of reds, golds and oranges dotting our landscape, or those cool, crisp temperatures that traditionally mark the arrival of fall. But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t here.

In Florida, autumn sneaks in on tiptoes. An early morning 75 degrees the past several days has felt distinctly different from the early morning 75 degrees of a month ago. And the air looks just the merest touch clearer, the curves and angles of our skyline ever so slightly sharper. The change is barely perceptible, but I know it’s there. Maybe it comes from living here for more than three decades, but I can see it. I can feel it too.  Read the rest of this entry »

What is it about bacon that we love? It seems the food world has had an obsession with it lately, from bacon vodka, to Bacon Salt, to the infamous Bacon Explosion. But have you ever thought of pairing bacon with something on the sweeter side? What about bacon in candy?

I dared to go there when I purchased the Mo’s Bacon Bar. I had read about it before on the trusty food porn sites that I peruse and salivate over daily, but had never seen it in stores. “Bacon and chocolate?”, I thought, “What a great combination!” I love the pairing of sweet and salty in food – like SnoCaps and popcorn at the movie theater – and I am a bacon fanatic. This was also the item that spawned the idea for my Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes. I was bound and determined to find this candy bar.
Read the rest of this entry »

(This piece comes from CL Sarasota’s Summer of Pig coverage.)

It took two days to thaw in the refrigerator — two days longer than my excitement wanted to allow — but when I slapped the nine pound pork belly on my kitchen counter, it kind of freaked me out. A little. One side was beautiful, a melange of deep, brick-red meat laced with a profound amount of milky-white pork fat. The other side, though, was the skin, laced with stubbly reminders that pigs have bristles and nubby dots that looked like warts. Warts, in a neat, straight line? Oh, no. Those are nipples.

The easiest cure for that, of course, was to just flip the belly back over. And honestly, my horror was more mother-related than related to existential slaughter revulsion. I knew that this pig — a sow, I can say with certainty, from Palmetto Creek Farms an hour from my house — was raised humanely and butchered as nicely as any livestock can be. And I was going to grace it with the most profoundly tasty preparation that a pig can undergo: bacon, cured by my own hands.

Curing bacon is an incredibly simple process. Read the rest of this entry »

I love finding great produce, and was thrilled to find the first corn of the season in the market recently. The good thing about in-season produce is it is cheaper, more flavorful and usually from closer to home.

Roasting the corn for this salad coaxes out all the sweetness. The soft bibb lettuce provides nice contrast to the crisp bacon. The simple dressing of vinegar and cream is inspired by a dressing I had on a salad in France. Adding vinegar to the cream makes a dressing with a nice balance of sweetness from the cream and acidity from the vinegar, a bit like crème fraiche. Be sure to start with a good quality, good-tasting vinegar because it is a prominent flavor in this salad. Read the rest of this entry »

Each time I find really nice sea scallops available at the market*, my recipe wheels immediately start turning. There’s a slightly majestic quality to their clean, delicate flesh and unique flavor which I simply cannot resist. So, this week’s shopping trip yielded not only the most fantastic scallops I’ve seen in a while, but also a new dish that is fresh and satisfying.

There are a few rules to live by when cooking scallops, and once you have it down it really is very simple. Be sure to dry them completely after washing as excess water in the pan will cause them to steam and sacrifice the deep golden crust that creates such an impressive presentation. The pan must also be very hot to achieve this signature scallop sear. Take care to remember the two minute rule as a cooking timeline as well- overdone scallops are rubbery and tough, and no fun to eat.

This recipe combines the classic pairing of scallops and bacon with a topping based loosely on a variation of maque choux. The flavors left in the pan after cooking the bacon and mushrooms will marry with the cream to create a rich and tasty sauce. After all, it is my firm belief that every good scallop deserves an equally good sauce.

Here’s the recipe:

Read the rest of this entry »

The next time you have the insatiable craving for delicious, salty bacon, look no further than your kitchen cabinet: Bacon Salt! It’s salt infused with the wonderful flavor of bacon that you can use on just about everything (edible)!

This condiment comes in eight flavors: Original (”Like a straight bacon punch in the mouth!”), Hickory, Peppered, Applewood, Jalapeno, Mesquite, Cheddar, Maple, and Natural (which is also gluten-free). And there’s no greasy bacon guilt with this product: it’s fat free, calorie free, and low in sodium. Can’t eat bacon for lifestyle or religious reasons? Don’t fret- Bacon Salt is vegetarian and Kosher!

Read the rest of this entry »

You know how everyone claims that their mom makes the best meatloaf and no one else’s can compare to it? I would have agreed with that, until I found this recipe for bacon-wrapped meatloaf. The classic comfort dish that is meatloaf and delicious salty bacon combine to make a juicy, meaty, melt-in-your-mouth taste explosion. Hungry yet? Read on.

This version of meatloaf was actually a collaboration and experiment by myself and my guinea pig/willing victim (a.k.a.: boyfriend) one Sunday afternoon. The idea was to make a better version of standard meatloaf, but how? What would elevate it from a simple comfort food to one sexy hunk of meat? And then the idea was born: Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re like me you wake up every morning wondering “How can I get more bacon into my diet?” Well, Lists Galore is here to help with “11 ways to get more bacon into your diet.”

I’ve really been in the mood for popcorn lately but I want to try something different than your run-of-the-mill butter flavor. I could take the cheat approach and just buy one of the fancy new toppings that are available now at the grocery store, but I believe that when you make something yourself from scratch (well, almost, in this case) it is so much more satisfying.

I set out on a quest to find some fun ways to spice up my popcorn and found some tasty-looking recipes, from savory to sweet, with all sorts of interesting flavor combinations. Now my only problem is that I can’t decide which one to try first…

Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Nelson, host of the hilarious pop culture phenomenon Mystery Science Theater 3000, vowed on January 31st to consume only bacon during the entire month of February. Maybe he’s bored, now that he’s relegated to doing the same hilarious movie commentary tracks strictly in audio format. Or maybe he’s insane. We’ll likely never know, since the bacon diet will surely kill him within days. Farewell, Mike.

Oh, it doesn’t fit your strict diet, Mike, but other bacon lovers may want to try CL’s Bacon Brittle and Bacon Cupcakes out of solidarity.

Obama was inagurated on Tuesday, and in the frenzy of media coverage you may have missed what’s really important — sustenance. No worries, we have the entire week distilled down to a mere few links. Just for you:

• Listen to the inaugural episode of Nosh Pit, CL’s new food and wine podcast.
• Brush up on Girl Scout Cookie gossip.
• Bourdain calls Alice Waters “very Khmer Rouge”.
• I call Alice Waters out for $500 dinners.
• Three new Tampa restaurants (and Cupcake Spot) are scheduled to open this weekend. Taylor already ate at one of them.
• Three words: waffle fry butts.
• Obama orders a medium-well cheeseburger. For. Shame.
• Chocolate and bacon cupcakes with peanut butter icing.
• Argentina kills our last bets hope for quality beef.
• USDA releases ineffectual, voluntary rules for the term “naturally raised”.
• Ingredient Basics: Garlic

Cooking or baking for someone is my favorite form of gift giving — it’s personal and heartwarming. I was throwing a surprise party for a very good friend of mine recently and decided to bake cupcakes as my gift.  Being the avid foodie and culinarian that my friends know me to be, I also thought it would have made me look bad if I had shown up with store-bought treats. Little did they know that the party wasn’t the only surprise that night.

As I was brainstorming and perusing my usual foodie sites for flavor ideas, I remembered an interesting flavor combination I’d come across a few months ago: chocolate and bacon. Yep, bacon. My friend loves bacon! I also recalled our shared love of pork products and popcorn mixed with chocolate at the movies. It’s the same concept, right? Read the rest of this entry »