Wilted Spinach Salad w/ Candied Pepper Bacon

Also known as the most AMAZING salad I have ever had the pleasure of consuming.

I'm not kidding. It was outstanding. Exceptional. Unreal.

Here's how you make it.

Ingredients:

10 oz spinach, 1/2 red onion, 1 granny smith apple, 4 hard boiled eggs, 10 (or so) slices of bacon, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 3 Tbsp Dijon mustard, fresh ground pepper

First thing you want to do is preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remember this lovely stone? If you've got one, grab it.  If you don't, buy it. :)

OK, line it with a sheet of parchment paper and lay the bacon out on it.

Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of brown sugar over the bacon.

Grind fresh pepper over it (as much or as little as you want)

Pop it in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice up the hard boiled eggs. I have an egg slicer which makes it a cinch.

What you're left with is perfectly sliced eggs.

Now, I am not a fan of the yolks. Unless it's mixed up in an egg salad or for deviled eggs. Just plain...not a fan. So, I tossed the yolks.

Now you peel and slice the apple. Then cut it into little chunks.

Slice the onion very thinly. I only ended up using about 1/4 of the onion.

The BACON is ready!

See all that gooey sticky goodness? It's the brown sugar and it is perfection on this bacon.

Put the bacon on a plate w/ paper towels and let cool. Cut into little pieces.

Reserve about 2 Tbsp of the bacon drippings.

Mix the drippings in a microwave safe bowl with the rest of the brown sugar, the cider vinegar & Dijon mustard.

Mix it up and microwave for 2 minutes or until bubbly.

 Put the spinach, apples and onions in a large salad bowl.

Pour the sauce over it and toss.

Top with the eggs & bacon.

OK, I'm not kidding...MAKE this salad.

I can't even think of a way to describe how delicious it was. You just need to try it for yourself.

Do it.

:)

Ricotta Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sauce

Alrighty, people. You ask...I deliver.

Sort of.

This is the vegetarian dish that I decided to do last week. It's a PC Recipe from my 29 Minutes To Dinner cookbook. OK, here it goes.

Ingredients:

1 lemon, 1 15oz tub ricotta cheese, 2oz grated Parmesan cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, 2 tbsp oil, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp fresh parsley, spinach leaves, 2 cups pasta (I added this)

First, zest the lemon into a mixing bowl.  I use my batter bowl because it has a nice sturdy handle...which is a necessity to me.  Juice the lemon to get 1 tsp juice. Set the juice aside.

This is also when I cooked my pasta...which is not in the original recipe. I just like pasta a lot and figured it'd be good with it.

Add the cheeses.

and

Now add the egg.

Add the flour and mix until it's all incorporated. Don't over mix it or you'll have some seriously tough gnocchi.

It'll look something like this:

Now, lay out a piece of parchment paper and flour it lightly.

Now you form the gnocchi. You want to do round tbsp sized balls. Normally I would use my small scoop but it disappeared...along with my tbsp measuring spoon. Funny how that always happens right when I need them.  I blame the kids.

Anyway, I took what I thought seemed like a Tbsp and just rolled them until they were roundish.

Now you heat up the oil & 2 tbsp of butter in a skillet. While it was heating I prepared the ingredients for the sauce. I basically put the parsley, red pepper flakes & pressed garlic into a dish for easy access.

OK...the oil and butter. Let the butter melt and cook over MEDIUM heat until it just starts to brown. Don't let it heat up to high. Trust me.

Add the gnocchi.

Let them cook about 2 minutes per side.

Once they are done, remove from the pan and keep warm.

Now for the sauce.

Add the remaining butter to the skillet & cook for about 4 minutes until it is a deep brown color...be sure to swirl the skillet so that the butter doesn't burn. Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the juice, parsley, garlic & red pepper flakes.

It'll sizzle up immediately. Swirl it around for a sec.

And that's pretty much it.  I put some spinach and pasta on each plate. Topped with some of the gnocchi & drizzled the sauce over it all.

OK...here's my review.

It was good. Not my favorite meal, but it was good, and very filling.

I'm going to try it again, but I'll make a few changes.  I wasn't a fan of the lemon. It was a little too much in my opinion.  I think next time I will chop up some spinach and mix it in with the gnocchi dough. I think having some angel hair & tomatoes with them would be fantastic as well.

And I totally think that some chopped bacon over top would be killer.  But that would kill the whole vegetarian idea.  So you do with that what you will.

Try this recipe.  Let me know what you think of it!

:)

Banana Bread

For some unknown reason I have bananas that aren't being eaten by my kiddos.

I actually find this to be a good thing because I LOVE banana bread, but normally my bananas don't sit long enough to get all mushy and gross...perfect for banana bread.

So today I decided to jump on the opportunity.

I normally make my mother-in-law's banana bread. It's SO good and my husband loves when I make it.

I can't find the recipe though and I needed to make it this morning...couldn't wait until she got home from work and could give me the recipe.

I found a recipe online and tweaked it just a smidge. So here it is.

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour, 1tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 1/2 cups mashed bananas (I used 4 bananas), 1 stick of butter, 2 eggs & 3/4ish cups brown sugar

First you mix the flour with the baking soda and salt.

Next, mash up the bananas.

You can use a fork or whatever...I used my Mix N Chop.

Next, mix the butter with 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Mix it up until it looks like this.

Mix the sugar/butter mixture in with the bananas.

It'll be all lovely and goopey.

Now you beat the eggs. I used the same bowl as I did for the butter/sugar.  It's all going to the same place, right?

Pour them in with the bananas.

Add the flour mixture.

Mix it all together until you have a nice, lumpy batter.

Next you want to grease and flour a bread pan.

I use Crisco, wipe it on with a paper towel and then dust it with flour.

Pour the batter in and even it out.

This is where my tweaking comes in. It's crazy and genius.

Ready?

Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top.

:)

Yeah, that's it...nothing special. But oh, so delicious.

Bake it at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove from the bread pan.

You can let it cool, but I prefer to slice it up right out of the oven and smother it with butter.

And I'm a happy woman.