Bacon wrapped pimento cheese stuffed okra

I grew up mainly in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Because neither of my parents are Southern, I did not eat a lot of Southern cuisine when I was a kid. I probably would not have enjoyed much of it anyway because I was such a picky eater. I'm a quarter Italian and I did not even like spaghetti sauce for the longest time!

Over the years my palette has expanded greatly. One food item that I did not give a chance until a couple years ago was okra. It took living in California and having dinner with a friend from Washington state for me to try it. And it was delicious! Of course, it was the fried variety, so how could that not taste good?

Fast forward to moving back to the South... We have planted our vegetable garden and I included okra. It has been growing quite nicely lately and I have amassed a lot of okra from it. I did not realize the plant has such beautiful, delicate flowers.

Having never cooked it before, I searched Pinterest for some recipes. I found one that sounded perfect... bacon wrapped stuffed okra! The actual recipe calls for a shrimp filling. I'm still a picky eater; I don't eat seafood. But I was planning on making pimento cheese with our homegrown pimento peppers. Wouldn't that taste amazing stuffed inside a bacon wrapped piece of okra? I think so!

Fourth of July gave me the perfect opportunity to try this dish. It was easy to assemble and tasted FANTASTIC! It is just as good as fried okra...if not better.

For the pimento cheese, I kind of followed the recipe from Eleven Magnolia Lane. It's OK, but I've had better. I just have to find the recipe! Feel free to use your own favorite recipe or store bought (if you have to).

For the okra, I followed the instructions from I Heart Publix. The recipe suggests using regular bacon and not thick cut bacon. I happened to have thick cut and it worked out just fine.

Bacon wrapped avocado

I will be the first to tell you that I do not love avocado. But I will eat it. Once we ate at a diner that had avocado fries as an appetizer. It was a breaded and fried piece of avocado with dipping sauces. It was surprisingly delicious. Then on Pinterest I came across bacon wrapped avocado. Hmm... that could be tasty! I tried out the recipe the other day and it was an enjoyable culinary experience. You can view the original recipe on Oh, Sweet Basil.

Bacon Wrapped Avocado

Ingredients
Bacon
1 Avocado
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 to 1 t chili powder

Directions
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and chili powder. Set aside.

Line a baking sheet with foil (or be prepared to do a bit of scrubbing afterward).

Cut open the avocado and remove the pit. Slice about 3/4 inch slices lengthwise through the avocado and then cut in half width-wise. I made 4 cuts lengthwise giving me 8 chunks of avocado per side...16 chunks total. Cut each slice of bacon to wrap around each chunk of avocado. I just cut each slice in half, but you could cut in thirds to make your bacon go farther. Wrap the bacon piece around the avocado chunk. Roll in the brown sugar mixture and place on baking sheet. I had a bunch of the brown sugar mixture leftover after rolling all my pieces so I spooned the rest on top of each chunk before baking.

Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. I put mine on some paper towels to soak up some of the bacon grease before transferring to a pretty plate.

Gilmore Girls Party: Burgers from Luke's

I love planning parties. One of my favorite things to pick out is the food that will be served. Pinterest has made this both easy and difficult. Easy in that a myriad of recipes are available at your fingertips. Difficult in that sometimes it is hard to choose because there are just sooooo many options out there!

In planning my Gilmore Girls 30th birthday party, food was a big consideration. The Gilmore Girls ate so much junk food throughout the series. They also had the weekly Friday Night Dinners. Sooke St. James is a chef and made a bunch of delicious dishes. What to choose???

I knew immediately that burgers of some kind would have to be made. They ate countless burgers at Luke's Diner. I saw a recipe for easy cheeseburger sliders and this was the perfect chance to try it out!

Luke's Cheeseburger Sliders

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1/4 cups oatmeal (or seasoned bread crumbs)
3/4 cup chopped onions (I just used dried onions from the spice aisle because I hate chopping onions)
1/2 t garlic or regular salt
1 package Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls
6 slices cheese of your choice

Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine beef, oatmeal, onions and salt. Gently press mixture in a 9x13 inch pan so that it makes one large patty of even thickness. Poke holes throughout the meat using a fork (I forgot to do this and it turned out fine). Bake for 30 minutes. As it bakes, the meat will shrink away from the sides and the liquid will accumulate around the edges of the pan.

When fully cooked, remove pan from the oven (keep oven turned on) and carefully drain off the liquid.

Top the meat with an even layer of sliced cheese; return pan to oven for about 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes. Cut into 2 inch squares (or the size of the buns used).

Porcupines and other things...

I've been M.I.A. lately! Sorry about that.

I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend away to visit my husband. Fredericksburg was a neat town. Our cabin was wonderful and like a little world away from everything. I think one day I would love to own a bed and breakfast. I just think it would be so rewarding. We ate some good food and saw some neat things.

It was unbelievably hard to leave. I just feel so good when I'm with him and it's like I'm incomplete without him. I know that sounds really sappy and maybe a little anti-feminist (not that I care about either), but it is true for me.

This past weekend was a good distraction because three of my college friends came all the way up to Ohio to visit me! It was nice to sit around and talk, show them around town and just have some company from people I feel truly comfortable around. It is so hard making new friends because I always feel an uneasiness until you really get to know the person and they get to know you. I've known these girls for close to ten years now (which blows my mind).

While they were here, I took the opportunity to make a recipe from my childhood. I asked my sister to email it to me a while back and had not made it yet. The recipe is for Porcupines (aka meatballs). Unfortunately we ate them all without taking any pictures, but they were delicious and super easy. I stole the picture below from Google. 

Ingredients

Quick tomato sauce (recipe below)
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice (I used brown rice)
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Lightly grease a 2 1/2 qt. casserole dish. Prepare and set aside tomato sauce, adding 1/2 c water. Meanwhile combine beef, rice, onion, salt and pepper. Mix lightly and shape into 1 1/2 inch balls.
Put in casserole, cover with sauce. Cover with lid or foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour or until rice is tender.

Quick Tomato Sauce
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 c chopped celery
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion (I didn't actually have onion, so I didn't add this)
1 1/4 c (10 1/2-11 oz) condensed tomato soup
3/4 c water
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard (I also didn't have this)
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

Heat butter in small skillet, add veggies, cooking until soft, remove from heat and add everything else. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes or until warm. (I somehow missed the simmering direction, so my sauce came out really thin and watery...oops!)

My sister suggested that if you want to avoid the canned soup in case of MSG or other reasons, you can use canned tomato sauce with a couple tablespoons of tomato paste. I was lazy and just used canned tomato soup.

Potato Wedge Nachos

On Sundays, Charles and I typically do low-effort dinners. We lean towards homemade popcorn and nachos. This weekend we mixed it up a little with Potato Wedge Nachos. I adapted the recipe from this pin: Cheesy Potato Fries.

Photo borrowed from blog: Oh So Delicioso

Ingredients:
Potatoes cut into wedges--I used a bag of baby sized potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
Paprika, to taste
Chedder cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Sour Cream
Salsa

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash potatoes and cut into wedges. With the baby potatoes, it was hard to get similar sized wedges since some potatoes were really tiny and others were larger. It didn't really matter. Some were a little more done than others. Place on baking sheet or in baking dish.

Pour on olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Toss potatoes.

Bake potatoes for 40 minutes.

When finished baking, remove from oven. Plate up and sprinkle with cheeses. Garnish with sour cream and salsa. Enjoy!

Garlic Knots

As part of my Christmas dinner, I made Garlic Knots. I found the recipe on a blog; I honestly do not remember which one, though. There was an Italian restaurant called Italiano's that we frequented often when we lived in Texas. They served the best garlic knots. These were pretty good, too!

Garlic Knots

Ingredients:
40 mini refrigerated buttermilk biscuits or 20 regular refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup canola oil
6 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling after baked
3 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons dried oregano
3 teaspoons dried parsley flakes

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Open the canned biscuits. On a dry work surface or cutting board, take 1 biscuit at a time and roll each biscuit into a long rope. Gently tie the biscuit rope into a knot and tuck the ends under. Place two inches apart on a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Once baked, remove the knots from the oven. Place them on a wire rack with a paper towel under them to catch the excess oil.

In a bowl, combine the canola oil and seasonings. Brush the knots with the oil and garlic mixture while they are still hot. Sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese.

Special Broccoli

As promised, I am going to share the recipe for Broccoli with Pecan Brown Butter.

Ingredients:
Kosher salt
2 pounds broccoli, cut into florets
1 stick salted butter (I don't buy salted butter, so unsalted will have to do)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
Salt and Pepper
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

(The original recipe also called for shallots and red pepper flakes...I'm not interested in those two things, so I have omitted them from the recipe).

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat and add broccoli. Blanch until tender-crisp and bright green, about three minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and pecans, and saute until the garlic is tender, about three to four minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep stirring until the butter begins to brown, another three minutes.

Add red pepper flakes, if desired, and broccoli. Using tongs, toss the broccoli with the butter and pecans. Cook, while tossing, until the broccoli is heated through, about five to six more minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.