Bacon Wrapped Asparagus Bundles

We’re kicking 2012 off the right way!

Bacon & Asparagus

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bacon wrapped asparagus

Y’all, these bacon wrapped asparagus bundles are so simple to make and so delicious!

I made these several times at my parents house over Christmas break and my goodness, all y’all on Instar.gram just went gaga over it.  We ate them hot. warm and even cold and they were delicious every single time!

These are so simple, yet impressive.

Take a bundle of asparagus, rinse it well and lay it on a paper towel.

Take each piece of asparagus one hand on each end and bend, the asparagus will snap at it’s natural breaking point – toss the bottom, tough piece and set the top aside.  Repeat with each spear.

Pre-heat oven to 400 F

Lay all the snapped spears on a cutting board and dish and drizzle with olive oil and top with your favorite seasoning.  I prefer Zatarain’s Big & Zesty Garlic & Herb Creole Seasoning.  At my parent’s house I used a Southwest Seasoning and a Season Salt – you really can’t go wrong.  Toss the asparagus around in the olive oil and seasoning until all the spears are well coated

seasoned asparagus

 

Count out the spears into bundles of 10 – 12 spears.  I can get 4 bundles out of each bunch of asparagus.

Starting at the bottom of a bundle, wrap tightly all the way up with a thick piece of bacon

asparagus wrapped in bacon

Place the bacon wrapped spears on a broiler pan over another tray, once they’re all done, place them in the 400 F oven and cook about 20 minutes – or until the asparagus is cooked to your liking. (the cooking time will depend upon the thickness of the spears)
Serve with whatever you like, or these would even make fun snacks for a party, maybe even with this chili garlic dipping sauce – YUM!

asparagus in dipping sauce
Here’s the printable, save-able version – thanks to the wonderful ZipList plug-in!

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Approximate Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 4 bundles

Bacon Wrapped Seasoned Asparagus Bundles, delicious as a side dish, an appetizer or a snack.

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch of asparagus
  • 4 slices thick cut bacon
  • olive oil
  • Favorite Seasoning - I use Zatarain's Big & Zesty Garlic & Herb Creole Seasoning

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F
  2. Wash and dry the asparagus spears, snap them at their natural breaking point and lay the tops out on a dish.
  3. Drizzle with olive oil and seasonings, toss to fully coat.
  4. Separate the spears into bundles of 10 - 12 spears, I can usually get 4 bundles out of a bunch.
  5. Beginning at the bottom of the bundle, tightly wrap a slice of bacon all the way up the bundle.
  6. Once the bundles are complete, place them in the pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes, or until the spears are cooked to your liking - the timing will depend upon the thickness of the spears and how you like your asparagus cooked.

Rachel Says

You could sweeten these by using a maple cured bacon, or add an extra snap by wrapping them with a peppered bacon. These are delicious hot or cold, and are simply delicious all by themselves or with a dipping sauce. These can be done on the grill, too. You'd have to pay more attention to them, though and turn them so that they cook thoroughly on all sides.

http://asouthernfairytale.com/2012/01/02/bacon-wrapped-asparagus/

if you like this recipe, you’ll love these bacon wrapped roasted green beans from Karly

Happy first Mouthwatering Monday of 2012, y’all! Thank you for linking up your recipes every week! I get so much inspiration and joy from seeing what y’all are sharing with your friends and family each week.



Balsamic Vinaigrette Coleslaw

It’s Secret Recipe Club time again!

This month I was assigned to a blog with the intriguing name; The Haggis and The Herring.  Dan and Meredith are a lovely couple who started their blog as a wedding website; a way to share their lives, food, and wedding preparations with family and friends.  After the wedding, they decided to keep up with the website and turn it’s now a delicious and intriguing website full of friends and family tested recipes.  From their website header:

Tasty recipes tested in our kitchen – drawing from flavours around the world including our English, European, Mediterranean and South-Asian food experiences

I had a great time browsing their recipes and I have several bookmarked to try later.

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club challenge, I decided to try their Balsamic Coleslaw recipe.

This recipe intrigued me for a couple of reasons; the first is that Nathan and I both have an aversion to traditional coleslaw, the second is that I have this deep, powerful dislike for goopy mayonnaise laden dishes and I vividly remember making coleslaw for different restaurants that I worked at and the sheer amounts of mayonnaise and sugar simply made my skin crawl.

I shudder even now just thinking about it!

This coleslaw features balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar, dijon, spicy mustard, fresh cracked pepper and a few other delightful ingredients.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Coleslaw

balsamic vinegar coleslow

Even the preparation of this coleslaw is unique! This recipe calls for heating the ingredients to dissolve the sugar {yay for non-crunchy, grainy, sugary coleslaw!}

Most of y’all know me and y’all know that I’m pretty much incapable of leaving a recipe alone.. here’s the recipe from The Haggis and The Herring, what follows is my adaptation.

Mix 1/4 C white wine vinegar, 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1/4 C sugar (honestly, I think this might be optional – your call), 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp spicy mustard, 1/4 tsp salt ( I used Himalayan Pink Salt) and 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper.

sugar and cabbage

Heat in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until it reaches a gentle rolling boil and the sugar dissolves.

Let the mixture cool and then pour over your coleslaw veggies — I used 1 (16 oz) bag of pre-made coleslaw mix and 1 (12 oz) bag of rainbow salad mix {I love the crunch this adds}.

cabbage and ingredients

You can serve immediately, but I recommend letting it sit in the fridge chilling and allowing the flavors to fully absorb and marry.

This is absolutely delicious served with Pulled Pork or Grilled Chicken.

coleslaw and bbq

 

Secret Recipe Club

Balsamic Vinaigrette Coleslaw

This Balsamic Vinaigrette Coleslaw is adapted from The Haggis and The Herring and is perfect served with Pulled Pork

Ingredients

  • 16 oz bag Coleslaw Veggies
  • 12 oz bag Rainbow Salad Mix
  • 1/4 C white wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp spicy mustard
  • 1/4 tsp salt (sea, kosher, pink himalayan etc..)
  • 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper (or 1/2 tsp if you don't like a peppery bite)

Instructions

  1. Combine the vinegars, sugar, olive oil, spicy mustard, salt and pepper in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle rolling boil, stirring frequently until the sugar is dissolved.
  2. Place this mixture aside and allow to cool.
  3. Pour the vinaigrette over the coleslaw veggies and place in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours before serving.
http://asouthernfairytale.com/2011/09/19/balsamic-vinaigrette-coleslaw/



Confetti Corn Salad and Chilled Vinaigrette Potato Salad

[donotprint]I love having friends over.  I love feeding my friends and I get a special thrill when I see them devouring and loving the food that I’ve prepared. So, Friday night we had friends over for a BBQ.

 

Bush's Can Opener

We grilled some wicked pork chops

spice rubbed pork chops

We flame broiled grilled up some amazing chicken quarters

grillin' chicken

I served Summer Breezes

summer breeze drink

We made crazy drool-worthy bbq side dishes that were cool, zingy, tangy and downright tonguegasmic

Sunset vinaigrette potato salad

In case you can’t tell, the sun was setting and I was scrambling to capture the golden light

confetti salad

Today, y’all are getting the recipes for both the side dishes that I created for this BBQ.

I love fresh, crisp, chilled foods for barbecue side dishes when it’s hot outside.  This Chilled Confetti Salad was a massive hit with everyone, even the kids.  One friend was even eating this with chips like an appetizer! :-) I think you should definitely serve this confetti salad with fresh limes so everyone can squeeze lime over their serving. [/donotprint]

[print_link]

: Chilled Confetti Salad
  1. 8 to 10 whole ears of corn, shucked, cooked and kernels removed
  2. 2 jalapenos, diced
  3. 1 sweet green bell pepper, seeded and diced
  4. 1 sweet red bell pepper, seeded and diced
  5. 1 bunch green onions, chopped
  6. 6 limes
  1. Shuck the corn and remove all the strands of silk
  2. Cook corn according to your favorite way: boil or grill
  3. Cool corn and remove kernels from cob
  4. Dice sweet peppers and jalapenos (remove seeds and ribs from jalapenos if you’re heat sensitive)
  5. Chop green onions all the way down to just before the crisp white bulb.
  6. Toss all ingredients together.
  7. Cut 3 limes in half and squeeze the juice over your corn salad.
  8. Refrigerate
  9. Prior to serving, slice limes into quarters and place next to salad for serving

 

[donotprint]  Potato Salad is sort of an iconic BBQ and Picnic side dish-I however, am not a huge fan of the potato salads that are over saturated with mayonnaise or mustard.  You know the ones that make that ‘schnock’ sound when you remove them from their dish.  So for this BBQ I wanted to make my own take on German Potato Salad, a vinaigrette based potato salad that is traditionally served warm.  My potato salad combines green onions, a bit of spicy mustard, fresh cracked black pepper and red wine vinaigrette.

[/donotprint]

[print_link]

: Chilled German Potato Salad
  1. 4 lbs small potatoes (I use red)
  2. 1 bunch green onions
  3. Red Wine Vinegar
  4. Zesty Spicy Mustard
  5. Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
  1. Wash potatoes and cook to fork tender
  2. Drain and cool
  3. Rough chop potatoes and toss in a medium size bowl
  4. Small chop green onions down to just before the crisp white bulb
  5. Toss in the green onions
  6. Add 1/4 C red wine or balsamic vinegar (your taste)
  7. Add in 1/4 C spicy mustard
  8. Toss together
  9. Chill
  10. After 2 hours, remove from fridge, top with fresh ground black pepper and taste
  11. Add more vinegar or mustard or pepper, to taste

[donotprint]

Friday night was filled with laughter and games, good food and friends, all the things that a great evening are made of.

Today’s post wasn’t sponsored but, tomorrow’s is and tomorrow, you have a chance to win this
IMG_9442
and a $50 Gift Card for your own amazing Grillin’ Party.

So, stay tuned.

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A few of my favorite from last week’s link-ups

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