Bank Breaking Bacon

Very often, ingredients inspire my recipe searches. If I have left over herbs or a surplus of a certain meat due to a sale at the supermarket I will search those ingredients in my favorite recipe databases until I come up with the perfect find. This recipe was a result of one of those searches. Because after the Great Bacon Debacle of 2011 I had some bacon to use up. And that is putting it lightly.

The Great Bacon Debacle of 2011 started when Forrest so kindly agreed to accompany me to the grocery. I usually go it alone, especially since Rex was born as it is just quicker to get in and out when I am by myself. But on this particular occasion I had left the weekly shopping to a Saturday morning and Forrest and the baby came along. Our local grocery often has Buy 1 Get 1 Free deals and I try to take advantage of them whenever they involve products I know we will use a lot of in our cooking. On this day, as we passed the pork section we noticed that bacon was part of the BOGO deal so I picked up two regular sized packages of the cured pork and threw them in our basket. Forrest pointed out that the huge 5 pound "bricks" of bacon were also BOGO and that we should get those as we "always NEED bacon". I told him that 10lbs of bacon was an awful lot, but he promised to break them up into usable sized packages and refreeze them in Ziploc bags as soon as we got home. So I reluctantly agreed and we moved on to the next aisle.

"So why did that turn into a debacle", you ask? Things really went south as we arrived at the self checkout counter. I hurried along scanning my items and double checking to see that all prices and promotions were honored on our screen. As I rang up the first Bacon Brick I was astounded to see that is cost $16.99! Even at buy one get one free that is a whole lot more than I ever want to spend on bacon. So I rolled my eyes at Forrest and scanned the next brick. As usual, the price showed up on the screen (still $16.99 even though I was hoping it wasn't) and then I waited for the corresponding (-16.99) to appear in red indicating the second one was for free. Nothing..... They weren't buy one get one free, Forrest misread the sign! So now not only had I just rang up 10lbs of bacon, I just spent 34 dollars on bacon!

Looking for someone to blame, I immediately told Forrest that was ridiculous and he was a careless shopper. He volunteered to tell the attendant we didn't want it to have it voided off of our bill. This is where a normal, not hot headed human being would have obliged and the bacon fiasco would have come to an end right there and then at Self Check Out Register #4. But I am much too stubborn, easily embarrassed and wouldn't allow him to get it off the bill. So I stayed bitter the whole way home and then complained for about 2 days about the copious amounts of bacon in our freezer. Even though Forrest had broken them into manageable portion as promised, I still claimed we would "never" use it all. As if!

The bacon was gone in the span of the next month and every time I made a recipe with bacon that was a success like this one, I had to apologize to Forrest for my ridiculous generalized statements on that day.

Asiago, Potato and Bacon Gratin
Adapted from Cooking Light April 2004

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons minced yellow onion
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups 1% low-fat milk, divided
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated Asiago cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place potatoes in a large saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes or until potatoes are almost tender. Drain. Sprinkle potatoes evenly with 1/4 teaspoon salt; set aside and keep warm.

Heat a medium saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Add onion; cook 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife.

Add the flour to the milk in a measuring cup and whisk to incorporate. Gradually add remaining milk mixture, stirring with a whisk.

Cook over medium heat 9 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in 3/4 teaspoon salt, Asiago, chives, pepper, and bacon.

Arrange half of potato slices in an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Pour half of cheese sauce over potato slices.

Top with remaining potato slices and cheese sauce; sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and lightly browned.

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