Wednesday, May 25, 2011

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.

Click Here for My Adapted Printable Recipe

7 comments:

Woody said...

I am sure every male reading this post can understand that you never have too much bacon.

the husband

The Chef In My Head said...

On the bright side, it could've been pickled herring or anchovies! LOL! This recipe looks and sounds delicious!
-Leslie

Tupper Cooks! said...

Ha! Great post, and being a guy I agree w/ the husband-you caqn't have too much bacon!

osborne.ginny@gmail.com said...

I reside on the side with your shopping companion, Forrest... there can never be enough bacon. That said, 10 lbs is a lot, but I maintain that I could go through that much in at least two weeks. The recipe for Asiago, Potato and Bacon Gratin looks delicious - a perfect side dish for the next gathering. Often I post these types of side dish recipes in cooking contests for fun.

Cheers,
Virginia O

Anonymous said...

The gods tempt people for which they are most weak. Artificial Intelligence will create desire in people's minds for the following sins:::
1. Alcohol
2. Drugs
3. Preditory "earning"
4. Homosexuality
5. Gambling
6. Something for nothing/irresponsibility (xtianity)
7. Polygamy/superiority over women/misogyny (Islam)
Much like the other prophets Mohhamed (polygamy/superiority over women/misogyny) and Jesus (forgiveness/savior), the gods use me for temptation as well. In today's modern society they feel people are most weak for popular culture/sensationalism, and the clues date back to WorldWarII and Unit731:TSUSHOGO.
It has been discussed that, similar to the Matrix concept, the gods will offer a REAL "Second Coming of Christ", while the "fake" Second Coming will come at the end and follow New Testiment scripture and their xtian positioning. I may be that real Second Coming.
What I teach is the god's true way. It is what is expected of people, and only those who follow this truth will be eligible to ascend into heaven as children in a future life. They offered this event because the masses have just enough time to work on and fix their relationship with the gods and ascend, to move and grow past Planet Earth, before the obligatory xtian "consolation prize" of "1000 years with Jesus on Earth" begins.

Your job as a future mother is to learn the god's ways and to help your child understand despite the negative reinforcement and conditioning of today's society. Without consciousous parents the child will have no hope, and may even exaserbate their disfavor by becoming corrupted in today's environment.
Your ultimate goal is to fix your relationship wiith the gods and move on. You don't want to be comfortable here, and the changes in Western society in the last 100 years has achieved just that.
1000 years with Jesus is the consolation prize. Don't be deceived into thinking that is the goal.

The Prince of Darkness, battling the gods over the souls of the Damned.
It is the gods who have created this environment and led people into Damnation with temptation. The god's positioning proves they work to prevent people's understanding.
How often is xtian dogma wrong? Expect it is about the Lucifer issue as well.
The fallen god, fighting for justice for the disfavored, banished to Earth as the fallen angel?
I believe much as the Noah's Flood event, the end of the world will be initiated by revelry among the people. It will be positioned to be sanctioned by the gods and led for "1000 years with Jesus on Earth".
In light of modern developments this can entail many pleasures:::Medicine "cures" aging, the "manufacture" of incredible beauty via cloning as sex slaves, free (synthetic) cocaine, etc.
Somewhere during the 1000 years the party will start to "die off", literally. Only those who maintain chaste, pure lifestyles, resisting these temptations, will survive the 1000 years. Condemned to experience another epoch of planet's history for their ignorant pursuit of xtianity, they will be the candidates used to (re)colonize (the next) Planet Earth, condemned to relive the misery experienced by the peasantry during history due to their failure to ascend into heaven before the Apocalypse.
If this concept of Lucifer is true another role of this individual may be to initiate disfavor and temptation among this new poulation, the proverbial "apple" of this Garden of Eden. A crucial figure in the history of any planet, he begins the process of deterioration and decay that leads civilizations to where Planet Earth remains today.
Which one is it? Probably both:::
One transistions into the other, allowing the gods to wash their hands of obligation to The Chosen One.

Ashley's Cooking Adventures said...

I absolutely love this story because it's something that my husband would do too, he puts the most ridiculous things in our cart at the grocery store and I always get so annoyed. This bacon dish looks amazing! At least you go to put it all to good use! :)

Julie said...

That's an interesting way to figure out lots of way to use bacon, and this recipe certainly looks like a success!