Potato Flatbread Sandwich

OK I fully admit that posts like my last one are part of the reason that my doctor calls me "fat fat fat"  and I really do have to admit that for me bacon is an evil temptress. I think that all of you are all pretty bright, if you have read even a few of my posts you can see that my friend the pig comes up often, but you don't know the full story... at work we make bacon by the bucket full.  So on any given morning I will walk through the kitchen and look! someone is pulling a pan of bacon out of the oven... "I better try one."  A few minutes later I will go by and there I see someone else putting bacon 50 or 60 slices of bacon into a serving pan "hmm, those look a little more done than the first batch I better try one..."  Then there is always "quality assurance, I had better inspect."  At the end of the day we go through about 700 slices of bacon... no I don't eat them ALL but I don't count on purpose.  I am pretty sure that if I could just walk past the siren song (well smell) of bacon I won't have that conversation with the doctor on my next visit...

All that being said I do try to lighten it up sometimes, this flatbread sandwich/salad does just fine for those *non-bacony meals, when I have something lighter with actual vegetables and other good stuff.  It is as simple as can be the potato flatbread topped with a grilled chicken breast and spinach with blueberry vinaigrette dressing.  It all pulls together well with a nice mix of flavors ranging from the sweet tangy dressing and the bite of goat cheese all wrapped in the warm *potaotey comfort that it deserves.

Potato Flat Bread
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp minced onion
1 tsp sugar
chopped cilantro
1/2 cup water

Mix the first 5 ingredients together then add the water,** start with half the amount the add until it is sticky but firm.  When it is well mixed cover and set aside for at least half an hour.  When you are ready to prepare cut ball into quarters, dust with flour and roll flat into about 8 inch circles.  Then throw them onto a hot lightly oiled pan, for me it worked best with a quick squirt of pan spray.  Cook for about 3-4 minutes on a side until lightly browned and flexible.  As you take them off stack them and set aside until ready to serve... I can't say how long they will last because I eat them too fast

Spinach Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette Dressing
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
1/3 cup fresh blueberries
1 tsp sugar (depending on the sweetness of the berries)

Puree all ingredients until smooth (I used a stick blender).

To assemble toss some baby spinach with some of the dressing... place a flatbread on your plate, top with the dressed spinach leaves.  Lay a sliced chicken breast on that them top with fresh blueberries, onions and goat cheese.

*it seems that I have taken to making up my own words... lets see what happens in a few years maybe they will be in the dictionary.

** I have made this three times now, twice the water was just right the other time I had to add another 1/2 cup of flour.  I never quite understand that stuff, flour seems to have a mind of it's own sometimes

Bacon Peanut Butter Truffles

I have mentioned a few times my appreciation for all things pork, I really am fond of the pig!  It is one of the things that reminds me that there must be a higher power because, well in one  package you have:
ham
chops
tenderloin
hocks
ribs
heck I have even seen their feet in a pickle jar at some of the bars that I used to go to and don't forget that yummy fatty stuff from around the belly BACON. 

Bacon is one of those things that transcends any course of any meal; there is always bacon with breakfast,  Spinach salad with bacon dressing(mmm bacon vinaigrette dressing) bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, bacon on any sandwich.  Then you can't forget beverages or dessert...  yes folks this one is about dessert.

I have talked about my friend the cookbook dealer a few times, he made another visit not to long ago and dropped off a few magazines for me, a couple of issues of Food and Wine, (from 2006 and 2008) one issue of Whole Living from 2009 and a copy of Saveur from March 2005.  Since the whole cookbook/culinary magazine thing is kind of an addiction for me I try to keep the gravity of it hidden (is there a 12 step program for that?)  I tossed these in the back of my car so nobody would find them and there they sat there with the other 30 or so cookbooks and magazines until a few days back when I took Miss Lu to dance I was looking for some reading material for the hour I was about to spend sitting in a folding metal chair.

On our way to dance class

I ran out to the car and riffled around for something to spark my interest... then there it was in the upper right hand corner "Seduced by Bacon"  I couldn't pass on that!  inside was "Peanut Butter Bacon Truffles" Ok if you have read even a few of my posts you know I had to follow up on this one!

6 strips of bacon cooked until crisp well drained
1/2 cup salted dry roasted peanuts
4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
8 oz chocolate chips
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Coarsely chop bacon then put into a food processor with peanuts and sugar... pulse until  mixture is ground to medium fine texture.  Pour into a bowl then add peanut butter and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is firm.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Roll the peanut butter mixture into balls 3/4 to 1 inch in size and set them on the sheet, when it is all used lightly cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Before you take them out put the refrigerator melt your chocolate chips in a double boiler stirring often to keep it smooth, then set aside until cool enough to touch.  Then take your peanut butter balls out of of the refrigerator and drop them a few at a time in the chocolate to coat then toss in the cocoa powder.

The article said that you can set them in a sealed container with some cocoa powder and they keep for about a week in the refrigerator, just bring them to room temperature before serving.  these guys only made it overnight, yes the breakfast of champions!

OK these little peanutbuttery baconey balls of chocolate really did it!  The salty sweet chocolaty candies were as good as they sound!

Our Thanksgiving Leftovers

I am sitting at our new keyboard now... if you read my last post you will know why. This time we decided to go wireless, the thinking is when Mr. Man just has to watch "Batman with Batgirl on the computer" (let's hear it for YouTube) while he has his lemonade and nachos then I can set the keyboard on top of the printer or somewhere else that is safe.  Then we can avoid the sticky key issue.


Thanksgiving dinner in our house gave me a strange list of leftovers. The Tenderloin that I bought was bigger than I wanted but I haggled the price down by a couple of bucks a pound by getting it untrimmed.

"Ok sir, that is $17.99 per pound"

"Are you kidding me? the cut filets are that price, and they are trimmed and ready to cook!"

"I can give you a dollar off per pound"

"Seriously, you are about to offer me $4.00 off of a $60.00 cut of meat to do all of your work?"

"How about $2.00?"

Ok, I agreed to that, so maybe I am not the best negotiator out there but I saved a few dollars anyway. So I brought it home and trimmed it myself which is pretty easy, take the silverskin off then trim the butt pieces and tip.  I still had plenty of extra and cut two good sized filets off for Kris and me to have later and a couple of pieces from between the fillet and the tip called tournedos. I had to look that up in one of my old culinary textbooks by the way . The cuts were about an inch thick and maybe an inch and a half around. Right after Thanksgiving I was making dinner and watching Good Eats on Food Network. This is one of my favorite shows, Alton Brown is such a foodie nerd, really he has my dream job, talking about food all day... Anyway I think the title of the episode that was halfway over when I turned it on was "Pounded Meats" he was making a variety of Pillards one of them was with Beef Tenderloin.

 What I saw was taking the Tenderloin and pounding it into pillards then his method of cooking them, you will see that in a sec, then he suggested adding a salad to them. Good idea I thought how about I make my own dressing...

So I diced up and cooked three strips of bacon to make my dressing

Bacon Vinaigrette
3 strips of bacon cooked, rendered fat reserved
1 TBS Canola Oil
1 clove Garlic minced
1 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Mustard (I used stone ground)
a little pepper

blend and set aside



Before... this one is about an inch thick



After... this is pounded to a little more than 1/4 of an inch thick

The Steaks were the fun part I took the three pieces of steak and pounded them to about 1/4 inch thick with the flat side of my mallet (the spiky side is for flank or skirt steak not tenderloin) then I heated up my favorite pan... the Iron Skillet. When it was hot I turned it over so the meat would be easier to work with and cooked them for about a minute or so on each side until medium rare then made up my plates.







Set the steaks on your plates then top with a few sautéed mushrooms, salad mix and warm Bacon Vinaigrette. Damn Hell this was good! Do I feel a little guilty? well yes well a little, and the scale and I have had a few words since to but... Wow.