December 12, 2010 Christmas Party Food

This year, I was invited to a Christmas party for, I believe, the first time since I started working from home.  I used to go to several every year because the company would have a party, co-workers would have parties, my little boy's daycare would have a party.  Ever since I started working remotely for an out-of-state company, and my son grew up, there just haven't been too many of those occasions.  Since I don't like to show up empty handed to a party, I decided to make an appetizer. 

I had half a large pack of extra lean turkey bacon that needed to be used, so I decided something to do with bacon would be a good use for it.  I experimented with bacon-wrapped mozzarella (which melted right out of the bacon).  I tried cornbread discs topped with mozzarella, wrapped with bacon, and that was okay but really time consuming. I even tried baby carrots wrapped in bacon, which really didn't appeal to me at all.  In all these experiments, the flavor was fair, but the texture was all wrong.  Extra lean turkey bacon just doesn't get crispy, no matter how long you cook it, unless you char it.

So, let me admit right here that my final choice was not something that happened to be in the fridge, but the idea was!  I searched the web for ideas to do with bacon and finally found one that appealed to me.  At this point, however, I was out of the extra lean turkey bacon, which wasn't working very well anyway.  I had to go out and get some regular fat turkey bacon and a sack of potatoes (I was out of potatoes, too).

Here's what I used:
small red potatoes
turkey bacon
salt
olive oil
ground rosemary, dill weed
granulated garlic
*toothpicks

Here's what I did:

Wash and slice about 15 small-ish red potatoes (larger ones would probably make better slices, but I really like the small ones). I sliced them lengthwise for "steak fries" size chunks (although you can cube them and get the same flavor in a different shape, but you'll want to cut the bacon differently if you do).

In a large microwave-safe bowl cover potatoes with water, shake in some salt and cover with plastic wrap.  Microwave for 5-6 minutes, depending on your microwave (less time if it's more powerful, more time if it's a wimp).  You want to undercook them ever so slightly because they're going to finish cooking later.

Drain and rinse potatoes.  Toss with about a tablespoon of olive oil, ground rosemary, granulated garlic, ground dill weed and a little bit more salt.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, open your turkey bacon and re-slice each slice lengthwise (for long skinny pieces).

Spread two large cookie sheets with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray (it's going to get sticky).

Now here's the fun part (read: tedious).  Wrap each potato slice with one strand of bacon so that it looks striped, a bit like a small candy cane.  *You  probably won't need toothpicks since the bacon will sort of stretch around the potato, but if you find your ends popping off, use toothpicks to hold them on.

Place them on the pans as you wrap them, then bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes one side, then flip and bake the other side another 10 minutes.

When you take them out, the bacon will be baked onto the potatoes, and your house will smell like IHOP.  My dogs were going nuts while this was going on, and they got to enjoy a few "mistakes."

To serve, I chose a Vidalia onion dressing that I found at Rouse's.  It was a little sweet, which was a really nice contrast to the salty bacon and potatoes.  If this sounds like a little slice of heart attack, just remember, turkey bacon is naturally much leaner than pork bacon, and we used olive oil, which is heart healthy.  Feel better?

By the way, once the plate was served at the party, it was a huge hit, wiped out in record time, and I was beaming.