Replacing Book Titles with Bacon

To go along with the title of the blog, my roommate and I thought it would be fun to #replace book titles with bacon.  Last night we almost peed our pants coming up with the best book titles we could. I feel as though this game could also be played with music song titles, movie titles, TV show titles; anything you want to replace with bacon is really fine by me. If there’s bacon involved, it really can’t go wrong…

1.       The Five Bacon Languages

(The Five Love Languages)

2.       The Bacon of Huckleberry Finn

(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

3.       To Kill a Mocking Bacon

(To Kill a Mocking Bird)

4.       Bacon in Wonderland

(Alice in Wonderland)

5.       Romeo and Bacon

 (Romeo and Julliette)

6.       A Streetcar Named Bacon

 (A Streetcar Named Desire)

7.       Gone with the Bacon

(Gone with the Wind)

8.       A Midsummer Night’s Bacon

(A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

9.       Sherlock Bacon

 (Sherlock Holmes)

10.   The Bacon-sitters Club

(The Babysitters Club)

11.   The Bacon of Anne Frank

(The Diary of Anne Frank)

12.   Having a Bacon Heart in a Bacon World

 (Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World)

13.   The Secret Life of Bacon

 (The Secret Life of Bees)

14.   Bacon for Elephants

 (Water for Elephants)

15.   The Bacon King

(The Lion King)

16.   The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Baconhood

(The Diving Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood)

17.   The Bacon

(The Help)

18.   Bacon is For Real

(Heaven is for Real)

19.   The Chronicles of Bacon: The Lion the Witch and the Bacon

(The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe)

20.   Harry Bacon and the Sorcerer’s Bacon

(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)

21.   The Girl with the Bacon Tattoo—don’t forget its sequal—The Girl Who Played with Bacon

(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) (The Girl Who Played with Fire)

22.   Lord of the Bacon—The Trilogy
           The FellowShip of the Bacon
           The Two Strips
           The Return of the Bacon

(Lord of the Rings)

23.   Memoirs of a Bacon

(Memoirs of a Geisha)

24.   The Great Bacon

(The Great Gatsby)

25.   The Scarlet Bacon  or  The Bacon Letter

(The Scarlet Letter)

26.   Bacon Calling

(Jesus Calling)

27.   The Bacon Games

(The Hunger Games)

28.   The Lucky Bacon

(The Lucky One)

29.   What to Expect When You’re Bacon

(What to Expect When You’re Expecting)

30.   The Bacon Garden  or  The Secret Bacon (Equally awesome in my opinion)

(The Secret Garden)

31.   Bacon Soup for the Soul
         (Chicken Soup for the Soul)

32.   He’s Just Not That Into Bacon

(He’s Just Not That Into YOU)

33.   All the King’s Bacon

(All the King’s Men)

34.   Bacon Farm

(Animal Farm)

35.   The Bacon in the Rye

(The Catcher in the Rye)

36.   The Grapes of Bacon

(The Grapes of Wrath)

37.   The Invisible Bacon or The Bacon Man

(The Invisible Man)

38.   Bacon the Spy

(Harriet the Spy)

39.   Brave New Bacon

(Brave New World)

40.   Sisterhood of the Traveling Bacon

(Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants)

41.   I, Bacon

(I, Claudius)

42.   BaconTime

(RagTime)

43.   Wuthering Bacon

(Wuthering Heights)

44.   Little House on the Bacon

(Little House on the Prairie)

45.   Moby Bacon

(Moby Dick)

46.   Pride and Bacon

(Pride and Prejudice)

47.   Of Mice and Bacon

(Of Mice and Men)

48.   Anne of Green Bacon

(Anne of Green Gables)

49.   The Old Man and the Bacon

(The Old Man and the Sea)

50.   The Bacon Code

(The DaVinci Code)

Hope you enjoyed that bacon!  Happy Bacon!

Famous Fried Rice

Last night, I made my beautifully preggo sister and wonderfully supportive brother-in-law a dish to be remembered, if I do say so myself.  Sometimes we just have a craving for certain foods to tango with our taste buds and yesterday afternoon I got a text from E asking me to make her my famous fried rice. I have been making this (with some alterations here and there) since I was in high school and over the years Ive gotten better at it. I've never actually had a recipe for it, I just kind of wing it. But last night this seemed to work really well, so I thought I'd share for your stomach's pleasure:

3 cups cooked brown rice
1 table spoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 diced green bell pepper
1 diced yellow onion
1 chopped large carrot
2 eggs scrambled
1 pound steak marinated in Asian ginger marinade (all day)- chunked after cooking
3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

Cook the brown rice according to the back of the package.  Meanwhile, scramble eggs and cook steak almost all of the way through.  Move rice into a LARGE skillet. Add oils to rice so it does not stick to the pan.  Add veggies, eggs, and unfinished steak to rice. Fry on medium to medium high for about 10 minutes, add soy sauce. Continue cooking another 10 minutes or until onions peppers and steak are done cooking.  Serve piping hot!

It completely satisfied all of our cravings! Can you say yum?!

The Battle of the Pizza Cups

ATTENTION LADIES AND GENTLEMAN:

We have a challange on our hands! Callie Baker has come up with the wild idea that she can make pizza cups better than me. So, in preperation for the challange, we went to our seperate corners  houses, made our own recipes, took pictures, and have put it up here for YOU to decide. Now, we know that you can't actually TASTE these cups, however, feel free to salivate over the recipes through your imaginations and eat them vicariously through us (and Sam).  Please vote for your favorite recipe and in our next post, we will reveal the winner and who's recipe is who's:

PIZZA CUPS RECIPE #1:

¾  lb. ground beef

A (6 oz.) can tomato paste

1 Tbsp. instant minced onion

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 (10 oz.) can refrigerated biscuits

½ to ¾ cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

Brown and drain beef. Stir in tomato paste, onion and seasonings (mixture will be thick).  Cook over low hear for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Place biscuits in greased muffin tin, pressing to cover bottom and sides.  Spoon meat mixture into biscuit lined cups.   Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 400 for 10 to 12 minutes.

PIZZA CUPS RECIPE #2 (the better/ more delish option):

1/2 box puff pastry

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1/2 cup dill harvarti

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup pepperoni

1/4 cup chunked pineapple

garlic sea salt &  italian seasoning to taste

Cut the puff pastry dough into 3x3 squares and mold into the bottom of a muffin tin.  Spoon 1/4 table spoon olive oil into each pastry square. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of each cheese and layer with pinepple and pepperoni and add spices to top of layers. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until golden brown and pastries are puffed.

Let the voting BEGIN!

Dinner In for 2

When we are not out on the town, eating our way through Atlanta, we stay in and cook delicious meals with the hopes of them turning out on the gourmet side. We stay in and cook to keep our wallets fat and our pants skinny (ier). On this particular Sunday, Sam and I decided to go to Mass (per our usual routine) and then stop in at at the grocery store to pick up a few items and then to head home to play our first tennis game against each other. After we built up our appetites and Sam kicked my butt a zillion to zero, we headed inside to begin another night in the kitchen.

 This blog will also be dedicated to sharing our love for food with you through restaurants and through our own kitchen.  Some recipes will be exact and taken from websites while others will be not-so-scientific and somewhat made up, yet totally delish.  Now, to began this healthy culinary adventure from our kitchen to yours:

Almond-Crusted Chicken Fingers

Instead of batter-dipped, deep-fried nuggets, we coat chicken tenders in a seasoned almond and whole-wheat flour crust and then oven-fry them to perfection. With half the fat of standard breaded chicken tenders, you can enjoy to your (healthy) heart's content.

---

Makes 4 servings

Active Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• Canola oil cooking spray
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 pound chicken tenders

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 475°F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Set a wire rack on the baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray.
2. Place almonds, flour, paprika, garlic powder, dry mustard, salt and pepper in a food processor; process until the almonds are finely chopped and the paprika is mixed throughout, about 1 minute. With the motor running, drizzle in oil; process until combined. Transfer the mixture to a shallow dish.
3. Whisk egg whites in a second shallow dish. Add chicken tenders and turn to coat. Transfer each tender to the almond mixture; turn to coat evenly. (Discard any remaining egg white and almond mixture.) Place the tenders on the prepared rack and coat with cooking spray; turn and spray the other side.
4. Bake the chicken fingers until golden brown, crispy and no longer pink in the center, 20 to 25 minutes.

Taken from http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/almond_crusted_chicken_fingers.html



We served this little amazeballs dish with steamed broccoli that was drizzled in a divine Strawberry Vinnegartte dressing.  Sam made open faced cheesy garlic bread on left-over sandwich buns.  This would also be good to serve with green beans or squash casserole.

Cheers to healthy cooking!
Enjoy!

Nino's Italian Kitchen

Hear Ye Hear Ye! Come one, come all food lovers!!  Get ready for a shock.  We love food.  We love breakfast food.  We love lunch food.  We love dinner food.  We love desserts.  Food is like punctuation.  It can make thoughts or moments into statements or questions.  Every now and then, food exclaims something!

We wanted to do something fun and creative together, so why not write about the deliciousness that we get to experience.  Atlanta is a fantastic food city—there are so many diamonds in the rough culinary world of chain restaurants of this bustling, sprawling city.

We all have our favorites, but we’re making a concerted effort to branch out and dive in to what the city has to offer.  I don’t know about you, but we eat every day.  Why not share a little bit and offer up our collected experiences for others.  You may not agree with our take or our selection, but you do have to eat.

So read our blog, try our favorites, and let us know what you think!

Our first post will be dedicated to the dinner we ate out with Sam's father and step-mother on Sunday. Here are the details:

Location:
Nino’s Italian Kitchen
11070 Alpharetta Highway
Roswell, GA 30076-5605

The economy sucks.  We see it everywhere we go, bars closing down.  Neighborhood hangouts changing names so the next sucker can sink $200k into a run-of-the-mill bar/grill concept.  I’ve been all over the U.S. traveling for work and I see these places all the time.  Joey’s Asian Bistro, John Doe’s Country Grill, blah blah blah.  Always empty, always over-priced, always underwhelming.

Nino’s Italian Kitchen looks like another one of those experiments on the surface.  You’ll immediately recognize the layout as a converted Applebee’s, but they’ve managed to make it feel a bit more upscale and toned down—sorry no letter sweaters or cotton gins on the walls.  There’s a nice central bar area, thankfully devoid of cougars and IT professionals looking to mingle.  It’s a nice atmosphere for a laid back family dinner or a casual conversation over good wine and a full menu of Italian classics.

I prefer to eat at Italian restaurants that have a staff capable of filling in as extras on the Sopranos.  Check!
We were quickly seated and handed the 2 page menu.  There’s a good selection of wines Italian and domestic wines ranging from $5 a glass to $200 a bottle--yes, we had the expensive one thank to a "convenient" waiter's mistake.  Appetizers range from $5 to $15, Entrees from $11.50 to $18.  The menu has all the Italian staples you’d expect—pastas, chicken, beef, fish, pizza, salads. 
The following contains the careful selections of 4 adventurous Italian's with skilled palates for quality food and above anything a love for all things garlic:

Beverages:
Katie: Something white
Sam:  Something red

Appetizers:
Caprese Salad: sliced tomatoes topped with fresh mozzarella, basil, roasted red peppers, a touch of olive oil and drizzled in aged balsamic reduction.  Nothing to write home about, but good--fresh tomatoes and spices, firm mozzarella.

Bruschetta: toasted bread topped with fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, red onion, fresh mozzarella, and drizzled with an aged balsamic reduction.  Very good, slightly warm bread.  I hate when Bruschetta comes on a super crispy piece of bread that either hurts your mouth to bite into, or snaps violently spraying your dinner party with Italian veggie gore.  Tasty!

Entree':
(Katie) Pollo Marsala: sauteed chicken breasts in a delectable sauce of mushrooms, garlic and Marsala wine. When I go to an Italian resatuarant I like to judge the quality of food they serve based on the most complicated dish to make: chicken marsala. The sauce is the catch. It  can break very easily if it is not done right and turn into garbage.  This chicken marsala absolutely melted in my mouth.  The sauce was a light gravy (just perfect!) and was not too oily.  Also, it was obvious that the quality of marsala wine they used was very high.  The better the wine quality, the better the product; it showed on my plate and in my palate.  It was served covered in a blanket of mushrooms and swimming in the sauce. The flavor was bold and had a good balance between spices and the marsala wine.  Perfecto!!

(Sam) Eggplant Involtini: lightly breaded and fried eggplant wrapped around a generous filling of seasoned ricotta cheese topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and then baked.  Nice twist on your normal eggplant parm--like manicotti but with eggplant instead of pasta.  1/8 inch thick, nicely breaded, lightly fried--really good.  Had it with a side of spaghetti, nice robust red sauce.  Tastes like they may use a bit more paste in their house sauce, which I like.  Not spicy, but definitely has a flavor toward the bold side.

Nino's provided us with an elegant and intimate Italian experience here in the suburbs of Atlanta. The atmosphere was quaint and quiet.  The furniture was up to date and dark (very Italian), there were lots of windows with a very enjoyable bar area in the center of the room.  The staff was impeccable, not to mention Nino himself was out mingling with the crowds. Overall, I'd say the food was outstanding!  I would go back! Next time, I'd love to try the Zucchini Fries for an appetizer and the Baked Penne for an entree.  Who knows, maybe we'll even get crazy and get a dessert!

It’s nice to eat at a place that’s true to what it should be.  They don’t have a crazy expensive menu or some exotic presentation style.  It’s just simple, honest, delicious Italian food in a comfortable, clean, classy setting.  Well executed and well prepared.  There aren't a ton of places you can get in and out of for less than $50 with meals this good and a few glasses of wine.  I hope Nino’s is around long enough for locals to take notice and give it a try—there’s no reason for them to have empty seats any night of the week.

We gave it: