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The Maple Sugar Bacon Bundle from BaconFreak is AWESOME!
I'm not sure how I forgot to post this, but better late than never! The folks at Bacon Freak sent me a care package a few weeks ago, and it was AMAZING.

Sweet Apple Pork Roast served with roasted new potatoes. AWESOME!
I was at the store trying to decide what to do for dinner and found pork tenderloin on sale, so decided that would be the protein. I wasn't feeling overly ambitious, so decided to do a take on pork and applesauce. The fresh ginger and garlic really help balance with the sweetness of the applesauce to make amazing flavor and a great pan sauce. I always like to do the potatoes in the same roaster as my main dish so that the flavors blend and the potatoes stay moist. Give this one a try, it will be in heavy rotation around our house.

Home made Korean Beef served over rice
We love asian food at our house, and I was in the mood to try something different, so I came up with this recipe. It is fairly simple to cook delicious asian food at home, as the flavors are easy to mix to make something delicious.

My Southwest Potato Salad is a great summer dish, as a side or with meat as a main dish
I spent all day Friday making chicken and Southwest Potato Salad for the Saturday meal at The Pantry at Rock Creek, and there was a fair amount left over so I dressed it up for dinner Saturday night at home.

The Carnitas Baja Bowl from Baja Fresh
I went to lunch with my cousin the other day, and the place I wanted to go had closed down, so we went looking for something else. Baja Fresh was in the neighborhood, so we decided that would work.

Nothing beats a nice juicy Italian Beef Sandwich on a rainy night.
Wednesday nights are busy around our house, as they are in many homes. Carrie often works late, and the kids have youth group, so getting everyone together for dinner is hard. Sometimes that means eating out, but I prefer to cook something in the crockpot that is easy for everyone to eat.

Memorial Day Weekend is traditionally the first time we Americans break out the BBQ's. These beans will be a great addition to your meal, and are dead simple in the crock pot.
I love baked beans, and I like chili so I came up with a combination of the two that the family loved. These will make a great meal or the perfect addition to your holiday meal. The sweetness of the honey barbecue sauce combined with the spice of the garlic and hot peppers and the wonderful flavors of bacon and ground beef. You all need to try these beans, this is FatBoyHeaven in a bowl.
Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit is hard to come by, but worth it when you can find it. Follow the link for my review.

Beef slow cooked in marinara. I served it with Polenta and topped it with grated parmesan
I love italian food almost as much as I love my slow cooker. I had some thin cut bottom round steaks (sold as Carne Asada steaks in these parts) that I purchased on sale a while ago and they were in the freezer. I took them out to thaw last night and spent the morning trying to decide how I was going to use them and decided that Pizzaiola sounded perfect.

When we were on our recent trip to Kentucky we visited the Brown Hotel for a Hot Brown, a signature of the hotel that has become a state-wide classic. Every restaurant in the state has their own take on the tradition, and it varies from city to city. Some places use country ham instead of bacon. Some use a sharp cheddar in place of Romano cheese in the mornay sauce.
When we were in Kentucky, I wrote about the Ambassador Day at Makers Mark on day two of our visit. One of the great things about that day was the amazing greek food we had from Athenian Grill in Lexington and their booth on the food court there. Now Athenian Grill is working to open a permanent location in Lexington, and has turned to Kickstarter for funding. While most of the awards for backers are only going to be valuable to people in the Lexington area, the $50 reward includes shipping of their scratch-made pastries anywhere in the U.S.
If you are in Lexington, or really anywhere in Eastern Kentucky, I encourage you to consider supporting Illias in getting this restaurant built, you will love his food and his passion.

A traditional Loosemeat (or Tavern) Sandwich served with regular potato chips. Nothing fancy, just good old fashioned comfort food.
Tonights dinner came about because of my son's crazy TV viewing habits. For some reason, he is a huge fan of the old Rosanne Show, which he found somehow on NetFlix. On the show Rosanne and her sister start a Loosemeat restaurant called "The Lunch Box", where they serve only trays and trays of this midwest classic.
I had some London broil left over from the Mediterranean salad I made the other day, and decided tacos would be a great way to use it on a warm spring day here in Oregon (a pretty rare occurrence). I found this recipe in my email from PureWow, and decided that with some simple modifications it would work well. The only change I made was due to my meat already being cooked medium rare last night when I started. I sliced it up, tossed it in the rub seasoning from the recipe, and heated it through in the cast iron skillet, making prep time much shorter.

Some family friends made this a couple of years ago for a gathering, and it has become a spring/summer go to for our family every since. A nice salad of chickpeas, thinly sliced red onions, and feta cheese is dressed with a spicy vinaigrette and topped with thinly sliced medium-rare steak. This can also be made with lamb instead of beef if you prefer, which I sometimes do. Even the kids love this one, and how can a fatboy go wrong with steak on a salad?

Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and rich tomato sauce combine for a simple comfort. Served here on a toasted ciabatta roll.
I love good, old fashioned comfort food, as anyone who has read this blog should realize. One of my favorite foods is a nice Italian specialty that my Dad used to make once in a while (but never as often as I asked for it), sausage and peppers. He would do it on a flat top griddle, with homemade marinara cooked in a separate pot and served over the sausage and peppers on a hoagie roll.
I love my crock pot. Like a slow oven, it can make any cut of meat a tender and delicious masterpiece with little effort. I have used this basic recipe for pork ribs in the slow cooker before, but decided to see how it would do with beef spare ribs, as i love how meaty and flavorful they can be.

Bourbon Balls are a uniquely Kentucky confection
On our recent trip to Kentucky I discovered the perfect candy - Bourbon Balls. A uniquely Kentucky confection, bourbon balls are an amazing mix of a velvety smooth confection and bourbon, always (at least commercially) coated in chocolate, and often served with a pecan half on top.
Bourbon Chicken and Rice was a simple and delicious dinner. Prepare this the night before to let the flavors soak into the chicken, and then put in the oven when you get home from work.
Carrie took a trip to South Carolina a few months ago, and brought me back a large bag of stone ground grits, a food I love but is impossible to find in Oregon where we live. When we were looking for something to make for dinner the other night she found this recipe. Most traditional shrimp and grits recipes include a spicy andouille sausage, so this was a surprisingly lighter alternative with bacon instead.
