So it's been a SUPER BUSY month.

In August alone, I've done more than I can even remember.

I made 9 jars of blackberry jam and 2 jars of blackberry lemon sage.  More fridge pickles (including onions) than I can count - we've been refilling the jars with more veggies!

I made 2 Tomato, Bacon, Feta stratas, mountains of fried eggplant, and a quart of arrabiata.

I made 6 pints of garlic dill pickles.

We started a crock of sauerkraut.

I dried to huge bunches of parsley for in soups later.

We went to GenCon.

I made a scrapbook/autograph book for my nephew.

I made 7 jars of carrot cake jam and 4 pints of bread and butter pickles.

We drove to New Hampshire to see two dear friends get married.

I finally delivered the wine jellies to Dave's sister and brother-in-law.

I made another batch of carrot cake jam.

I made 2 pints of salsa with the salsa mix my sister gave me.

****

Next on the list, Carrot Fennel soup.

After that, September promises pears and apples, and a bonus week of vacation that was only supposed to be 3 days.

And I do intend to share the strata recipe, although, if you're a smart cookie and you know how to make French toast, I bet you can figure it out!

Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts

Over the years I have had several coworkers who made variations of this.  When I finally decided that I was going to ask one of them for the recipe, I asked "What kind of sauce do you use for this?"  and I was pretty shocked to receive a rambling list of ingredients, rather than the brand name of the barbeque sauce.  Silly me.

So much easier this way!


2 cans Whole Water Chestnuts
1/2 lb bacon (uncooked)
1/2 bottle Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet and Spicy Barbeque Sauce

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Drain waterchestnuts.  Cut bacon slices into shorter pieces that just fit around the water chestnuts (1/4s or 1/3s depending on your bacon).  Wrap one piece of bacon around each water chestnut, skewering with a toothpick to hold it in place.  Arrange wrapped water chestnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Spread barbeque sauce over water chestnuts and bake 45 mins or until bacon is done.  I put a an extra piece of bacon at one end of the pan to make it easier to tell.

Leave toothpicks in place when you serve, it makes eating these potentially messy little tidbits much easier.

By the way, technically, a single slice of bacon is also called a rasher.  Sort of puts all those scenes in fantasy books where everyone is excited over a crisp rasher of bacon into perspective, doesn't it?

Maple Bacon Oatmeal Cupcakes.

5 cups Rolled Oats
2 1/2 cups Applesauce
1/3 cup, plus a little extra Maple Syrup
2 1/3 cups Water
4 slices of Bacon
Brown Sugar

Cook the bacon to your preference. Save fat.  (I didn't promise these would be healthy.)  Chop/crumble bacon in to small pieces.  Preheat oven to 325 or so while the bacon cooks.

Combine all ingredients except brown sugar in a large bowl.  Add the bacon fat.

Place liners in cupcake pans.  Divide mixture evenly between cups, top with a sprinkle of brown sugar.

Bake for 20-22 minutes.  Lean toward the lower end for smaller cupcakes, the higher end for larger ones.

Once baked, allow to cool for a bit so they can set up before you remove them from the muffin pans.

Freeze or refrigerate any that aren't devoured immediately.  We've found that the Ziploc XS Round disposable containers are the perfect size to tote these in, so we put them directly into the container once they're cool for grab and go breakfast.


 Recipe yields 24 regular cupcakes, 12 jumbo.

EDIT!  If you're going to eat them as a cupcake, rather than with a fork or spoon, we've found that adding 1 large egg to the mixture helps solidify them without changing them dramatically.