Maple Bourbon Bacon Jam

     Yep! You read correctly... Maple Bourbon Bacon Jam! A jam with NO fruit what-so-ever, just MEAT!!! I found this recipe while surfing the internet. I couldn't resist, I had to try it! My wife gave me the craziest look when I told here what I was making. But when we tried the finished product. WHOLY S#!T!!!! It was that good!!! I like it as a sandwich spread, but it has several applications. I even put a spoon of it in some barbecue sauce I had made.  Just remember it is a meat product and it requires refrigeration for storage, unless you can it. If you are going to can it. Pressure can it at 10lbs. for 75 mins. Refrigerate after opening.

Maple Bourbon Bacon Jam:

     1lbs thick cut bacon cut into 1inch slices

     1 large onion sliced

     4 cloves garlic chopped

     1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

     3/4 cup strong brewed coffee

     1/4 cup packed brown sugar

     1/4 cup maple syrup

     1/4 cup bourbon

     1-2 arbol chili pods more if you like it hotter

     1/2 tsp cumin

     In a heavy sauce pan over medium heat cook the bacon till it starts to brown, do not crisp. Remove bacon and set aside. Drain all but 2 tbs of bacon fat from pan. Add onion to sauce pan cook in reserved bacon fat till tender. Add garlic, sauté till fragrant. Add apple cider vinegar to deglaze. Return bacon to pan with remaining ingredients reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours stirring on occasion. When mixture is thick and syrupy, transfer to a food processor. Process bacon jam until smooth or desired consistency. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Turkey Soup!

Turkey Soup Stock:

     leftover bones from 2 turkeys with some meat still attached
     3 carrots
     3 ribs celery
     1 large onion peeled and quartered
     3 cloves garlic peeled
     1/4 cup kosher or sea salt
     1 1/2 tsp pepper corns
     1 1/2 tsp thyme or 1-2 fresh sprigs if you have them

     Fill a large stock pot 2/3 full of water, bring to boil. Add salt and stir until salt has completely dissolved. Add turkey bones. Was and break carrots and celery into thirds, add them to pot. Add the onion, garlic, pepper corns, and thyme. Reduce heat and simmer for two hours. Strain stock and discard solids.

Turkey Soup

     turkey soup stock
     3 carrots peeled and chopped
     3 ribs celery chopped
     1 large onion chopped
     1 cooked turkey breast cubed
     1 cup uncooked rice
     cornstarch solution (optional)

     Bring soup stock to a boil. Add carrots, celery, and onions. reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. add turkey meat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add rice and simmer another 30 mins, stirring so rice doesn't stick to bottom of pot. Optional, add cornstarch solution for a thicker soup and simmer for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Turkey Turkey Turkey!!!

     Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving! I had spent mine with my wifes family. It was pretty awesome!! I got to enjoy great food and great company! The best part... I didn't have to cook!!! But when I got back home, it was back to business in the kitchen. At my job, some coworkers deep fried some turkeys for the employees. Im not a big deep fried turkey kinda guy, but these were pretty damn GOOD! Any ways the guys frying the turkeys were going to just toss the leftover necks and bones.... Thats a no-no in my kitchen. So they were kind enough to give them to me to bring home to make some soup stock out of them. So as a return thank you for them cooking, I decided to make and can some turkey soup!

     Also the end of November was the when my kosher dill pickles were done! To be honest I liked them. The only thing that I would of done different was to cut back on the pickling spice. My family didn't care for them as much, oh well you can't win them all I guess. Un fortunately not all the pickles survived the fermentation process. As a rule, use the smallest and most firm cucumbers for pickling. Some of my cucumbers were not so small or firm due to the poor selection at the market. So as a result about half of the pickles were mushy. The rest pickled quite nicely!

     My sauerkraut is coming along nicely! At Thanksgiving someone had brought some homemade sauerkraut similar to the recipe Im using. Was better than any store bought sauerkraut I had ever had! So Im excited to see the end result of mine! But for now Im playing the waiting game.