No Need to Argue - Braided Herb and Cheese Bread

If there is one thing this blog and my blog posts are known for, it's the ridiculous thoughts I have time  and again. However, you shouldn't take everything I said so serious. That would just be a disappointment. You know, I am not twenty one anymore and I am not so sure, whether I could or should be dreaming my dreams. Whatever the case, this blog will never be empty or devoid of food and I hope I will not be changing into a food writing zombie (whatever that is). Don't be so sad, though, if I can't be with you all the time. Right now, I am having a good time, it's summer, the sun is shinning and if I look outside it's not the time to watch while the icicle melts.
By now you should have found out, that there really is no need to argue. Nevertheless, I have no idea nor plan how ever I could use the terms Yeats's grave and daffodil lament in any causal sentence here during this blog post, even if I would include an ode to my family.
While I like writing song based blog posts, I would like to dedicate this one to The Cranberries studio album No Need to Argue. But why is there no need to argue? I like to be frank with you. I love carbs, gluten, wheat, yeast, bacon and all that stuff. While I have no problems with others eating gluten free or low carb, you don't need to argue with me about these things, I just love my dough.
For that I have some bread for you with all the lovely things.

Fine, go ahead, start arguing about the quality of the photos. Well, sometimes things are good and sometimes they are not

Ingredients
300 ml tepid water
7 g yeast
tsp honey
300 g flour
200 g semolina
salt
basil, sage, mint, rosemary
200 g mozzarella, grated
125 bacon, cubed
pepper

Method
We start with the tepid water in one bowl or measuring jar, as I usually do. We add the yeast and the teaspoon of honey. Let the yeast do its magic. Meanwhile get a larger bowl for the flour, semolina and a pinch of salt.
Then it's time to mix the yeasty water with the flour and get things together for a dough.

Get your share of food fitness by kneading the dough for a while to release the glutens (here we go). At the same time you fry of the bacon cubes for a while to give them some extra colour and all that you want.
Chop up the desired amount of the above mentioned herbs, chop them really finely. Then you can work them into the dough. Yes more kneading. After that you get 100 g of the mozzarella cheese and knead it into the dough as well. Follows the bacon and even more kneading until you have all the goodies evenly in your dough.
I reckon, it's time for the dough to do its thing and rise. Meanwhile you can ... no need to argue .. do whatever you like. Maybe you could watch an episode of your favourite series. While we are talking about it ... nah ... whatever.
Just get it over with. I suggest one hour. Then separate the dough into three even balls.

Get a baking tray with some baking parchment ready. You might want to heat up the oven to 200 °C.
Turn the three balls of dough into ... eh ... three sausages of dough, just a little longer then your baking tray. After that we can go for the fun part, braiding the bread. In my opinion, with hair this braiding is a bit easier and ... if you really have to ... but then again no need to argue ... if you look at the fotos the braiding didn't work that out that pro on my bread, but this in no way diminished the taste.
Once the braiding is finished ... for good or for bad ... spread over the remaining cheese and add some pepper on top and transfer the baking tray to the oven for 20 - 30 minutes. The bread is looking golden brown and ready for ...

... the time to enjoy. For sure you will find a good way to do so. You will find something lovely to eat on the side.

That whole thing might be a bit dangerous for me as I could go ahead and finish off that bread just that. No need to argue!

Bacon and Asparagus Carbonara

Yes, it’s really happening again. I go through the shop and see vegetables and fruits and other ingredients and I get already ideas what to do with them. Wonderful!

However, when you go after every idea you end up in buying more than you can manage to eat in a reasonable amount or amount of time.

Anyway, this time it was asparagus and mushrooms. As for the mushrooms they still have to wait until tomorrow. Maybe, they go for the breakfast, for even as I am writing now another idea comes up for the other half of the asparagus.

Therefore we are having bacon and asparagus carbonara, for we all know that asparagus and bacon go well together. Yes, originally I wanted to have asparagus wrapped in bacon, but … hey … why not try something different.

As bacon, cream, egg and cheese make a good carbonara, why not toss everything together and go for it.

Here we go …

Ingredients:
A bit of olive oil
200 g green asparagus
100 g stripes of streaky bacon
A few leaves of sage
Salt and pepper
200 g crème fraîche
2 eggs
Hand full of grated Parmesan
Pasta

Method:
Cut the asparagus into smaller, bit sized pieces and the bacon into smaller stripes.

Heat up a pan with a bit of olive oil and throw in the asparagus and bacon. Let it all get some colour. Later you can add the finely chopped sage and a bit of pepper.

Meanwhile you cook your pasta according to the instructions on the package or … as you have done your own fresh pasta … as long as they need.

Still meanwhile you get yourself a bowl to mix in the crème fraîche, the eggs, the Parmesan and some salt and pepper.

Pasta ready? Get a bit of cooking water into the pan and rinse away the remaining cooking water. Toss the pasta with the asparagus and bacon and take the pan from the heat.

Mix the egg mixture with the pasta and serve your meal …

Grate over some extra Parmesan and maybe sprinkle a bit of olive oil over it.

Enjoy!

It was very delicious. I was pleased with the end result and for sure will have some more of it.

Chicken Macaroni Cheese Apokalypse

Yes, you also know it doesn’t look that good, is not too healthy, will have too much calories and … but you want it, because it brings you comfort and tastes yummy.

We all know such dishes.

Today – using some leftovers from the indecent looking chicken (sorry, if there were any disturbing or offensive images in my last post) – I’ll bring you my Chicken Macaroni Cheese Apocalypse …

So, what do you associate with ‘Apocalypse’? Death and destruction?

Wrong!

If you know your Greek, you’d say ‘revelation’, for that is what the Greek work apocalypses means. So … the question now is, will this Chicken Macaroni Cheese be a revelation?

Let us see! For sure it will be very different from what you had before. Hm … yes … eh … well, different.

You know, you want it!

Come and get it!

Ingredients:
200 g cooked chicken meat, shredded (yes, I used it from the beer butt thingy)
200 ml cream (I would have used double had I any)
200 g grated cheese (sadly I just had 100 g)
100 g bacon (cubes, stripes, whatever you fancy … it’s your life)
50 ml chilli sauce (anyone you like)
50 ml tomato puree
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Some basil leaves, torn
Salt and pepper (because we want it)
250 g macaroni

Method:
Go, get your macaroni boiling. Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C.

Grab yourself a proper ovenproof dish (20 x 20 cm did for me) and go for it. Now that will all sound a bit simple from here on … because it is: Throw the ingredients into your ovenproof dish!

While the macaroni might not be ready yet, your dish might look like this …

With all that bringing your water for the macaroni to oil, even though using a kettle to help you, up to here things are fast and you really have to wait for the macaroni.

No worries, though, once the water is ready, the macaroni will be in under 10 minutes. Rinse and add …

That looks like, it could go to the oven and so it does …

By that time I already knew, I didn’t have a sufficient amount of cheese in it. Another remedy would have been to add a ball of mozzarella, but … I didn’t. Just saying!

Oh, yes, 20 minutes in the oven had to do for me, but I reckon 30 minutes will also do no harm.

At this point, things will look like this …

Yes, I know, it doesn’t look spectacular and it’s not much worse adding this picture at all. Hey, you know what? I do it anyway, because I’m the boss here. No I don’t have any issues in connection with being or not being the boss. I have other issues, but I try to suppress them for as log as possible, at least until I am finished here. You really don’t want to read any about it.

You know, you want something else. So let’s get on with it. What about putting on a bit of garnish?

That should do. I asked an expert about it, although she didn’t knew, what I would be using it for. A little bit of basil can go a long way. In our case it goes here …

Well, fine, you can also place it on the individual serving as I did in the opening. If you can’t resist, you can also drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil over it. Just saying! It’s your life!

Now, is that a revelation or just death and destruction?

Think about it! Answer correctly, if you want to live! It’s your life!

Scared? Sorry, I just have to work on making proper threats, but you know that I know how to find you … ah, just kidding, I wouldn’t really tell or show what I am capable of.

Fine, that’s enough. I better get out of here before things get out of hand. See ya!

• nicht mit Facebook verbund

F-Game Toad in a Hole

Lately, around here I am not giving my a-game. I’m not sure, what it would be like, though. No worries!

Anyway, life is like this: sometimes you loose and sometimes the others win. Nah, it's not that bad. Sometimes you simply have other things to do.

Therefore we go right away into food, for at least here we know, that it will go to a meal. Leftovers! There were those pork sausages in my fridge, those tiny ones. Here they are called Nürnberger. I used some of them for my English breakfast some time ago, but what to do with the rest of them.

Now I know, why I put all those knowledge into my head. At some point a bell will ring and I know what to do. So, toad in the hole. I never had. Therefore I never made it before. I now, it involves sausages and … something else.

Now I give you my F-game Toad in the Hole …

 Well, the F-game in this recipe doesn’t refer to it being rubbish. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even think about putting it up here.

No! It’s time for Lord Feta to strike back …

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 tsp mustard powder
120 g flour
100 ml milk
Some parsley, finely chopped
Some sage, finely chopped
Salt, pepper
100 g bacon, preferably 10 slices
10 small pork sausages
200g feta

Method:Heat up your oven to 180 °C.

Get yourself an ovenproof dish, 20 x 20 cm will do for this amount of ingredients. Put it aside.

Now get a bowl and mix in it the eggs, mustard powder, flour, milk, parsley and sage. Season with salt and pepper. Pour that mixture into the ovenproof dish.

What a coincidence, the amount of bacon was just enough for the number of sausages I had left. Go for it and wrap one slice of bacon around one little sausages and arrange in the batter in the ovenproof dish.

All done? Proceed with the feta. You can either crumble it into the ovenproof dish or cut it into cubes and scatter them over the sausages in the dish.

Anyhow, put into the oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, you have sufficient time to whip up your onion gravy and get whatever vegetables you want to put on the side ready.

For sure, you have a good recipe for onion gravy and know quite perfectly well how to do it. No?

I took a pan and melted some butter at low heat, tossed in the onion rings of a large onion and let things go until the toad in the hole is almost finish.

To complete the sauce, season with salt and pepper, add a tablespoon of flour and a generous splash of sherry. Briefly cook so the sauce thickens.

The finished dish from the oven could look somewhat like that or when you have a closer look, it will look a bit like this …

Ah, that wasn’t really that much closer. Anyway, plate up. With the right amount of vegetables you could even manage to satisfy four people with that, but than you can’t be as generous with the onion gravy as I have …

However, that was only, because I wanted to have fresh gravy for the leftovers another day and maybe enhance the gravy with some mushrooms then.

If, though, you don’t have four people for tea and decide to have a second go, you can have less or no gravy at all …

You could always have some more peas, though.

Whatsoever, I enjoyed it very much. If you want to have a more traditional version of toad in the hole, I guess, you just have to omit the feta.

In case you want to have a vegetarian version, you could omit the bacon and use veggie sausages or use something completely different, but then again, you might get a totally different dish here. So, why then, not cook something completely different.

Naan Cheese, Bacon, Tomato and Onion Sandwich

Of course, having some Indian food is also a very nice thing - with some lovely spices and all that. 

Maybe a nice potato curry together with some dal, raita and some freshly baked naan bread. Ah, that is lovely indeed. I don't know, though, whether my naan bread was the way it was supposed to be. Oh ... right ... I have only a standard oven with no extra tricks, so that was all I could do. Anyway, I had some leftovers of the naan bread. Yes, maybe some of the potato curry and dal was left, too, but somehow I must have managed to eat that up.
Whatever the case, I decided to use some of the leftover naan to make a naan sandwich with cheese, bacon, tomato and onions.

I decided to keep things simple, although I could have given it a further Indian touch somehow by frying the onions in some spices and adding some raita on top, but I didn't.
There is just a large slice of cheese, some slices of crispy bacon, a few tomato slices and some freshly fried onions ... put the lid on and go for it.

Well, there are still some more photos left on my USB stick. With some of those photos, there is the problem I don't know 100 % anymore what I did there, but here in this case it was quite obvious. 
There was simply too much time passing with doing so many other and new things I didn't get any chance to work off all those old ones.
Nevertheless, I will give you some more of those ...

More from the Tart Tin - Quiche Lorraine

Fine, I have a few more things lined up coming from my loose bottom tart tin, simply can't help it. Now it doesn't always have to be sweet, although at first glance that might be fine with me, but I know better that it's far too dangerous to have to much of sweets. Since I don't always get the chance to share finished products, I have to balance the cake and sweets department better with the savoury department.
For that cause I have some Quiche Lorraine for you today, even more balanced with a salad on the side.

Still we get the chance to use the loose bottom tart tin. Oh, I can't exactly remember what the salad was all about, but I have the details of the Quiche Lorraine for you.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
250 g flour
1 egg
A pinch of salt
4 tbsp. water
125 g butter
For the filling:
125 g bacon, cut into small pieces
200 g crème fraîche
4 eggs
2 leeks, cut into rings
Salt and pepper
150 g grated cheese

Method:
Carefully put together the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour ... or the other way around ... so you get a mixture resembling bread crumbs. Don't forget the salt. Then add the egg and the water to bring the dough together. Pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes.
For the filling or topping or whatever else you like to call it, first briefly fry your bacon in a pan. Transfer it to a bowl and mix it with the remaining ingredients for the filling. There is no other magic to i. Just do it and thoroughly mix it all together.

Get your oven ready to 180 ºC and butter your tart tin. Oh, right get the dough into the tin and then blind bake it for 15 minutes. I always use some chickpeas for that. Their fate is to remain reserved for blind baking, never to be eaten.
Remove your blind pastry ... eh ... blind baked pastry and top it with the filling or ... fill t with the topping and get it back into the oven for let's say 20-25 minutes or until the quiche lorraine has taken a lovely colour.

Then, I reckon, the only thing left to do is to have your meal. As I suggested before, together with a nice salad and, if you are  in the mood for it, with a glass of wine. For that, of course you have to be a person appreciating wine. Otherwise you might want to take a beer.

It's always something lovely to have a quiche lorraine from time to time. Now they also work better for me and I can enjoy them even more. Before I didn't use to add leeks, but I think they are a good addition.

Still I have more to come from my loose bottom tart tin. Anyway, what would you bake with it?

Lord of the Cupcakes ... Peanut and Bacon Cupcakes

As strangely as you know me, I had an idea for a blog post. It was supposed to go somehow like this ...

Three Cupcakes for the gluten-free under the sky.

Seven for the chocolate-lovers in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to eat,

One for the Dark Baker in his dark kitchen

In the Land of Sugar where the Calories lies.

One Cupcake to rule them all,

One Cupcake to find them,

One Cupcake to bring them all,

and in the sweetness bind them

In the Land of Sugar where the Calories lie.

Well, well, well, that was about the idea. Logically there were supposed to be baked goods on it. Here we go ...

Now, the question would have been, totally hypothetical, of course,whether that would be the one cupcake for you ...

Breaking Bad ... ? ... Baking Bread ... BAT sandwich ... ?

Sometimes things can be quite confusing and get mixed up. Because of that, at times I end up writing the second word even before I have started finishing the first word. Therefore baking bread can easily turn into breaking bad. Not that I want to write about any analogies between the crime drama series and the production of baked goods. I wouldn't have any ideas regarding that ... right now.
Anyway, why the confusion? Is it because of limited rain capacity, stress, information overload or any kind of subconscious dealings with hidden problems from the past. No, I don't want to take a psychological approach to bread baking either, although ... as far as I see it,breaking your own bread can be quite relaxing and you have a wonderful smell in the house and ... if you do not mess it up totally... you get a lovely tasting bread and ... for example ... you could do a delicious sandwich with your own bread, like this Open BAT sandwich ...

No, that wasn't a reference to Batman, just Bacon Avocado Tomato Sandwich.
What is your favourite approach ... no, I'm not referring to the psychological thing again ... method and way of baking your own bread?

Dr Jekyll and Mr Cook - Goat's Cheese, Beetroot & Bacon Ravioli

The night wasn't that spectacular. It had been as any other night. Almost! There hadn't been any thunderstorms, but ... it must have been like that ... I was tossing and turning in bed. Something was going on and then ... suddenly ... the alarm clock was ringing!
Indeed, things were ... strange ... this morning. I couldn't quite remember what I had dreamed, but since the bed sheet wasn't soaked with sweat, I assumed it couldn't have been a nightmare.
Whatsoever, I felt the strong urge to ... cook ... bake ... cook ... bake ... bake. Accordingly I have been cooking, baking, cooking, baking and baking all day up to know. In fact, it was so much, I can't tell you all about it right now, but I have picked out one of the stranger ones.
But how did it come that far? Was it something I drank? Was it maybe this wheat beer?

We won't find out. Then let me tell you a bit of my experiments in the kitchen with the pasta dough I found in the freezer ...

Burger Builder - 'To the Moon & Back' Rocket Burger

Oh, how lucky we are that some words have different meanings. Do you know this game - we used to play it sometimes in school - where two pupil are explaining two different things, bit by bit of course and the answer to both things is the same word. Ah, maybe then again you don't know.
Fine, let's have a try: the one thing can take you to the moon ... and maybe back as well (ah, I was just listening to that song again) and the other thing is edible. 
You know the solution already? I guess you have cheated. How could you not? After all it was quite obvious from the title of the post that the answer is: rocket. Then I guess we can skip the singing and the lyrics analysis and go directly over to preparing some food, burgers to be precise. Well, to be even more precise: 'To the Moon & Back' Rocket Burgers ...

Let us suppose you have your beef burger patties already ... eh ... ready. Then we ...

One way or the other Red Hokkaido Squash Soup

From what I gather by looking around, it's time for squashes and pumpkins. Really? Yes, I would say so. What do we get out of it? For example, I bought a Red Hokkaido squash. Well, I didn't have to go that far and travel to Japan to get it. From it we can get vitamin A and vitamin C, calcium, potassium and iron to mention just a few. Furthermore it is low in calories and sodium. That is, if you are caring about nutrition facts and ... eh ... calories. However, I guess we have to mess around with the calories anyway. But at least you can say, the calories didn't come from the squash.
We are going to have some soup. One day I was invited by some friends ... eh ... just a moment, I invited myself and ... we had some pumpkin soup. Some time later I tried to recreate that soup without having the recipe. 

I may have gotten it slightly wrong, but I will give you some alternative ideas, too. So you can have it one way or the other ...

Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto

The quest for making good use of the plums I received is still going on. As you know, there are quite a lot of things you can do with them. I already did the recipes which take a great amount of plums like jam and plum butter. I even made a plum chutney.
Now, cake and jam and things like that are the logical choices for going with plums. Things you would think of right away. Therefore I try to do something else ... kind of pairing the plums with cheese, goat's cheese to be precise, in a risotto. I've heard it before you can do it also with pearl barley. Let's try it then and have a Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto.

Till Death do us Part: Federweisser & Zwiebelkuchen

"I take you to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."
Does this sound familiar? Sometimes you hear such a vow or a similar one at  a wedding. These days, sadly, things turn out differently with the "until death do us part". Well, you know. There is no chance in denying. That's the reality of life.
However, there are other things, which are impossible to separate. No chance. When you hear about one, you automatically think about the other. For some it even applies beyond death, like Romeo and Juliet, or David and Goliath, or Bonnie and Clyde. What about nitro and glycerin, Paris and the Eiffel Tower, Rome and the Colloseum.
Now we could go on for ages like that, but we like to talk food here. What comes to your mind in connection with food and inseparable? I have a try: Hamburger and chips (or fries). Oh, I have a triple one (at least for me): baguette, cheese and red wine.
Today, though, I want to go for something you might not be so familiar with: Federweisser and Zwiebelkuchen. 

Oh, that's German. What is it all about?

Hot Fusion - Hot Chilli Puff Pastry Tarte

Cold fusion: Hypothetical type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near room temperature. Usually you need millions of degrees for a fusion of nuclear kind of reaction. This is a controversial subject. The whole concept appears to defy the laws of physics. Some scientists believe cold fusion to be a real phenomenon and that it will be at one point in the future, however far far away, the basis for an abundant, cheap source of energy. Others say that cold fusion is impossible.

Well then, it's quite good, we are not dealing with cold fusion today, but with hot fusion. How do we come to this point?
As it happens to be I'm busy trying to grow my own chillies on the windowsill.

Having them is one part, but actually it's not for the sake of growing, but cooking. I need to do something with them. These are (were) my only two habanero chillies. Those are considered to be quite hot ... and so something else should be, too ... Yes, I'm referring to the weather. Some days it might work out.
Ahem ... what to do now with the habanero chilli? I just took the yellow one. The green one still needs some time. Fine, I could do a chilli, a real hot one ...

Mexican Leftover Management: Tortilla Soup and Pizza

We managed already one month of 2013. What do you think? So far it was pretty much the same as in 2012. Well, there have been a few negative changes over the past few days, but ... it's always better to focus on the positive aspects of life ... hm ... like food, for example Mexican food.
You have still have nearly half a month to participate in the current Bloggers Around The World with the theme Mexico. As I was preparing my own entry the other day, Pimiento Mexicano con Huevos, I promised you to tell you what I did with the leftovers I had.

That pizza was one thing. In fact it was quite easy. Just prepare you usual pizza dough and then top it with the leftover Pimiento Mexicano con Huevos. Well, it was not exactly what I did. There were a few more ... eh ... special things I did.
First of all I substituted the semolina flour I usually add to my pizza dough with corn flour. Fine, this was the main thing. I also added a bit more cheese and sprinkled a bit of black pepper and olive oil on top. Now, that's all!
This pizza was quite nice and enjoyable. What a shame I can't have pizza right now. Maybe next week again ...
Now it happened also to be the case that there were leftover tortillas. In fact that was already kind of cunningly schemed beforehand. I wanted to have a tortilla soup.

Here is how you could do it as well ...

Ingredients:
50 g bacon, chopped into small bits
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 red chili, finely chopped
4 wheat tortillas, cut into stripes
500 ml beef stock
Salt
50 g grated cheese

Method:
To start with we slightly brown the bacon, onion and chili together in our pot.
Then we add the stripes of the wheat tortillas and pour over the beef stock. Season the soup according to your taste and bring to the boil.
Ready! You can fill the soup into individual bowls. Toss in some grated cheese and put it either briefly under the grill or if you don't have one, just go for it ...

Have you noticed something else in connection with this blog? Well, maybe you can check it later, but on Monday it will be one year after my first post. Just saying!

Guest Post- Canadian Beer Cheese Soup -5 Days of Soup

Do you like having guests? Then you can share some hostility ... oops ... I wanted to say hospitality, but maybe when you think about your mother-in-law, you might want ...
Guests! Focus on that. I didn't have any guests for a while now. However, if, then it's very lovely to cook or bake something nice.
Today, though, we are having a guest cooking for us. Therefore, without any further ado, I like to stop talking and give the word to Tara ...


Hi, I am Tara from Noshing With The Nolands and I am so excited to be here today. I have been blogging for almost a year now up here in The Great While North, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Loving every minute of it. I met Chris through a Facebook group that is so very helpful for bloggers like us to communicate and support one another. When Chris asked me if I could guest post and to do something Canadian I wasn't sure what to do. There are a few Canadian recipes but not like other countries that have a huge cuisine attached to them. We are a melting pot here so our cuisine is very diverse, in my opinion. We have a lot of French Canadian recipes but not much out west where I live. We are influenced more by Texas as we have loads of cowboys and The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, the Calgary Stampede. Well I didn't want to go there as that is not what you really think of when you think of Canadian food. The Caesar cocktail was invented here in Calgary but I had done a lot on that subject already.
Hmmm, where else to go??? I wasn't quite sure then I thought of something I have never made before and thought I would give it a whirl, Canadian Beer Cheese Soup. I selected a lovely red amber ale from a brewery called Alexander Keith's. We do have a great selection of beer up here in Canada. I think beer is pretty Canadian!! It goes nicely with our sports of hockey and football watching!!
I have to say this soup turned out so magnificent, thick and creamy with an incredible taste. We all loved it!! And I sure hope you enjoy it too!!

Canadian Beer Cheese Soup

Guest Post- Canadian Beer Cheese Soup -5 Days of Soup
6 slices of bacon, cut into lardons
1 cup sweet onion
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
900 ml. chicken stock
250 ml. half and half cream
200 gms. old white cheddar, grated
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. Tabasco
2 tsp. worcestershire sauce
2/3 bottle of amber ale
Cheddar cheese, green onions and freshly grated pepper for garnish.

Saute the bacon low and slow in a small fry pan. Do not crisp it! Remove to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.
In a large pot over medium low heat saute the onion in the 4 Tbsp. butter, low and slow until translucent. Add the flour and stir and cook for 1 min. Slowly add the chicken stock and whisk until smooth, bring to a simmer and whisk until thickened. Add the half and half and heat to a simmer. Add the grated cheddar and stir to melt with a wooden spoon.
Add the pepper, mustard, Tabasco, worcestershire and whisk again to combine. Add the beer and let simmer gently for a five minutes, stirring often. Add the bacon and serve. You can garnish with cheddar cheese, green onions and a grating of fresh pepper.
If you would like to follow me I would be thrilled at Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.
Thanks again Chris for allowing me to be here. Cheers, Tara

Well, I was really happy, having such a lovely guest. It was really a pleasure having you here, Tara. That soup is absoluetly something for me with all that cheese and ale in it. 
Now I only have to get some amber ale ...

Breaking Kale - Part 3 - Bell Peppers Stuffed with Kale Risotto

'Why does rubbish always have to come in three parts?'
That quote is from a computer game series - long time ago - that brought us the following as well: 'I once owned a dog that was smarter then you.' - 'He must have taught you everything you know.'
No worries, when you never have heard of this. It doesn't matter, has no bearing on the following anyway. I'm not going to teach you how to be quick on the comeback.
Let's rather focus on the 'Part 3' part.
A few days ago I brought you kale with smoked pork sausages. It wasn't all eaten up.
Then I brought you risotto with kale and smoked pork sausages. It wasn't all eaten up either.
Now I bring you ...

... bell peppers stuffed with risotto al kale and smoked pork sausages. Was it all eaten up?
We will see.
Is it a recipe? Well, what do I have to say. It's too simple. You just take some bell peppers and execute them by cutting them in halves and removing all the seeds from the inside.
Now you simply throw in your risotto ... eh ... fill your halves of bell pepper with some of the risotto. If you haven't got leftover kale risotto, obviously you can't do it. He he! 
Of course you could attempt a different version with a different risotto, but that consequently would be ... different.
Nevertheless, as you have arranged the bell peppers with the risotto in an oven-proof dish, place some bacon on top of every bell pepper half.

You might want to pour over some olive oil and then place it in the oven for about 40 minutes at 180°C. 
After waiting that much time for your food, you just take it out, place it on a plate, sprinkle some parsley over it and maybe add some more olive oil.
Was it all eaten up?
Yes, it was this time. So we are not going to see THAT kale again and we don't have to think about another recipe and there will not be a part 4, although it was no rubbish.
Oh, I could have cut it into small pieces and have it on puff pastry, but ... that doesn't have to be now.
Maybe we go further with another dish next time and have more then 3 parts. What experiences do you have with leftovers? How far did you get, that is how often did you have to re-arrange the leftovers of the leftover?

Now still something else in connection with the photograph at the outset.

This was the first shot.

Then I added olive oil.

Somehow my camera didn't seem to like that, so I had to set the white balancing to another mode.

Or which of the three pictures looks best according to you?