Oh what a beautiful moooooorning

Doesn't that look delicious?!?

For those of your in Chicago, I must suggest if you get the chance to check out Red Hen Bread (two locations, one in Wicker Park, one in Lakeview/North Lincoln Park) then you do so. When I used in Lakeview, I used to go to the nearby location and get this utterly delicious sweet potato/pecan bread. Oh. Mah. God.

Plain, toasted, with butter, with jam, as french bread, and I bet as bread pudding...this stuff is like cake. CAKE I TELL YOU.

And because it says "bread" I can pretend it is healthy cake.

Anyway. I awoke with a craving for bacon (don't judge) the other day and on my far-too-early-to-be-reasonable-on-a-day-off meanderings, I remembered that I live near the Wicker Park location. I may or may not have gotten some iced coffee, I may or may not have gotten some microwaveable bacon from Aldi (seriously, stop judging) and I had some pineapple and cheese and....do you see where this is going?

Brioche, my friends. Brioche. In my mouth. With bacon, melted cheese (mozzerella), and pineapple in between my sliced brioche bun. With my iced coffee. I almost giggled I was so pleased.

By almost, I mean, I did, because I am totally that girl. I suggest you all eat something on brioche. Or just brioche. And if you can, I suggest you go to this bakery. Consider in my public service announcement.

It's small, it's adorable, it's full of light and the delightfullness of an airy bakery. I dare you to not be happy standing there, contemplating your options. Get a sandwhich! It doesn't even have to involve bacon! No one can live on just bacon. Or, if you can, you shouldn't, because it's so delicious it deserves to be enjoyed and not taken for granted.

Bacon Chocolate Cookies: Take One.

Oh, bacon. Is there anything you can't do?

I never tried the Vosges bacon bar or, really, any sweet taste with a crispy bacon undertone. It wasn't even that I missed the boat, I just never got around to meandering by the lake. I'm pretty sure if somehow bacon and sesame chips came into existence together, I would have shoved someone out of the way to get it in my hands like one of those desperate girls who will take your eye out if you get between her and the wedding boquet. But they didn't, so I didn't, and I went on just eating bacon in things like...a plate of bacon, a turkey burger, or an Elvis sandwhich.

This brings me to the point where I promise to make and document an Elvis sandwhich for your viewing pleasure soon. Ish. My camera is out of battery power and, well, I can't find my batteries and refuse to spend money on some when I *know* that I have them. Oh, it's so frustrating. Money! Unemployment! No time for batteries!

This is not the point and I apologize for getting so far off track. I promise, I will do it again. It's in my nature.

I decided today that I wanted to check out this new trend that isn't actually new anymore, as far as I can tell. Frying up my bacon, it was sort of a "one for the cookie dough, one for me..." game planned in advance. A good thing, seeing as how I ended up eating a good bit of the bacon when I was hacking it all up for the cookie. I was using a recipe from The Culinary Sherpas and I halved it, but did add some extra vanilla. (see link for the recipe)

I am not my poor, allergic friend. I love vanilla. I also love cinnamon! Just so you know, in case you ever want to get me something delicious.

At any rate, it went well. Which is good! Because I have a confession.

...when I make cookies? I usually somehow misstep and they, well, they melt.I get a mass of tasty cookie mess, not a bunch of cookies. My gingerbread men? Gingerbread puddle. People like it fine enough, but I don't usually make cookies. I'm hard on myself. Oldest Child Syndrome, maybe?

If I wanted to show you a picture, though, I would google search terms like "no, there are no nuts in here, how strange" and "people looking skeptical and then vowing to give me their first born".

I've also stashed some of the dough in a container (cleverly labeled YOGURT bwa ha ha!) in order to see if it is true. Does cookie dough that hangs out in my fridge taste better after some wait time?

The Great Bacon Cookie Experiment will continue. There may be pictures.

Even if they are just pictures of me and my friends, laughing, from older times.

PS: I suggest enjoying this decidedly not vegan snack with a glass of milk. I'm just saying. I'm out of milk, but imagine it would be awesome.

Smoky Bacon-Biscuit Dressing

One of my delicious solo Christmas foods was the stuffing that my friend Dana made for Thanksgiving. I love stuffing. I love bacon. I love biscuits. So many delicious things in one delicious dish! The recipe comes from Williams-Sonoma and while I did not use their recipe for cream biscuits, I recommend that you do because I think they are de-lish.

Of course, WS is too fancy to actually call this "stuffing" and instead this goes by the fancy name of "Smoky Bacon-Biscuit Dressing" and is, when I made it, chock-full of mushrooms and bacon. You can find the recipe on their website (click me for deliciousness!) and the page also has a link to their cream biscuits.

Seriously, I would probably eat this all the time if only I could.