The Answer is Always Bacon

Dear Lauren,

This all started when I asked my friends, my cooking friends in Cook My Book, what I should use as a substitute for hazelnuts in a salad I had planned to make today. I should have known what Gary's answer would be. I should have known, but his answer took me completely by surprise. And I should have suspected, when I asked the question in our Facebook group, that the answer would come back in seconds flat.

Bacon.


He's so funny! Right? But, because I actually had a recipe for "The Best Bacon" on my list to try from the book, Celebrate the Rain, I decided to make the bacon! I didn't make the salad at all. Just bacon.

The first batch was mostly burned to a complete char! Oops! There were parts of one or two slices that were edible enough to let me know I needed to try again! This recipe had potential!

Making the recipe again was worth it. I made one-half pound and I also ate one-half pound of bacon today. The rest of my daily nutrition came from carrots. I think I ate 2 pounds of carrots. Don't follow my example.

Tomorrow I might make the salad.

Spicy Candied Bacon

1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup. Place a rack inside the rimmed baking sheet to allow the bacon fat to drain. Place the bacon slices - you can leave them long or cut them in half - on the rack.

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cayenne, and black pepper with a spoon or if you wear disposable gloves when you cook (like I do), you can mix these with your fingers. Sprinkle the spicy sugar mixture on the bacon.

Cook for 20 minutes, but start watching around the 15 minute mark! My first batch looked like this:

Nobody likes bacon that's completely charred, do they? No! 

Love,