My Word with Douglas E. Welch

If you subscribe to my Pinterest page, my @douglaswelch Twitter account or my Google+ feed, you know that I am always finding recipes I want to try. This series, New Food, will highlight some of those finds as we make them for the first time in our own kitchen. Then, I’ll report back to you on the results — for better or worse! — Douglas

I discovered this recipe for Sweet and Spicy chicken via Pinterest on Jennifer Poole’s Pinterest account. This is basically a way to dress up boneless chicken breasts and it works quite nicely. In the past I have made a prosciutto-wrapped and stuffed chicken breast and this is somewhat like an American version, using smoked bacon as the wrapper.

The spices worked wonderfully with the dish and the addition of the strip of back brought a huge amount of flavor without adding a ton of calories. Due to time constraints I cooked these entirely in a skillet on the stove top, but I think it would work even better baked, as called for in the recipe, I had trouble with the bacon coming off when I turned the chicken breasts. It wasn’t something that ruined the dish but baking would have made it easier.

If you are looking for a great way to dress up plain chicken breast, in a way that brings new flavors to the game, give this recipe a try. 

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken

(Recipe on Bakespace.com)

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts cut in thirds (12 pieces)
Bacon slices
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder
chili powder
brown sugar

Instructions

Spray ovenproof dish with cooking spray or wipe with Olive Oil to print sticking

Cut each breast into 3 pieces
Season all the chicken with the spices
Wrap a bacon slice around each piece
Roll in brown sugar and place into an oven proof dish

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and bacon is nice and brown and crispy

We served this with a side of homemade rice pilaf

** Originally from Diary of a Recipe Addict blog

Previously on New Food:

• Parmesan Paprika Potatoes

 French Farmhouse Chicken

For more food items, check out my Pinterest Board – Food

Only four basic ingredients, so that is goo right from the start. It also means that there are a lot of possibilities to use different sweeteners, add-ins and more. I don’t eat a lot of ice cream, but I have grown very fond of making my own instead of buying from the store. The host of frozen yogurt recipes I find are also helping to expand my recipes and tastes for different types of frozen treats. Looking forward to trying this one.

I am always looking for a way of getting that bad, bad, (yet good) taste in a good, better, healthier package. While these are certainly not something you would want eat every day, it is a lighter, baked, version of traditional deep-fried mozzarella sticks. I have made some baked mozzarella sticks in the past, which were OK, but I think these wonton wrappers would give them a nice crunch and percent the cheese from oozing everywhere, too. Definitely something I am going to try.

If you are wondering what Food and Recipes I am finding interesting online, follow my Food Board on Pinterest. There you’ll find all the cook recipes that I am thinking of making, food projects to make (like homemade Limoncello) and new interesting food products.

This looks to be such a leap above the typical box cake. I will be making this as soon as I can. I love cornmeal and I love pistachio and I love the idea of combining them into — what I consider — a fairly rustic cake. I could see the Sicilian relatives making a cake like this. Simple, unadorned, but wonderful.

I think I may have just found the cookie that will insure my continued material happiness for the foreseeable future. (LAUGH)

My wife is a HUGE fan of carrot cake and will eat it whenever she has the opportunity. For myself, though, I a skeptical of any dessert made from a vegetable. These cookies sound like something that just might change my opinion, though. I plan on making these as soon as the heat abates a bit. Even if they don’t turn out to be my favorite, I will keep the recipe around to rescue me on those days when I am a less than ideal husband. Goodness knows, we can all use a little help at those times.

Carrot Cake Cookies

Click through for more of my Pinterest pins and a link to the recipe.

This caught my eye immediately, as I would eat everything in it and it also looks great in the picture.

As the school starts again for both my high school age son and college professor wife, the task of cooking dinner falls on me more often. Recipes like this are always great to have in my back pocket for those evenings when I need something simple and quick, but also good. Chicken breast is a great staple to have in the pantry, but it can get a bit boring without some creative presentation. Recipes like this, that dress things up, allow me to rotate meals around with some small variations that can help me from getting bored.