#9: Weeknight Dinner

Last week was bacon week, so I cooked up BLTs for dinner. It's funny; the monthly bacon delivery comes with a recipe, but I've never used the recipe. In fact, I've only made BLTs or breakfast for dinner (eggs or omlette w/ bacon on the side) with our Bacon of the Month. I know DH really likes to eat the bacon in a way that maximizes the particular bacon flavor (for him this means not a lot of other ingredients), but we usually eat two meals with the BOM. I've been collecting the recipes, though, so maybe I'll start using one of them for one of our two bacon-based monthly meals.

Since I'm talking about bacon, I wanted to share one of my new favorite recipes. K & I had dinner a couple of weeks ago with a small group of my life-long friends and their husbands, and I drew the appetizer card. I always stick to vegetarian appetizer recipes for my book club (or take a dessert), so I took this chance to make something with meat. Everyone loved the Bacon & Tomato Cups I made. (recipe from allrecipes.com) I made them a little bit different from the online recipe, and have been thinking about other ways to kick them up a notch. Here's the way I made them for this past weekend's extended family GTG:

Bacon & Tomato Cups

8 slices bacon
1 tomato, chopped (I used roma, since I had that on hand)
1/2 cup sweet onion, chopped
3 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (I don't like swiss, which the recipe calls for)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dried basil (I used fresh, because I love it)
1 (16 ounce) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a mini muffin pan.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until evenly brown. Drain on paper towels. Crumble bacon into a medium mixing bowl, and mix with tomato, onion, cheese, mayonnaise and basil. (I sauted the onions very briefly--about a minute--in the bacon pan, because I don't like a lot of onion flavor. I patted them dry & added them as directed.)

Separate biscuits into halves horizontally. Place each half into cups of the prepared mini muffin pan. Fill each biscuit half with the bacon mixture.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.