I pretty much followed the recipe as it was outlined on the site, but the final product definitely didn’t turn out quite as nice as I might have hoped, but it didn’t really take away from it being pretty tasty and generally well received.

I believe the first mistake I made was not getting thick cut bacon. I thought the bacon I had was reasonably thick, but wasn’t actually the thick cut kind. This was an issue as it seemed my bacon weave didn’t hold up very well to being placed on the BBQ. I didn’t have a chance to hit up a butcher this weekend, so I’ll definitely have to source some thicker bacon next go around.

I did discover a way to roll the sausage a little easier then they outline in the recipe.  Once you’re done seasoning your bacon weave, place a piece of tinfoil roughly the same size as the weave over top of it, then place the sausage onto the foil.  Then you can simply roll the sausage with the help of the foil instead of trying to do it by hand and making a big mess.

The second mistake I believe I made was preparing on the BBQ in a rush.  Friends and family started arriving earlier then expected and it didn’t quite get the slow cooked love it deserved.  I tried to cook it with indirect heat directly on the BBQ grill, but since the dinner hour fast approached I had to speed up the browning process and I kinda ruined the bacon weave by having to move it around on the grill.  As you can see below I had a bit of a jailbreak on the one side of the bacon weave.  So when cutting it I didn’t get nice clean slices, more piles of miscellaneous pork.  Either way it tasted delicious.  I figure next time I’ll use a BBQ tray or maybe just cook it with tinfoil underneath.

The one feedback I from people was that it wasn’t quite bacon-y enough and the taste was primarily sausage.  As I don’t(yet!) have a smoker, I figure that would make a big difference in the overall taste.  Plus with additional slow cooking time the bacon flavour probably would have seeped through a little better.

I recently started my own bowl and quickly found it full, since we frequently fail to finish the bread we buy in a timely fashion.  So instead of buying breadcrumbs from the grocery store, from here on out we’ll be making our own.  I like throwing breadcrumbs onto shake and bake style chicken or sometimes fried potatoes to give them a little something extra.  You can also make your own stuffing mix as well which is pretty handy and saves you some pre-prep steps of leaving the bread out to harden beforehand, you’ll already have it ready.

This is a dead simple tip, but I find sometimes the simplest tips often help when cooking in the kitchen.

Homemade Tortillas and Salsa

This has become one of my favourite things to do up for parties mainly because it tends to blow people’s minds that you can make your own tortilla chips.  Now I haven’t gone to the point of grinding corn, but this definitely does take it back a step from cracking open a bag of Tostitos and calling it a day.

Tortillas

• 10 pack of tortilla wraps, any variety
• salt
• deep fryer
• pizza slicer

I normally pick up 2 different types of tortilla wrap, just to mix it up.  They come in all sorts of varieties nowadays, like sundried tomato, multigrain or roasted red pepper, so your options for diversity are pretty wide open.  Turn on your deep fryer to heat up, then begin to slice your wraps into somewhat uniform triangles.  I typically cut 3 wraps at a time with the slicer.  Once the deep fryer is ready, throw your little triangles in and cook until they are crispy and and darken up a bit.  Remove from deep fryer and onto a plate covered with paper towels.  De-oil them as best as possible, then add a little bit of salt.

This was my first go at making a salsa and I was quite pleasantly surprised with the results.  Most of the people I tend to cook for aren’t fond of hot stuff, so I kept this one tame, though I plan on experimenting a bit later.

Salsa

• 2 red tomatoes
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1 sweet green pepper
• 1 sweet yellow pepper
• 1 whole bulb of garlic
• 1 lime
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup of red wine
• 3 tbsp Cumin
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp Oregano
• 3 tbsp chili powder

Chop up the tomatoes, peppers(de-seed those) and garlic and chop them up using a food processor or chopper.  If you like chunky salsa, leave the pieces large, if you like smoother salsa, pulverize at will.  Once you’re done you’ll want to toss them into a pot.  Squeeze the juice from the lemon and lime and add the rest of the ingredients into the pot as well.  Cook on medium for about 10 minutes until things start bubbling, then reduce to low and let it simmer for about an hour, stirring periodically.