Bacon and Cooking Bacon

So, I generally don't eat meat, but these Two Birds know that people have a great fondness for it and to each his own of course. I will gladly cook some locally produced meat products for others. Bacon is no exception. That is no secret. It's full of flavor and has a nice texture when cooked just right. But how does one cook bacon just right?

Bacon can be fried, microwaved, boiled and baked. My mother used to microwave it using one of those fancy-shmancy bacon cookers. My grandmother would fry it. Generally I don't recommend boiling it. I only mentioned it because I have added it to soups. But I have learned through a few good sources and some trial and error that baking it results in even cooking and a really nice and consistent crisp texture. It is the crispy bacon bits that make our Two Strips and a Short Stack muffin so good. Limp, soft, or chewy bacon bits would not be good. They would be kind of gross.

I always prepare by cooking the bacon (which is purchased locally from the Nebraska Food Co-op) in mass quantity the day before I do my baking so that it has ample time to cool down. It is much safer to chop up bacon when it is not hot and greasy. Ok, makes sense.

If you want crispy easy bacon, do this:

1. preheat your oven to 425.
2. optional: prep a small cookie sheet by covering it with foil. This allows for easy clean-up. Also, the cookie sheet should have a lip around the edge so that the grease produced does not drip off of the cookie sheet.
3. Lay the uncooked bacon strips flat on the cookie sheet. They should lay side-by-side. It doesn't matter too much if they touch or even overlap a little bit.
4. Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 7 minutes, then rotate the pan 90 degrees and bake for 4 to 10 minutes more, until all bacon strips are a nice deep brown. (The time will depend on the amount of bacon you are cooking)
5. Promptly transfer the cooked bacon strips from the cookie sheet to a towel-lined or paper towel-lined plate. This allows the grease to drain and the bacon will crisp up nicely.
6. After the cooked bacon has cooled, store it in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container.

this bacon is ready to go into the oven

Is there anything I'm missing? I wonder if there are more ways to cook bacon...

~Meg

Let's Communicate

"Communication is key," or so I've heard.  But a key to what exactly? A key to understanding? A key to camaraderie? A key to love?  Having been always a bit more intrigued by the key than the lock, I just enjoy the process of communicating.  

But even with my love of writing and talking, sometimes my mouth is so full of words that I think they are teeth; and I must just swallow and digest.  These days, when I feel no desire to speak or write, is when I communicate through my eyes, my fingers, or food.  

Say I am feeling melancholy, I will bake something with a bit of lemon around the edges.  And if I'm happy, I will bake muffins bursting with blueberries that stain your tongue like the memory of a love yet to come.  If I am angry, I will run and then I will come home and enjoy the exercise afterglow while baking a cookie of the peanut butter variety.

Today, I'm having a day where I need to choose an alternative form of communication, and while I can't yet give taste through the Internet, I will speak via photographs of stumbled upon signs, both painted and printed. 

Cuts and burns can come in the kitchen, and I have been stitched up three times.  But burns don't only come from baking, they can come from experience too.  You can endure a burn from love or loss, but it will become shiny and taut and look like a splotch of paint on your arm and soon you will think, "I would go again into the jaw of that dinosaur, and I would feed it muffins until his belly was full and he had no need to eat me."  But we know the truth; it feels good to be devoured.  Isn't that what this sign says to you?  Maybe I'm getting my words back.

They may say "don't," but I say "do."  Yes, risk the break or confiscation of the snow globe for the joy of the imagination contained in its viscous liquid orb.  Do!

Actually, this is advice I would follow.  However, being that the sign is on the container that will soon be hoisted off the ground, it doesn't really do that determinedly oblivious guy any good unless he saw the sign prior to the lifting.  So, instead of reading every dumpster you pass, just make sure to always look up - there's much to see up there besides the bottom of boxes.  

This says it all. . . . Living. . . follow this sign first - always.  

And lest I forget this is the blog of a couple of baking birds, check out the Nebraska Food Co-op as they've made some great changes to the website that make shopping and becoming a member a much easier process.  Plus, it's the one place you can get our baked goods until we find some certified kitchen space. . . . speaking of which. .  . stay tuned!

~ Trilety

Camping and Cupcakes

October 1st! Today is Satid's birthday (he's my main squeeze). OH I love birthdays and I LOVE the fall and I double-love fall birthdays!!!

For the last couple years we have opted to stay at home for Satid's birthday. We'd have a gathering of friends and I would make a cake for him. His favorite is 'strawberry wedding cake', which is a fluffy white cake with whipped cream frosting and fresh strawberries. It's a bit like strawberry shortcake, but much more decadent, if you can imagine.

This year we are going camping! Well... 'car camping', which is different from camping in that we'll drive to a campground, park the car at the campsite and unload and set up camp right there. It allows us to bring coolers and heavy stuff that would not be appropriate for any other camping expedition. It also allows me to bake up and bring along a bunch of cupcakes for Satid!

I used the white cake mix and made a really yummy cream cheese frosting for the topping. I also bought a bag of those high fructose corn syrup-filled mellowcreme pumpkins to decorate the cupcakes.

I know, I know. Tsk tsk and shame on me for providing such an unhealthy baked good for my man and our friends. I don't usually use the box mixes, but in the case of a fluffy white cake request, I obliged. I have great recipes for chocolate and yellow and pumpkin cakes, but have not yet perfected the fluffy white cake. I do feel a little guilty... but not too guilty. All I can say is that today is a very special for a very special man and he can have whatever he wants. Love love love!!!

fluffy white Satid birthday cupcakes

~Meg

The New Yeast

These two birds bake quick breads, rather than yeast breads.  Quick breads are baked goods leavened with an agent other than the micro-organism yeast.  

A quick aside on the word "quick" and my adoration for it.  Say this word a few times in a row and enjoy the "O" shaped form by your lips and the whispered click that settles in the back of your throat.  "Quick" is a good word in the mouth.  But, if you are close to my age, then the word "quick" brings back fond memories of listening to Two Beats Off by Fugazi, and cutting the nail to the quick.  Formally referred to as the hypnychium, the quick of the nail is sensitive and should be handled gently, or nibbled tenderly.  

Meg and I don't discriminate against yeast, and we don't apotheosize the quick breads, it just panned out this way.  Yeast leavened breads are romantic though.  Yeast, according to Wikipedia, ". . . are probably one of the earliest domesticated organisms." It's sweet to think of the capitulation of yeast to mankind, as if they relinquished their wild nature to our desire for the way they expand dough with a breath of carbon dioxide.  Yeast inflates breads with a pneuma that confirms their spirit; their alive nature.  

Yeast, however, are receiving a synthetic makeover as researchers recently replaced yeast chromosomes with artificial DNA.  Scientific American and New Scientist provide intriguing detail and potential consequences of this breakthrough.  

Do you think the future holds breads baked with artificial yeast, and if so will we feel and taste the difference on our tongues?  Will our souls know the pneuma is now artificial, or will our bellies win out and choose to consume and digest no matter the origin?  I don't know, but I'm looking forward to what's to come.   

~ Trilety

The Blue Apron Muffin

Trilety is right. Names are important. They determine a lot about our perception of ourselves, of others, and of the world. She talked about changing her name in the last post.

I too have wanted to change my name. When I met my first best friend, Jessica, I imagined what life would be like if that were my name. What would I be like? I even wrote the name 'Jessica' on a few belongings of mine to try it out. But in the end, it didn't feel right. A few years later, after watching the Disney movie The Little Mermaid for the first time, I wanted desperately to change my name to Ariel after the main character. I loved that movie! I was in third grade and I was borderline obsessed... okay, well I was completely obsessed. I loved that the main character had red hair like me. Again, I imagined what life would be like if I were named Ariel. And once again I came to the conclusion that the name did not suit me. As I am told, my name, Megan, was popular at the time I was born. It has no big story or family ties, but it is mine. And if I were to change it, I would feel as though I were abandoning an old friend. So I decided to keep it.

Thanks for all who responded to our call for suggestions. Megan- I agree that Fromage Bleu Pommes is super cool and fancy. However, we have decided on another name from Trilety's list: the Blue Apron Muffin. Although I do not own a blue apron, I feel like the name suits this muffin very well.

~Meg

Choosing A Name

Names create us, or at least they are one finger on the many hands that build us into the people we are.  How different would I, or my life, be if I grew up with another name?  It was believed by my mother's doctor that I would be born a boy.  But I was gifted a gender of female; a sort of inside-out version of man.  Or is Man simply an inside out version of Woman?  Both can be true.  The name originally chosen for me, LeRoy, had to be rethought because of my genitalia.  After 7 days, and a hospital bracelet and birth announcements that celebrated my name as Fred, I was finally named Trilety.  My name was a mouthful as a kid, and drew attention to a little girl who thought she wanted to be incognito but never acted in a way that could ensure that.  At about the age of 6, I changed my name to Rachel.  I was pleased for the people who obliged to call me by new name, but just as pleased I didn't stick with it. Trilety is a name with a history and meaning.  I am named for my paternal great-grandmother, Helen Trilety, who was as tall as I am short.  She was strong and powerful.  She was much loved, and loved much.  

Names are important.  

We need a name for the new Apple-Gorgonzola-Toasted-Walnut muffin.  I have found, while helping with the naming process, (of books and stories, no one has yet let me help them name their pet or child) that a good exercise is to throw out a long list of names, crazy or dull, and eliminate and choose from there.  That's how we came up with the name Two Birds - it came from a list of 50 other possible names.  

Anyone have a favorite from the options below?

The French
Blue Waldorf
Blue Astoria
The Bavaria
The French Farmhouse Muffin
Pommes-Walnut
Fromage bleu Pommes
The Gorg!
The Gorgon!
Little Blue Maiden
Blue Apple
Blue Nut!
Dinner Bell
The Rustic Nut
The Rustic Apple
Suppertime Muffin
Don't Be Blue, Eat my Muffin
Don't Be Blue, Eat my Apple
Don't Be Blue, Eat my. . . 
The Nutty Apple
Apple Tree Muffin
Blue Apron Muffin
French Intestine (I'm going to write a poem/story with this title, so please, nobody choose this name)
Le Muffin
Miss Megan
Meg's French Muffin
Bavarian Belly Muffin

Don't forget to suggest your own name. . . we'll give you a few free Apple-Gorgonzola-Toasted-Walnut Muffins!


~ Trilety

A Muffin Without a Name

Our newest muffin creation is the Apple-Gorgonzola-Toasted Walnut muffin. I know it sounds like a lot. Well, it is a lot. A lot of crazy yummy goodness!! I first mentioned it a few posts back when I introduced it as an experiment. Since then, it's undergone a few minor changes and viola!

This new muffin is a wonderful balance of flavors and textures with sweet apples baked in the batter, as well as some nuts and cheese to compliment. Squirrels would totally love this muffin!

So, the dilemma is that the new muffin is currently lacking a super sexy... or just plain clever name. Some words I have been tossing around are 'rustic' and 'dinner bell', words like that because it is super hearty and might actually stick to your ribs.

Do you have any suggestions?

~Meg