Earl Cooks Eggplant & Rice Casserole With 2 Cheeses

Eggplant seems to be the darling of the vegetarian /vegan community. I see it used in dishes that look SO good, and I have wanted to use them more. My first try was a failure, but I found an idea that seemed a bit better. It would include an eggplant, mozzarella & Parmesan cheeses, tomato sauce and rice. First I covered the eggplant, sliced thin, with salt to draw out the moisture and bitterness. I rinsed the slices to remove the salt and began layering the eggplant and other ingredients almost like a lasagna, tomato sauce, rice, eggplant, cheese until I had filled my casserole dish and used all of the ingredients, topping it all with cheese. I baked it at 350℉ until hot throughout and the cheese all melted. Results & Conclusions I liked it okay, but I won't make it again. It ended up with far too much liquid in the bottom. My wife was unimpressed and hardly ate any of her bowl. I finished mine, but didn't bother to keep the leftovers, which is VERY rare for me. It seems I just haven't come upon a recipe that makes eggplant worth cooking. It may be that we love meat so much that we are not tasting what others taste. I will try ONE more time, and hope that is isn't 3 strikes and out!

Earl Cooks is Makin' Bacon By Bakin' Bacon into BITS

I always liked the good quality REAL bacon bits you could buy at the supermarket. It always seemed easier and faster than making my own. But they are not CHEAP! They definitely charge you for the effort. So I started making my own with the microwavable, precooked bacon...half the work was DONE, just crisp them up and chop them and you have freshly cooked (almost) bacon bits that are cut to meet your likes. The problem with that is there isn't a bunch of flavor in the microwave bacon.

Big Buy Bacon In and Out of the package

My brilliant idea was to bake my own from CHEAP bacon! The cheap bacon has been a really good price recently.The great thing about cheap bacon is the reason it is cheap...it has a high fat content. The smoke flavor permeates the fat and is released when it cooks and renders down. I am continuously looking for a better way to cook bacon. I have tried the oven, the microwave, the stovetop, griddles, as-seen-on-tv devices. My wife (a.k.a. "Turkey") is the best because she has the key...patience.

Baking Sheet with Corrugated Foil

For under $2 I can have bacon chunks that taste like bacon! I start by taking a baking sheet and line it with  foil I had corrugated at the suggestion of a chef to allow the fat to drip away and make cleanup a breeze.

Pieces of Cheap Bacon Raw and Baked

I cut one pound of bacon into small pieces, keeping in mind that they will shrink...a lot. I baked them at 350℉, which was the temperature recommended on the package for cooking their bacon. Only half of the bacon fit on the first sheet, so for the second batch I decide to change it up a bit. I like my bacon on the less-than-crispy side, so I think I will bake the second batch with my oven's broiler mode rather than from beneath. It turned out great. Can you tell which is which?

Baked on the left and Broiled on the right

Make your own bits. Just take the time when you aren't doing anything else. Your house will smell great and they can be refrigerated or frozen, so next time you want bacon for your salad or scrambled eggs, you'll be set!

Earl Cooks Baked Chili Cheese Dog Sandwich - EEK!

Why EEK! you say? It stands for Earl's Experimental Kitchen...or something I made that nobody has made, and sometimes it is for a good reason! Like all EEKs, it starts off sounding like a good idea and somewhere goes off the rails. I wanted a grilled cheese and I wanted a chili-cheese dog They go together, right? Just substitute the bun for bread and you're almost there. But I thought I would try it in the oven not the stove-top. What I discovered was a more difficult way to make a grilled cheese! What I used was 4 hot dogs, shredded mild cheese and mild no bean chili(½ of a can), and 4 slices of homemade bread slathered with butter. —First I took 4 bun-length hot dogs and sliced them in half until they lay flat, but not all the way through. —I placed the hot dogs on a sheet pan and placed in a 325℉ oven for 15 minutes and removed them to a plate. —I then placed 4 slices of bread buttered on both sides in the sheet pan and in the oven, again at 325℉ for 10 minutes. — Flip and cover with shredded cheese (lots) and place back in oven for another 5-10 minutes until melted. —Remove from oven, cover 2 of the cheesy slices with half of the chili and place 2 hot dogs on each slice over the chill. —Now put more cheese on top of the hot dogs and use the other slices to top. —Place back in the oven long enough to heat through and melt the cheese, about 10 minutes more. Results: I liked mine but the hot dogs cooked a bit too long and the bread was quite crunchy. My wife felt it was not what I was shooting for. That's why it's an EEK!  Let me say here that I really liked these, and will never make them again!!!