PO-MO (pomegranate molasses) Bacon

So it was my mom's birthday and I sorta forgot to get her a present.  Luckily, if you can cook you always have that in your back pocket so my present was making her a birthday brunch.  I was gonna make her rose water white chocolate bread pudding because the woman loves her rose flavored nonsense but then the idea for these little beauties popped into my head and I redid the whole menu.  The other stuff was pretty good too: thyme and goat cheese pancakes with honey, strawberry cucumber salad with feta and vanilla cardamom mimosas; I'll probably post those recipes on here eventually but these were definitely everyone's favor part of the meal so they're coming first.  When it comes to candied bacon like this, you have to get the thickest cut you can get.

1 lb thick cut bacon
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
fresh black pepper (as much as you like)

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, toss the bacon with the brown sugar and black pepper.  Then drizzle on the pomegranate molasses, massaging it in.
3. Lay the bacon out in a single layer on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet to collect the drippings (I HIGHLY recommend wrapping the cookie sheet completely in foil to avoid having to scrub bacon grease and melted sugar off it later)
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until crispy and delicious.

Burger, Fries, and a Shake

Beef and ice cream don't seem like they go together but grind up that beef, put it on a bun and blend that ice cream into a milkshake and suddenly its a classic combination.  And what's burgers without fries so here comes a post with 3 recipes (we were too lazy to take 3 separate pictures).  I'm pretty proud of these burgers.  Since you're suppose to use beef thats about 20% fat for burgers, instead we are using about 3 parts of beef thats almost entirely learn and 1 part ground up bacon which is mostly fat.

For Burgers
12 oz of top round roast or other very lean beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
4 oz raw bacon, cut into 1-1 1/2 inch stripes
1 tbsp coarse mustard
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 egg yolk
pepper
hefty pinch of salt

1. Run the beef and the bacon through a meat grinder.  You can use a food processor but it wont be as evenly ground.  Mix in the mustard, worcestershire sauce, egg yolk, pepper and salt.
2. Form patties, about 6 oz per patty.  Grill at high heat for about 2 minutes per side or until the center is 130-135 degrees.  Serve how ever you like it, we put them on brioche buns with lettuce, sliced shallot, ketchup, and mayo.

For French Fries
4 russet potatoes
1 gallon peanut or other neutral oil
salt (finer/ non-kosher salt is better for this)

1. Using a v-slicer attachment for cutting fries, use it for what it's intended for.  It's up to you whether you want to leave the skins on or peel them.  Place the cut potatoes in cold water.
2. Blanch the potatoes in 2-3 minutes in boiling water working in batches.  move to a baking tray lined with paper towels in a 300 degree oven to dry off the fries.  Once they are dry, fry in 375 degree oil 2-3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy,  drain on inverted cooling racks over paper towels.

For Bailey's Strawberry Milkshake:
4 cups haagen-dazs strawberry ice cream
8 full frozen/fresh strawberries
2 tsp honey
1/4 cup baileys

1. I've said it once, I'll say it again, put all the ingredients into a blender, and you know, make a milkshake.

Blood Orange Bacon Vinaigrette

This is the first salad dressing I've made that Keith actually likes; figures it takes bacon to finally get Keith to like a salad.  You can replace the blood oranges with normal oranges if you like, I just like the color they give.  It keeps pretty well in the fridge for several days but the bacon drippings will solidify so you'll have to microwave it to re-liguify them before you re-shake the dressing.

1 1/2 tbsp blood orange juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp bacon drippings
2 dashes garlic oil
2 dashes ginger oil
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the shallots in the bacon drippings over medium high heat until they are golden brown. Set aside to cool.
2. Combine the lemon juice, blood orange juice, rice wine vinegar, garlic oil, ginger oil and mustard in a jar. Seal up and shake. add in the olive oil, shallots with the bacon drippings. Seal up and shake again until an emulsion is formed. season with salt and pepper, toss with lettuce of choice and serve, with a sprinkling of chopped crispy bacon if you like.