Want to know what the key is to a perfect BLT in my opinion?

There are lots of factors that can add to this pretty much perfect combination of sandwich ingredients.  Good bread, a good grainy mustard, super fresh tomatoes or the addition of avocado all make this sandwich yummy.

But the thing that makes a BLT extra special is this:

Peppered bacon.

Seriously, this extra thick peppered bacon from Petit Jean Meats is one of the best ways I know to make a BLT pop with flavor.  It’s also pretty amazing all by itself!

I am super excited to be giving away a Petit Jean Bacon Sampler just in time for Father’s Day!

This sampler has all three different kinds of Petit Jean Bacon and it comes straight to your doorstep in a cooler! I kind of think it’s a perfect dad gift, because…well, they can eat it.

If your dad is like mine, he already has closets full of junk. I mean, I guess I could get him some new socks, since his are kind of shabby. But let’s be honest, he would much rather have bacon.

To enter to win the Petit Jean Meats Bacon Sampler, just leave a comment on this post.  Tell me your favorite way to eat bacon.  Or your favorite thing to eat with your dad?  Or your favorite way to eat bacon WITH your dad?

Here’s the recipe for BLTs, even though you don’t really need a recipe!

Perfect BLTs for Six

A loaf of your favorite bread

2 avocodos

2 large tomatoes

1 package extra thick peppered bacon from Petit Jean Meats

whole grain mustard and mayo (optional)

a head of green leaf lettuce

Fry the bacon. Slice the tomatoes and avocados.  Wash and tear the lettuce into large pieces.  Set everything on the table and call everyone to the table to make their Perfect BLTs!

Disclosure: I am a Blue Diamond Club member with Petit Jean Meats, which means they send me products to try and share with you.  I received a Bacon Sampler, with which I made these BLTs and also these yummy dates, but all opinions are my own, of course.  Giveaway is open to residents of the continental US, and a winner for this giveaway will be randomly selected and emailed next Monday! This giveaway is closed.  Winner is LORA MATTHEY-HICKS!

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Yummiest little bite of party food ever?  Bacon Wrapped Dates With Goat Cheese!

Sweet + Salty + Cheese = Goodness.

Such a happy combination of flavors, I promise.

Bacon is relatively hard to beat as a crowd pleaser, so naturally, these were a big hit at my house. My sister makes platters and platters of them for parties at her restaurant.  It took me a little while to prep them, but that part could be done ahead of time for sure.

And speaking of bacon, I am giving away a Petit Jean Bacon Sampler this week!

Just in time for Father’s Day!

Bacon Wrapped Dates With Goat Cheese

1 pound (16 slices) Petit Jean bacon

1/2 cup goat cheese

32 dates

toothpicks

Cut bacon slices in half.  Fill dates with goat cheese.  Wrap a half slice of bacon around each date and secure with a toothpick.  Repeat with all the dates.

Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Cool slightly before serving.

Enjoy!

Disclosure: I am a Blue Diamond Club member with Petit Jean Meats, which means they send me products to try and share with you.  I received a Bacon Sampler, with which I made these dates and the most amazing BLTs EVER, but all opinions are my own, of course.  For more information about and special discounts from Petit Jean Meats, you can sign up for their newsletter.

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It is starting to get hot enough outside that you need a good standby recipe for cole slaw.

This recipe is part Ina Garten and part Rhonda Eubanks, my dear friend and catering buddy.

Rhonda and I love to cook together!  We have a great rhythm in the kitchen, and we freely alter each others’ recipes. She makes a slaw with bacon and blue cheese that I love.  The combination is brilliant.  However, she makes hers with bottled dressing and cole slaw mix, so I changed it up a little to have a homemade dressing and freshly chopped cabbage and carrots.  Also, Rhonda adds halved cherry tomatoes to her slaw.

Either way you make it, this slaw is a great addition to a summer picnic.

Recipe for Cole Slaw

Salad Ingredients:
1 large green cabbage, finely chopped
5 carrots, peeled and shredded in the food processor or minced in a blender
5 ribs of celery, chopped
8 ounces bacon, chopped and fried until crispy (I used Petit Jean Bacon, of course!)
6 ounces crumbled blue cheese

Dressing:
2 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons celery seed
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients except bacon and blue cheese in a serving bowl. Mix dressing in a separate bowl. Toss with slaw. Sprinkle blue cheese and bacon on top and wait to mix those in until just before serving.

The post Cole Slaw appeared first on Alison Chino.

Since our family is on a Media Break (for Seven), we’ve been looking for different ways to spend our time together than in front of the TV or computer, so this week we had a Front Porch Picnic.

Our back deck is currently all ripped up, so we set up a hot dog picnic in our front yard.

Petit Jean Meats provided us with some of their big grillers for our picnic, which thrilled my children.

Taido grilled the hot dogs and corn inside the husks.

If you’ve never grilled corn this way, you must try it.

You peel back the husks, remove the strings and then close the husks back around the corn.  Then you grill it for about 25 minutes, turning the corn a couple of times in the process.

We couldn’t believe how sweet the corn was.  It seems early in the year for it to be so yummy and sweet!

Cole ate four hot dogs, my friends.  I am not even kidding you.  I didn’t even get a picture of him with his food because he eats so fast.

Mary Polly’s plate.

My plate. (wink)

Ben’s plate.

The weather really has been perfect for the last few days.  We sat outside for a long time after we finished eating.  Mary Polly and Ben took off on their bikes, and Simon played with his friend next door.  Taido and I even visited with our neighbors, which we don’t do nearly enough!

If you want to have a Front Porch Picnic of your own, I have posted before about how to have a Fancy Hot Dog Party with lots of topping ideas and pictures.

This time around, for toppings, we had sauerkraut, mustard, whole grain mustard, cheddar cheese, Petit Jean Meats Chili, guacamole and dill relish.

In addition to corn, we made Always Makes Me Happy Salad and a yummy cole slaw with bacon (also Petit Jean) and bleu cheese.

Happy Grilling Season, Friends!

I am a Blue Diamond Club member with Petit Jean Meats, which means they send me products to try and share with you.  I received the three packages of grillers for our Front Porch Picnic, but all opinions are my own, of course.  If you live in the area, and you don’t want to fix your own hot dog, you can head to the baseball field (Dickey-Stephens) because they are serving Petit Jean Grillers up out there this summer at the Travelers games!  For more information about Petit Jean Meats, you can sign up for their newsletter.

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I’m continuing today with our family photos that I started posting last week.

After we bought our groceries at Argenta Market, our family took our photo shoot to our house, where we made dinner together.

Ben is cutting up some Petit Jean Smoked Sausage for Gumbo!

I love how you can see all the different parts of the process of getting ready for dinner in these photos.  Whitney has even more from this series online, and I feel like they really tell the story of our family being at home in the evening.

Our kitchen is wide open so everyone can be gathered around to help at the bar.  Cole is following the recipe for a new salad out of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, Ben is chopping ingredients for gumbo, Mary Polly is helping Cole and Simon is setting the table.

I have really worked this year towards everyone spending a little more time in the kitchen.  Some days it flows really well and others, not so much, but I feel like it is really worth the effort to pull these guys into the process with me.

I hope that when my kids leave home they will have a few more cooking skills under their belts than I did at eighteen.

I’m pretty sure I only knew how to make Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I felt was enough to live on.

Taido has been making this amazing Gumbo Zeb, Crescent Dragonwagon’s base for gumbo, since we lived in Chicago.  (a gazillion years ago)

He usually makes it on a Saturday, and we help him turn piles of greens into thin ribbons.  The base is very thick, full of greens, tomatoes and all sorts of spices.  We freeze it in ziplock bags that we pull out in the winter.

Crescent Dragonwagon made twenty-one different gumbo recipes before settling on the one in her cookbook, so it is tried and true.  She also gives a fascinating history of the development of the soup, starting with filé powder—made from ground dried sassafras leaves—a seasoning used by the Choctaw Indians.

Then all you have to do is add stock, meat and okra to the base to have a hearty Gumbo for dinner.  We use lots of meat combinations: chicken and sausage, sausage and shrimp, fish and shrimp.  Sausage and shrimp tends to be the favorite, so that’s what we did on this night.

Every member of our family loves this meal, so it was a perfect one to have for our photos.

We sit every night at a table that lived many years in my aunt and uncle’s house.  It is a long barn table with benches.  They had five kids, so it was perfect for them.  I grew up babysitting for them and I always loved this table.

We have treasured it in our family for sure, and we cram as many people as we can around it on a regular basis.

There are lots of fun details in these pictures that I will remember for years and years.

A friend gave us this little tin filled with questions for the dinner table for Christmas a few years ago, and Simon pulls it out every night.  He LOVES to ask the table topic every night and almost never forgets.  It is super cutie and you cannot believe how many questions are in this itty bitty box.  Hundreds.  We still manage to pull out new ones every night.

I’m not going to lie to you. The recipe for making the base for this gumbo is a little bit involved, but if you make it you will be so happy because you will be able to have gumbo in a snap from your freezer.  I am not an expert at freezer meals, but this is about the yummiest one I have in my arsenal.

If you double the base, you can have gumbo about once a month all year.

Gumbo Zeb Base

For the roux:
1 cup mild vegetable oil, such as corn, canola, or soy
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

For the mirepoix:
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)
2 large onions, chopped
2 green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
1 bunch celery with leaves, chopped
1 large bunch (8 to 10) scallions, chopped

For the seasoning purée:
8 cloves garlic, peeled
¼ cup Pickapeppa or Worcestershire sauce (I used Worcestershire)
¼ cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
Heaping ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Heaping ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
Heaping ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
6 to 8 good grinds of black peppercorns
1 (16-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
1 bunch fresh Italian parsley, leaves and stems rinsed and coarsely chopped

For the stock and greens:
6 cups any well-flavored chicken or vegetable stock, or bottled clam juice
2 cups tomato juice or V8 vegetable juice
1 teaspoon salt
4 bay leaves
6 bunches greens (about 4½ to 5 pounds total), ideally 1 bunch each mustard greens, spinach, turnip greens, beet tops, collard greens, arugula, and watercress, very well washed and finely ribboned

1½ cups tomato or V8 vegetable juice

After you chop up all your veggies and ribbon all your greens, make the roux.

Pour the oil in a cast-iron skillet and set over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until fully incorporated and smooth. The color will be a pale cream to beige color. Stir often to keep the roux from burning, and constantly during the final cooking stage. During the early stage, you may move on to the next step—sautéing the mirepoix—but don’t forget about the roux. Check back frequently, stirring every few minutes or so.

As the roux cooks it will darken in color and begin to smell nutty and, if you go all the way to dark roux, like burnt popcorn. Roux making cannot be rushed: The entire process will take from 45 minutes to an hour or more.

When the roux becomes fairly brown, the oil will separate out partially from the flour. This is what you want. Crescent says not to take the roux off the heat before this point. After the oil has separated, how much longer to cook it is a matter of taste. The darker and nuttier it becomes, the richer the flavor.

Saute the mirepoix: In a heavy skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions, and sauté until softened, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the bell peppers and celery; lower the heat slightly and continue sautéing another 10 minutes. Add the scallions, and sauté until limp, about 5 minutes more. While the mirpoix is sautéing, prepare the seasoning puree, but remember to keep checking the roux and stirring it. Once the vegetables are softened, remove them from the heat and set aside.

Prepare the seasoning puree: Place all the ingredients for the seasoning purée except the tomatoes and parsley in a food processor. Process until the garlic is chopped fine. Add the tomatoes and parsley to the food processor, and chop coarsely.

Check the roux. If it has become caramel-colored or darker, it’s time to give it your undivided attention. If it is ready, finish the roux. (If not go on to the next step and then come back) When the roux is done to your liking, remove it from the heat and let cool for a few minutes. Drain off any excess oil that has separated out, but be careful not to pour off any of the browned flour. Vigorously whisk in the 1½ cups tomato juice. It will be a smooth and thick orange paste.

Prepare the stock and the greens: This is the mixture into which the other three mixtures you’ve prepared—the roux, mirepoix, and seasoning purée—will go. In a large stockpot, bring the stock and tomato juice to a boil. Add the salt and bay leaves. Drop in the fresh greens. Bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, about 30 minutes.

When the greens have finished their 30-minute simmer, remove them from the heat. To the stockpot, add the roux mixture, sautéed mirepoix, and the seasoning purée. Taste for seasoning and adjust, if needed. Set the pot over the lowest possible heat and let simmer, covered, another 15 minutes, stirring often.

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. It is now ready to be used.  Or you can cool it and freeze it. It makes about 6 quarts. In Crescent’s book, Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread, she has about seven different ways to prepare the gumbo.

Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

1 to 1½ pounds Petit Jean smoked sausage, sliced

1 pound frozen, sliced okra

1 pound shrimp

6 cups Gumbo Zeb Base

5 to 6 cups any well-flavored chicken stock

1 cup or more cooked white rice

Filé powder

Fry the sausage in a skillet over medium heat until slightly browned and to cook out as much fat from the sausage as possible, about 5 minutes. Add the okra and cook until soft, stirring occasionally.

In a large stockpot, bring the base and the stock to a boil.  Reduce heat, add the sausage, okra and shrimp.  Cook about ten more minutes (or until shrimp are done).  Serve hot over rice. Sprinkle with file powder.

Also very yummy with cornbread.

Enjoy!

Disclosure: I am a Petit Jean Meats Blue Diamond Club Member, which means that sometimes this local Arkansas company sends me products to use for recipes.

The post Family Photos: In the Kitchen + Gumbo Recipe appeared first on Alison Chino.

Our friend, Josh, has been telling us for a while that we needed to come visit him and his family and take a walk up the street to this local produce market where they have a shrimp and crab legs boil every Saturday outside.  He has raved and raved about it, so we finally got ourselves over there a couple of Saturdays ago to see what the fuss was all about.

K. Hall and Sons produce is located at the corner of Wright and S. Battery in Little Rock, and it has been here for many, many years.  In fact, Mr. Hall’s son and daughter now run the place and their children (his grandchildren) all work in the store.

Mr. Hall’s grandson sets up a Shrimp Boil every Saturday outside the shop, and this is the main reason we came. They start serving it at about 11am and go until they run out or until the shop closes at 6.  If they have any left, you can buy it cold on Sunday.

They were also selling chili the day we were there, which they insisted we try.  It was cold outside so it hit the spot.  It was super yummy.

The kids thought the whole place was a treasure hunt.  They kept bringing me different things and saying, Look at this!  We bought some andouille sausage that we later used for gumbo and fresh pecans that we shelled and ate throughout the day.

We bought a piece of homemade sweet potato pie that we sold by the slice in sheets of wax paper.

We were excited that the meat case was full of local Petit Jean meats.

After we finished looking around inside, we bought our shrimp boil tickets.  For our family, we bought three pounds.  You take your ticket outside to where they are boiling the shrimp.

You hand them your ticket and they fix up your package of shrimp.

They add corn, hot peppers, potatoes, sausage, onions, garlic and a slice of pineapple.

This package is one pound of shrimp and crab with all the fixings.  It is $9.50 for 1 pound.

Here is Ben with our three pound package.

We could hardly wait to get into it!

In fact, everyone started in so fast when we got back to the house that I forgot to get any more pictures.  Our lips and fingers were burning from the spicy shrimp! We enjoyed every bite.  We didn’t have Cole with us, but we saved him a few shrimp that he ate cold the next day out of the refrigerator.  His shouts from downstairs were confirmation that they were still delish!

Mom, where did you get these?  These shrimp are amazing!

If you’re looking for a little Louisiana in Little Rock, K. Hall and Sons start adding crawfish to their shrimp boil sometime in March.  Go pay them a visit!

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You throw everything in the crockpot in the morning, including the raw chicken and dinner is ready when you walk in the door in the afternoon.  How easy is that?

I served it with rice and homemade cornbread, which are both simple enough to throw together, but if you need to eat and go, use instant rice and just make a meal of the soup.

The second time I made this recipe, I doubled it and did it in my Dutch oven on the stove with another soup (Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili) for my book club.  I drew hosting in January this year, so I made it a hearty soup and cornbread night.

I used Petit Jean Meats sausage for this recipe, which we love, but you could use another smoked sausage or andouille sausage if you don’t have this available.  Also, I have yet to add the shrimp to this recipe because I like it fine with just the chicken and sausage, but I left it in the recipe as an option because I am sure it would be a yummy addition.

Crockpot Jumbalaya

Ingredients:

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained (14.5 ounces)

1 can chicken broth (14.5 ounces)

1 can tomato paste (6 ounces)

2 medium green peppers, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 celery ribs, chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

3 teaspoons dried parsley

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 package Petit Jean Hickory Smoked sausage (14 ounces), halved and cut into 1/4 inch slices

1/2 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and de-veined (optional)

Directions:

Put everything in slow cooker except shrimp.  Cook for 4-6 hours on low or until chicken is no longer pink.  Add shrimp (if using) and cook 30 minutes more.  Serve with rice.

Notes: The original recipe said to cut the chicken into chunks before cooking, but my chicken was frozen so I put it in whole and then shredded it in the soup with two forks before serving.  I thought this worked well, but you can certainly cut it up before hand if you want to.

Enjoy!

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In 2008, our church started a yearly tradition of shutting the doors on a Sunday morning and encouraging everyone to spend the day serving our community.  To worship on Sunday morning by putting your faith in action.

The leadership set up several projects that anyone could join, but there is also a strong urging to look around your community and find your own project, to do something outside of your comfort zone that would bless the people you live around.

It is a beautiful Sunday morning every time it rolls around.  The hands and feet of Jesus spread out all over Central Arkansas and my heart just swells as I listen to the stories of all the ways God uses groups of ordinary people to do beautiful, extraordinary things.

Over the last four years I have been especially fascinated by the story of one gal at our church who allowed a small tug on her heart that first fall in 2008 to grow into a monthly offering of her time, energy and service.

Her name is Cathy Lamb.

In 2008, Cathy decided that for her Faith in Action project, she would make breakfast and take it downtown under one of the bridges where homeless people sometimes congregate.   Her husband, Gary, who does hair came up with the idea of taking supplies to give free haircuts and shaves.

They recruited some others to join them and they set out on an October Sunday morning to serve some breakfast and do some hair, for anyone who was interested.

They found some folks to serve underneath the Broadway Bridge in Little Rock.

While they were there a family in a van showed up with chairs, a microphone and some lunch. Cathy went over and met Laura, who was there with her son, daughter-in-law and three grandsons. Laura told Cathy that she and her family held church under the bridge every Sunday morning at 10:30, and then afterwards they served lunch.

She has done this every single Sunday.

For 17 years.

Cathy was amazed at Laura’s faithfulness and on that day she decided that with the Lord’s help, she would commit to relieve this sweet woman from cooking once a month.

She came back to our church and told us the story. She asked for our help. And now for four years, on the third Sunday of the month, Cathy and some other faithful souls cook and load up food from Fellowship North and join Laura, her family and whoever happens to show up for church and lunch underneath the Broadway Bridge, rain or shine.

My interaction with this ministry has mostly involved stopping at Cathy’s table in the church lobby on the second Sunday of the month. I typically sign up to cook a dish, pick up my foil pan and recipe and then return it the next Sunday filled with food to go in the warmer with Cathy and her friends.

I can admit that it is with some relief that I get to have a hand in feeding the homeless without actually having to shake the hand of a homeless person. I’ve been once or twice, when the choir decides to go and sing or the youth group goes. But usually I just drop my dish, check it off my list and move on.

I am so grateful to Cathy for creating this opportunity and I am in awe of her steadfast service. She even puts together meals that are holiday appropriate and special.

In November when I picked up my dish for pumpkin pie cake, I noticed that she was making turkey. That same week we had eaten a wonderful Petit Jean ham at our house and I thought,

Wouldn’t it be fun to serve this delicious ham at Christmas to the homeless?

I started asking Cathy about her December menu and I sent out a request to my sweet rep, Misty, at Petit Jean Meats. I discovered that we have a small budget allotted at our church for this ministry and it was enough to get the ham from Petit Jean at a discount. Then Misty even drove the ham to our church herself to save the shipping.

I told Cathy I was going to have to come and see the faces of all the folks on Sunday as they ate their Christmas dinner.

I arrived while the service was still going on.  The chairs were full and there were other folks gathered around the edges, just checking out the scene.  I watched from a distance at first, but as I got closer I fell easily into conversations with some of the others who were standing around.  In a matter of minutes, without even trying, I heard stories of evictions, arrests, fights.  I listened to how both jobs and homes has been lost and found.  I was quiet when entertained with a crass joke.

Then I saw excitement as a beautiful Christmas meal was served.

I watched many sweet familiar faces from my church smile as they dished up ham, deviled eggs, potato and broccoli casseroles and delectable desserts.

These gals and a handful of others accompany Cathy and Gary each month to help serve this crowd, a group that has swelled in the last six months from 100 to 180, as other services in the area have closed on the weekends.

I loved watching each person get their plate, take a seat and enjoy it.

I wasn’t going to take individual pictures of homeless people in an effort to be respectful, but this man had visited with me earlier and I had told him I was there to take pictures of the event.  After he got his plate, he came and found me and asked me to take his picture with his plate.

His name is Eric.  He said, Look at this!  It doesn’t get any better than this now!

Christmas dinner fit for a king.

Since Sunday, every time I drive over a bridge, I think about Eric and his friends.  I’m thankful to Cathy and Laura and so many others that I got a chance to meet him.  To see with my own eyes and heart the love that is shared on Sunday mornings under the Broadway Bridge.

And a big thank you to Petit Jean Meats for getting us the ham to serve!

The post Under the Broadway Bridge appeared first on Alison Chino.

Thanksgiving is my very most favorite holiday.

To me, it is full of everything a holiday should be. Quiet, gratefulness, stores closed and homes open, family, friends, cold weather, kids piled in spare rooms and basements, couches full to busting, and of course, food.

Lots of it.

A beautiful table, prepared by hands that have worked together with too many bodies in the kitchen, bumping against each other.

Excuse me, excuse me.  Coming through.  Will anything else fit in the oven?

And then another whole table, just for the desserts.

I can’t tell you how much I love it.  It is the fullest, most cherished day of the year for me.  And when I add up all my Thanksgivings from all of my 39 years, I am pretty sure I have enough love and warmth just within those precious days to say that I could check out right now and say that I had a good life.

Growing up we used to go to Castle Bluff (a camp in Northwest Arkansas) for Thanksgiving.  It was like going back in time.

Families from our church and other places around Arkansas would come and we would all bring pies and casseroles from home.  Daddy would fry a turkey, smoke a turkey and bake a turkey.  While he babysat his poultry, he would stand around in the cold with the other men and talk.  The mamas would sit around the wood burning stove and peel potatoes.

And the kids.

We ran hog wild doing whatever we wanted.

It was glorious.

We made the younger kids cry with our fairly rough rendition of Blind Man’s Bluff, a game where one person is in the middle blindfolded and the rest of you are circled around this poor child taunting them while they try to catch someone else to be it.

Seriously, how is that even remotely supposed to be fun?

We made the game more challenging by playing it in a room full of bunk beds.  Picture blindfolded children JUMPING from one bunk to another.  Little kids always cheated and peeked so I guess that’s why we never had a broken limb. My sister, Anna and I were usually in charge and I should also mention, almost never it.

We also played Kick the Can and Hide and Go Seek.  This was way before this camp had a climbing wall or a rappelling deck or modern plumbing.  We were basically running around in the woods.

Stay away from the cliffs! Those were the only instructions my dad ever gave us.

At night, we played marathon games of Bible Charades.  My parents had this one friend who was a drama teacher and she would do every bleeding heart in the Bible: Mary Magdelene, Mary, Mother of Jesus, Rahab, Ruth and Naomi and even Eve.  We laughed so hard at her that my side hurt. She would get up and we would just start shouting out women in the Bible.

In the middle of the night, after the big Thanksgiving feast, Anna and I would sneak into the kitchen (I use the term kitchen here very loosely) and eat pie and rolls until we made ourselves sick.

We talked our parents into letting us sleep in the rat-infested attic above the kitchen under the condition that our Grandmother slept up there with us.

To get up there, you had to crawl up onto the kitchen counter and pull down a trap door.  Then you would have to pull yourself up into this small A-framed attic space, using the attic floor for leverage while your legs dangled in the kitchen.  The process of getting into the attic was made easier by stacking ice chests on the counter, but we didn’t always have the foresight for that.

Needless to say, once we hoisted my poor Grandmother up there, she was loathe to come down again just to stop us from eating all the pie.  We loved her so much though that we were happy to bring her a piece when we climbed back up.

Of course then we’d have to climb back down and dig some Cool Whip out of the ice chest for her.  And find her a fork.  High maintenance, my grandmother.

We had to retire our Thanksgivings to Castle Bluff because everyone grew up and bought iPads with Game Apps, which are much safer than Blind Man’s Bluff.

Actually, we all just got so spread out as a family once we went off to college and got married and such that it became a journey just get to one of our houses for Thanksgiving.  There comes a time in your life when you just want to go home.

And so that’s what we do now.  We go home.  Only our Thanksgiving home has become my sister’s house in Illinois.  We gather there every other year in deference to the families we married into.

Since I am only with my sister and brother and their families every other year on Thanksgiving, we cheated this year and had a pre-Thanksgiving while my sister was in town last weekend.  This was an unusual treat brought about by some sad circumstances regarding my Grandmother’s health.  She is 89 and has been diagnosed with cancer this fall, so Anna needed to come and see her.  And make her some pie.

Together with my sister, my mama and my other sister, the one that’s married to my brother, we created a Thanksgiving menu around a beautiful Petit Jean Ham.

We used many of our old favorites and a few new ones too.  I always like to throw a little healthy onto the sometimes rather beige Thanksgiving table.

Thanksgiving Menu

Petit Jean Ham

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

Sesame Kale Salad

Not So Sweet Potatoes

Roasted Asparagus

Grandmother’s Homemade Rolls

Deep Dish Apple Pie

I also get to give one of my readers a Petit Jean Ham! The ham will be delivered right to your door step in a cooler.  All you have to do is wrap it up and warm it in the oven according to the instructions and your Thanksgiving Ham is ready!  It is the easiest part of the menu for sure!

All you have to do to be entered for the ham is leave a comment on this post.  Tell me your favorite Thanksgiving food or tell me a sweet Thanksgiving memory of your own! UPDATE: This giveaway is closed but I would still LOVE to hear your favorite Thanksgiving memory!

I will choose a random winner from the comments on Friday. Giveaway closed.  Delta Moxie, you are the winner of the Petit Jean Ham!  Yay!

The Petit Jean Thanksgiving Ham for this Thanksgiving Menu was provided by Petit Jean Meats, a local Arkansas company.  I am a member of their Blue Diamond Club, which basically means they send me products which I select and then share with you.  Subscribe to the Chino House via email (box on the top right of web page) so you won’t miss a recipe!

The post Thanksgiving Menu appeared first on Alison Chino.

My kids’ very favorite dinner is Pasta Carbonara, a creamy pasta with bacon.  They have called it “special pasta” for as long as I can remember.  Somehow we tricked them at an early age to into thinking that this very simple pasta dish is actually a fancy delicacy.  It is repeatedly requested for birthday dinners and celebration meals.  And we always make it at least once on a long camping trip.

I used thin sliced Petit Jean bacon and I have recently come into the the joy of cooking bacon in the oven.  Seriously, it makes life so much easier.  I can’t believe I haven’t been doing it for years!

Line a cookie sheet with parchment and bacon, cook for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F for evenly cooked bacon and no grease splatters on your shirts and aprons.  Yay!

Once your bacon is cooked, you’re ready to make “special pasta.”

Creamy Pasta with Petit Jean Bacon

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/4 cup cream

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

8 slices thin Petit Jean bacon, cooked and crumbled into small pieces

1 pound fettuccine

1 tablespoon snipped parsley

Optional: 1 small zucchini and 1 small  yellow squash, sliced and sauteed in 1 tablespoon olive oil for about 3 minutes.  You can also substitute sauteed mushrooms here.

Directions:

Boil water for pasta and cook al dente. (a couple minutes shy of being done)

Drain pasta and then put it back in the pot, return pot to stove on low heat.

Add butter, stir until the butter is melted and pasta is all coated with butter.

Beat egg and cream together in a small bowl or glass with a fork.

Pour cream and egg mixture over the pasta and stir until it thoroughly coats the pasta.

Add bacon, cheese, parsley and squash (if using); toss to mix.

Season with coarsely ground pepper.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Bacon for Creamy Pasta with Bacon was provided by Petit Jean Meats, a local Arkansas company.  I am a member of their Blue Diamond Club, which basically means they send me products which I select and then share with you.  Subscribe to the Chino House via email (box on the top right of web page) so you won’t miss the chance to win a Petit Jean Thanksgiving Ham, coming soon!

The post Creamy Pasta with Bacon appeared first on Alison Chino.