My Favorite Recipes

I know you've seen that collection of most popular recipes on my sidebar. They are all great recipes, but they are not truly the best. The same few recipes continue to be the most viewed because they are easy to access, therefore getting the most hits. So in honor of my 1 year anniversary of the birth of this blog, I want to do this little segment on my favorite recipes from my archive. I often will go back to recipes so that I can re-make them. I probably use this blog to cook from as much as (or more than) anyone else does.

1. Possibly my favorite recipe actually came from the creative brain of my boyfriend, Tom. I'm not sure if I could ever go back to Manwich.

Homemade Sloppy Joes

2. Ok, this recipe is a contender with the Sloppy Joes. Because it involves bacon.

Chicken Wrapped in Bacon

3. This one has changed how I will make burgers forever. Onion juice is a magical ingredient.

Onion Burgers with Avocado Dressing








4. Another one credited to Tom--I use this recipe all the time when I'm especially broke or not feeling creative.

Easy Pasta Alfredo








5. When the veggies in the garden are ready, I am going to make this all the time. This one has even been published.


Ratatoullie








6. I have finally found the cole slaw recipe that is no-fail perfection.


Cole Slaw
















7. I haven't made this one a second time yet, but I really really want to.

Five Layer Dip








8. Stir fry is a gift from God for poor college students. I don't like the stir fry in the dining commons, but when it's homemade you can make it any way you like.

Sweet and Sour Stir Fry







9. My cousin Jessi's recipe for guacamole is THE BEST.

Jessi's Guac









10. Aaaand for dessert we have these mini cherry cheesecakes.

Cherry Cheesecake Tarts

Acorn Squash with Brown Sugar and Bacon

This autumn day is probably one of the final weekend days of the year where it was in the 60s, perfect in my mind for a final grilling. Today Tom and I decided to combine seasonal foods with summer-style cooking. First up was this incredible recipe I found here for acorn squash. I love acorn squash. I need to find more recipes using it. I guess I never really thought about it before, but I really do love fall produce.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here's the recipe. I wish I could have gotten a better picture; acorn squash is such an interesting vegetable to look at. But I forgot my camera. This is why I'm getting a little digital camera for Christmas, right? (hint hint)

I apologize for the quality of this photo, this is from a camera phone.

1 acorn squash

2 slices of bacon

1 1/2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

salt and pepper to taste

makes 2 servings

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Halve the acorn squash and scoop out the seeds. (You can salt and cook the seeds along with your squash, that's what we did!) Poke holes in the inside so that the flavor can soak in as much as possible. Melt some of the butter and paint the skin side with it. Add the rest of the butter to the scooped out part of the squash. Place the halves on the baking sheet, and add 1/4 cup of brown sugar and top with a slice of bacon on each side. Bake for 40 minutes. We then threw it on the grill to get the bacon crispy, but you can obviously skip this step. Just cook it until the yellow part is relatively soft. 

If you're health conscious you can always skip the bacon. Then you'd just have a sweet side. This also makes a great appetizer. Or, if you make a whole squash for yourself you can have it as a meal. 

My only problem with this recipe was how to eat it. I wish that recipe instructions also gave eating instructions sometimes. I wasn't sure if I should just chop it up and eat the bacon last, scoop out the inside, or what. I ended up just scooping out the yellow part and forgetting about the skin (though you can definitely eat that too!) and then eating the bacon by itself. The bacon had a nice sweet flavor to it, and the squash was very 

yummy! I totally suggest considering this if you are trying to plan Thanksgiving sides.