Fatty - aka Bacon Explosion

Many people have attempted to smoke the perfect Fatty - now you will know how too!

Ingredients (per Fatty):

• 1lb of Bacon
• 1 pack of uncooked sausage (5 - 7 links)
• Vegetables (if you are a girl)
• 1/2 cup of Cheese (if you are a man)

Get 1lb of bacon.




5 - 7 links of uncooked sausage - now this can be Italian or breakfast or whatever - depends on if you are making a breakfast or spicy fatty!

Slit open the casings and remove the sausage meat and place in a bowl.





Start the lattice of bacon - I lay out 5 - 7 strips of bacon as close together as possible, then start at one end and peel back the strips the cross trip is going under. Keep this as tight as possible!

Keep it tight!

Now - I usually end up with 2 more strips across than I have tall but end result should be a sqaure - or as close to it as possible.

Then sprinkle some dry rub over the lattice:

Now place the sausage meat onto the lattice about 1/4" thick and leave about 1" from each edge without sausage:



This picture might have the sausage too close to the edge - but it still worked out OK.

Now put a thin layer of your favorite BBQ sauce over the sausage meat layer.

For Girls Only: This is where you would add some type of vegetable.

For Men Only: This is where you add 1/2 cup of cheese - some type of soft cheese the melts easily is best - I use Colby - Jack.

Here is the MOST important tip of the whole recipe:

Roll the sausage meat and whatever stuffing you use FIRST. Leave the bacon lattice on the cutting board. If you attempt to roll the bacon and the sausage meat all at once - the lattice will burst or your fatty will look like Jabba the Hutt.





After you roll up the sausage meat / stuffing, place it in the middle of the lattice and roll the bacon around the stuffing:



Note: Beer can is for visual size reference only.

Now - there may be some extra sausage meat and bacon strips left - what to do?!?

I call this "Rolling a Blunt":

Lay out the remaining strips - slightly overlapping.

Place the left over sausage meat on the end.

Sprinkle with rub and drizzle some sauce and roll tha that thing up! Now you have a Fatty and a Blunt!



Dust the outside with more dry rub and you can add some more BBQ sauce if you want:

Place on the smoker:



I cook mine at 250 - 275F for about 2 1/2 hours or until internal temp reaches 165 F.

Now that's smokin' a Fatty (and a blunt).



Pull and slice. I would have shown you pictures of these sliced but by the time I got back with the camera, they were both gone!

Good eating!

Bacon Turtle

Lots of people do the bacon explosion - I was inspired to do a twist on the favorite and try out the Bacon Explosion Turtle - aka - Bacon Turtle.

The other difference was the stuffing - instead of sausage meat, I added some vegetables and cheese. The girls seem to prefer this so I went with it (or did I?). The initial motive appears to be an attempt to satiate the ladies but I wanted to use some other ingredients so that when you cut the turtle open, it appeard to have "guts". Use whatever excuse you want. Either way - Mission Accomplished!

Ingredients:

• Bacon (2lbs)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Guts (Lunch Meat, ham, cheese, bell peppers, whatever you want). I used ham in one and lunch meat in the other.
• Dry Rub (your recipe) - I use a simple even amount - Black Pepper, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder.
• BBQ Sauce (your choice) - I used KC Masterpiece
• Polish Sausage (or hot dogs)

Guts ingredients:

I grated 2 potatoes and cooked them in some olive oil - or you can use some frozen hashbrowns.

Make the shell:

Weave the bacon into a latice - people usually do 5 strips x 5 strips. Mine usually worked out to 5 x 6 to make an even square.

Weave the bacon as tight as possible. I think this is key. Sprinkle the dry rub onto the weave when finished.

Add the guts:

I used left over spiral ham in this example hoping it would reinforce the shape of the turtle "shell". Turns out it doesn't matter as you will see in the lunch meat version but the thought is there:




Here's where I stuffed the second turtle with lunch meat rolls - lunch meat rolled with diced bell peppers and shredded cheese - remember:

Girls - it's vegetables.

Boys - guts.

Both ways - after you have stuffed the shell - sprinkle some more dry rub and then rub on some BBQ sauce.

For the head, tail and legs, I used frozen polish sausages so during the long smoking process (about 2 hours) the sausages wouldn't blow up. If you use regular hot dogs, they may deform too much. It also seemed easier to shave or form the tail when the dog was frozen.

Pick out some areas where it will be easy to poke in the sausage for the legs, head, and tail. Open up the weave and poke the sausage in - I tried to go above a strong weave point so it would support the weight of the appendage.

I smoked these turtles for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours at 250F. Since all the guts were cooked and I really only had to worry about the bacon "shell" - I didn't have to worry about achieving any specific internal temp. I did make a Bacon Explosion" at the same time so I knew as soon as the Bacon Explosion was done - the turtles had to be done - even though I put them on the smoker a 1/2 hour after I put the Bacon Explosion on.

The end result - pure turtle joy! Those turtles were good eatin'!

Stuffed Jewel Peppers

This is a tasty treat, appetizer, side dish, snack, or a quick idea that will impress even the hottest chicks.

Ingredients:

Bag of Jewel Peppers (Costco has these almost year round)

Sour Cream (Cream Cheese will also work in a pinch)

Shredded Cheese (I use shredded Colby/Jack but almost any kind will work)

Lunch Meat (doesn't matter what kind but I usually use hard salami)

I usually don't add any spices - I rely on the spice from the lunch meat / salami but if you wanted to tilt the flavor toward a specific profile you could add a couple pinches.

I don't usually measure out anything so go with your gut....

Pick out all the small peppers that will be too difficult to stuff because of the size. Dice these up.

Dice up 1/2lb of lunch meat or salami.

Add in a cup or so of shredded cheese.

Add in a cup or so of sour cream.

Mix it all up - add sour cream until it can be clumped together and will hold but not so thick you can't mix it with a table spoon.

Slit the pepper length-wise and stuff in as much of the mix as you can. Don't worry about being messy or tearing the slit in the pepper open. No one is going to care.

Cooking the peppers is pretty flexible - you should try and cook / grill these only in INDIRECT HEAT - if you don't have a smoker, you can cook them on foil. Turn one side of the gas burners on and cook on the foil on the opposite side (the side of the grill with no flames lit). I usually cook these at about 300F for about 20 - 30 minutes. I guess you could even cook these in an oven I guess. The temp and time isn't that important since everything in this recipe is already cooked and ready to eat. When you can squeeze the pepper with tongs and it gives but doesn't fall apart, it's ready to pull off. If you cook them a little too long - no big deal.

These were cooked with some chicken thighs and I threw in the left over peppers with some Maui sweet onions and some balsamic vinegar in a foil wrap to steam.