Bacon and Garlic Green Beans with a Balsamic Glaze.

Thanksgiving doesn't need to be complicated.  Here is a super simple veggie side.

Ingredients.
2 tbsp of butter.
2 cloves of garlic
3 strips of bacon cut into small pieces
1 lb of fresh green beans with the ends trimmed off.
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar

Add your trimmed green beans to a pan with a little bit of water and cook them just until they turn bright green.  Then put your green beans into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.  Let them chill for a minute then drain and dry off on paper towels.  Set aside for the moment.

Add 1/2 a cup of balsamic vinegar to a saucepan and put it over medium high heat.  Whisking very frequently, bring to a gentle bubble.  You want to cook it until it reduces by about 1/2.  It will still look watery in the pan until it cools off a bit.  Warning this is a smelly vinegary process.. you might want to do this the day before if you have a house full of guests.  It will stay beautifully on the counter covered for a day or so.  Definitely open a window.

Brown your bacon in a pan until its nice and crispy.  Drain and set aside.

Add the butter to the empty pan you cooked your green beans in and sautee the 2 cloves of garlic on medium heat until fragrant. Watch your garlic, because burnt garlic can ruin a dish.  Once the garlic is cooked, add your cooked beans and bacon back to the pan and toss together until warmed through.

Put in a serving dish and drizzle with your balsamic glaze and you are good to go!

- Jess xoxo

Potato and Bacon soup

This yummy soup is like a baked potato all wrapped up in yummy warm stewy goodness, it warms up the house and makes you feel hooey gooey inside (also helps that it involves hooey gooey cheese).

Ingredients

6-8 potatoes chopped into cubes
chopped up green onions (as many as you like)
1 pack of bacon
4 sliced tomatoes (take the seeds and the middle part out of them.
2 cans of tomato sauce
3 tablespoons or 3 cubes of chicken bouillon (you may use chicken broth instead of water if you'd like)
water to fill the pot (if no chicken broth is used)
salt and pepper to taste
cubed jack cheese

Chop the bacon and cook all of it so you have bacon made into bits, it's easier to cook if you previously chop it. Wash, peel and chop your potatoes as well as the green onion and tomatoes.  (in the picture below the tomatoes are missing because I forgot them! :( So I added them the next day when I heated the soup again)

In a large cooking pot add 3-4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, toss your onions in along with your potatoes, and cook until the potato is translucent, they don't have to be soft because they will cook when your broth or water boil.  Add bacon , tomato, tomato sauce, salt and pepper and water to fill the pot. 

stir and let it cook until the potatoes are soft but not falling apart.!
That's it! that easy!
When you serve add cubes of chopped Monterrey Jack cheese.. the cheese will melt  adding the hooey gooey yummy factor to the soup.  Delicious paired up with some garlic bread!

Enjoy!<3
post by Tanya E.