Celebrating Bacon!

A couple of recipes to celebrate International Bacon Day.  Here's one I found while searching for hors d'oeuvre recipes for a New Year's Eve party I threw with friends.  These Bacon Cheese Puffs were a big hit with our guests and ridiculously easy to make-you'll find the recipe here.

Note: I would toast the pumpernickel slices a little bit before topping with the bacon/cheese mixture.  I also used Dijon mustard with this recipe.

Here's one of my "go to" brunch recipes.   This is pretty rich, but I find that using the heavy cream works best for me.  You can substitute half & half for the heavy cream but I wouldn't use milk.

 Bacon & Sweet Onion Quiche

1 pie crust for 9 inch pie or quiche pan
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Havarti cheese, shredded
6 slices of thick-sliced bacon, diced
1/3 cup of Vidalia (or other sweet variety) onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp salt

Unfold pie crust and press into a 9 inch pie or quiche pan.  Blind bake the crust and set aside.

In a skillet, cook the diced bacon until crisp.  Remove bacon from pan, drain on a paper towel and set aside.  Reserve some of the bacon drippings in the skillet to use for sauteeing the onion.  Saute the onion in the bacon drippings until soft/translucent.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until frothy.  Stir in cream & salt.  Line the bottom of the prebaked pie shell with the sauteed onion/shredded cheeses/bacon, then pour the custard mixture over this.  Bake in a 350°F oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of quiche comes out clean.  Serve warm and enjoy!