Almost skunked by skinks

This has been a lovely Easter weekend. Aunt Kathy's daffodils (the white and orange inside ones) are rushing to bloom, hyacinth stems are getting taller, and there is a breeze knocking petals off the fruit trees. The breezes also tip over the heavy flowers, resulting in my picking them for the house.

A while ago, I had decided to create a 'new' sort of burger treat my sister had suggested. Bacon lizards. When I googled to see if they had been made before, I discovered something rather surprising. There are real life bacon skinks out there! They are actually called sulawesi water skink. I'm not impressed with the link I added, it does have a great deal of information on the critters, though. 

So, I decided to make some myself. Turtles are fun, lizards couldn't be that difficult. As Tony reminded me, the creations tend to get better over time. I should have paid more attention to the blog post I wrote when Steve visited AK one May. We made bacon dogs and those were easy and yummy. I anticipated the lizards would be similar. Nope!! 

 The first thing I did was to play with burger. I was going to make one of my favorite meat loaf recipe mixtures and forgot a few things. The most important is that my meatloaf uses a LOT of burger and this was just a little over a pound, so my eye ball ratios were off by a lot. My meat was sloppy. I added flour (it is an approved method of making hamburg more sturdy), but next time, I will leave it be after removing it from the wrapper!

 After mixing the meat, I made appendages. This takes quite a while. These, also, will be done a different way. I think next time I'll get a bun length dog as the core and trim one end for a tail and the other cut for the head. Jon suggested not cutting the legs in half and using a long piece as a 'cross piece'.  I did cut bits out of the inside of the 'leg' to simulate an elbow. Eons back, for fun meals, I would slice a hot dog all along the length almost through. As it cooked, it would curl up and they could be served on burger bungs. So, I knew heated dogs would bend! When I cut the toes on any amphibian, I press down on the meat bit and make triangles  using a sharp knife. The leftover bits can be put inside the turtles, but it is harder to add to the lizard.

 The below lizard was almost the last one, and it was much easier to make than the others. I used a tupperware patty maker to portion out the meat. A bit more than half went into the base and the rest was put on top. They kind of resembled a hamburger twinkie before wrapping it in bacon. The cheese was a sliced piece cut into sections. I had hoped to use quarters of a cheese stick, but it was too much inside with this meat mixture. Messy, messy, messy.

 The lizards were not that difficult to wrap, except when the sections broke apart. In the longer lizards, the tails and heads wrapped in burger broke away as I wrapped the bacon around the meat. Smaller ones were less fiddly.

 I didn't add eyes while they baked. Cloves are a strong spice in one small section of meat! I baked them for almost 30 minutes at 375 degrees F. The bacon wasn't as crispy as I'd like, but the legs were!!! I think I'd cover those with foil to keep them from burning, similar to what you can do with pie crust edges.

I wanted the mouths to open, because the turtles look incredibly cute after baking. However, as mentioned above, they were a bit fiddly. Actually, another difficult part was keeping the heads and tails facing the right way after wrapping. Often, I'd look and discover the tails were upside down or the mouths were vertical! Toothpicks soaked in water and snipped off close were necessary for keeping the legs in place. 

They definitely looked unusual when placed on a hoagie bun!!! Long pickle slices, spinach leaves, and condiments made the little beasts taste stellar! 

Because Janet asked this about the turtles, Jon took some photos, I took the rest. I did not take the photo of the real lizard in this blog post. As a general rule, if I make it all photos are from in the family! My next foray into lizard making should be less work, but it will remain delicious! I'll never get completely skunked by these skinks! 

Bacon Cheeseburger Dogs

Yes, you read that right. Keep reading and get cooking!!!

 There are links on the web for these cute tasty dogs. (not the one under the grill--which reminds me of a Laurel and Hardy skit!). They can be found on Allrecipes.com under All American Burger Dogs or here.  The last link is rather fun- It also has super easy peasy instructions. I usually have Jon help with each step and the photography. Since he wasn't around, Steve did it! He did a VERY good job. 

I would recommend assembling the ingredients and making the dogs ahead of time. 

INGREDIENTS: ground meat, seasonings, cheese to cut up into sticks, bacon, and hot dog buns. OTHER ITEMS: cling wrap, meat thermometer, grill. 

As you can see, they are simple. Whatever you want to add to your meat is up to you. Spices, bread crumbs, whatever! 

The first step is to make a squarish patty as long as a hot dog bun. I put them on cling wrap for ease of clean up and because they are faster to wrap. Put the cheese strip on one edge and roll it up inside the patty. 

 
 Most of the dog recipes mention the use of bacon, but don't add it. I did. Get thin stuff you can curl around your dog. MMMMM.

 When your dogs are wrapped in a bacon blanket, I then secure them in plastic. This helps secure them before grilling. Also, if you refrigerate them, they will keep their shapes nice like every well behaved pup on parade!

 UNWRAP them before cooking (yeah, no brainer, but sometimes people don't think!)

 Cook thoroughly-This is where I highly suggest using a meat thermometer. (135-150 degrees) Remember there is cheese inside and only put the thermometer in the meat portion of your dog.

 The cheese may escape from 'holes' in your dog. This is ok. Except, you are losing all that yumminess

 Place them on your prepared hot dog bun and ENJOY!

 Ours were a tad dryer than I'd like. Which is why I think we should have used a meat thermometer. Crunchy, gooey in spots, and filling!

I was very impressed with these guys and anticipate Jon and Steve will make them without me, just for fun!

Bacon Turtles!

I can now join those experienced baconneers who blog beautifully~Thankfully, there are so many bloggers out there who cover this amazing culinary science of mixing bacon and nature, I had a bit of trouble starting out, but with help was able to dominate! I got most of the information on Bacon Weave Turtles from http://followmyrecipe.blogspot.com/2010/02/super-carolines-bacon-turtle-burger-fun.html

It was by far the most informative and helpful blog I found on the subject and rather than repeat Caroline's entire blog, I will add my own personal thoughts.

First: the burger. Our burger was elk mixed with an herb mix. I used way too much and have enough left over for an entire dinner when we are hungry again. Second: The bacon. Our bacon, as you can tell, is too thick for this project. Although, it is the VERY best bacon ever (raised by a friend and a neighbor), I recommend a less sturdy brand to weave.

After patting out two burgers I placed onion on one and a layer of cheese, then firmed them together. I wish I had a different veggie besides onions for a veggie in this delight. Grated carrots would have been really nice!

As our bacon was too thick to remain woven (I would not have had enough for one turtle, much less 3), I had to wrap our burgers. It was interesting and I used a great many toothpicks!
When I was done with the wrapping, I added the appendages. The eyes are cloves and I had to substitute hot dogs for the legs and tail and head instead of those lovely sturdy miniature sausage links.But, it worked. Well, except for when Jon took out the cloves and ate the head of the turtle. He didn't realise how strongly flavored cloves were!

Here are the three little guys pinned and ready for the oven. I covered them with foil since I detest the mess grease can leave in an oven.

Unfortunately, they needed longer to cook. So, I took off the foil for a few whiles and let them smoke away. I also should have turned them over, but I didn't realise that was necessary til they had already been served. The bottoms and inside bacon were cooked, just not as crisp as I would like.

Jon's turtle turned out so CUTE!!!!! I love how his mouth is open. Jon suggested they kinda looked like Muppets.

Here they are! An aerial view of our turtle dinner with the side of tater salad. I really wanted to make coleslaw, but I already had the taters, to this is what we got. Next time, I will do slaw. Veggies go much better with turtle.


The insides of the turtles. Mine just had cheese and Jon's (the poor thing was sliced and left gaping!!!!) had the onions as well. The bacon does not look very done, but Jon and Steve said it was fine...

All in all, it was a great deal of fun work and I'd do it again with less sturdy bacon. Later. Much much much later!!!!!!!!! I think putting them on a bun would have been overkill, since I didn't even finish mine! Jon and Steve felt a bun would have been a good idea, but we'll wait til next time.