Digestings.....

Grilled Cheddar and Bacon on Raisin Bread

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Bacon

RATING: NLO

I rarely cook bacon - mostly for the sake of vanity - but the air is cooling and I was feeling like comfort food. And, next to homemade macaroni and cheese, one would be hard pressed to find another food as comforting as bacon.

(Ice cream, maybe?)

The sandwiches were a huge hit with my husband and four-year-old son but I thought they were missing something.

I made them exactly as the recipe specified except for substituting cinnamon raisin English muffins for the raisin bread. I spotted a similar recipe on http://www.epicurious.com/ that incorporates mango chutney. I may try that one next time.

The soup was competent but nothing terribly special. I even added a splash of good balsamic to liven it up, but it was still just okay. I don't feel right about dragging down the rating of the whole meal because I...

uhmmmm...

accidentally pureed the bay leaf into the soup -- oops-- inadvertantly giving it a grassy quality it was never meant to have.

RATINGS KEY:

Lick the Plate (LTP)

No Left Overs (NLO)

Maybe Better Tomorrow?(MBT)

Lots of Leftovers (LLO)

Leftovers Getting Moldy (LGM)

Roasting Peppers

Every recipe I have ever attempted that calls for roasting red peppers directed me to let them rest in a paper bag after charring to make the skin easier to remove.

Apparently, this is an old wives tale.

The "paper" part at least.

It is the result of trapping the moisture inside the bag with the hot pepper that causes the skin to separate from the flesh...

....and of course a plastic bag does this job much more efficiently than paper!

(Now why didn't I think of that?)