Cheesy Bacon Bites (one of the best finger foods EVER)

Time for another recipe.

Since my last recipe was so good for you, now is the time for a really bad for you food that tastes amazing and are incredibly addictive! :)

Here we have the ingredients needed. An onion, pepper, Cream Cheese, Bacon, and a package of crescent rolls.

Get about 4-6 pieces of bacon on the skillet. You might want to cook more if you are like me, and have to eat some because it smells so good.

While the bacon is cooking (multitasking here 0_0 ), take your onion and cut off a small portion like above.

Then cut the onion piece up.  you can use a food chopper if you like, I prefer to do it with a knife as it is easy to clean and for me, is faster.

Check your bacon.

Take a garlic clove... and press it into a medium bowl. I forgot to say you need a bowl...

So, you need a medium bowl.

Your cream cheese should be plenty soft by now if you have left it out while prepping the onion and bacon. Cut the block in half, and toss it into the bowl with the garlic and onions.

Your bacon should be cooked. IT is important you leave it chewy, and not cook it to crispy.

Mash up the bacon with your hands in a paper towel. This not only breaks the bacon up into bits, but gets rid of a lot of the excess grease we don't want.

Here you can see all the ingredients are in the bowl. You should use about a 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

Mix it all together with a spatula and set aside.

Time to break out the crescent rolls.

You will want to divide the rolls into two halves. Since the rolls are perforated, it should be relatively easy.

Roll them out like above and,  using your finger, pinch all the perforations together, so the rolls become 2 flat, rectangular pieces of dough.

Next, spread out the bacon and cream cheese mixture over the pieces of dough...

Roll them up.

And then cut each section into 16 pieces. I found it easiest to find the half, then the half of the half... and so forth and so on. :)

Lay them out on a stone or cookie sheet.

Pop them in the over and viola! A Toasty, cheesy, bacony.... and yummy snack!

Cheesy Bacon bites

Ingredients:
4   ounces cream cheese, softened 1/4   cup real bacon pieces 2   tablespoons onion, chopped		1/8   teaspoon ground black pepper 1   package (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent roll dough

Directions:
1.	Preheat oven to 375°F. In Small Batter Bowl, combine cream cheese, bacon, onion and black pepper; mix well.
2.	Unroll crescent dough; separate into 2 rectangles on Cutting Board. Press perforations together to seal. Spread cream cheese mixture on each rectangle using All-Purpose Spreader. Starting at longest side, roll up each rectangle, jelly-roll fashion; press seams together to seal.
3.	Cut each roll into 16 slices using Serrated Bread Knife. Place slices, cut side down, on flat Baking Stone. Bake 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.
Yield: 32 appetizers

Quick n' Tasty Guacamole

Cooking is something I usually enjoy doing. It is relaxing, creative, and quite rewarding to see others enjoy what I made.

Eating it myself doesn't hurt the enjoyment factor either.

For all you snack lovers and chip dippers out there, I think I have developed an excellent Guacamole recipe for anyone who loves something to go with their chips.

I have never written up a cooking tutorial... so bear with me. ;)

So, to begin, you are going to need four avocados.

The key to a great guacamole is, of course, the avocados. The avocados need to be soft to minimal finger pressure. If they hard hard, they don't have as much flavor and are tough to chew. A soft avocado is a good avocado. A few dark spots isn't bad either.

Don't use it if it has mold though... Just sayin'

Next, take one of these fruits, and cut it in half lengthwise. Twist both sides opposite to each other and something like this should result....

Now to get the pit out. Some recipes say to use a spoon, but one can loose a lot of the good flesh doing so. Instead, take a knife and carefully but firmly whack the blade into the pit. Make sure to get it nice and deep. It might take a couple tries.

Once the blade is nicely embedded in the pit, simply twist the knife and the pit out of the fruit.

To remove the pit, I usually just cut it all the way in half on the board by pressing the knife through it.

Repeat those steps with all the avocados...

Now it is time to break out a spoon! I don't like to waste food when I am cooking, and although they make avocado tools... A spoon still works best in terms of getting the meat out of the avocado. Inserting the spoon at the top of the fruit works best for me, then just working it down with a wiggling/scraping motion.

Your hands will get messy.

As you scoop the meat out, drop it into a medium mixing bowl. A bigger bowl will be easier to work with as opposed to a smaller one...

Now, take a favorite masher of choice, and mash up the avocados to the desired level of chunkiness or smoothness. 

You can set the avocados aside for now, as we are going to move onto the fillers. :)

Grab a medium red onion. A white onion will do as well, but I prefer red onions as they have a sweeter taste and contrast nicely against the green of the avocados. Peel it, prep it, and then cut it in half...

Use a knife to chop the onion up into smaller pieces. I recommend you don't use a food processor or chopper. Using those won't keep the nice sections, but rather mush up the onion, making the whole guacamole mix taste like like said vegetable.

Add the onion into the mashed avocados.

Add some Sea Salt to taste. Regular salt works, but doesn't taste as good.

Also add about 2 teaspoons of cumin. I don't measure it normally, as it is again, a preference on taste.

Mix all those ingredients together. I occasionally add 1-2 cloves of fresh garlic if I want en extra kick, but was in a mild mood when I made this batch... so I didn't. ;)

Now get a lemon...

Cut it in half, then take one half and squeeze out all the juice you can with your hand. This give the guacamole a nice fresh tang, and will also keep the avocados from turning brown for a time.

Mix the juice into the guacamole, and it is ready to serve.

I like "On the border" Chips best, as they have a nice full taste and are large. But any corn chip should work. :)

So that's how I make guacamole. This is a great quick and easy thing to bring to a party, or enjoy when you want a healthy fresh snack.

Enjoy!