We had some people over for an early Christmas dinner last night. Some family, some friends.
But before all that, when it was morning, I cooked some bacon and eggs for Bill.
The bacon is homemade. We made it. It’s our second batch, and it will not be our last. Some time soon I will tell you all about that. The making of bacon.
But for now, there’s this little story.
(And I’m sorry – no process pictures this time.)
I cooked up the bacon and a couple of over-easy eggs for Bill, and we had a skinny slab of the bacon left. (Don’t worry – we have more in the freezer). I said I’d cook it up and use it in something this week – stirred into mashed potatoes, maybe. Bill said we could cook it up and serve it that night. Hm. Why not?
So the wheels in my little brain started turning, and I thought – how cute would it be to make tiny pancakes and serve them with tiny pieces of bacon?
So, after some more thought, that’s what I did. I made a small batch of pancake batter, and, using a 2 teaspoon measure as a ladle, cooked up a whole mess of tiny, adorable pancakes.
Next, I cut the remaining slab of bacon into thick slices, and then cut them cross-wise, about 3/4” wide or so. I fried them up until they were browned nicely on both sides.
I did all that in the morning because I’d be cooking the sauerbraten on two burners later in the day, AND making the spaetzle on another burner, so I wouldn’t have a lot of space to work with. I put the bacon in the fridge for a few hours, and covered the pancakes so they wouldn’t dry out.
Later on, when it was time to assemble, I got large skewers (I couldn’t find the toothpicks, but actually I think the skewers work better anyway) and started putting my little bites together.
First, I put a piece of bacon in the center of one of the little pancakes, wrapped the pancake around the bacon part-way (it looks a bit like a very tiny taco), and then stuck the skewer through all three layers. I put all these skewers (Bill helped) on a plate, and served it with a dish of warmed maple syrup.
Originally I had that little pitcher filled with the syrup (in the picture above), but dipping them seemed a better idea than drizzling syrup on them. And so it was.
I kept them in the warming drawer of my oven until people started to arrive.
The overall consensus?
A definite winner. A fun mix of salty and sweet, a tiny bite of breakfast before digging into last night’s meal. What’s not to like?
Give them a try and let me know what you think!
