These were amazing. Too bad we were too drunk to remember how we made them… one was stuffed with lamb kebab, another contained some sort of curry, and the last apparently involved cilantro. We do remember that they were delicious, but our attempt to reproduce them sober came up short. Obviously, we simply need to get drunk enough to make them again.

Every year, East Coast Grill has a three-day spicy food extravaganza called “hell night.” Apparently the food is so spicy it is hardly edible. I’ve never been. This year, I failed to make reservations in time. So we decided to have our own hell night.

The menu:

• Homemade Spicy Sausages
• Fiery Sombrero Taco Cups
• Buffalo Wings (spicy)
• Pepper-Stuffed-Peppers

To drink:

• Habanero-Infused Watermelon Margaritas
• “Fire and Ice” (Riesling + apple juice + jalapenos + bell peppers. Tastes as weird as it sounds)
• lime-jalapeno jello shots

Remember Glamor Shots? You know, the stores that dress you up in ridiculous clothes and tons of make up and take pictures of the “real you”? My secret fantasy when I was 13 was for a glamor shot photo session, but for some reason it was nixed by my mother. Or maybe I was too scared to even ask my mother.

Anyway, glamor shots came up in conversation last summer (we were in Vegas) and my British friend, Ed, got confused and thought we were talking about really fancy alcoholic shots. Ed is fucking brilliant. Ever since, I’ve wanted to create the perfect Glamor Shot.

I brainstormed things that are glamorous and came up with:

• red
• champagne
• diamonds/glitter
• strawberries
• money
• chocolate
• gold
• David Bowie

Here are two recipes. Not exactly what I had in mind, but definitely a start:

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Glamor Shot #1

Line the rim of a shot glass with red frosting and dip the shot glass in red sprinkles. Fill half the shot glass with blueberry vodka and top it off with strawberry champagne.

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Glamor Shot #2

Same idea… Line the rim of a shot glass with red frosting and dip the shot glass in red sprinkles. Fill half the shot glass with chocolate liquor and top it off with strawberry champagne.

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note: this entry is 9 months late. the bacon party took place waaaay before bacon parties became cool. 

I like bacon. I like theme parties. I put the two ideas in a blender, along with a splash of vodka, stirred vigorously, and invited a lot of friends. The bacon party was born!

Everyone had to bring “creative bacon”. We had :

• bacon-wrapped bacon
• bacon on twinkies (prize: most creative use of bacon)
• chocolate-covered bacon
• bacon-wrapped chicken (prize: tastiest use of bacon)
• deep fried bacon (prize: most unhealthy use of bacon)
• inside-out BLTs
• a “bakini”
• bacon manicures (pink, red and white nail polish applied in a linear pattern)
• bacon bloody marys
• apple punch to match all the bacon flavors

We even had a visit from bacon himself:

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Bacon Blood Mary’s

• Handle of Vodka (get the cheapest thing in a glass bottle)
• 4 slices of bacon
• pepper
• Tabasco sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• horseradish
• tomato juice

For the bacon-infused vodka:
Fry up 4 slices of bacon. Don’t get them too crispy or burned… you just want them cooked soft. Blot the bacon grease and put into your handle of vodka. Season with 1-2 teaspoons of black pepper depending on how much you like pepper. Let the vodka sit for at least 3 weeks.

For the bloody-mary’s:
Coat the bottom of your glass with Worcestershire sauce.
Fill up a cocktail shaker with ice, add 1-2 shots of bacon vodka, 4 shots of tomato juice, and then as much Tabasco sauce and horseradish as you like. shake and add to the Worcestershire sauce. Garnish with bacon!

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I cheated - I didn’t make any of this. I got the BBQ chicken and smoked gouda from Trader Joes and the pasta from Foodies. I just wanted to make sure that this flavor combination works. Now that I know it’s to die for, next time I’ll make everything from scratch (except the gouda, of course). Here is my “recipe”:

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BBQ Chicken and Smoked Gouda Ravioli - Take One

• BBQ Chicken (I used shredded bbq chicken from Trader Joes)
• Smoked Gouda
• raw pasta sheets
• Alfredo Sauce

Lay out the pasta sheets (make sure they are thawed if they were frozen… duh). Cut them into 4″ x 8″ strips. Put 1/2 tbsp of bbq chicken and about the same amount of gouda - depending on the ratio you prefer, of course. Don’t put too much stuffing in the ravioli, cause they will burst when you boil them. As soon as you’ve added the stuff, use your finger to spread a little water around the edge of the pasta. Fold the sheet over and seal by pinching the pasta together. You can also use a fork to press the two layers of pasta together. Let the ravioli dry for ~30 min.

Boil water, add a little salt. Cook the ravioli for about 3 min -or until just tender. Carefully drain the ravioli (to prevent them from bursting). We served it with a little alfredo sauce and shredded gouda.

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These spicy sweet potato fries are Chrys’s favorite and he doesn’t like it when I make them for other people (let alone post the recipe online). I serve them with spiced up mayo… it really hits the spot!

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Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

• 2 sweet potatoes, chopped into “fries”
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder or cayenne
• 1 tsp onion powder
• salt

Preheat the oven to 450F. mix olive oil and spices together, then toss in sweet potatoes. Spread the fries on a pan lined with aluminum and bake for 15-20 min, turning fries every 5 min.

Lime-garlic Mayo

• 1/2 C mayo
• lime juice to taste
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika

Mix together.

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Bacon Ice Cream #3 was so promising… This time we made Bacon Butter Pecan Ice Cream. The butter pecan base was really yummy and we fried the bacon perfectly. Unfortunately, I didn’t freeze the ice cream bowl overnight, so the ice cream didn’t freeze in the machine. Instead we created a Bacon Butter Pecan smoothie (really good, but not what we wanted). We tried the old fashioned way:

We put all the ice in our freezer into a bowl with water and all the salt in our kitchen and stirred that and measured it’s temperature. Then on top of that we had the bacon butter pecan slush, which someone else was stirring to minimize ice crystals as it froze. Either we didn’t stir it for long enough or we didn’t have enough ice, or maybe this ice cream just wasn’t meant to be. After about half an hour with the slush no thicker, we gave up. I left it in my fridge and refroze the ice cream bowl. Four days later (the next time i had free time), I refroze the ice cream in the machine.

Anyway, I found the recipe from this site, but here is it is anyway - I’m sure it will be wonderful if done right!

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Butter Pecan Bacon Ice Cream

• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 pound bacon, cooked until very crisp, blotted on paper towels and finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1. Combine the cream, milk, and sugar in a heavy saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until hot and the sugar is completely dissolved, stirring occasionally.

2. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks until smooth. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of the hot cream-milk mixture. Return the yolk mixture to the saucepan, beating constantly. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon, 6-8 minutes. Do not let it boil.

3. Strain the mixture into a clean bowl and let it cool completely. Stir in pecans and bacon and freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. To showcase the ice cream’s flavor, before serving, remove from freezer and let it soften slightly.

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The first bacon ice cream was sweet… so we decided to make something savory this time: Spicy Avacado Bacon Ice Cream. There was very little cream in the recipe, in fact, it is pretty much frozen guacamole. But still really delicious. It goes really well with chili - the cool avacado really complements the warm chili, the same effect adding sour cream has. I don’t think i’d just eat this on its own. It needs something like chips. And it doesn’t melt when it’s left out. Just turns into regular guac.

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Spicy Avacado Bacon Ice Cream

• 3 ripe avocados
• 4 oz. cream cheese, crumbled
• 1 fresno chili, minced
• 2 T. lemon juice
• ½ c. heavy cream
• ½ t. salt
• ½ t. sugar
• ~ 1 T. tequila
  
• 1/2 lb bacon
  

Fry bacon in skillet until crisp. Place between paper towels to soak up all the grease. Leave at room temperature and chop into bits. Halve avocados and scoop out flesh. Place in a blender with cream cheese, chili, and lemon juice. Add about half of the cream. Pulse into a thick puree. Add the rest of the cream, salt, sugar, and puree until smooth. Add tequila to taste and blend until mixed. Freeze in ice cream maker. Add bacon bits during the last 5 minutes of freezing. Serve with chips and chili.

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Shirley Temple (When She Was a UN Ambassador and NOT a Virgin) Jello Shots

• marischino cherries (1 per shot)
• 1 3-oz box of cherry-flavored jello
• vodka
• sprite or 7-up
• 1-oz plastic cups*
• vegetable oil
• turkey baster**

Boil 1 cup of sprite and add to gelatin. Stir until completely dissolved. Add 1/2 cup cold sprite and 1/2 cup cold vodka. Chill at room temperature for about half an hour. You want to make sure that the jello won’t melt the plastic cups. Meanwhile, using a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil, grease the plastic cups. place 1 maraschino cherry in each cup and using a turkey baster fill each cup with cherry jello. Refridgerate for several hours until the jello is set.

*Note, dixie cups are more commonly used for jello shots, but the paper absorbs the jello and makes a mess. I really prefer using plastic cups. You can’t find small ones at the grocery store - you have to go to a party supply store. They are kind of expensive ($6 for 150?) but definitely worth it. They are easy to unmold and if you just want to serve it in a cup, you can squeeze the cup and the jello shot will pop right out. No mess.

**Using a turkey baster instead of a ladle or another plastic cup really minimizes mess. When jello solidifies it is really a pain in the butt to clean up.

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Jello-shots are my specialty. I started making them in college for the same parties where we drank boxed wine and danced to “boom boom boom” and “we like to party”. I’ve learned a few things since then and my jello shots have come a long way. This recipe is for jello shots that look like oranges slices.

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Orange-Slice Jello Shots

• 4 medium sized oranges
• 2 packets orange jello
• vodka

Slice oranges in half and scoop out all the flesh.
Make orange jello according to instructions on the box. Substitute 1/4 of the liquid with vodka.
Pour orange jello into scooped-out orange shells and chill until set.
Cut orange into ’slices’.

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