recipes 24 and 25: chunky monkey pancakes and candied bacon

But before there was a trifecta of trifectas, there was... breakfast! The inspiration for "chunky monkey" pancakes comes from this food blog that I follow: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/09/banana-chocolate-chip-pancakes-with-peanut-butter-syrup-chunky-monkey-pancakes/. The inspiration for "candied bacon" comes from the Loveless Cafe cookbook. Loveless Cafe is in Nashville: http://www.lovelesscafe.com/. Here is the link for the cookbook: http://www.hamsandjams.com/product/Loveless_Cookbook/cookbooks_kitchen. Loveless Cafe, which quickly made it to my list of favorite restaurants, was introduced to me by my number-one-go-to-friend-for-everything-food-and-humor related. Her name is Amanda, she grew up in Nashville, and I know her from grad school. Together, we are the quintessential foodie-stand-up-comedian team. We enjoy pranks (perhaps to a fault) and in our own minds, we are extremely funny and popular (note again: this is pretty much only in our own two minds). Please observe how we dressed up in authentic dirndls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirndl) at Oktoberfest in Munich.

Shortly after this picture was taken, we flounced over to the Oktoberfest tents, pretended to be citizens of Deutschland, and tricked the tourists into taking copious pictures with us. This tale is only a wee snapshot of our adventures. But alas, it is breakfast time, not German time. And without further ado:

CHUNKY MONKEY PANCAKES (serves 4)
Ingredients:
-2 c Bisquick
-1 c milk
-2 eggs
-2 small ripe bananas, mashed
-3 T chocolate chips and 3 T peanut butter chips, tossed lightly with flour
-cooking spray
-peanut butter syrup = 1 part peanut butter to 3 or 4 parts maple syrup (make it as thick or thin as you desire)

Instructions:
1) stir Bisquick, milk, and eggs until blended
2) stir in the bananas, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips
3) spray a griddle with cooking spray and cook pancakes

4) drizzle on the peanut butter syrup and enjoy with candied bacon (recipe to follow)

CANDIED BACON (serves 4)
Ingredients:
-1/3 c brown sugar
-water
-cumin powder, to taste
-8 slices of bacon (the thicker the cut, the better!)

Instructions:
1) preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2) add enough water to the brown sugar to make a thick sauce
3) stir in cumin
4) dredge the bacon in the mixture
5) place the bacon in a baking pan that has sides (so the liquid doesn't drip into the stove) and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes
6) drain the excess fat by placing the bacon on paper towels before serving