Diced! Dessert Bracket: Bacon Jalapeño Lollipops

I announced earlier that in honor of March Madness, I decided to create a dessert bracket with 16 styles of desserts. I’ve invited 16 great chefs to each take a category and make a recipe to enter into battle. I ranked the 16 based on my view of which was the favorite and like any bracket, the favorites are matched against the lower seeds. I won’t give you my seeding because I do not want to artificially impact your choices.

I will post a pairing each week on Wednesday and Thursday and open the polls for voting. The polls will be open from Thursday until the following Wednesday (before the next pair posts). The winner of each matchup with the most votes will move on to the next round and the chef will produce another recipe for their new matchup. The overall winner will receive any prizes I can acquire. To date the winner will receive:

• Dodo Book for Cooks
• A beautiful Bamboo Cutting Board with a Butterfly Motif, graciously donated by competitor Lindy (The Kozy Nook)

This week’s pairing is:

Brownies vs. Hard Candy

Today we have Diana from FoodNThoughtPeddler who has made some inventive hard candy…

Words can hurt or heal… What did yours do today?

We’ve all heard it before, but how often do we actually stop and think before we say something?! Not often enough. We are too quick to react to our rising emotions and release the energy by spitting the tension out, literary, towards the other person. We’re all guilty of it, myself including. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” still works – that is if we actually pause and be silent instead of speaking. And if you have to convey some unpleasant information or opinion, be as gentle as possible, the same things can be voiced in either brutal or constructive manner, keeping some details to yourself, especially the ones related to your opinion only, will not undermine the message but will spare the person some hurtful sides of your perceptual thinking. And if you remember that most thinking is really just your perception of the truth, it will help you stay more on topic of the discussion and not be swayed by your emotions.

On the other side though, words can definitely heal, encourage, inspire and propel into action. You just never know when you can be a messenger of hope for somebody or an inspiration of courage to make the first step. So don’t hold your nice words, voice your compliments and you can be surprised at the difference they actually make. One of the rewarding times for me is when a client tells me that before they act or say something negative (either about themselves or others), they near my voice in their head. Sounds like a twisted hallucination, but it’s not. I know that my “healing words” did make a difference, and the person is now on a path of changing their perceptual thinking along with patterns of behavior. I can’t wish for anything more but to know that I inspired that change!

And as far as the actual words count is concerned, it’s not a surprise to find out that women talk much more than men on any average day. Women can produce as many as 20,000 to 24,000 words per day, while most men average at about 7,000 to 10,000. Yes, it all depends of course on personal character, professional field and even mood, but generally speaking, women are much more talkative than men. The male “I’m from Mars” action oriented brain is just wired differently than female “I’m from Venus” emotion oriented brain – yes, stereotypical generalizations yet again, but stereotypes do come from somewhere. Thus I can say, ladies, sometimes you do need to literary “spell it out” to your man or bear the “what was he thinking?” result. And, gentlemen, we do often understand you without speaking, but unless you want us to veer off swayed by our emotions and assumptions, you’ll have to shape your thoughts into words too, or again, bear the consequences. Me? I can be a complete chatterbox or a completely aloof and silent one, depending on a company and my comfort level. I’m sure most of you can relate.

And then there are times when even words are not needed, and silence is the most welcomed as it allows to just be in the moment. We feel it the most in profound grief and the greatest happiness. When emotions take us well beyond what human words allow to express. If you ever held hands with somebody who is about to or just lost a loved one, or if you ever embraced a person who you love to the core of your bones, you know what I’m talking about. These polarizing emotions, both deepest grief and the most elated happiness, erase the need for words and just allow you to be in the presence of another being where communication is happening on an entirely different level, heart to heart and soul to soul.

Each of us uses hundreds of words daily. When written, they can still be changed before shared with others, but if spoken, words are set in stone. What we say lets others know who we really are. We should always choose the words that convey the meaning we intend to share. Communication is the center of our lives. Listening is part of that communication too. Do both carefully and with the utmost concern. Choose words from the point of love. There are just never too many times you can say “I love you” if you truly mean it. And if the other person has a problem accepting it, it is really their own issue. But more often than not, a loving energy creates a similar answer. It is all a matter of just being silent and listening.
And as far as the actual food is concerned, in my house, one food is equal to a complete blissful love – bacon! At least from my 16 year-old perspective. It’s been heavily used as a bargain tool, negotiator, mediator and most definitely as a conversation piece. Life is just so much better with bacon around (and chocolate)!

When the categories were assigned for this competition, I wanted to combine traditional and novelty in that one big “I love you” statement. Those were the exact words I got from my teen (a rare occurrence usually reserved for food related activities) 🙂 When we think of lollipops, we think of childhood and that comfort we had just being in a moment, feeling joy from simple things in life and knowing that happiness is completely within our reach. As adults, all the same things are still possible, sometimes we just forget the road to the “kid land” or make it too curvy and overly complicated. I hope this childhood staple with a little twist will bring back your happy memories, maybe you can even make your own candy and give it to people you cherish to say “I love you”.

Bacon Jalapeño Lollipops

Makes 8-12 lollipops, depending on size:

1 cup of white sugar
1 Tbspoon of brown sugar
6 oz of bacon
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
1/4 cup of water
2 Tbspoons of Tabasco (I used mild)
1 tspoon of paprika
Vegetable oil for greasing the molds
Candy molds and lollipop sticks
Candy thermometer

Cut bacon strips into smaller pieces and fry periodically draining the fat from the frying pan. When bacon is almost ready, sprinkle brown sugar on top and finish cooking to caramelize the bacon. Place bacon pieces on paper towel to drain in the rest of the fat out. Set 2 Tbspoons of bacon aside and coat with paprika. Brush candy molds with vegetable oil.

In a metal pan, combine sugar, water and corn syrup over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Insert a candy thermometer and let it boil without stirring.

Place some of the bacon pieces inside each candy mold. Insert lollipop sticks.

When the temperature reaches 244F degrees, pour in 1 Tbspoon of Tabasco. Do not stir! Continue to boil until the temperature reaches Hard Crack stage at about 295F degrees. Remove from heat and stir in another 1 Tbspoon of Tabasco.

Quickly pour candy syrup into each mold and top with some of the paprika coated bacon pieces. Make sure the lollipop sticks are covered with syrup. Candy will be completely harden in just a couple of hours.

Keep them in the fridge if not eaten within a day, it is full of bacon (did not happen in my house).

All wrapped up and pretty and ready to say “I love you”!