When pumpkin on its own doesn't do it for you this Halloween, adding some Bacon Salt or Baconnaise can help. Here is a seasonal recipe that is scary good.

Pumpkin and Bacon Salt Risotto

• 1-2 lb pumpkin, with seeds removed

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• Olive oil
• About 15 sage leaves, chopped
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 14oz risotto rice
• 2 cups white wine
• Approx 3 1/2 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2-3 Tbsp Bacon Salt
• 1/3 cup pinenuts
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut the pumpkin into 1 1/4in wedges and place in a roasting tray. With a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic, a glug of olive oil, half the sage, a pinch of Bacon Salt and freshly ground black pepper. Rub the mixture over the pumpkin with your hands, then roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes until softened and becoming golden in color.

Once the pumpkin has cooled, scrape the soft flesh away from the skin into a bowl. Lightly mash with a fork, leaving it fairly chunky. Scrape any residue left in the roasting tray into the bowl and keep warm while making the risotto.

Heat 2tbsp olive oil and a tbsp of butter in a heavy frying pan or sauté pan. Gently fry the onion until softened. Add the rice and stir for a minute, until coated with oil and butter. Add the wine and stir until it has cooked into the rice. Add a good ladle of hot stock and the rest of the sage, and 3/4 of the Bacon Salt. Keep adding stock, and keep stirring to stop the rice sticking.

After about 18-20 minutes the rice should be soft with a bit of bite, and the risotto should be creamy. Add stock to get the right consistency. Remove from the heat and gently stir in the pumpkin, Parmesan, the remaining two knobs of butter and Bacon Salt. Cover for a couple of minutes to give it an even creamier texture. The final texture should be fairly moist and creamy, much more so than regular rice, which gives it a smooth and savory texture.

Toast the pinenuts in a toaster or with a small amount of butter in a pan until they are golden. Spoon the risotto into warmed bowls and scatter on the pinenuts, a sprinkling of Bacon Salt and extra Parmesan.

First there was Bacon Salt. Then there was Baconnaise. Along the way, we even made Bacon Lip Balm.

We're about to take a new and very important step in the history of bacon. We invented Bacon Ranch, the product we always wanted to make but didn't know how - until now. As the great Neil Armstrong said - likely while on a fake moon set in a studio in Southern California, although that's still being confirmed - this is one small step for man, and one giant leap for your salad. We're paraphrasing here.

What's that you say? Bacon and ranch has been done before? Riiight. We're here to say that little tasteless, leathery bacon bits floating in a sea of ranch dressing is NOT Bacon Ranch. Bacon Ranch is when you combine two great tastes of ranch and bacon together in one miraculous condiment. Then you put it on a salad, or on chicken wings or dip chips and veggies into it or even dip your pizza into it (a strange tradition here in Seattle) and think "life couldn't get any better than this." It's when your crazy relatives come over for Thanksgiving and decide to talk about how awesome your Bacon Ranch dip is instead of asking you what you're going to do with your life or telling you about their last hernia operations. It's when you throw a Super Bowl party and people eat all the dip and fist-fights break out to lick the bowl.

That's what we tried to do with J&D's Bacon Ranch. We think it's the best product we've ever made, and we think you'll agree. The website www.TheBaconRanch.com isn't quite live yet. But we just got a limited supply of product in pre-launch - and once it's gone, we're not sure when we're going to get more (although it will hopefully be soon). You can buy it here:
http://store.baconsalt.com/Bacon-Ranch--new_c_11.html. Git along little taste buds.

Justin & Dave

Bacontrepreneurs

Ever since the discovery that Baconnaise makes a great guacamole (aka Guaca-Baconmole), we've been looking for different combinations of Baconnaise and avocado. This one makes an easy appetizer or lunch. Incidentally, the Pacific Northwest is home to the world's best smoked salmon at Pike Place Market's own City Fish - and they deliver anywhere in the US!

Baconnaise, Salmon and Avocado Bites

Ingredients:

• 8-10 slices good quality whole wheat bread
• 1/2 cup Baconnaise
• 1/4 lb smoked salmon
• 2 avocados
• 2 hard boiled eggs, thinly sliced
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Toast the bread, and cut off the crusts. Splurge for good bread on this one. Cut the bread in half either vertically or diagonally. Pit and peel the avocados, then cut into thin slices. Add a thin layer of Baconnaise to each bread slice, then top with a piece of salmon, 2 slices of avocados, 1 slice of egg, and then fresh ground black pepper to taste.

These seeds are a great reward after a long day of pumpkin carving. 

Bacon Salted Pumpkin Seeds

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
• In a bowl, mix pumpkin seeds with approximately 3-4 tbsp of melted unsalted butter (depending on how many seeds you're making), any flavor of Bacon Salt (we like Peppered here, but any flavor works) and garlic powder.
• Spread the pumpkin seeds evenly on a greased cookie sheet.
• Cook in the oven for approximately 25-30 minutes, checking every 10 minutes for doneness.

The pumpkin seeds should be crispy on the outside but not too dry inside.

It was homecoming week at the University of Iowa, and a rousing victory by the Hawkeyes over Michigan was washed down with an Iowa staple, breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches. We made some improvements over our original recipe, which we've shared below. Without question, this was the best pork tenderloin sandwich I've ever made. This serves about 6-8, depending on how many people double up and is best served with Baconnaise, Ranch Dressing, or ketchup/pickles/onions/lettuce.

Bacon Salt Marinated and Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

• 2-3 pork tenderloins (a total of 3 lbs)
• Hamburger buns
• 1 gallon canola oil if deep frying

For the marinade:

• 1 quart buttermilk
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/4 cup of white flour
• 3 tablespoons any flavor of Bacon Salt (we used Applewood and highly recommend this)
• 1 or 2 cloves of freshly chopped garlic
  

For the breading:

• 1 package of Japanese (panko) bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup yellow corn meal (fine ground - if you use medium or coarse grinds, it will not work)
  
• 1/8 cup corn flour (if you can find it - this is optional)
• 1/8 cup white breadcrumbs
  
• 1/8 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons Bacon Salt (again, we used Applewood)

To get the right cut of meat, tell your butcher/meat counter manager that you're making breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches and ask him/her to butterfly 3 lbs of pork tenderloins and, if possible, run it through a tenderizer to flatten it out. The best pork tenderloin sandwiches are VERY thin, so when you get home dredge the tenderloins in flour so they don't stick and place them on a cutting board. Cover them in plastic wrap on the top, and then use the flat side of a meat mallet or hammer to flatten them until they are as thin as you can make them without making holes in them. Then cut the flattened tenderloins into approximately 5" x 6-8" sections, which should come out to approximately 4-8 ounces each.

Marinate the tenderloins overnight in the buttermilk marinade mixture.

These sandwiches can be prepared in a pan in 1/4 - 1/2" of canola/vegetable oil or in a deep fryer - each of which are equally delicious. If you're using a deep fryer, preheat a deep fryer to 360 degrees F. If you're using a frying pan, heat to medium high.

Then take the tenderloins out of the marinade and let the excess marinade drip off. Dredge them in the breading mixture, and press the breading into the tenderloin. Once the pan or deep fryer is hot enough - it's important not to throw them in before the right temperature is reached - add 1-2 of the breaded tenderloins and fry approximately 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Watch the temperature closely to make sure that the tenderloins are not burning or cooking too fast.

The Bacon Wife's parents have a cabin in Eastern Washington with one of those wood burning stoves and ovens. This recipe is inspired by that cabin, and is a really great side dish (or you can add meat such as chicken, ground beef or sausage to make a meal out of it). Either way, the combination of Bacon Salt, potatoes and cheese is definitely a winner.

Log Cabin Potatoes with Bacon Salt

• 8-10 unpeeled potatoes
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 cup flour
• 1 lb grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3-4 tablespoons any flavor of Bacon Salt

Preheat oven to 350F, and grease a large baking dish. Wash and then thinly slice the potatoes, and arrange in the baking dish, spreading some of the onion, flour, cheese and Bacon Salt between layer. Continue layering until the baking dish is full, and finish with a layer of cheese and more Bacon Salt. Pour the milk over the top and bake for 1 hour or until the potatoes are cooked and the cheese is bubbling and brown.