Triple Bacon Club Sandwich

This triple decker sandwich is packed with bacon! Starting with crisp bacon strips, tender slices of Canadian bacon, and an amazing Bacon Basil Tomato Mayo spread--this recipe is perfect for a game day crowd or a satisfying solo lunch with a good book.

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The Ohio Pork Board asked me to write a post about bacon. I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this. I mean, bacon. A crisp slice of bacon, crackling as I bite into it and then dissolving in my mouth . . . well that's bliss right there. Creating this recipe was truly a pleasure, and I hope you enjoy re-creating because it's easy to make this restaurant-quality dish right at home!

Green Tomato Bacon Jam

A savory freezer jam made with green tomatoes, sweet onion, and crispy bacon. This is AMAZING mixed with ground beef for burgers.

A note to the vegetarians who have visited this blog before: thank you for coming back! I beg your pardon, but today's vegetable recipe is really directed at the omnivores and carnivores that stop by (and thank you omnivores, if you've been here before, for returning!)
If you're new here, welcome! I blog about feeding my family seasonal produce from our CSA farm share, our garden, or good deals I find. I like to cook based on what I have available, so I created my Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient (vegetable, or fruit, or fungus) which you can find in the pages across the top. For more recipes using green tomatoes, please check out my Green Tomato Recipe Collection.

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When I started this blog I didn't fully appreciate the versatility of a green, unripe, tomato. I liked to eat fried green tomatoes and hadn't ventured from there. Then a friend shared her Slow Cooker Green Tomato Garlic Chili recipe and I thought I'd dabble in more green tomato recipes. I've got 10 posted--so far!


I decided to make jam with green tomatoes from sheer curiosity. I saw sweet green tomato jam recipes, and savory red tomato and tomato bacon jam recipes, but I didn't find a savory green tomato bacon jam recipe. I started with this recipe and swapped out the red tomato for a bit larger volume of green tomatoes and onion.

If you grow tomatoes or know someone who does, keep this recipe in mind as the nights get cooler (as tomatoes don't ripen if it's too cool at night).  Sure, you can pick tomatoes and ripen them on the counter, but aren't you getting a wee bit satiated by ripe summer tomatoes?  Are you looking for a little something different?  My answers to those questions are yes and yes, so I'm sharing this today.


Make this jam when your tomato crop is in danger of succumbing to frost.  Store the excess jars in the freezer. Next time you're making burgers, mix 1/4 cup of jam in with a pound of ground meat (I've used beef and turkey so far) then continue with your usual burger making.  I prefer to make quarter pound burgers because I get plenty of protein and sure don't need the bigger burger, and I can make 1 pound of ground meat easily feed our family of 4 on burger nights.

Bacon and Parmesan Turnip Fritters

Shredded turnips flavored with freshly grated parmesan cheese and crispy bacon, bound up in these savory fritters, make an excellent dinner side dish or brunch entree.

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Folks, I've got to level with you. Turnips are something I used to endure about a farm share. I've found that some oil and some cheese make them actually quite delightful, and if you throw bacon into that mix my family gets on board, too.

It's funny how eating seasonally from a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share broadens your palate. Over the years I've gone from tolerating beet greens to friskily anticipating my first Sautéed Beet Greens with fried egg brunch plate. I've gone from scratching my head at garlic scapes to popping cubes of garlic scape pesto into all sorts of savory dishes like Shrimp and Garlic Scape Scampi.

Turnips have remained a stubborn nut for me to crack, so to speak. I've had plenty of failures (never made it to the blog, occasionally featured on my FB page) trying to find ways to love these frequently-appearing beasts. I may never crave them, but I'm pretty comfortable with getting turnips in the box now. I've got plenty of options in my toolkit (shared on my Turnip Recipes Collection) and am willing to try new things. My latest, not ready for blog time recipe, is using farm share turnips in a homemade Branston Pickle spread. My son loves it, and it's a meatless sandwich spread for him while he works to lower his bad cholesterol and boost his good cholesterol.

Swiss Chard with Bacon and Roasted Potatoes

Fill your plate with vegetables--this dish consists of a heaping helping of sautéed Swiss chard and a side of roasted potatoes. A bit of bacon for flavor and you're ready to eat.

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I did not choose the name Farm Fresh Feasts for this blog because I create fancy feasts out of the farm share box each week. Instead, I felt that even a simple meal, prepared with fresh goodies from local farms, can be a feast.

I've long viewed Swiss chard as a comfort food simply because I grew up eating the chard grown in our suburban backyard garden. [This makes me curious what my kids will grow up to view as a comfort food, actually. Not any beet preparations, except maybe Chocolate Cherry Beet Brownies. Perhaps turnips in Pasties. Possibly kohlrabi in Chirashi Sushi. Certainly Yakisoba and homemade farm share Spaghetti sauce.]

This meal could be seen as comfort food by my family--they sure devoured it and I was glad to have snapped some photos before we ate. Something as simple as chard and potatoes can't be seen as high falutin' food but it sure does hit the spot.

Maple Peanut Butter Bacon Waffles

A hearty whole grain waffle flavored with maple syrup and peanut butter. These also have a bonus crunch from crumbled bits of crisply cooked bacon baked right into the waffle.

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When the weather turns to warm days with cold nights my thoughts run like sap straight to maple syrup. I get my jugs of locally-harvested maple syrup at the farmer's market and, to paraphrase the little old lady in the hot sauce commercial, I put that $%^! on everything.

I've shared muffins made using maple syrup, like my Healthy Morning Glory Muffins,  Winter Squash and Banana Muffins,  and {No Sugar} Carrot Cake Muffins.  I've used maple syrup in desserts, like my Pumpkin Cranberry Maple Kugel (although this makes an awesome breakfast) and Maple Doodle Cookies. I've even used maple syrup to sweeten up savory dishes like Maple Teriyaki Salmon Sushi and my Red Cabbage, Leek, Brat and Beet Skillet Supper (aka Hot Pink Mess) and in my morning Orange and Beet Smoothie. I'm a big fan of real maple syrup from local producers.

Three different stores for these ingredients--the local grocery, the farmer's market, and The Christmas Tree Shops (because where else do you buy peanut butter but The Christmas Tree Shops?).

When the maple syrup jug is brand new I tend to be quite free and easy with my syrup. Only towards the end of the jug do I get a bit stingy, but I am fortunate to enjoy a year round farmer's market so a new jug is just a Saturday morning trip away.


I didn't intend for this to be my second Friday Waffles with Meat post in a row, but I guess it turned out this way. At the beginning of the year I looked thorough the previous year's unblogged photos and jotted down recipes that would be suitable on each page of my monthly editorial calendar. [Sounds fancy, but I just printed off some calendar pages with boxes big enough to write in.] When I sat down yesterday to plot out my March recipes, these waffle photos spoke to me the loudest. Always listen to the waffles. I put them down first. Only after I looked at my recent posts did I realize that a mere week ago I posted my Corned Beef Hash Brown Waffles.

Other waffle recipes I feel like pointing out on the blog are my Butternut Squash Waffles, Overnight Yeasted Carrot Waffles, Eggnog Sourdough Waffles, Banana Blender Waffles, and Chocolate Zucchini Waffles. Yes, we eat a fair amount of waffles around here (and leftovers become school day breakfasts) because it's easy to make a few rounds and then call everyone to the table so we can sit together and enjoy breakfast.

Though that doesn't always happen when you have sleeping-in teens and a hungry, early-rising spouse, so sometimes we eat in shifts.

That doesn't mean we eat alone.


Often a crowd appears.

Bacon, Egg, and Potato Pizza

Breakfast for dinner on a pizza? This pie combines bacon, eggs, and potatoes with 2 kinds of cheese for a sensational savory breakfast pizza served any time of day.

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If the internet is primarily a place to look at pictures of cats, then Instagram is the neighborhood with the zoning laws that allow backyard chickens. On my IG feed I watch a lot of videos of chickens--chickens strutting their stuff with brilliant plumage. Chickens taking baths in dust. A flock of chickens chasing after treats. My IG feed is delightful thanks to the chicken videos by Kris of Attainable Sustainable, Lisa of Fresh Eggs Daily, and Kathy of The Chicken Chick.

For the Basset Hound lovers out there (you know you're in this crowd, what's not to love if you're not the one washing dried drool off the walls?) I try and give back to the IG community with a video of the flying ears of Robert Barker walking on a windy day [turn off the sound].

Thanks to my local egg providers and IRL chicken-owning friend I've learned that egg production diminishes when it's cold out and days are shorter, and picks back up as we near Spring. This time of year, I bide my time, hoarding the local eggs I do have and using them when necessary. I don't go crazy throwing eggs on everything. There's a time and a place to throw eggs on everything.

Like today, and like this pizza.

How to Make a Roasted Farm Share Dinner

This combination of roasted green beans, corn, tomatoes and bacon is an example of the perfection of September. The nights are cool enough that a hot plate of vegetables is a welcome sight and the produce is still in full swing.

I'm proud to say that I threw the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share on the grill this summer. I had successes (check out the grilling category I added to my drop down recipe index on the right side bar). I had failures [I've fed far too many 'too small' eggplant slices to the Grill Gods with flipping failures] and I somehow drained a brand new tank of propane [I blame the deployment gremlins on that one] but overall the grill became my 'go to' appliance when I thought about how to feed the family from the farm share.

When the weather starts to cool down a wee bit I'm not afraid to turn on my oven. Instead of grilling ALL THE THINGS I start roasting what is abundant in the farm share box and at the farmer's market. I want to keep things easy, though, and clean up is one of those things I like to simplify.

After reading Aimée's Spring breakfast recipe I started trying out a few combinations. It's almost too easy to throw a bunch of vegetables in a pan, add some meat for additional flavoring, and have dinner done.

For other recipes using green beans, please see my Green Bean Recipes Collection. For other recipes using corn, please see my Recipes Using Corn Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, and the garden bounty. 

Zucchini Bacon Pizza

Everything's better with bacon? Well, bacon sure makes the August zucchini crop extra tasty on this pizza with fontina cheese, zucchini, and fresh tomato pesto

This summer is not the summer of monster zucchini--not in my garden nor in our farm share.  [It is, however, the summer that I harvested a 42 pound volunteer--meaning I didn't plant that--pumpkin the first week of August! You can see us here on my FB page.] Nope, all of the zucchini and summer squash has been harvested in lovely small tender sizes--perfect for grilling or slicing and using on a pizza. Then again I think everything is perfect for a pizza.

I'm having an interesting summer so far with the produce from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share.  Normally my kids do not readily embrace all of the vegetables, so I shred and tuck them in here and combine there so that I'm serving meals that contain a lot of vegetables but don't have lots of single vegetables dishes, if that makes sense. 

This summer, the kids have realized how tasty a zucchini pancake (or crepe, or fritter) is, so we've been making them often. [Turnip fritters, too--and I've got a beet hanging out in the crisper waiting it's turn to fritter away . . .] They are also eating peppers and onions in their eggs and on pizza. Crazy--is it teenagers, or is it because it's our 9th season eating from the farm share (more than half of their lives, both of them!) and the constant exposure to all the vegetables has worked?

Hot French Potato Salad

Roasted potatoes and haricots verts with bacon in a Dijon vinaigrette

There are many languages bouncing off the walls of my house these days.  When we play Uno during Family Game Nights we're calling out the color and number of each card in a language other than English. My daughter takes French, and to keep her skills up this summer she's taken to replying to my questions/requests en français. Or at least I assume that she's speaking French--honestly I haven't a clue. I topped out my knowledge when she called a potato masher a "pommes de terre frappe".

My son is learning German online, which takes me back to when I first arrived in Germany and took an intro course on the base. Unfortunately we lived in a region of Germany known for hick accents, so while my son is speaking proper German, my spouse and I speak with a hillbilly accent.
Add to this the fact that my brain seems to have an English/Other Language switch, and when searching for an Other word it could just as easily come out Spanish, Finnish, or Japanese.  Languages that make sense to me.

I mean, this potato salad uses haricots verts. I'd pronounce that haricots verts, but no . . . hairy co-vaire my daughter tells me. If it's hairy co-vaire, why is there an -erts on the end of the word? Makes no sense. However you choose to say it, this recipe is yummy. It's a bold side dish on a plate, assertive with notes of . . . ok, so not my style.  This is worthy of a country who lost 4% of their population during WW1--I can't even imagine that--not to mention a tasty way to eat beans and potatoes.  And bacon, always with the bacon.

Pizza with BBQ Chicken, Bacon and Kohlrabi Greens

Chicken, bacon, sweet onion and kohlrabi greens over tangy barbecue sauced pizza crust.  Yes, I slipped kohlrabi greens onto the pizza.  Again.

I think I may end up posting pizza recipes a fair number of Fridays this summer.  I have some terrific pizzas from last summer that didn't get published in a seasonally timely manner (Peach and Hatch chiles for one, and Cantaloupe and Prosciutto Panini Roll for another) and my brain is a bit giddy with new ideas for both my new pizza grill stone and new deep dish styles. [Tonight I'm trying green tomatoes + goat cheese in the style of Lou Malnati's.]

I think, before it becomes OBE [Overcome By Events] I should share what we had last Friday Night Pizza Night. I mentioned we got a lot of greens last week--well some of them were attached to kohlrabi.  The kohlrabi has turned into dippers for hummus and will be rolled up in a tamago sushi whenever I get my act together, but the greens--well, they went on this pizza.

Cheddar Apple Onion Bacon Pizza

Two notes!  First, I've installed a print button, with options to remove images and non-recipe verbiage, in case you'd like to print a recipe.  It's down at the bottom of the post, let me know if you like it.

Second, I wrote the CSA Cookoff segment this week on HOMEGROWN.org, since I was merely walking a half marathon while Jennifer was having a blast at Farm Aid.  You can check out my Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Chicken Curry recipe here!

In the pre-braces life, a favorite 'I don't want to cook' supper when it was just me and the kids was popcorn, apple slices, and cheese cubes.  I liked to make it with Gala apples, though my favorite apple is the delicious Larry variety from the Shenandoah valley that I got in a fruit share in our first ever CSA farm share. That easy meal satisfied the sweet, the salty, the need to chew and the desire not to be hungry in an hour.
Until we embark on the post-braces life, I will miss that meal . . . and corn on the cob, and everything bagels with lox, cream cheese, red onion, capers, and summer tomato.  Note to self, sneak out and get a bagel with the fixings before all the tomatoes are gone.  I never was a fan of Laffy Taffy, so I can't say I'm missing it.
Last week my mom brought me a red delicious apple, and since I'm not a fan of eating red delicious plain, I was primed to think of pizza.  When I saw this Apple Harvest Cheddar at Costco (with apple pieces and cinnamon--how cool does that sound?), I thought it would be good on a pizza with apples and something else, so I bought it.  I didn't really think I wanted to try corn on the pizza to recreate my easy supper, but caramelized onions and bacon sounded like good replacements.

Conveniently, I'd caramelized a mess of onions in the crock pot (I used and love Dorothy's method, though I'm going to try Alanna's Sweet, Dark and Dreamy method next time.  For research purposes) and froze them in recipe-size portions, so it was easy to grab what I needed.  I also had bacon baked and frozen.  My freezer can be a magical place.  Is yours?

In the interests of full disclosure, in addition to my mom giving me the apple, my neighbor gave me a big bag of onions that I used to make these caramelized onions.  I bought the rest of the stuff.

It's possible I'm becoming a foodie.  The jury is still out, but go ahead and try this pizza (with any type of cheddar cheese, of course, if you're not near a Costco) while the deliberations continue.

Kohlrabi Greens, Manchego, Potato and Bacon Pizza with Red Onion and Rosemary (Pizza Night!)

Today's pizza happened because I baked bacon.  It's my favorite meat, and I tend to not to cook it often because I cannot help myself around it.  Know your triggers.
I always bake bacon--it works best for me.  If I cook it in the skillet, I have too much spatter to clean up.  But baking my bacon means I can easily freeze the cooked strips, drain the baking pan into my Bacon Grease Storage Device, and be on my way to making delicious pork-flavored goodness.  Or something like that.

It wasn't enough for me to use two vegetables from the farm share (roasted garlic and new potatoes) like I'd planned for this pizza.  When I saw the pretty greens on this week's kohlrabi (I knew I needed the kohlrabi themselves for sushi) I figured they'd add a nice pop of color to the pizza.  I didn't figure on the unintended Kale Chip Side Effect.  After I sliced this pizza, I couldn't help but grab the little tufts of greens that were stuck to the slicer--they tasted just like kale chips!  My daughter did not complain about the relative dearth of green on her slices, so I think it worked out well for both of us.

This pizza uses Manchego cheese, a sheep's milk cheese from the (Man of La) Mancha region of Spain.  I got mine at Costco.  Why?  The French Green Lentil Effect.  I'm all about the Effects today.  I was looking for gruyere, but found Manchego instead.  Rachael Ray mentions Manchego now and again, so I should buy it, right?  Apparently she thinks Manchego cheese plays nicely with potatoes.  And now I do, too!  I have a lot of Manchego now, shredded and stashed in my freezer for future use.

Broccoli Floret, Bacon, Mushroom and Red Onion Pizza (Pizza Night!)

I decided to test my spouse's theory that everything goes better with bacon.  We had a bag full of broccoli from the farm share, and I used the stems for another recipe, saving the florets for tonight's pizza.

Then the grocery store had mushrooms and fresh mozzarella on sale, so I couldn't resist.  Love those mark down stickers. Add a couple of slices of bacon from the freezer stash, a bit of red onion, and we're good to go.

It did occur to me to throw on some raisins, but I resisted the impulse.  Another time.

I'm saving my all-purpose flour for cookies, so this dough is made from King Arthur White Whole Wheat.  It works great, even if my circle is decidedly square-ish.  I really cheesed it up (that sounds so not right) by sandwiching the toppings between a base of fresh mozzarella and a lid of shredded fontina.

No one complained ;)