What a day. Storms were brewing in the distance, wind blowing 30-40mph all day, so good thing I planned on an easy dinner. Nothing special to report on the culinary front for breakfast or lunch. Just ate what sounded good with the limited time available. PB toast and finished off the left over veggie pizza.
Knowing today would be a crazy one, after the stir fry yesterday, I tried out a funky recipe for making coconut bacon. Recipe calls for liquid smoke, but hey, I have real smoke. I loaded up the BGE with apple wood chunks and started working on the “bacon”.
I applied the soy sauce and maple syrup mixture to the coconut flakes and let them marinate for about 15 minutes while the smoke was building up in the BGE.
I put the marinated coconut flakes on the grill and let them cook for about 20 min. I stirred them around a couple times, then let them cool on a cookie sheet.
The verdict- Well, not bad. Definitely didn’t taste like coconut and had a nice apple wood smoke flavor. Not sure if the substitution of real smoke flavor over the luiquid smoke the recipe calls for is the difference.
Fast forward to dinner, and the plan was Avacado BLT’s using the coconut bacon. Right as we were starting to fix dinner, the line of severe thunderstorms finaly reached us and the tornado sirens started blairing. Time to round up the animals and head to the basement (just in case). With a close eye on the weather radar and all the news channel coverage, I was able to get the sandwich assembled and try it out.
Got to say it was a seriously delicious “ACBLT”. I think the fat from the avacado helps bring out the “bacon” flavor in the coconut. You get the smoky flavor and crunch typically associated with real bacon. I will work on this recipe some more to see if little tweaks make a difference. My son (who really hates the flavor of coconut) said “not bad, but a little fibrous”.
Was able to squeeze in a 5K run on the treadmill before the bad weather arrived.
The inspiration for the day rang true from the moment I woke up. As my mother always said, “Plan for the worst, and hope for the best”. By the grace of mother nature, and all things worldly, we were spared the brunt of the storm and received no injuries or property damage. Others in the area were not so fortunate. There were something like 12 reported tornado touch downs in the KC area, and there were many people who lost everything in a a few minutes.
It makes you reflect on how precious life is and the things that are most important to us. At least that’s what I was telling myself as I carried our 14yr old, 70lb yellow lab down to the basement to ride out the storms.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to those less fortunate on this day that the wrath of mother nature put on an epic display of her power and grace.
KCQ 