I only had one baby, who was just a couple months old, I had just recently quit my job to be home full time, and had a husband who was balancing work with school, family and church responsibilities, and I knew that it was time for me to step-up and fully embrace my roll of wife and mother by becoming the epitome of perfection in every area that entailed. Sewing {fail}, baking {fail}, nursing my child {fail}, being all dolled up with dinner on the table at 5:00 when the Mr. came home {fail}, cleaning {pass-I LOVE to clean :) }, cooking {A for effort, but C- for quality}.
After a couple of months of me trying my darnedest to be what every 1950's woman could somehow achieve without batting an eye, and my husbands earnest attempts to be sweet and kind towards my cooking (he would often say during dinner, "this is really good, but I bet if you added a little bit of _____ next time, or just a teaspoon of ______, it would be perfect.") I was finally fed up and said, "Fine, if you think you can do it better than do it!" And so he did. (He is REALLY REALLY good too!) And from that moment on I have never cooked again.
Okay, like the random meals here and there if he can't cook dinner but let's be honest my meals typically consist of frozen lasagna's (hey don't knock 'em, Stouffer's knows what they're doing), frozen pizza's or McDonald's. I can also make a pretty mean quesadilla so... boo yah.
Now all that being said, there is ONE thing I cook that Mr. Sweet Love has never tried to take over from me, tell me to add anything to, or change it any sort of way. Yall should fell real cool that I'm about to share my one and only cooking talent with you-Bacon Wrapped Smokies. Meat on top of meat? Heaven on a toothpick is what they should be called.
If you take these to any function where men will be present these (and you) will be the HIT of the night. If you're single...ladies this will get you a man guaranteed! I've made these for Halloween parties, thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, SuperBowl, birthdays, and every party for my husband's work. And for summer BBQ's these would be the perfect addition! The original recipe is from Allrecipes.com, and here is my version with some step-by-step pictures.
Ingredients:
1 lb bacon sliced into thirds
1 package (14 oz) beef cocktail wieners
brown sugar
Directions:
First I pour the entire package of smokies into a ziploc bag (juices from bag included) and pour about a 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top. Shake the bag so the brown sugar coats all the smokies and put in fridge to marinate for at least an hour (sometimes I leave it overnight).
Next cut your bacon into thirds like shown. (I like to stick my bacon in the freezer about 15 min. before I cut it to firm it up a little because it is MUCH MUCH easier to work with when it's cold!)
Oh, and for as many times as I've done this, I've found that Hormel's Black label original bacon is the BEST kind of bacon to use (taste and ease wise) for this recipe.
Next, I take one strip of the cut bacon and lightly coat both sides with brown sugar.
Then I take one smokie and roll it up inside the bacon and place a toothpick through it to hold the bacon.
I put them all into a bowl and then drizzle the brown sugar marinade from the bag of smokies all over the wrapped smokies and let it sit in the fridge (covered) for a couple hours.
Set the oven to 325 and line a pan with foil (this makes clean up a snap!) and place the smokies evenly spaced on the pan. I then sprinkle just a {tad} more brown sugar over the tops of all the wrapped smokies and cook for 40 min.
I like my bacon crispy so when they're done cooking I kick the oven onto broil and let them cook about another 5 min to really crystalize that sugar and make them a dark golden, bubbly, brown!
If they're not going to be eaten right away, I put them in a crockpot on warm/lo to make sure they stay nice and tasty!
Please please make these, your bellies (and your husbands) will thank you! ha ha! That being said, you will {probably} never see another recipe on here again! Thank you SO SO SO much for checking out the Sweet Love over here today! I hope you're having a beautiful summer day wherever you are!!