The Late Night Chefs

Cheeseburger Stuffed Mushrooms

2011-05-24T16:15:00.003-04:00

Deep Fried Curry Pockets

2011-05-24T16:00:00.003-04:00

Cheeseburger Sushi

2011-05-24T15:44:00.005-04:00

Thanksgiving Sundae

2010-11-30T02:54:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving can be one of the most difficult holidays of the year. I mean, after stuffing your face with the biggest meal you've had since last Thanksgiving, how are you expected to leave any room for dessert? Well don't worry, we have the perfect solution for those of you who, on this extra special food day, deliberately ignore that part of the brain that's supposed to tell you when you're full. Introducing the Thanksgiving sundae. A delicious turkey dinner with all the fixins in the form of everyone's favorite ice cream treat. If you are afraid of serving your dinner guests this unusual combination for fear of an underwhelming reaction, this is the ultimate leftover solution. And your guests are closed-minded buttholes.

Our list of ingredients included turkey meat, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing and bacon. Since we didn't exactly have the resources to make an entire turkey, we bought individual turkey breasts.

1. If you don't have any leftovers, you will have to make/buy all the regular Thanksgiving dinner items. And cook them.

2. Take a cup or glass and layer each ingredient to make it look like a sundae. Top with bacon sprinkles and a cranberry.

And that's it. Pretty much just the assembly is required if you are using leftovers. If you're really daring, serve as dessert after a burger cake main course.

- LNC

Korean Tacos

2010-11-17T03:20:00.001-05:00

For those of you out there in the webbernets who do not know, I am of Korean descent. This recipe is very near and dear to my heart, because I am often kept up late into the night wondering what type of food my kids would grow up on if I married a Mexican woman. Kimchi fajitas? Tofu guacamole? Spicy seafood-and-cactus stew? None of those sound very appetizing, although I know some hipster vegan out there is already eating tofu guac. Because eating avocados is murder. Well there's at least one thing my hypothetical super hot bride and I can feed our little Mexoreans (Korexicans?) that will allow me a good nights rest. Here are some simple instructions on how to make Korean tacos.

I do need to apologize somewhat in advance for the abundant presence of vegetables in this post. I you are squeamish, I advise you not to continue.

Ingredients you will need: Korean-style short ribs (kalbi), red leaf lettuce, kimchi, green onion, cucumber, parsley, tortillas and korean hot pepper paste (gochujang) if you can find it.

1. Grill short ribs. If you bought them unseasoned, marinade overnight in soy sauce, garlic, sugar and green onion. We don't have a grill, so we just pan fried. Cut into bite-sized pieces once cooked.

2. Chop lettuce, grate cucumber and cut kimchi into small pieces. Mix together with parsley and hot pepper paste.

3. Assemble tacos by layering meat, salad mixture and chopped green onions. Add a squeeze of lime juice on top.

All done. For a natural pairing, try this with a nice tall glass of tequila.

- Angie, Carol, Daniel, Laura, Marcus & Michelle

Pork Wellington

2010-11-01T02:34:00.002-04:00

Although it is halloween season, that wonderful time of candy, pumpkins and slutty costumes, we still refuse to make anything sweet. Again, not that we don't like sweets. It's just that the burger cake scars run deep. So in the spirit of the spooky festivities, we decided to do a little dressing up instead. While pork loins are normal and delicious any other day of the year, we dressed our little guy up in a pretty kick-ass puff pastry costume. The only thing left to do is make it wear its winter coat and take it trick-or-treating. And then eat it. For ingredients, you will need: pork loin, puff pastry, prosciutto, mustard, apples and spices.

1. Create a spice rub of your choice and rub pork loin. We used a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Puree 1 apple and mix in some cinnamon and lemon juice. Cut the loin in half lengthwise and spread apple puree between two halves.

2. Evenly lay out slices of prosciutto so that they overlap. Wrap loin tightly with prosciutto.

3. Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and lay out puff pastry. Spread mustard evenly in the middle and wrap the loin.

4. Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes.

The final product didn't turn out exactly as planned... they kinda got stuck to the foil because we forgot to grease it. Also, pork wellington is pretty much a giant pig-in-a-blanket.

- us

Shepherd's Pie Dumplings

2010-10-15T02:39:00.002-04:00

I love pie. There's something truly magical about the unlikely combination of warm fruit and a flaky pastry that just melts my heart...and the ice cream that is invariably served over it. I remember the first time I heard of shepherd's pie, I was intrigued. What could it be? Did shepherds eat some kind of super secret, awesome fruit that only shepherds knew about? Or was it a savory pie made of sheep and/or their herders? Sadly for naive, 7 year old Marcus it turned out to be none of the above but rather an unconventional pie made of meat and potatoes. Of course, it really grew on me and has since helped in the broadening of my pie-horizons (pirizons?).

We've gone off on some culinary tangents over the past few months, but this week we're back to what we know - our meat and potatoes. So to speak. We made shepherd's pie dumplings using regular shepherd's pie ingredients, but stuffing them into a doughy pocket thing. You'll need ground beef, potatoes, peas/carrots/corn/onion and pizza dough.

1. Make mashed potatoes. Yup. That's step one.

2. Make ground beef mixture. We made ours with onions, garlic and some spices, then added corn, peas and carrots.

3. Roll small balls of pizza dough out into small circles. Fill with meat mixture and potatoes. Fold over and seal with a fork.

4. Bake at 400F until dough is cooked through and browned slightly. Serve with dipping gravy.

Q: What did the guy shepherd say to the girl shepherd? A: Wanna get the flock out of here?

Jalapeno Poppers

2010-10-04T00:46:00.005-04:00

I have had many a deep-fry party in my day, and for some reason they always seem to turn out the same. Deep-fry parties are like pancakes - the greatest thing ever at first, but by the end you're sick of them and vow to never have one ever again. And also, you can smother everything with butter and syrup. But just like pancakes, the DFP always manages to find a way to creep back into your life to pull your life expectancy down just a touch. And that's why I love them so darn much.

This is a deep fried classic and we didn't do much to mess with it except wrap it with bacon. You will need jalapeno peppers, cream cheese, gouda, bacon, flour and breadcrumbs.

1. Cut the tops off the peppers and scoop out the seeds. Use a piping bag to fill them with cream cheese or any filling of choice. We used a smoked salmon flavored cream cheese mixed with shredded gouda.

2. Wrap the peppers with bacon. Cut each slice in half, drape one half over the open end of the pepper, and wrap the other half around.

3. Dip the bacon-wrapped peppers in a batter made of flour, water and salt. Cover with breadcrumbs and deep fry at 375F until bacon is cooked through.

The poppers were pretty effing delicious, but very spicy. If you don't like spicy food, you're just gonna have to man up.

Poppers with loaded potatoes

Bacon-Wrapped Pineapple Kebabs

2010-09-22T04:06:00.004-04:00

It's been quite some time since our last post, but its only because the team was on a short break while we all moved back home for a few weeks. I know, it sounds like a lame excuse for not putting up recipes, but imagine trying to explain to your parents why the fridge is stocked with 12 packs of bacon and 20 sticks of butter. My mom would beat me with a sock full of tofu burgers and flax seed. Just kidding! It would probably be with her hands. Well, we're back on our own and ready to share some more bacreations with the world. This and the next couple of posts were made back at the old place (yeah, that kind of voids my previous excuse) and then new, post-summer foods will start going up.

This is really the ultimate food-on-a-stick. We made kebabs with bacon-wrapped pineapple, marinated chicken breast and red bell peppers. You don't have to eat the peppers, they're really just there for color. Or you can wrap them in bacon too.

1. Cut chicken breast into kebab-sized pieces, and marinade in olive oil, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, rosemary, lemon juice and any other herbs/spices you want.

2. Cut up pineapple into small chunks and wrap with bacon.

3. Alternate pineapple, sliced red bell peppers and chicken on a soaked skewer (so it doesn't burn). Sprinkle kebabs with some ground cinnamon.

4. Place in 400F oven for about 15 minutes.

That's it. Just a quick tip: when wrapping the pineapple chunks with bacon, half slices should do the trick. If you're a poon.

- I honestly forget who was there

Curry Lasagna

2010-08-13T04:33:00.003-04:00

After finally recovering from the burger cake incident and its ensuing fallout, we spared no time getting back into the kitchen. In combining lasagna and curry, you could call this next creation our first truly interracial dish. Imagine - the delectable, comforting Italian intermingling with some exotic, spicy Indian. I smell a feel-good romantic comedy featuring Milo Ventimiglia and Freida Pinto. I would totally pay to see that.

Wait, no I wouldn't. Okay, maybe I would.

Our ingredients included lasagna, chicken breast, potatoes, plain yogurt and 2 types of curry - butter chicken and tikka masala. The basic process is the same as a traditional lasagna, but using curry instead of tomato sauce and yogurt instead of ricotta.

1. Cut up chicken breast into small pieces, season and cook. Mix cooked chicken pieces into the curry.

2. Layer a deep pan, starting with curry at the bottom. Sprinkle with diced potatoes, then add lasagna, yogurt and more lasagna. Repeat this process until you reach the top of the pan. We used oven-ready lasagna, so there was no need to boil it beforehand.

3. Bake according to package instructions.

I just realized it's Friday the 13th. With my luck, I'll stumble upon another burger cake that I'll be forced to choke down.

Burger Cake

2010-08-06T04:26:00.003-04:00

Some of you may remember a particular post where I knocked burger cakes. After much deliberation, we decided to make one for ourselves with the unlikely prospect of changing our minds. The result? I hate burger cakes now more than I ever have in my life. Why would anybody ever want to make one of these things? Why not just make a giant burger? Seriously, I'm not 7 years old and any more than a small slice of cake makes me feel like my stomach is doing back flips. Into knives! That are on fire!! Don't waste my time with your deliciously moist interiors or your damn frosty goodness.

Look, I have no problem with making a big cake and eating a normal-sized piece. Unfortunately, that's not how it works in our group, where nobody is exempt from a good ball-busting manhood challenge. If we make a big-ass cake shaped like a burger, every single person involved in the making of the cake must eat and finish a big-ass piece. If you have better friends than I do, here are instructions on how to make a burger cake for yourself so you can eat as little of it as you want. Our cake was made with 5 different flavored layers. Starting from the bottom, we used chocolate chip cookie, brownie, cheesecake, chocolate cake and lemon cake.

1. Bake all your stuff. The different layers may require different times and temperatures, so make sure everything gets baked properly and cools down.

2. Assemble according to order stated above. That's about it. The only thing I didn't mention was that we spread butterscotch pudding between the chocolate and lemon cake layers to look like cheese.

It took us a few days to eat this monstrosity. I have not eaten cake since.

- Angie, Carol, Daniel, Howie, Laura, Marcus & Michelle

Stuffed Cherrystone

2010-07-29T17:24:00.006-04:00

What is the meaning of life for a clam? I don't mean this in a philosophical manner, but rather in quite a literal one. I can really only think of one thing they are good for, and therefore I am concluding without a doubt that clams were put on this planet for the single purpose of being eaten (yes, this is what I consider "research"). They even come in their own little serving dishes.

For our first seafood creation, we needed to find a way to stretch the somewhat expensive ingredient as much as possible without diluting any flavor. Our list of ingredients included cherrystone clams, onions, green peppers, chorizo, bread (preferably day old), white wine and parsley.

1. Wash the clams. Laugh when they spit up black gunk all over your hands.

2. Throw clams into a pot and fill with about in inch of water and some white wine. Steam the clams, and pull out when they open up. Filter the liquid and reserve on the side.

3. Saute onions and green pepper with butter until softened, then add chorizo.

4. Remove clam meat and chop into small pieces. Save the shells without detaching the hinge. Wash these shells if necessary.

5. Add vegetables, clam meat and cubed bread into a large bowl. Slowly add the reserved clam juice until the mixture is soft but not mushy.

6. Ball up the mixture, place in washed shells. Top with crushed crackers or breadcrumbs and bake at 375F for about 15 minutes.

Serve with a squirt of lemon juice and enjoy. If you haven't yet, check out our Youtube channel! Only a couple of videos so far, but more on the way - http://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightChefs

Is this where "happy as a clam" comes from?

- Angie, Carol, Charles, Daniel, Howie, Laura, Marcus & Michelle

Spaghetti filled Meatballs

2010-07-23T14:08:00.014-04:00

While I love classic spaghetti and meatballs just as much as the next guy, I find it a very messy and difficult food to eat on the run. I have tried many different ways to eat pasta while driving/biking/flying a kite (including feed bags), but nothing has ever worked. Until now. We here at Late Night Chefs have finally found a solution - spaghetti filled meatballs. All the flavors and textures of spaghetti and meatballs, with the shape and portability of a hand fruit. No more dangerously slippery tomato sauce on the steering wheel. No more showing up to work looking like the inside of a pumpkin. Here is how to make spaghetti filled meatballs:

1. Make spaghetti. We used a standard sauce and added some of our own herbs and spices.

2. Make your meatball mixture. You can use any recipe you want, but we used a ground beef/sausage mixture and added eggs, breadcrumbs and spices to taste.

3. Stuff spaghetti into meat mixture. This step can be a little tricky to do without leaving any holes in the meatball.

We made a bowl-like shape, filled it with spaghetti and carefully worked the meat into a sphere encasing the noodles, adding extra meat when necessary.

4. Bake at 375F for about 15 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.

I suggest you make at least a dozen of these at a time, and replace those apples in your fruit basket with something of substance.

You should have went with spaghetti filled meatballs, dummy

- Angie, Carol, Charles, Daniel, Howie, Laura, Marcus, Michelle

Special Update

2010-07-20T14:07:00.002-04:00

We have a youtube channel! We will start posting videos of some of our creations, and other food related things we do.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightChefs

Subscribe!

Marcus

Deep Fried Macaroni and Cheese

2010-07-14T16:45:00.006-04:00

How do you make an already awesome dish like macaroni and cheese even better? A generation ago the answer would have been simple: add bacon. This approach is very basic but has been the most reliable food-enhancer for years. I believe the culinary world has evolved in flavors and complexity since the days of our parents and grandparents, and today the answer has become much more complicated: add bacon and deep fry it. This formula works so well it almost seems like cheating. Using the bacon/deep-fry combo is like playing basketball against your kid sister/a midget - a little too easy and doesn't require a great deal of effort or skill, but ultimately still satisfying. So here are instructions on how to make deep fried mac and cheese:

1. Make macaroni and cheese. We used elbow macaroni and mixed it with cheddar, ricotta, sausage and bacon.

2. Wrap in a tortilla and hold in place with skewers.

3. Deep fry. As I have mentioned in previous posts, we don't own a lot of equipment. If you don't have a thermometer, don't leave the stove heat on too high like we did. We learned a valuable lesson in the smoke point of vegetable oil.

4. Eat.

Although we initially decided to just make deep fried macaroni and cheese, this session turned into sort of an experimental night. Since I don't want to make a post for each item, here's some of the stuff we made.

Another one, deep fried for less time with a thin coating of batter

Potato chips and sweet potato fries

Shrimp (the darker ones are coated with breadcrumbs)

Viva Puffs (marshmallow and cookie in chocolate shell)

- Angie, Carol, Charles, Daniel, Howie, Laura and Marcus

Giant Ravioli

2010-07-03T11:05:00.004-04:00

If you have ever made fresh pasta by hand, you know that it can be a very tedious and time consuming task. Now imagine being a poor student and not owning a pasta machine, or even a rolling pin. Imagine having to use a freakin' wine bottle to roll out ravioli dough in a stuffy, unventilated kitchen in the middle of summer. Unfortunately for us, we don't have to imagine doing these things because we actually did them. Fortunately for you, it was all done to bring you the next installation in our ongoing series of gigantisized foods. Our giant ravioli measured about 10"x 10" and weighed at least a couple of pounds. Here's how to make one at home:

1. Make ravioli dough. We followed a generic recipe that can be found online using flour, eggs, oil and salt. If done by hand, it will require quite a bit of labor-intensive kneading.

2. Roll out dough into a roughly rectangular shape, which will be folded in half to make the giant ravioli.

3. Make ravioli filling. We made ours by mixing ground beef, bacon, spinach and ricotta cheese, as well as various herbs and spices.

4. Place filling on one side of the dough and brush the edges of one half with egg wash.

5. Fold the dough, seal with a fork and trim to create a square. Make sure to get out as much air as possible so that the ravioli doesn't burst.

6. Boil giant ravioli for 10-12 min or until tender.

7. Top with sauce and consume.

While I was forced to do a good chunk of the hard labor, the joke is on the rest of the team who probably ingested about 2 cups of Marcus sweat. I'm sure it helped with the overall moisture and saltiness of the dough.

- Angie, Carol, Charles, Daniel, Howie, Laura, Marcus & Michelle

Scotch Cupcake

2010-06-24T04:24:00.008-04:00

Most of the time, I'm not a huge fan of foods that are disguised to look like other foods. It's especially deceptive and sensually displeasing when one of those foods is a dessert. It's like, "I want to eat this giant burger, BUT ALL I TASTE IS F***ING CAKE!!". However, sometimes these things can work and turn out delicious. Case in point, our scotch cupcake. This is a combination of scotch eggs (hard boiled egg encased in sausage meat and breadcrumbs) and cupcakes (rainbows encased in sunshine and happiness). Here's how to make your own scotch cupcakes:

1. Hard boil some eggs. Meanwhile, create your meat mixture. We mixed ground beef with ground sausage and added spices to taste.

2. Peel the eggs and encase in meat. Place in cupcake pan lined with cupcakes wrappers, and bake at 375F.

3. Top with mashed potatoes, and sprinkle with chives. We used a piping bag to get the potatoes to look like icing.

I'm sorry to disappoint the booze enthusiasts out there but you may have noticed that this recipe does not actually contain any alcohol, regardless of the name. You're gonna have to wait until we make vodka muffins or something along those lines.

Not quite sure what some of these are supposed to be

LNC Double Down

2010-06-15T02:58:00.006-04:00

If you follow the Late Night Chefs, you may have noticed that chicken hasn't been used in any of our previous recipes. Since this project is a take on a KFC menu item, it makes sense that we would be popping our chicken cherry, right? Sorry, not this time. The KFC Double Down is a fantastic example of what makes good food, and I applaud their effort at sending out a big "F you" to so-called 'health experts' and 'nutritionists'. But we will not be outdone.

The LNC Double Down is not made with lean chicken breast meat. We used two 20 ounce round steaks, 6 strips of bacon, two layers of monterey jack, and smothered it with our homemade Mac Sauce (see previous entry). The final product weighed in at almost 3 pounds. If you want to make your own, here's how:

1. Set up 3 stations: plain flour, eggs and seasoned flour. We seasoned our flour with a variety of spices, including salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cayenne, etc.

2. Dredge each steak in the first flour station, soak in egg, and then move into seasoned flour. Let the steak rest for about 10-15 min.

3. Heat up a pan with enough oil to cover the entire bottom. Fry steak on each side for about 5 minutes for crispy coating and medium rare doneness.

4. Lay slices of monterey jack cheese to cover the bottom steak. Now is the time to fill with as much bacon as you want.

5. Add another layer of cheese and top with Mac Sauce. Put the second steak on top and place in oven to melt cheese and cook meat to desired doneness.

Sorry chicken, you're going to have to wait for another post until we purchase your raw body parts, cook them into some kind of gut-busting piece of awesome and devour you. And when we do, you can bet we're going to put KFC to shame again.

I need some sort of sign off. Marcus OUT? Nah. Lame.

- Angie, Laura & Marcus

Mac Sauce

2010-06-13T04:01:00.000-04:00

Here's a riddle: What is made up of 2 all beef patties, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and a sesame seed bun? If you answered 'Big Mac', you're WRONG. A Big Mac just is not a Big Mac without the special sauce, or Mac Sauce. I wish they bottled the stuff and sold it, because I would buy it by the drum. But since they don't, we made a close copycat version to share with you.

The necessary ingredients are: mayo, french dressing, relish and sugar. This one doesn't really require any instructions except 'mix'.

This stuff is like the bacon of the sauce world. Spread it, dip it, or sip it. Delicious.

Meat Roll-Up

2010-06-07T14:50:00.004-04:00

If you haven't been living in a hole for the past decade, you must have noticed the recent trend of restaurants and fast food places with "healthier choice" menus. It seems like everyone's offering salads, whole grains and smaller portions nowadays. It's disgusting. But worry not - these menus are the boy bands of the food world, and like any other trend they will soon become sparse. And old. And fat. And will try to make a failed comeback years later after reinventing themselves when we barely remember what they were. Then we can go back to eating better tasting foods with tons of calories and fat. Just to make sure we're ahead of the curve, we created something that could probably kill a child or a small adult if ingested without caution.

In true Late Night Chef fashion, we started making this thing around 2am. There was debate over what to call it, with names like "Meat Torpedo" and "Meat Slug" being thrown around. Since I forget what we actually decided on, here's how we made the Meat Roll-Up:

1. Ingredients: Sausages, cheese, ham, ground beef, bacon, beer and flour. Plus any seasonings, and skewers to hold the bacon in place. (Pictured right: our grocery list.)

2. Cook the sausages fully using any method, and wrap with a layer of cheese and ham.

3. Create a mat of ground beef, and wrap the ham/cheese/sausage. Make sure any holes are sealed up. We also added another layer of cheese here.

4. Wrap beef/ham/cheese/sausage with bacon, and use skewers to hold in place.

5. Place in 400F oven until ground beef is cooked through.

6. Meanwhile, mix up some beer batter. We used a simple mix of flour, salt, Stiegl beer and some cayenne.

7. Fill a pan with enough oil to cover at least half of the meat roll. Set heat on medium-high (or about 375F) and deep fry to your hearts content.

We made 8 of these things. Each one was about 8 inches in length and weighed well over a pound. Afterwards we put on bathing suits and slip-slided around our grease covered kitchen.

- Angie, Charles, Howie, Marcus & Michelle

Giant Ice Cream Sandwich

2010-06-01T03:32:00.002-04:00

Summertime is fast approaching, and since we're poor students with no a/c, we decided that a tasty treat would be a good way to cool down. Of course, when the Late Night Chefs make a tasty treat, we don't eff around. We pulled a new tool out of our arsenal this time around - "gigantisizing", which basically means taking something and making it bigger. It's as if we took the classic ice cream cookie sandwich and gave it double dose of Viagra. I guess that's why it took so long to finish (hey-oo!). Here's how to make your very own giant ice cream sandwich:

1. Buy large amounts of chocolate chip cookie mix/dough and vanilla ice cream. Follow directions for cookie mix if necessary.

2. Line two same-sized cookie sheets with greased aluminum foil or parchment paper. Spread cookie dough evenly to entirely cover the cookie sheets. If you only have one sheet like we did, just make two batches.

3. Bake the ridiculously big cookies at a lower temperature than instructions, otherwise the middle may not bake fully while the outside burns. We used 225F.

4. Wait until the cookies cool down to room temperature, or place in fridge. Evenly cover one side with ice cream, and flip the other side on top. Peel off aluminum foil and enjoy.

I made the mistake of trying to eat 1/8 of this thing by myself. Needless to say, I could not finish it, and I will not touch another ice cream sandwich for the rest of my life. Maybe. By the way, here's a fun thing to do: hold the sandwich up and pretend you're a little person.

- Allen, Angie, Carol, Daniel, Laura, Marcus, Michelle & Shannon

Poutine Pie

2010-05-23T12:11:00.009-04:00

It's been more than a week since our last update, which means it is time again to combine two things we love individually and see what would come out if they had sex. The first half, poutine (poo-TEEN), is universally adored for its caloric density and artery-clogging properties. A basic poutine is made by topping fries with cheese curds and hot gravy, making it vegetarian (aka healthy?). The second half is pie. Enough said.

Note: Our integrity did come into question when we decided to take several shortcuts in this recipe. We use pre-cut fries, pre-made pie shells and regular cheese instead of cheese curds. Feel free to make everything from scratch, but for us it just means a longer wait until the final product. This is how we made the poutine pie:

1. Gather up the necessary ingredients: fries, cheese, gravy and pie shells. We decided to add some ground beef and mushrooms to ours, as well as our recipe standard - bacon.

2. Bake/fry the fries, cut cheese into small cubes (if not using curds), cook mushrooms and beef, heat gravy and bake pie shells according to instructions.

3. Add a layer of fries to the bottom of the pie shell. Top with cheese, a sprinkle of beef and gravy. Repeat for a second layer, packing down the fries so there aren't too many gaps.

4. Top with bacon weave. Not only will the bacon taste good on its own, but the bacon juices will seep into the pie like a magical nectar and enhance the flavor of everything it touches.

5. Return to oven at a high temperature to cook the bacon (we used the broil setting).

This was possibly the most delicious and fattiest thing we have made so far, despite not tasting much like actual poutine. I guarantee you will see more creations deriving from both poutine and pie in the future, as they have both taken their places under bacon in the "I don't care how long I live" food category. Enjoy the pictures.

- Angie, Carol, Charles, Daniel, Laura, Marcus & Michelle

Chocolate-Covered Bacon

2010-05-13T12:44:00.013-04:00

While looking back at our previous posts, I noticed that something was not quite right. I couldn't pinpoint the exact problem, but something was definitely missing. Something...salty. And then it hit me - the last two posts were missing that magical part of the pig belly. The part that is cured, and often smoked, and sliced thin for all of my breakfast needs. Bacon.

We frantically rushed to come up with something bacony as soon as possible, and this next recipe will not disappoint you bacon-lusters. I truly believe that this is as awesome as food can get. We can not legally make anything more awesome, because if we did your eyes would explode. Here's our take on chocolate-covered bacon:

1. The only necessary ingredients are bacon and chocolate, but you can top the bacon with whatever your little heart desires. We picked up two types of bacon, semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanuts, graham crackers and mini marshmallows.

2. Fry up the bacon. These things will work the best if the bacon is crispy, but any form of bacon is okay. Except raw. Drain cooked bacon on paper towel and set aside.

3. Set up a double boiler and melt chocolate chips. Resist the urge to eat all of the chocolate and/or smear it on your face while pretending it is fecal matter.

4. Cover bacon in thin coat of chocolate and place on parchment paper. If you are topping the pieces with anything, now is the time to sprinkle your goodies on them.

5. When the entire batch if done, let it sit in the fridge until firm.

There you have it - chocolate-covered bacon. The ones pictured at the top are s'mores strips with crumbled graham crackers and mini marshmallows. Effing delicious. If there are any leftovers, eat them the next morning with Cadbury Creme Eggs and toast.

Get your mind out of the gutter, that's white chocolate drizzle.

- Brought to you by Angie, Carol, Charles, Daniel, Laura, Marcus & Michelle

Pizza Taco

2010-05-09T22:48:00.009-04:00

Whenever I get a craving for real, authentic Mexican cuisine, I head over the local Taco Bell where I can get my fill of such Mexican staples as Crunchwrap Supremes and Cheesy Gordita Crunches. But if there is one thing about Taco Bell that has repeatedly disappointed me, it is the size of most menu items. For example, the other day I ate 35 soft tacos. As a snack. Because I was still hungry after 82 quesadillas.

We here at Late Night Chefs believe that size does matter. Why make many tacos to feed one person, when one taco can feed many persons? Here are the steps we took to arrive at our most Mexican creation to date, the Pizza Taco:

1. Go to the nearest wholesale location and pick up bulk amounts of medium ground beef, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, tomato paste and pizza. Exactly how much do you need of each ingredient? Way too much.

2. Cook the beef in a large pot, and season to taste. Add tomato paste after it is fully cooked. Meanwhile, place pizza in the oven, making sure the bottom does not get too crispy (or else it will not fold like a taco shell).

3. Chop up some lettuce, dice some tomatoes and grate some cheese. And by "some" I mean "a lot".

4. Combine ingredients in taco-like fashion, using pizza as the shell.

If you cant get your mouth around this girthy mammoth, do what we did: turn it into a giant Mexican pizza and divide into slices.

- Angie, Carol, Daniel, Howie, Laura, Marcus, Michelle

Creme Egg Wellington

2010-04-07T03:32:00.010-04:00

Of all the egg-related holidays, Easter probably ranks as one of my favorites. There is one special thing that allows this day to narrowly beat (haha get it?) out World Egg Day, and that is the Cadbury Creme Egg. Almost as good as the holiday itself is the day after, when you only have to SHELL out half price for the EGG-cellent treats. This year I SCRAMBLED to take advantage of the chocolaty opportunity and, in the middle of my 29th Creme Egg, decided to create something a little different. I will now LAY out the very simple instructions for Creme Egg Wellington, and stop making really stupid egg yolks. I mean, egg jokes. Let's get crackin'.

1. Gather up the only two ingredients required: Cadbury Creme Eggs and Pillsbury Wiener (tee hee) Wraps.

2. Wrap each egg with one rectangle piece of dough, making sure to seal the sides to prevent gooey leakage. Place on greased pan and put into oven at 375 F.

3. Bake 13-17 minutes, or until golden brown (package instructions).

4. Serve with ice cream while still warm.

This delectable dessert takes less than 20 minutes from start to finish, which is coincidentally just enough time to eat a dozen packs of mini eggs and see how many peeps you can stuff into your mouth (9 by my last count).

- Marcus

Bacon Bowl II

2010-04-02T03:04:00.003-04:00

I don't like to think of our first bacon bowl attempt as a failure, but rather, as a learning experience. We came out of that night wiser, more knowledgeable, and better versed in the art of bacon-creation. As a group, we are now one step closer to being masters of bacreation. Our job now is to pass on the expertise we gained first hand, so you don't end up with a flaccid bacon place-mat type thing.

1. Form bacon in an interlocking pattern over a metal bowl which is covered with aluminum foil. Place on baking sheet to catch all the fatty goodness that will fall from the bowl. You can use this incredibly versatile substance as a fragrance, lube, cocktail mix, or even as a pretty effective moisturizer.

2. Place in oven at approximately 400F until crispy, but not burnt. Remove from oven and cool before peeling off aluminum foil. Note: A lot of shrinkage will have occurred.

3. Fill with protein of choice. We chose to go with the classic approach and use scrambled eggs. Other options may include, but are not limited to: sausages, steak chunks, chicken nuggets, or more bacon.

4. Consume.

Done. I do need to give credit where it is due, so I would like to say thank you to Laura, who helped a little bit with this project. And by a little bit I mean pretty much did the whole thing, eggs and all, while we stood around the kitchen making fart jokes or something.

- Marcus, Laura, Howie, Daniel & Carol

Meat Baby!!

2010-03-30T13:45:00.022-04:00

If there are two things in the world that can bring a smile to our faces, they are babies and meat. So it seems only logical that we combine the two to create some type of super awesome, delicious hybrid: baby meat! Unfortunately there are laws and other stupid stuff that get in the way of making baby meat, so we made the next best thing - a meat baby.

Our grocery list included about 8 lbs ground beef, 2 lbs Italian sausage, bacon, onions, garlic, eggs and breadcrumbs. Here's how to conquer the meat baby:

1. Place all meat into giant container, in our case a big pot. Add 3-4 small chopped onions, 1-2 bulbs minced garlic, 6 eggs, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and other spices to taste.

2. Realize that the giant container is not nearly giant enough, dump all contents onto aluminum foil and mix thoroughly. Optional: get five dudes of questionable hygiene to perform that last step with their bare hands.

3. Joke around about making a giant meat penis (meanis), and then make one.

4. Disassemble penis against all objections and form arms, legs, torso and head. Place in oven at 375 F until thoroughly cooked. Note: Keep in mind different cooking times for different body parts.

Below are pictures of the fully assembled meat baby, the ensuing feast, and the aftermath.

Finished meat baby (yes, that is its wee-wee poking out of the bacon diaper)

From left: Laura, Daniel, Howie, Michelle, Shannon, Carol, Mike and Marcus

Meat baby with mashed potato hair and gravy bowl chest

After we had our way with the baby

Leftovers reassembled into terminator meat bear

Me and Shannon in meat coma on kitchen floor

Daniel, Howie, Mike and Shannon passing the eff out

Bacon Bowl Attempt

2010-03-30T05:05:00.013-04:00

Our first official gathering wasn't so much of a gathering, but rather just 3 hungry people cooking whatever was in the fridge/cabinets at 3am. The first thing we made was instant Jell-O pudding - I believe the instructions were: add milk, stir and wait 5 minutes. I guess those 5 minutes proved to be too long, because 3 minutes in we went searching for other options. This is when we found bacon, and who wants to fill up on pudding when there's bacon?

So, here's our attempt at a bacon bowl, step by step:

1. Weave bacon into sheet and place over metal bowl in frying pan. Cover with aluminum foil and cook. (Pudding status: untouched)

2. Remove from pan and cool. (Pudding status: still untouched)

3. Fail. Didn't keep its bowl shape, and was not crispy on the side that was touching the bowl. Note: Use oven next time. We filled it with scrambled eggs, but there is no picture because it didn't look very appetizing. Pretty damn tasty though...bacon makes everything delicious. (Pudding status: probably littered with bacon fat and other crap that was flying around the kitchen as it sat there uncovered for over an hour)

In the end, the bacon bowl didn't turn out, but we got a decent meal out of it. And we did end up eating most of the pudding later on. Let me rephrase that: Laura used threats of violence to make Howie and I eat pudding until we were leaking the once tasty treat from every orifice.

- Marcus, Laura & Howie