Today's Lunch: Corn and Bacon Pie

While perusing through Epicurious.com last night looking for St. Patrick's Day recipes, I came across this delectable recipe for Corn and Bacon Pie. It didn't catch my eye because it was appropriate for the upcoming green holiday. It did catch my eye because it was the featured Recipe of the Day, AND most importantly it had my favorite five letter word, "bacon." So I made out my grocery list. Knowing my husband would give me a hard time about the bacon, I opted for turkey bacon instead. And, accidentally leaving off the required red bell pepper, I found a smiling jar of Trader Joe's julienne sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil in my pantry.

[TRADER JOE'S SIDEBAR: I love Trader Joe's. I feel sad for those who 1) have never experienced the joy that is TJ's, 2) now live in another city/state without a TJ's, or 3) have been living under a rock and have no idea what TJ's is; when there's one nearby.]

I work from home, and thought this would be easy to make after breakfast and then cook in time for lunch. Boy, was I wrong. It was more time consuming than expected. But that's okay because my house smelled wonderful during and after it baked.

Eagerly awaiting the 30-minute cooling period after I took it out of the oven, I whipped-up a simple Dijon sherry vinaigrette to have with some lovely mixed greens and teardrop tomatoes. So I dug into the warm, heavenly scented corn and bacon pie and arranged it onto my plate with my heaping mound of salad.

First bite, amazing. Exactly what I thought it would be. Roasted sweet corn and turkey bacon gave it an amazing smoky taste. Wasn't too egg-y; perfect. Heft of the crunchy cornmeal crust matched the weight of the abundant filling.


























Do I want another piece? Yes. Will I grab another one? No; I'm going to be good.

Will I make this again? Abso-freakin'-lutely. :) Should you make it? Yes.

When I make it again, I might try to make it southwestern:

• Use red bell peppers and a diced jalapeno.
• Instead of turkey bacon, consider using chicken chorizo.
  
• Instead of Gruyeres, use pepper Jack cheese.
• Stick with TJ's roasted frozen sweet corn kernels.
• Instead of Worcestershire sauce, use my favorite Tapatio or Chipotle Tabasco sauce.