Breakfast snack for the ride to work...

Mornings during the weekday can be a little crazy around here - trying to take care of the pups (Spike demands his food bright and early!) and getting breakfast ready for Jeff before he runs out the door for that 45 minute commute into work. Some days he does not have enough time to sit down to eat (someone hits the snooze a few too many times!) so I like to keep the freezer stocked with different items that I can quickly heat up for him to eat on the go.

I made a batch of these Cheesy Bacon Sticks just for that purpose today. These are much like a biscuit, except after the dough is patted out into a square, it is cut into long sticks. Inside of these buttery biscuit fingers are crisp pieces of crumbled salty bacon along with little pockets of melted white cheddar. To help offset the bacon and cheese (I know I know...) I used a combination of white whole wheat flour and all-purpose to keep them light while adding in a bit of whole grains. I used plain yogurt to moisten the dry ingredients, which also helps with their tenderness, but you could also use sour cream or a combo of the two if you want a bit more twang.

My plan is to just keep them well wrapped in the freezer and use the toaster oven to warm them up - this way I can send a couple along on a napkin and he can easily eat the golden sticks during the drive into work.

It has been grey and rainy outside for almost the entire month of October so far - I think we've had maybe one or two days when the sun actually made an appearance for the whole day! It was just the same today, except there was this wicked cold wind outside - I was planning a different recipe for tonight, but decided to make this Creamy Tomato Bisque with Mozzarella Crostini instead as it sounded much more comforting.

This recipe had a couple interesting tricks that resulted in a fantastic texture - the first is adding a quarter cup of white rice in with the broth and letting it cook until it is quite tender. The starch from the rice will end up giving this dish a delicate body and thickness as it will be pureed later on. To lighten this rosy bisque, but still give it a luxurious creamy texture, silken tofu is used in place of cream or milk as it easily blends in and allows the tomato flavor to stand out. We used fire-roasted crushed tomatoes to give some depth - however, you could use regular - I thought the smoky flavor was a nice highlight though. I just used our immersion blender to puree the soup in the pot, but feel free to use a blender - just be sure to do it in a couple batches. We both commented that we enjoyed how it was not soupy, yet it was not gloppy or thick either - just viscous enough to float a crisp cheesy baguette on top for a great visual finish.

Recipes
Cheesy Bacon Sticks
Creamy Tomato Bisque with Mozzarella Crostini