Sopa de Elote Dip Recipe | Bacon Takedown Showdown

It isn’t every day your food is featured in Thrillist for Best Bacon dishes.

I have a love/hate relationship with cooking competitions. I swear them off, but not long after I get the invite, I am signed up and scouring recipes for inspiration.

The latest was the fifth annual bacon takedown. I eat bacon once or twice a year, so I’m by no means a connoisseur. Cycling through dishes I’ve perfected that include bacon, I considered stuffin muffins and carbonara. The first is ingredient and labor intensive. The latter has poor reheat value. After vetoing these dishes I started questioning why I signed up.

Then I got my idea: Mexican corn.

I started it as a chowder soup. Serving soup samples is tedious. Know what isn’t? Making it a dip.

Of course you made something with tortilla chips.

The addictive element of competitions is you get instant feedback from people who aren’t your family or friends. They have no obligation to say your food is good. And they definitely don’t have to come back four times for another taste.

The good news: everyone seemed to love the dip.

The bad news: I didn’t win. Always a bridesmaid…

Wonton Wednesday

If at first you try to make Taco-Tons and don’t succeed, try, try again.

In honor of Taco Tuesday, I attempted to make these last night after the gym. In my haste, I tried using corn tortillas as the wrapper. There’s only one problem dear taco-loving friends: Corn tortillas aren’t flexible, even if you heat them.

Tonight was Attempt 2 at the fusion masterpiece that is taco filling in a wonton wrapper. A brewery by my office deserves credit for the idea. They had an item called “Titan’s Toothpicks,” which I admit is catchier than Taco-Tons. Their creation was a variant on taquitos with meat, corn, salsa and cheese inside the fried cylinders.

I made turkey tacos with black beans, avocado and kale Monday night. I’ll post photos and a recap on how to make your own in the coming week.

Re-imagining ways to eat existing food is necessary for any person living solo.

If you cook a big meal, you’ll likely grow tired of eating it for multiple days. Turning grilled chicken into a healthy salad or a wrap adds longevity to your leftovers.

Wonton Wednesday should quickly become a thing. After my Egg Roll exploration, I’ve got the rolling process down and a pontoon-load of extra wrappers. You’ll need an egg to seal the Tons closed. Tonight I used the wonton wrappers instead of their larger sibling used for egg rolls. Subsequently, you can’t put much food in each wrapper.

Nevertheless, start thinking of foods you’d like fried inside some crispy dough. These would be great for parties. They are a bit labor intensive, but worth it in the end.

3 Things I Learned Tonight:

1. The process is quick. Each side cooks for 30 seconds tops.
2. Oil is hot. Splattering oil hurts.
3. Have something to dip the Taco-Tons in, like salsa verde, sour cream or maybe some queso dip.

And you may as well fry up the egg used to seal the wrappers. Every bro needs his protein.