#GuacSquad12: Bacon Ranch Guacamole

So.
Remember when I posted last week that #GuacSquad12 was coming, and that I would be posting my recipe soon?
That day has come.
My knowledge of guacamole is fairly limited.  I'd never made it before.  But as with many recipes, I searched Pinterest, and added bacon.  Because frankly, everything's better with bacon, is it not?

Read the details of the event (and the fabulous giveaway.  Make sure you enter!) below, and then follow the jump to see the great guac I made!

A dozen bloggers have come together to share fourteen different guacamole recipes during the month of July. Whether you're a guacamole purist - think avocado, cilantro and lime - or you get a little more creative - think of some fabulous fold-ins such as pineapple or olives - the #GuacSquad12's creations will make your mouth water.

Want to see what the other bloggers have created?  Check out all the great guacamoles here.

Here's are the GuacSquad Bloggers...

listed alphabetically by blog name

A Day in the Life on the Farm

A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures

Angels Home Sweet Homestead

Café Terra Blog

Cheese Curd In Paradise

Cindy's Recipes and Writings

Cookaholic Wife

Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Famished Fish, Finicky Shark

Jane's Adventures in Dinner

Making Miracles

The Heritage Cook

Things I Make (for Dinner)

Here's the blog tour schedule...

Here are Our Sponsors*...

and how you can find them around the internet

Casabella

on the web, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Pinterest

Gourmet Garden Herbs & Spices

on the web, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Instagram, on Google+

Melissa's Produce

on the web, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Instagram

Here are Our Prizes...
We are giving away a dozen - yes, twelve! - Guac-Lock™s from Casabella.

And we have an amazing prize package from Gourmet Garden Herbs & Spices that includes their entire collection of stir in pastes and their lightly dried herbs.

The Giveaway...

Our generous sponsors have contributed prizes for this event. The giveaway runs from July 8th through July 25th when we will select thirteen winners who will be notified by email. The first twelve winners will receive the Guac-Lock™ by Casabella; the thirteenth winner will receive a generous prize package from Gourmet Garden Herbs & Spices. No purchase necessary. Winners will have 48 hours to reply with contact information or new winner will be chosen. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Disclosure: Bloggers received complimentary products from sponsors for the creation of this event. This is a sponsored post that contains affiliate links.

Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are our own.*

#TripleSBites: Spicy Chicken Skewers with Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce

So.

I don't know what it is about food that can be eaten without utensils, but it somehow seems to me that they belong on a romantic menu.
I went looking for a literary reference that I remembered reading long ago from a Gordon Korman book called Son of Interflux (literary is in the eye of the beholder) where Simon is counseled on what to eat on his date with Wendy.  If I remember correctly (we're talking I read this 25-30 years ago), He's advised to eat salad, and forego the poppyseed rolls because the seeds get stuck in your teeth.
This recipe has neither seeds nor salad. It is, however, a nice meal to share.  A little like fondue, a little spicy and unexpected. J and I both enjoyed these skewers.  The marinade is easy, the dipping sauce is spicy and if you're me, you might consider spreading it on crackers afterwards.
This is also somewhat heart healthy, as it comes from Anne Lindsay's Lighthearted Everyday Cooking.  So there you go.  You're even considering the health of your loved one.  You're welcome.
I present to you now Anne Lindsay's Spicy Chicken Skewers with Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce:

#10DaysofTailgate: Chicken Bacon Ranch Taquitos

So.

On Saturdays when we're home for football, J and I often have grazing-type meals with a hot dip, carrot and celery sticks, chips and salsa, and something sweet.  It's even better if the hot something can come out of the freezer to be reheated so there's no real work on Saturday morning before the 12 hour extravaganza that is college football Saturday begins.
These taquitos are perfect for tailgating:  the recipe makes a ton (I got 15 whole small tortillas), uses staples in our house, and are hand-held for snacking.  They'd even transport well wrapped hot in foil.  If you cut the tortillas in half before filling and rolling, they'd be a great appetizer that would serve even more.
When I made these the first time, we enjoyed them with a bowl of tomato soup, but you could also serve them with a salad or carrot and celery sticks as a quick dinner.
Quick, hand-held, delicious.  Who's ready for a football marathon?  From Six Sisters Stuff, I present to you now Chicken Bacon Ranch Taquitos:

#10DaysofTailgate: Bacon Cheeseburger Eggrolls

So.

You know how sometimes you make something, and your husband thinks it's so good he eats *6* of them in one sitting and then can't figure out why he doesn't feel well?  No?  Just my house?
This would be the latest recipe that has caused my husband's overeating.
I think the most important thing about food for tailgating is that it is easily portable - not just yummy.  Although yummy is important.  It's always important.  Most people want finger food so that it's easy cleanup and you can try a bunch of different things.  Or one thing.  It's really up to you.
I found this recipe during one of the other fun things I do:  the Secret Recipe Club.  With all the flavours of a bacon cheeseburger in a crispy roll, what's not to love?
I present to you now from Flavours by Four Bacon Cheeseburger Eggrolls:

#10DaysofTailgate: Soft Pretzels with Buffalo Cheddar Dip

So.

Welcome to the opening kickoff of the #10DaysofTailgate!!  Today, all the bloggers involved are posting a recipe to whet your appetite for everything that is to come over the next 10 days.
Soft baked pretzels are a treat in and of themselves.  When J and I have an early game for Michigan, we order breakfast sandwiches and a Game Day from Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor.  The Game Day is 2 fresh baked pretzels, sliced into rounds, and a container of their house made pimento cheese for dipping.  While I am not sure that I would normally be a fan of pimento cheese, Zingerman's is amazing.  So are the pretzels.
But being at home for football (or nowhere near Ann Arbor) means that if I want something involving bread-like snacks to dip in cheese with a kick, I'm on my own.  Enter this recipe I pinned last year, thinking that they looked like something J and I would enjoy.  It's not pimento cheese, but it's hot and customize-ably spicy.  And despite the fact that you have to boil the pretzels before baking, don't let it deter you!  This is a really easy thing to make.
I present to you now from Half Baked Harvest, Soft Pretzels with Buffalo Cheddar Dip (links to the other bloggers, and ways to enter the giveaway are after the jump):

Pinteractive: Buffalo Chicken Wontons

This is my Pinteractive post for the week.  Click on the badge over there ------> to go to Nanette's blog and see all the Pinteractive posts!

So, I drool over a lot of food blogs, and over all of the recipes pictured on Pinterest.  I often post blog pictures to my Pinterest board so I don't lose them later when I'm ready to make them.  In fact, my most repinned recipes are often the ones I pull off other websites and pin to a board.  This week's recipe is a case in point. 
I enjoy looking at the recipes that are posted to the theme on Family Fresh Meals Recipe of the Week.  Last week's theme was Hot n Spicy Recipes.  I entered my Buffalo Chicken Soup...the first recipe I posted here!  I even got votes!!  But there was this other intriguing recipe from Peanutbutter and Peppers.
For appetizer night on Saturday, I made bruchetta, carrot sticks, ranch dip, and these yummy little wontons.  I present to you now Peanutbutter and Pepper's Buffalo Chicken Wontons:

Appetizer Saturday: Bruschetta

So...it's now a couple of Saturdays ago that I made this, but J and I have been eating tapas dinners on Saturday nights.  In theory, it's so that we have a good repertoire of things for football season.  You know, those days you sit on the couch in your team's colours because it's an away game and you're not tailgating?  Okay, well, perhaps that's our house.
We have decided, however, that we cannot live on baked cheese dip alone.  So, we're trying some other small plate things (Buffalo Wontons, anyone?) that we can eat Saturdays as we watch at least 3 games.
Hopefully in fall, the tomatoes will be better than what I could get in February.  I even bought hothouse vine ripened, and they were a little mealy.  But with what I added, it was still all good.
I present to you now how we make Bruschetta around here:

What I actually Made Crostini

So for those of you following along, I had issues with my avocado on Sunday when I went to make Superbowl appetizers.  I was left with goat cheese, baguette, and not a whole lot else.
It's a good thing I planned to have chicken pesto risotto this week.  I bought a bottle of pesto.  Armed with that knowledge and the internet, I came up with something else.  I present to you Sarah's Goat Cheese and Pesto Spread for Crostini.

Not really attractive on my ugly countertop in a fruit nappy.  After the jump is a much more appealing picture.