FNF - bacon corn muffins with savory cream cheese frosting

Hey, y'all! 

Hope everyone has had a fabulous holiday season so far - there is more to come, with Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Yule tidings, Christmas and many others I am sure I am ignorant of, to my detriment. Here's wishing everyone a joyous season. Winter has always been a favorite time for celebrations, given that the days are shortening, they are colder and bleaker and not much of anything happening out of doors, unless the proper preparations are taken and everyone gets bundled up. So what better time throughout the ages to throw a party? I hope to have much more coming up on this topic. 

For now, I am more focused on returning to this well-known, time-honored tradition of blogging, and what better way to get back in the blog-mood than with a Food Network Friday, hosted by our very own lovely Tamasin Noyes of American Vegan Kitchen fame, over at Vegan Appetite. 

[And if you don't have a copy, this is the best season ever to get one!] 

{And again, if you are craving some blog love from said Tami, get on board Food Network Friday yourself - she has tons of it to give out.}

What do my eyes behold, when I finally mosey on over to VA, but Bacon Corn Muffins. In my opinion, you could just call them Bacon Muffins and leave it at that. As anyone who has been a slave to Food TV knows, meat + cake is all the sickening rage nowadays, especially using bacon. Naturally, this  is the perfect recipe to duplicate, not only for the morbid curiosity it evokes (think: car crash rubberneckers) but for the sheer need to veganize the stupid thing! 

Two things need attention in this recipe: the egg and the bacon.

(1) The Egg: Super easy, folks! Ignore it. Forget about it. Useless and unneeded addition P.R.ed by the Egg Board. The starch in the muffin is enough to bind it. Think of it this way-- as long as you have starch in a dish, one egg = 1/4 cup of liquid. I upped the 3/4 cup of milk to 1 cup and called it a day. Enough of this nonsense!

(2) The Bacon: Lots of fun here! You can use my Tofu Bacon recipe and then crispen it in some oil, use Fakin' Bacon tempeh, or what I did... used 2 links of Tofurkey Italian Sausage.  I diced 2 links up, fried them until crisp in olive oil and, after I removed them from the heat, added some liquid smoke. 

Now came time for the most important decision making part: what hot sauce to use. Oh, the possibilities.. the recipe author, Brian Boitano, gives no direction here! Louisianan hot sauce, Tabasco, Harrisa, Chipotle, Habanero, Frank's or..... Sriracha?  Yeah, well, I figured I'd go with the vegan masses and used Sriracha. In fact, I have never seen a condiment more embraced than Sriracha by the vegan community. I wonder if any of the other bloggers used the same?

Verdict: Loved the muffins. Weird. But true. The frosting was way too much, and the family was scrapping it off the little tykes. Just a thin covering would have been enough, not the called for 8 ounces for the 24 mini or 12 regular sized muffins.

Since a muffin does not make a meal, I also made Senate Bean Soup, with navy beans, some of the same Italian Sausage and a few veggies. According to legend, this soup has been on the menu at the U.S. Senate restaurant for over 100 years. It's been a long time coming in become vegan itself. 

Vegan Bacon Muffins Recipe

US Senate Bean Soup Recipe