Congratulations to Kristen from This Is A Very Simple Game (a damn fine blog in its own right!) for winning the RSBS Biggest Fan Contest, sponsored by Crown Royal.  Soon Kristen will be enjoying Albert Pujols in the bright SoCal sun with well protected eyes as she is going to receive a pair of sweet Oakley Blender Sunglasses.  Hot dang!

And if that’s not hot enough, check out her winning entry below.  Your taste buds will thank you!

Kristen writes:

Caramelized Red Onion State, Blue Cheese State, Bacon Lavosh!

This is a quick and dirty weeknight dinner that tastes gourmet and doubles nicely as a game day snack. But, since you can’t exactly tell how amazing this smells and tastes from the photo, here is the recipe. I get the impression that Johanna cooks but I don’t know if Jeff and Allen do, so the recipe is written for both the well stocked kitchen and the un-stocked kitchen:

Ingredients for 2 Lavosh:

• 5 slices of bacon (because, hello, Bacon? Is there any ingredient more charismatic?)
• 1 Red Onion, cut in half and sliced into thin rings
• 3 cloves fresh crushed garlic  (or one teaspoon dried, if that’s what you have)
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil for cooking
• 2 pieces lavosh (whole wheat works well here too. If you don’t have access to lavosh, what the heck kind of Trader Joe’s do you have there in Chicago? 😉 And/or you can use pita, tortillas, or even pizza dough instead.)
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Crumbled Blue Cheese (roughly 4 oz. which is to say, basically a palm full. I don’t really prescribe to the tyranny of traditional “standard” measurements unless I am baking or performing some other form of chemistry, LOL.)  I like Trader Joe’s Salem Blue or Point Reyes Blue Cheese if I have it around, but any will work.
• Optional – 1/2 cup of _______ meat. I used leftover roast chicken the evening I took the photo because we roasted chicken-zilla earlier in the week and had it on hand. But diced deli meat works wonderfully too – turkey, roast beef or, if you’re feeling especially porcine inclined, ham or prosciutto (yum!).
• Salt and pepper to taste (sea salt and fresh ground pepper if you have it, no worries if you don’t)

Instructions:

1.     Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2.     Cook the bacon until it is almost cooked to your preferred level of doneness, then set aside. Chop when cooled.

3.     Heat the cooking fat (and use some of the bacon drippings for 1 tablespoon of the cooking fat , if you dare). Add the garlic (if you’re using fresh) and sauté for a few seconds before adding the onions.

4.     Keep stirring the onions. Season with a little salt and pepper (and the dried garlic if you’re using dried) once the onions are coated in the oil. You want to almost fully caramelize the onions – sauté them, stirring from time to time, until they are browned slivers of completely limp, tasty oniony goo.

5.     Put the lavosh on cookie sheets (or prep for a pizza stone if you have one and have time to heat it) and cover each of them in half of the mozzarella cheese in a thin layer stretching out to the edges.

6.     Sprinkle each evenly with half of the bacon, cooked onions, blue cheese and extra meat (if you are using).

7.     Dust both lightly with pepper.

8.     Bake for roughly five minutes, turn and then five minutes more (much longer if you are using pizza dough), until the cheese is bubbly and golden in spots and the edges of the meat and lavosh are crisp and browning.

9.     Cool slightly, slice and enjoy!

10.  Serve with dark beer or red wine (ideally a good, rich Rhone style blend. Feel free to ask if you would enjoy any California-centric suggestions J).

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YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!!!

Special thanks go out to all those who submitted entries!  We love you all.  Now go make some lavosh and get krunk!

Jeff & Al