I love football for pretty much one reason….the SNACKS. What represents snacks better than BACON? Nothin’. This recipe is titled Holiday Bacon Appetizers by the Pioneer Woman. Why would you limit consumption of these for just the holidays? That’s just crazy.

You only need a couple of ingredients. The most important part of this recipe is how they are cooked: on a rack over a cookie sheet. You cook these at a low temperature so the fat drips off. If they’re not on the rack, you will be cooking them in bacon fat. Now I love bacon fat as much as the next guy, but if you want some crunch, you need to cook them up off the baking sheet.

Ingredients:

Keebler Club crackers (not the minis)

1 pound of thinly sliced bacon

grated parmesan cheese (please use the real stuff)

brown sugar (This is a wonderful option)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

You will get different amounts of these appetizers depending on the bacon. First thing I do is take the bacon out of the package and cut it in half. You only need half a piece of bacon for each cracker.

I like to put my cheese or brown sugar in bowls. You are going to put about a teaspoon of each on a cracker. Sometimes, the teaspoon always comes in contact with the bacon. You don’t want to keep the unused cheese or sugar because it could be contaminated by the raw bacon.

Once you put the cheese or brown sugar on the cracker, wrap the bacon around it. I sometimes do half the crackers with cheese and half with the brown sugar.  Don’t pull too tightly or the cracker will break. You want to try to have the ends on the bottom of the cracker so it doesn’t curl when it bakes. Don’t stress too much. It took me several times to master this. If the bacon curls, is that really the worst thing to happen? Nope. It will still taste delicious.

Place the crackers on the rack over a baking sheet. I like to put a piece of parchment on the cookie sheet. It makes for easy clean up. They usually fit on one baking sheet.

Put these delicious nuggets in the oven and cook for about 2 hours. I suggest you set the timer for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Check them. You don’t want them to get too dark or burn.  Sample one to determine doneness. But that’s just me!

You can serve these right away, or let them cool, and place in a Ziploc bag then toss in the freezer for another day. I microwave them before serving. How easy is that? Your house will smell like Bacon Heaven!!!

Here’s Ree’s recipe!