Bacon Wrapped BBQ Water Chestnuts

Greetings to my 4 subscribers!

Friday night here in the convent and that can mean only one thing...time to do a little experimental cooking!

Tonight I whipped up a scrumptious hors d'oeuvre from scratch. A long time ago I remember having a water chestnut appetizer wrapped in bacon and covered in BBQ sauce. So, this evening I tried my best to recreate it...success(for the most part)!

The recipe was simple enough:

2 cans whole water chestnuts
1 lb bacon
Favorite BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays...of course)

Today's lesson/word is: Preparation

One would think I would understand this word fully. An Eagle Scout is always prepared...but I guess I missed that day of boy scouts. When you prepare bacon wrapped water chestnuts it is essential to have a way to bind them together, lest they fall apart while you are brushing the sauce on them. However, I forgot the simplest ingredient to make these treats: toothpicks.

No problem, one would think, everyone has toothpicks in a house. Nope. Convents don't come pre-stocked with toothpicks (or normal cookware for that matter(post about cooking pancakes in a pot to come)). Luckily, I play jazz and know how to improvise. I found some skewers and a pair of scissors and started cutting until I had enough to assemble my 20 bite-sized morsels of goodness. [Note to self...buy the toothpicks next time]

I preheated the oven to 350 and baked the bacon-wrapped water chestnuts covered in sauce for 45 minutes. The cooking time was just about perfect; however, if I were to do this again, I would reapply BBQ sauce during cooking to make sure they are fully coated.

The hors d'oeuvres turned out great and will surely be made again in the future!

If you have any crafty ideas for hors d'oeuvres, post them in the comment section and I'll make them in the future.