Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

In honor of national chocolate chip day (and to justify our 8 a.m. chocolate cravings), we challenged the team to a bake off. Our kitchen was filled with the smells of raspberry and banana, mixed with the sweet aroma of sugary chocolate.

The categories for judging included: most unusual use of chips, best sweet, best non-dessert, and best overall batch.

The competition was fierce, and although we began snacking way before an appropriate hour, our stomachs were eager to help narrow down the winners.

Although not as intense as a Cake Boss ending, we were able to pick off each batch and bring a few different recipes to victory.

The most unique use of chips and best dessert goes to our “Hello Dollies” dish, while our non-dessert batch was awarded to the muffins (which I personally love; I’m all for a cake that will call itself a muffin to be a breakfast food). Our “best overall” category tied, bringing Hello Dollies and Raspberry Pecan Chocolate Chip to the top.

We challenge you to have your own bake off. Try our recipes below and add your own flair. Throw in some vanilla chips or raspberry chocolate to make your recipe different, and you too can impress with your baking skills.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans:

What you need:

• 1 cup multigrain hot cereal mix (rolled whole grain rye, barley, oats, and wheat; use Country Choice, 3-1/2 oz. by weight)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 tbsp Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, cut into small pieces (1-1/2 sticks or 6 oz. by weight)
• 1/2 cup tahini sesame seed paste (4-1/2 oz. by weight)
• 3/4 cup sugar, non bone-char processed
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, non bone-char processed
• 1/2 cup maple syrup (5-3/4 oz. by weight)
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 10 oz. bag Semisweet chocolate chips (use Sunspire Tropical Source brand)
• 1 3 oz. bar Sunspire Tropical Source Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar
• 1-1/2 cups pecans, chopped and toasted (6 oz. by weight)
• 1 tsp raw sugar or turbinado sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (10 oz. by weight)

What to do:

1. Whisk together the flour, multigrain hot cereal mix, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat the vegan butter and tahini in a stand mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.
3. Add the sugar and brown sugar, and beat about 2 more minutes.
4. Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract and almond extract, and beat for another 1 minute.
5. Stir in the flour mixture by hand just until incorporated. Do over mix. Chop the raspberry dark chocolate bar into 1/4” to 1/2” pieces, and gently fold into the batter along with the chocolate chips and pecans. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Portion out rounded tablespoons of dough, roll into balls, and place on lightly greased baking sheets about 1-1/2” apart. Press down to flatten slightly. Sprinkle each cookie with a tiny pinch of raw sugar or turbinado sugar.
7. Bake at 350 °F for about 11-13 minutes, or until lightly browned.
8. Allow to cool for three minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hello Dollies Recipe:

What you need:

• 3 cups crushed graham crackers
• 1/3 cup melted butter (unsalted)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 cup coconut
• 1-14oz can sweetened condensed milk

At Burns Marketing, we love our smartphones. No, I mean we REALLY love our smartphones. In fact, in the last few weeks we haven’t been able to stop kissing them. If you walked through our creative department recently, you may have witnessed designers, developers, and copywriters working long hours with their lips pressed passionately against the screen – all for a new app called LipTricks that analyzes your kissing technique.

Here’s how it works: When you kiss your phone, LipTricks detects your lip position and movement (if you’re really brave, your tongue is tracked, too) and gives you feedback in the form of badges that you earn for different kiss achievements. Unlock the granny badge with a quick peck, or the newlywed badge with an extra-passionate smooch. You can imagine what it takes to unlock the pup badge. Some kisses need a little bit of planning, like the Cinderella, which requires your lips to be touching the phone at the stroke of midnight. There are 20 badges in all – and a few hidden ones to reward those of you who are extraordinarily gifted.

LipTricks is available for the iPhone and Android devices; download it today. Happy Valentine’s Day from your friendly engagement marketing experts at Burns Marketing.

Burns Marketing gave to us – a Bacon Explosion™! And yes, it’s more meat than your mouth knows what to do with: two pounds of Italian (pronounced “eye-tal-yen”) pork sausage and two pounds of thick-cut bacon, enhanced with your favorite barbecue sauce and rub.

Caution: Don’t try this at home. Your smoke detector could go off – or worse, the cat might forever smell like bacon (unless you’re into that kind of stuff).

The Recipe
1. Order the Bacon Explosion: Click here.
2. Enjoy the Bacon Explosion, with your fingers and a beach-towel sized napkin to dry those shiny fingers after you’re done lickin’ em. This stuff really is a Fourth of July-caliber meat party.

And so, all good things come to an end. The Twelve Days of Bacon draw to a rather anticlimactic close. Bad for us… good for pigs.

Burns Marketing gave to us – a big bag of bacon-flavored peanut brittle.

This salty delicious treat has the easiest recipe yet:

1. Open an Internet browser on your computer.

2. Go here.

3. Select the size of the bag you’d like your bacon brittle to come in.

4. Checkout.

5. Wait patiently for delicousness to arrive in a box on your front porch.

6. Rip open package and devour.

Patrick Hunt (our senior copywriter and creative brand strategist) gave to us, bacon-wrapped breakfast fiestas.

Trust us. These fancy little Mexican quichelet things are delicious AND nutritious. As someone in the creative department proclaimed: “These are good for you. They have beans in them.”

A can of mixed vegetables is hiding somewhere in there, too – neatly tucked in under a blanket of bacon.

Ingredients
2 cups of Mexican rice (recipe follows)
1 cup of cooked pinto beans
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Spices (dashes of oregano, cumin, Herbs de Provence)
Salt and pepper to taste
18 slices of smoked bacon

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Coat cupcake trays with nonstick oil.
3. Place a bacon strip inside each cup, making a circle.
4. Mix remaining ingredients very thoroughly in a large bowl.
5. Spoon rice and bean mixture into each cup.
6. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until bacon is fully cooked.

For the Mexican rice
Sure you could probably use a couple packets of ready-made Mexican rice, but beware your daily sodium intake. You will wrap the rice in bacon, after all.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 ½ cups of rice
2-3 Roma tomatoes
½ small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 cube chicken bullion
1 small can of mixed vegetables
Salt to taste

Preparation
1. In a blender, mix tomatoes, onion, garlic, and bullion until well blended. Add water. (Since we were cooking in Colorado, we used approximately 4 cups of liquid. At lower altitudes, 3 cups should suffice.)
2. In a deep saucepan, heat oil on medium.
3. Add the rice and sauté for a few minutes until it’s evenly browned. Stir constantly to keep the rice from sticking.
4. When the rice is light brown, mix it with canned vegetables, tomato mix, and salt. Stir and bring it to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and cover. Let it cook for about 25 minutes or until all water is absorbed.
6. Stir gently every 5 minutes or so to prevent rice from sticking to the bottom. When water is nearly absorbed, stir more frequently.

“Party Pork is in the howwwwssseeeee tonight…”

We were so lulled into our bacon stupor that we ate the bacon and, well shucks, forgot to write about it. And so, without further ado, here’s how to make a December barbecue even more baco-licious.

BBQ Baked Bean & Apple with Bacon Casserole

Ingredients
1 cup diced onion
2 (15-ounce) cans Boston-style baked beans
1 cup diced Granny Smith apple
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
5 strips of bacon

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Coat a 2-quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the bacon and mix well.
4. Pour into the baking dish and lay the raw strips of bacon on top.
5. Cover and bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until thick and bubbly.
6. Uncover and bake for 5 more minutes.

This dish is best enjoyed on the side of a bacon cheeseburger – although some of the hippies here insist that it works well with a veggie burger, too. (But if you watched closely, you could almost see the veggie burger recoil with horror.)

Rest up. There are three more glorious days of bacon to come.

Dion Dolva (our video producer/editor) gave to us… four plates full of bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapenos.

We should’ve timed how long these pieces of deliciousness actually lasted – because it wasn’t very long. Picture a feeding frenzy, followed immediately by everyone chugging the nearest cold beverage. Good times!

Ingredients
Serves: Well, it depends on how much you and your friends like bacon and jalapenos.
• Jalapeno peppers: anywhere from 12 to 75
• Cream cheese: 1 package usually fills around 15 jalapenos
• Bacon: 1 package per 15-ish peppers
• Beer: drink as many as you’d like, but save enough to chase these poppers when they’re done

Preparation
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 15 to 20 minutes (this really depends on how many peppers you’re making)
1. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise; remove seeds and membranes. You might want to wear gloves or your next trip to the restroom could be a hot time.
2. Open the package of cream cheese, then fill the peppers with cheese.
3. Wrap each pepper with a half of slice of bacon.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
5. Put peppers on baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Then pop that little party into your mouth. Fan flaming mouth with hand and repeat.

Cadie Berrian (an account executive) gave to us, a chocolate and Lit’l Smokies bacon overload.

Today is festival of all flavors of bacon – from two varieties of bacon-enhanced cupcakes, to a crock-pot full of slow-roasted, bacon-wrapped Lit’l Smokies. Yeah. The seventh day of bacon is pretty awesome.

Dark chocolate bacon cupcakes (yields two dozen cupcakes):

• 12 slices bacon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cold, strong, brewed coffee
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, coffee, buttermilk and oil. Stir just until blended. Mix in 3/4 of the bacon, reserving the rest for garnish. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.

Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, frost with your favorite chocolate frosting and sprinkle reserved bacon crumbles on top.

Chocolate frosting (yields 32 servings):

• 2 cups butter (no substitutes), softened
• 9 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 1/2 cups baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

In a large mixing bowl (I used a KitchenAid mixer), cream butter. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Add enough milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency.

Brown sugar bacon-wrapped smokies:

• 1 pound bacon
• 1 (16 ounce) package Lit’l Smokies sausages
• 1 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut bacon into thirds and dredge in brown sugar.  Roll Lit’l Smokies in brown sugar, and wrap one strip of bacon around each one. Arrange on broiler pan to catch grease drippings. Bake for 30-40 minutes, and broil for additional 5 minutes for extra crispy bacon. Sprinkle additional brown sugar to taste.

Torrie Grewe (one of our star-studded designers; just look at the photo and you will understand the magnitude of her skill) gave to us… Pigs in a Bacon Snuggie. Aptly named, because after you eat these, you’ll want to lounge around on the couch in a Snuggie of your own.

Ingredients:
Bacon!!!
Hot dogs
Velveeta (or something similar that aspires to be cheese)
Croissant dough

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cook bacon on foiled-lined cookie sheet for about 20 minutes. After 10 minutes or so, flip bacon. Cook until the bacon is done yet still flexible enough to wrap around the hot dogs.
3. After the bacon has cooled, transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate. Pat excess grease off bacon (because this makes it about as healthy as spinach).
4. Place cheese slice on croissant dough. Wrap bacon around the hot dog, place on the cheese/croissant dough, roll and pinch the dough to seal.
5. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Savor the salty, gooey goodness that will give your arteries a much-needed workout and make your taste buds want to run high-speed circles of unbridled puppy joy in your backyard.

And that screaming sound? Those are the seams of your jeans; they’re thinking of giving up the fight.

Amy Stinar (one of our account coordinators) gave to us… a pile of candied bacon pieces. Yeah. It’s pretty much bacon crack. That’s all that needs to be said.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of bacon (not thick-cut)
• ¼ cup brown sugar (or more)

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Slice bacon in half into strips.
• Dredge bacon in brown sugar until well coated.
• Crumple aluminum foil so that it allows for grease drainage.
• Place it on baking sheet.
• Lay out the bacon making sure the pieces do not overlap.
• Bake until bacon is crispy.
• Allow bacon to cool before serving.