Bacon wrapped water chestnuts

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts
Makes approximately 50 appetizer bites

Ingredients
2 lbs bacon
3 cans whole water chestnuts (8 oz. cans)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons (approximately) soy sauce 
2 tablespoons (approximately) Worchestershire sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Take a water chestnut (or cut them in half if they are big) and roll them in half of a piece of raw bacon. Stick the roll with a toothpick
3. Line up your bacon rolls in a casserole dish with the toothpicks pointing up
4. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar
5. Shake soy sauce and Worchestershire sauce over the top of the bundles. (Give a quick sprinkle over the top making sure that each little roll gets hit with a dash of soy and Worchestershire)
6. Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes or until browned and cooked through (this might take a little longer if you use thick cut bacon)

You may have seen this game circulating on Facebook a few weeks back that was encouraging a bit of imbibing while watching the first presidential debate. The basic premise was that if either candidate opened his mouth, you were required to take a sip of your drink. So, in a last ditch effort to make a typical Wednesday night a bit more interesting, we decided to take the challenge. After a quick email exchange around 4 p.m. BryGuy and I had rounded up a couple of friends for an impromptu debate party.

Immediately, I started brainstorming about what food and beverage to serve. My inner hostess wanted to be creative and adventurous, my more rational self knew that I needed some options that didn't require much grocery shopping and could be prepared quickly. Also, as we try to stay paleo during week nights, I wanted to have some paleo-friendly options without making my guests eat a meat buffet. After some quick brainstorming and perusing my Pinterest food board, I came up with a number of quick options that required only a few additional ingredients from the grocery store. I settled on:

Guacamole and chips - okay tortilla chips aren't paleo but this was really the only "cheat" item on the table (Oh, besides the beer we were drinking)

Shrimp cocktail - spicing up the store-bought cocktail sauce with some extra horseradish is a must.

Melon wrapped with prosciutto - a little appetizer inspired by my recent trip to Italy, although their prosciutto and melon were both better than what I could find in the grocery store.

Bacon wrapped water chestnuts - this is one of my mom's go-to appetizers. It's always a huge crowd favorite and is quick and easy to make. Below is the really complex recipe:

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

1. Take a water chestnut (or cut them in half if they are big) and wrap them in half of a piece of raw bacon. Stick the roll with a toothpick.
2. Line up in a casserole dish.
3. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar. (I used less than 1/2 cup for my casserole dish.)
4. Coat with soy sauce and Worchestershire sauce. (Basically, I gave a quick shake over the top making sure that each little roll got hit with a bit of soy and Worchestershire)
5. Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes or until browned and cooked through.

All in all the gathering was a success - we drank a good amount of beer and the food above proved to be just enough for our small crowd of four. There were a few shrimp and melon bites left over but everything else was consumed.  Read more about the evening’s festivities on my gal pal’s blog (City In Between): Fitness, Fun & Fall Festivals in the ‘Illadelph

Who's going to play the drinking game tonight? 

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