Caramelized Bacon Twists

Ten years. Five hundred and twenty weeks. I have been writing this blog for ten years, and the only thing that has changed is everything. Everything has changed except the food. The food is the same. The shrimp and grits I made in week one are the same shrimp and grits I made tonight. The grits are stone-ground. The shrimp are local. The butter is generous. The love is total. Ten years and the recipe hasn't changed because the recipe was right from the beginning.

The rest of it — the rest has been a novel. A long, winding, heartbreaking, beautiful novel written one week at a time by a woman who types with one finger on an iPad and who never expected anyone to read it and who has been read by people in Memphis and Denver and places she's never been, by people who found a pot of grits and a grandmother's voice and something they needed in the space between the food and the love.

Ten-year accounting: In ten years, I have buried a husband, a brother, and another brother. I have welcomed six great-grandchildren (Michael, Wayne Jr., Nola, Zoe, Zara, Simone). I have seen two granddaughters married. I have taught cooking classes. I have replaced a knee. I have been diagnosed with diabetes. I have grown a watermelon after seven years of failure. I have cooked more meals than I can count and written more words than I can remember and the writing and the cooking are the same thing — they are both the act of making something from nothing and offering it to someone who is hungry.

I am seventy-one years old. I am a Black woman from the east side of Savannah, Georgia, who grew up in a shotgun house with six siblings and a mother who could make a feast out of nothing. I have been cooking since I was ten. I have been feeding people since I was old enough to hold a spoon. And I will keep feeding people until the Lord says stop, and even then I will argue, because Dorothy Mae Henderson does not stop feeding people. Dorothy Mae Henderson feeds people the way the sun feeds the garden: constantly, without condition, because that is her purpose and she knows it.

Ten years. Same dish. Same kitchen. Same woman. Older. Wider. With one titanium knee and eleven great-grandchildren and a cast iron skillet that is nearly a hundred years old and a journal that is on volume twenty-eight and a heart that has been broken and rebuilt and broken again and rebuilt again and is still, somehow, still, beating. Still cooking. Still here.

Now go on and feed somebody.

After ten years and more words than I can remember, I am not going to make this complicated — because the whole point is that it never had to be. These Caramelized Bacon Twists are the kind of thing I’ve set out on a Sunday afternoon when the grandchildren pile in and I need something in their hands before they take apart my kitchen. Brown sugar. Black pepper. Bacon. That’s it. That is the whole lesson right there, the same one I have been writing toward for a decade: you do not need much when what you have is good.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 lb thick-cut bacon strips (about 12–14 slices)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional, for heat)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional, for depth)

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set a wire rack on top. Lightly coat the rack with nonstick spray.
Make the coating. In a shallow bowl or on a plate, mix together the brown sugar, black pepper, and cayenne (if using) until combined. If you’re using Dijon mustard, brush a thin layer onto one side of each bacon strip before pressing it into the sugar mixture.
Coat the bacon. Press each bacon strip firmly into the brown sugar mixture on both sides so the sugar adheres well. Don’t be shy — you want a good coating.
Twist and place. Hold each strip at both ends and give it several twists along its length. Lay the twisted strips on the prepared wire rack, spacing them about 1/2 inch apart so the heat circulates evenly.
Bake. Bake for 18–22 minutes, until the bacon is deep golden brown and the sugar has caramelized. Watch closely in the last few minutes — the sugar can go from caramelized to burnt quickly.
Cool before serving. Let the twists rest on the rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. The caramel will harden as it cools, giving you that signature crisp, glassy coating. Do not move them to paper towels — they will stick.

Nutrition (per serving)

Caramelized Bacon Twists — Ten Years, Same Kitchen, Same Love