How about Bacon? How about Potato? How about combining the two into Bacon Potato?

What are two of your most favourite things when it comes to food? How about Bacon? How about Potato? How about combining the two into Bacon Potato? Well the folks over at Caf� Chocolada have done just this, and the recipe is as simple as it is grand! The unassuming, starchy, yet beseechingly addictive potato is a part of the perennial nightshade family. There are several theories regarding the potato's true place of origin, but studies have shown they actually come from the Andes region � in particular, what is now southern Peru and north western Bolivia. It's believed they were first cultivated in those areas about 10,000 years ago. The potato migrated into other cultures approximately 400 years ago, and now it's one of our greatest food staples. As the fourth largest food crop in the world, it's right up there with wheat, rice, and corn.

And holy smokes, there's just so much you can do with potatoes! Bake 'em, fry 'em, boil 'em, grill 'em, mash 'em, scallop 'em, cream 'em, and stuff 'em. You can put them in soups, stews, and salads. You can cook them like chicken, and you can even do wonderful things with their skins! Really, your imagination's the only limit when you're talking about potatoes.But how about potatoes and bacon? This is a match made in heaven if we ever heard of one! And you're absolutely going to love the way they are baked together. Not only is this dish yummy, it's pleasing to look at, too.Oh yes, and for best results? Add cheese. Lots of cheese. Wait til the last 8 to 10 minutes of baking time, then add it. You will not be sorry!

In America, bacon is most often cured and smoked, and different flavours can be achieved by using a variety of wood, or rarely corn cobs. Sometimes peat is used in the United Kingdom. This process of smoking and curing can take up to eighteen hours, depending on the intensity of the flavour desired. The Virginia Housewife, possibly one of the earliest American cookbooks, gives no indication that bacon is ever not smoked, though it gives no advice on flavouring. American bacons include varieties that can be smoked with hickory or corncobs and flavourings such as red pepper, maple, brown sugar, honey, molasses, and occasionally cinnamon. Bacon can vary in sweetness and saltiness and may come from the Ozarks, New England, and the upper South states such as Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade family. Popular potato dishes include mashed potatoes, whole baked potatoes,boiled or steamed potatoes, French fried potatoes or chips, cut into cubes and roasted potatoes, scalloped, diced, or sliced and fried (home fries), grated into small thin strips and fried (hash browns), grated and formed into dumplings, R�sti or potato pancakes.