Here’s the thing. You can wrap pretty much anything in bacon and cover it in butter and sugar, and it will be good. I know that. You know that. And these green beans? Prove that.

Strangely enough, my child – who will eat pretty much any fruit or vegetable – refused to eat a little bundle of bacon-wrapped green beans. That worked out well, though, because it left more for the grown-ups.

Seriously, though – who turns down what is essentially vegetable candy?!

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night, and you know how I am. I consider dinner guests my guinea pigs for new recipes. I’m happy to say that exactly 50 percent of my attempted new dishes turned out great.

[Don't ask about the banana cream pie cupcakes. They did NOT live up to my Pinterest-inspired dreams.]

My friend Kelly is sweet enough that, as I told her, I knew she wouldn’t mind if she saw my kitchen in its “natural state.” In other words, it was a bit of a disaster. Nevertheless, I felt the need to distract her from my messiness with some fancy veggies.

Yes. I’m saying that fancy = wrapped in bacon.

I didn’t really need to be fancy. You don’t need to for real friends, right? We had a great time visiting with our friends (and the girls – Annalyn and their 5-year-old daughter only erupted into tears and pouting once the whole night). And they were kind enough to say as many nice things about the failed cupcakes as they did the amazing green beans.

This dish took longer than opening up a can of green beans and nuking them in the microwave, of course. But it really didn’t take that long. Snapping the ends off the beans was annoying (but partially just because I’m used to just opening up a can . . .). Wrapping them up in bacon and the rest wasn’t hard – or all that time-consuming – at all.

Bacon-Wrapped Green Beans

1-2 lbs. fresh green beans
8-12 slices bacon
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Snap the ends off your beans and wash them thoroughly. Lightly salt and pepper them. Cut your bacon slices into thirds or halves (depending on the size of bundles you want – or, if you’re like me, the ratio of bacon to bean you want), then wrap around a few beans. I found that a third wrapped around about four beans easily, while a half could hold six or so. Place bundles on a greased baking sheet (or a foil-lined and greased baking sheet, if you want an easier clean-up).

In a small sauce pan, melt butter and add brown sugar and garlic powder. (You don’t have to add the garlic powder. I saw recipes that called for more, recipes that called for none, and recipes that called for other ingredients altogether. This is what I did. And it was good.) Brush the melted mixture of goodness over your bean bundles. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

What is your favorite bacon-wrapped food?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Made by You Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green, Works for Me Wednesday, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, I’m Lovin’ It, Foodie Friday and Show and Tell Saturday. It will also be linked to Ingredient Spotlight at Eat at Home Cooks.

My mom hosted a tea party this weekend. She pulled out her fine china and her prettiest platters, she filled pitchers with hot tea and hot chocolate, and she put tiny doilies on fancy plates. My aunt, cousins and several friends gathered around a few tables to visit and eat little sandwiches and cream puffs. The afternoon included a whole lot of laughter, a few happy tears, tea party trivia and the traditional cousins kitchen clean-up.

It was a good time. (Mom said that next year we’re all supposed to bring a friend, so feel free to begin lobbying for the position of my guest now.)

Before the official invitation came in the mail but after several rounds of emails trying to find a date that worked for everyone, Mom asked me to bring fruit and dip. She assumed that, because I’m a very good, very good cook [please hear that in my lame Rain Man imitation with a splash of sarcasm], I had a tried-and-true fruit dip recipe.

Um, yeah. She was wrong. Not only have I never made fruit dip, but I’ve never really enjoyed eating it, either.

I’m really more of a salty girl than a sweets girl, though I do love chocolate. Duh. So if I have to dip fruit into something (as opposed to dipping chips into something, which I love more than so many things), I want liquid chocolate – preferable raining down from a fountain.

But that’s not what my mom wanted, so I knew I’d have to either figure out what makes up a fruit dip or admit defeat and buy some at the store. I suspected store-bought dip would not be acceptable for this fancy Nancy party. (It was not actually a Fancy Nancy party, though it was a little bit fancy and my aunt’s name is, in fact, Nancy.)

Little did I know that, despite her hours of research into the history of and rules for tea parties, my mom decided that tradition is fun, but in honor of it being the 21st century, she bought all frozen and prepared food and just nuked them.

If only I’d known.

Actually, I’m glad I didn’t know that, because the dip I made is SO good! I started with a basic fruit dip recipe from Brown-Eyed Baker, and then I improvised.

Adding the sugar and vanilla made it a solid (and pleasantly sweet) dip. But it just didn’t seem special enough. Just as I was about to give up (I’m not really a creative cook and going off recipe to add vanilla was a big deal for me.), I glanced into the pantry and saw the cinnamon. Well, first I saw the nutmeg, but that didn’t seem right. So I added some cinnamon and voila!

The cinnamon made the dip. I’m not sure if everyone loved it quite as much as I did, although I did hear my mom compliment it. And they so say that everyone can be happy if mama’s happy . . .

Cinnamon Fruit Dip

7 oz. marshmallow creme
8 ox. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Beat together ingredients. Serve with fruit. Or graham crackers. Or just eat it with a spoon. Not that I’ve done that. That was simply a suggestion.

Have you ever been to a tea party? Do you like dip with your fruit?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green, Works for Me Wednesday, I’m Lovin’ It, Sweet Tooth Friday and Foodie Friday.