The holidays are approaching, so it is time to flex the creative muscles a little bit and come up with little twists on entertaining classics. One of my personal favorites is the deviled egg. Unfortunately, they rank very high on my wife’s list of things that she will not eat under any circumstances, so I rarely get an opportunity to make them.

This past week, however, my inlaws came into town to celebrate Christmas early, as my wife has to work this year. Since they are open to just about anything, I took the opportunity to make some deviled eggs replacing the mayonnaise and mustard in the traditional recipe with my smokey pancetta aioli.

I didn’t deviate too far the standard script, using a recipe I found at Serious Eats as the basis for mine. The only other thing I replaced was the hot sauce for a little liquid smoke and I added some shallots in for a little texture and flavor.

They came out amazingly good, creamy with a nice smokey flavor from the liquid smoke, paprika and, of course, the bacon. I garnished them with finely chopped bacon and chives, a touch of Maldon sea salt, and a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil before dusting them with more smoked Spanish paprika.

And the best part of doing all of this was that I had plenty of aioli left over to make my favorite tuna sandwich of all time. Since I’ve never been successful in using either my food processor or an immersion blender to prepare an aioli, I only do it by hand and it takes far too long to do it as often as I’d like. Also, since I tend to overstuff my egg white halves, I usually have four to six leftover that need to be put to good use.

After mixing the leftover egg whites, the tuna, and the aioli, I dressed a handful of baby arugula with some lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt and made my family all a nice lunch. Plus we had a nice snack all ready for later when we exchanged our presents later that evening.

What are your favorite holiday entertaining recipes?

Smokey Bacon Deviled Eggs

Software

• 1 dozen eggs3 tablespoons smokey pancetta aioli
• 1 small shallot, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon smoked spanish paprika, half reserved or garnish
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard powder
• 1-2 drops liquid smoke (optional)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, equally divided
• salt and pepper, to taste
• chives
• crunchy sea salt (i.e., Maldon)

Assemblage

1. Place eggs in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water.
2. Put the saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil, then cover, remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes
3. Drain the saucepan and peel the eggs under cold running water
4. Split the hard boiled eggs in half, reserving the 18 best looking egg white halves
5. Put egg yolks to a food processor, then add aioli, mustard, shallot pickled in the vinegar, liquid smoke (if desired), spanish paprika, and mustard powder.
6. Pulse until smooth, occasionally stopping to scrape down the sides.
7. With food processor running, drizzle 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.
8. Taste, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Scrape mixture into a zip top bag, cut off a corner and pipe the yolk mixture into the reserved egg white halves.
10. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and garnish with chives, sea salt, chopped bacon, and smoked spanish paprika, if desired.

PJ’s Smokey Bacon Tuna Sandwich

Software

• 1 can Bumble Bee Tonno in Oil
• 2-3 tablespoons smokey pancetta aioli
• 3-4 halves hard boil egg whites, chopped
• Baby arugula
• Lemon juice
• Olive oil
• Bread of choice

Assemblage

1. Crumble tuna in a medium sized bowl, then add the aioli and chopped egg whites and stir until combined
2. Spoon tuna mixture onto bread of choice, then top with baby arugula dressed in olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice

Disclosure: As part of the Bee Squad I receive product information and samples and Bumble Bee sponsored my attendance at the 2012 Type A Parent conference. I was not compensated in any other way, nor was I offered or promised anything else in exchange or my review of their products, recipes or BeeWell For Life program. All opinions contained herein are my own.