Monday, January 31, 2011

Bacon Hot Sauce Review

If you recall, I ordered some Bacon Hot Sauce. Well, it arrived last week and I set to work trying it out.

Upon opening and smelling the bottle, my first impression was that it smelled bacon-y, but not quite entirely like bacon.  It was an odd smell, but not unpleasant.  Kind of like if you combined traditional cayenne hot sauce with some liquid smoke. Fingertip taste revealed that it is crazy salty and with a nice heat that creeps up on you.  Still not really impressed with the bacon flavor, but it is definitely smoky.

I decided to try it on my dinner, since I like hot sauce on my broccoli.  Yeah, I know, it's weird.  I usually use sriracha, but opted for the Bacon Hot Sauce instead.

Okay.  DO NOT TRY THIS.  You know when you were a kid and you'd go to the petting zoo/farm?  You know what the goat enclosure smelled like?  Imagine eating broccoli that tasted like that smell.  Ugh.  Not good.  So we can say that Bacon Hot Sauce is NOT good on broccoli.

Next try was on scrambled eggs.  Not too bad - but once again it tasted like liquid smoke mixed with regular cayenne hot sauce.  The heat is a nice creeping heat so you really get the flavor, I just wish the flavor was more like bacon.

I mixed some in the barbeque sauce that my husband put on his hot wings that night.  He said they were good.  No comment on them being especially hot or bacon-y, though.

I drizzled a bit on some french fries.  The bacon flavor seemed to come out a bit more when combined with potatoes. I gave up on experimenting after that and just decided that Bacon Hot Sauce is good on potatoes.

Final verdict?  It's interesting and a tasty hot sauce, but don't expect OMG BACON out of it.  If shipping were cheaper or you can find it locally for six bucks, I'd say go for it for the novelty factor.

Just do NOT put it on broccoli.


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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Bacon: The Gateway to Meat for Vegetarians

What's that smell?  Oh, it's bacon cooking!  Everyone knows that smell.

Well, it seems that even vegetarians know that smell and it can be tempting to them.  Very tempting.

NPR published an article on Friday about vegetarians and bacon, and it's a great read about the psychological effects the smell of bacon has on people.

The article's mission statement:
"It seems that bacon has a way of awakening carnivorous desires within even some of the preachiest of vegetarians. And we set out to find out why."
It seems the "why" lies in the evolution of primal man to find high fat/calories especially desirable.  The smell of bacon cooking conveys its fatty goodness in a way that our bodies have a primal identification with.

Johan Lundstrom, the scientist from Monell Chemical Senses Center quoted in the article, also believes that the association of memory/emotion with smell plays a big part in bacon's attractiveness.  If you had a good childhood with family breakfasts featuring bacon, you'll relive those memories when smell bacon cooking.

I can totally see how bacon would tempt even the hardest of vegetarians back to the meaty dark side.  If this wasn't true, why would they have to make fake bacon?

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Friday, January 28, 2011

Making Your Own Bacon

Illustration by Joe McKendry for Men's Journal
Want to make your own bacon? YES!

Well, lucky for all of us, Men's Journal has an online tutorial with explicit directions to learn ya how to do just that! It also has lovely illustrations by an artist named Joe McKendry.

After reading it through, I totally think I can do this! In fact, if I can figure out how to smoke in my little gas grill, I might try it soon.

All you need is:
1 lb kosher salt • 2 oz pink salt • 8 oz brown sugar • 12 oz cracked black pepper • 3 oz cracked juniper • 20 bay leaves, crushed • 1.2 oz nutmeg • One 3–5 lb slab pork belly, skin on • 1 bunch fresh thyme • 10 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled

Except for the pink salt and pork belly, I have all of that in my pantry right now. Click the link above for the rest of the directions, but it really does seem pretty simple.

It WILL take about a week to cure the bacon, though, so be aware that this is not just a weekend cooking experiment. You could conceivably start curing one weekend and smoke/eat your bacon the next, though.

Hmmmm... I can already see ways that I could experiment with different bacon flavors based on this recipe.  I suppose a Bacon Goddess should know how to make her own bacon, huh?

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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Bacon Taste Test

Chef Christopher Tanner, from the article at timesunion.com
(©John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)
Today the Albany Times Union's website published a great article about a bacon taste test done by a culinary instructor at a local community college and it was a great read.

Chef Christopher Tanner cooked and ate five different brands of thick cut bacon and rated them.  I'm assuming these are all bacon brands you can buy at the Walmart, because one of the brands was the Walmart brand.  Surprisingly, it did not come in last!

The brands tested were Hormel Black Label, Oscar Mayer, Plumrose, Wright and Great Value (Walmart).

Tanner talks about the perfect ratio of meat to fat in the article and offers cooking tips. And, of course, he judges the bacon.  This is my favorite quote from the article about the loser of  the bacon challenge:

More fat than meat, the feeble, jaundiced strips offered a flavor reminiscent of pork rinds. They crumbled in the mouth like them, too.

Which one was it? I'm not going to give it away, you have to go read the article. It's pretty fun and informative!

Of course I have to take this chance to pimp my favorite bacon site, Bacon Freak.  Because why would you buy Walmart bacon when you can have gourmet bacon delivered to your door?

Yeah, I know, Walmart is cheaper. But do yourself a favor and indulge occasionally in some really good bacon from your local butcher or an online vendor like Bacon Freak! Your taste buds will thank you.


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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The End of the Bacon Craze? Not When You Have Bacon Ice Cream!

Stephen Lewis for The Wall Street Journal;
Food styling by Victoria Granof
This is the photo featured in the WSJ article. 
Yeah, like THAT helps with their point. YUM!
Say it ain't so!  I just started this blog!

But evidently The Wall Street Journal says the bacon craze is passing.  In an article entitled The Bacon Backlash, they claim:
"We are in the midst of a bacon bubble—and a growing number of chefs (some of whom quietly admit they helped inflate the bubble to begin with) say it's about to pop."

But the article was written in October of last year and I haven't seen a bacon slowdown yet!

The article continues with a quote from Ken Oringer, chef and owner of Clio and five other Boston restaurants:
"'It's been overplayed so much and my taste buds are tired of it,' says Mr. Oringer, who now swaps it for less shopworn ingredients. If he's looking for smoke with little fat, he'll toss a smoked turkey wing into the pot. Trout wrapped in bacon is a gastronomic trope, but trout's delicate flavor is easily masked, Mr. Oringer says.

I don't understand how one's taste buds can get tired of bacon.  I mean, really, can someone explain this to me?  I suppose if you were to sit down and eat a a whole pound of bacon by itself, no matter how delicious it was, you might get tired of the taste?

It's actually a great read and makes valid points.  I suppose just because you CAN have bacon on everything doesn't mean you HAVE to.  Personally I like cooking one really good dish featuring bacon and having the rest of the meal's flavors accent the bacon dish.  (Well except for this past year's Thanksgiving, which featured a LOT of bacon.)

Of course, just as I finished reading that article, I found another talking about the BACON ICE CREAM SANDWICH available at a sandwich shop called Meat & Bread in Toronto, Ontario.  And this article was published today.  So there!
"Occasionally, customers do balk at the combination of bacon and maple ice cream, he says. 'But then they seem to enjoy it when they start eating it.'"
Great article about trends in combining sweet and savory in one food.

Yes, in my expert opinion, the bacon craze is still going strong.  But you know what?  Even if someone turns down the heat and the sizzle stops, bacon is still good cold.


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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Bacon Fashion

No, it's just a joke gift box from Archie McPhee.  If only.
Okay baconistas, let's talk fashion.

The photo of the bra made out of uncooked bacon wanders around the internet, and people have see Gaga's meat dress, but wearing real meat is kind of gross. I mean, it'll leave slimy trails of fat all over you and stain anything you sit on.  Makes a great statement, but just not practical.

So what can the bacon lover wear to show off their love for meat candy?

Well, I've collected a bunch of nifty bacon fashions here for you to select from.  You can choose one piece to accent your wardrobe or go hog wild and build a head-to-toe bacon outfit!

Let's start with what should be a staple in any bacon lover's wardrobe - the Baconista t-shirt from Bacon Freak!  I love this shirt.  It comes in black, blue and pink in both a men's t-shirt and a  women's t-shirt for $15.95 and $17, respectively. The design is simple, yet really really cool and leaves no doubt as to how you feel about bacon.

Bacon Freak has a LOT of t-shirts, by the way.  And hoodies.  And tank tops.  And aprons.  They're definitely worth taking a look at if you want to show your love for bacon with a clothing choice.

Moving on down, we find some awesome men's bacon print pajama pants and the women's version as well  from Ginch Gonch.  These are really cool!  They're also on sale right now for $19.50 for men's and $18 for women's (regular price is over $30, so you might want to grab some now). Personally, I wish they came in more colors - I would totally rock a black pair - but the light blue/turquoise is still a good choice for showing off the bacon print.

Of course, if you want to be a REAL baconista and not some poser who is only half-bacony, you NEED to be completely bacon-upped.  The way you do this is with bacon underwear!

If you like the bacon pajama pants, you'll love the bacon boxers! Ginch Gonch offers both men's boxers and  women's boxers in this print, also on sale for $13 and $11.50, respectively.

These briefs are also from Ginch Gonch.  They're part of the "I Love Bacon" line and they are really really cool.  They come in both a men's sports brief and a women's version, and are sure to make people smile.  Well, any people who would get to see you in your undies, that is.  They're $32 and $27, respectively, and actually might be worth that price based on sheer awesomeness.


Next, you'll need to bacon-ify your feet.  This is mandatory.  But you might ask, "How do I do this, Bacon Goddess?"

Well, I'm here to tell you.

Bacon socks.  Bacon shoes.  See, that wasn't so hard, was it?

These are bacon knee high socks from Sock Dreams.  Sock Dreams is only the best sock store in the entire universe.  If you love socks you should shop there often.  These are classic knee high crew socks with the word "BACON" emblazoned up the side.  Straight and to the point.  They're $10 and Sock Dreams has free shipping to the U.S.  I may or may not have a pair on the way to me in the mail right now.

These next socks are sold as cycling/running socks and I like them just a little bit better than the ones above.  Because the pig has "X"es over its eyes and it has the word "mmmm" printed on the instep.  Yeah, this is one classy sock from The Sock Guy for $8.99.




Okay, bacon shoes. Yes, they exist.  Yes, they look amazing in the photos. But there's a problem. They're made by Zazzle.

Zazzle is a print-on-demand company notorious for low quality transfer prints that fade very quickly and just don't have the vibrant colors you'd expect from other printing methods.  I've personally seen three Zazzle t-shirts and a few coffee mugs that looked really bad. At $60 for a pair of these shoes, that's something you're going to have to decide on for yourself. I know that personally I would not risk it, regardless of how awesome they look in the pictures.  They are Keds, though, and that's a good brand.  But will it hold the color/vibrance of the print? I don't know. If anyone has purchased these, please comment and tell me what you think.


Time to accessorize!

Your neck needs bacon!  It's winter in the Northern hemisphere and it's time for a bacon-n-eggs scarf!  This looks most excellent... and warm and snuggly.  At $59, it's kind of pricey, but it looks handmade.

If you want REALLY handmade, for $57 you can have a hand painted silk bacon scarf by seller crrysstall on Etsy. This is a simply beautiful piece of art.

Of course, if you're a corporate type, you must have the tie.  Oh, have you seen the tie?  It rules. I would buy this bacon tie for my husband at $17.95 in three seconds flat... if I thought he'd ever wear it. Once again, I'm not quite sure about the quality of the printing.  There's something about it that makes me suspicious.  But at eighteen bucks, it wouldn't be that much of a loss if it turned out to be kind of crappy.

There you have it, bacon from head to toe!

And now, I must leave you for the evening.  I know this because my bacon watch tells me so!


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Monday, January 24, 2011

Bacon... Coffee?

It's morning and you're running late.  To late to cook yourself some bacon for breakfast.  Sad.

What do you do?  You brew yourself some bacon coffee!

The folks at Boca java have come up with a flavored coffee that should make bacon lovers everywhere rejoice.

The description reads: 
"Reminiscent of a hearty Saturday morning breakfast around the table, this sweet, savory coffee delights the senses with the smell and taste of home! Maple Bacon Morning coffee combines our Brazilian Arabica coffee beans with the comforting flavors of maple syrup and bacon..."

Sounds delicious to me!

This coffee is classified as a light roast, which I suppose would be good with the maple flavor, but personally I think a darker roast would compliment the bacon a bit better. It has to be good though, it has a 4.3 out 5 star rating and 313 reviews. It looks like some of the bad reviews are complaining about the flavor not being strong enough because of the light roast.  Overall, though, 88% of the reviewers would recommend it to a friend.

Buy it at the Boca Java website. You can get it in either whole bean or a universal grind. At $7.99 for half a pound, it's kind of up there in price, but then the $7.95 shipping doubles the price. Risky, for something you've never tasted.

I would probably impulse buy this right now if the shipping wasn't so high.

UPDATE!  If you register on their site, Boca Java will send you a $5 off coupon!  Looks like I might be trying this coffee after all.

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Saturday, January 22, 2011

The Infamous Turtle Burger, Bacon Goddess Style!


 Everyone's seen the turtle burgers, right?

The photos going around the internets of those delicious bacon-wrapped hamburgers made into turtles with the addition of hot dog legs, head and tail frankly intrigued me. But there was no recipe, just a picture. I figured I could make them myself. So I did.

Here's what you need to make four turtles:
  • A pound (or two) of hamburger
  • Some cheese (+/- a slice per burger)
  • BACON (about 3 slices per burger, cut in half)
  • Hot dogs (1.75 for each burger)
  • You're gonna also want some toothpicks.  Trust me.
Note: change the amounts as you see fit - these are the basics

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mold yourself some quarter to half pound burgers with whatever seasonings you like in them.  I like to put a bit of salt and pepper, some garlic powder and pinch of parsley flakes in mine.  I think I made mine with 1/3 pound burgers, so you can judge by my photos how that size looks and plan your turtles accordingly.

Now, take a sharp knife and slice the burger in half.  Put your cheese inside and reseal the burger around it so the cheese is secreted away in the middle of the burger.  The cheese WILL run out a little when it cooks, so judge your cheese amount accordingly.

Cut a hot dog in half and then slice the halves in half lengthwise so they are domed on the top and flat on the bottom.  With a sharp knife, make two slices on the end of each.  These will turn into turtle toes as the burgers cook.

The head can be a hot dog cut in half and the tail can be a quarter of a hot dog.  Make the tail pointy for authenticity.  I mean, you want your bacon turtle to look REAL, right?

Now comes the tricky part. Carefully make holes for the legs, head and tail and push them in, domed side up.  You can just coax the hamburger open a bit and then shove the hot dogs in further, but do it slowly and carefully.  At this point, you might want to use toothpicks to hold the hot dogs in place while you add them all, as the burger might get a bit unstable.  Make sure you smoosh the hamburger as tight against the hot dogs as possible to minimize cheese leakage.

Time to weave some bacon!  Do you remember basket weaving in junior high art class?  Same concept.  Cut your bacon strips in half and lay three of them next to each other vertically - touching.  Fold the middle one all the way back and place another strip across the other two horizontally.  Fold the middle one up again.  Now fold the two end strips back over the horizontal strip.  Lay another strip horizontally over the middle vertical strip.  Fold the two end strips up again. fold the middle strip back again over the two horizontal strips... do you see where we're going here?

I'm posting this photo of a bacon weave I did for something else so you can get the idea. Your turtle shell will NOT be this big!

Make sure your weave is nice and tight, with no space between the strips and carefully lay your turtle - upside down - on top of your bacon weave.  If you used toothpicks, push them through so no toothpick is showing on the top.  Now fold the loose ends over the turtle, wrapping around the legs and head and tail and pull snug, but not too tight and secure with toothpicks. You can cut small slits in your bacon to stretch it around the head/legs if you need to, but the key word is small.  Bacon stretches.

When you're finished you should have a whole bunch of toothpicks sticking up in the air.  Carefully flip the turtle over and adjust the toothpick depths so the turtle is actually balancing on the toothpicks, not on its legs. Alternately, you can just push the toothpicks in further and let the turtles sit on the bottom of your cooking vessel and fry in their own grease.

This is what mine looked like. Aren't they just the cutest?

Your oven should be hot now and it's time to pop these guys inside. You can put them in a baking dish, but I used a large foil-covered cookie sheet for easy cleanup.  

I believe I baked them for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the bacon was fairly browned and the ends of the little turtle feet started to look crispy and separate into their little toes.  Awww.  You'll want to let them sit for just a few minutes after removing them from the oven because bacon grease burns on your mouth are NOT fun.  The bacon on the bottom will NOT be crispy if you cook them on toothpick stands.  I think if you just let them bake in their own grease, it would probably cook the bottom bacon better, but for some reason I was thinking I'd cut a little fat by not cooking them IN the grease.  Yeah, dumb. I'll do it the hambeast way next time.  Promise.

Your finished turtles should look like this.
And yes, they were delicious.

One note of stupidity to be avoided:
I like crisp bacon.  I didn't think the bacon on top was crisp enough.  So I turned on the broiler.  Without draining the collected grease from the pan first! Yeah, it was a splattery, smoky mess as the grease started popping and exploding all over the inside of my oven.  Made the bacon crisp, though.  If you MUST crisp the bacon, move the turtles to a NEW foiled cookie sheet/baking dish before doing so.  You might still get a little bacon splatter, but you can avoid potential grease fires and a huge mess to clean up.

One of the coolest things about this recipe is you can change it up any way you'd like.  You could use ground turkey and turkey dogs with no cheese to cut the fat.  I would NOT suggest using turkey bacon, though.  It's pretty yummy, but it's not REALLY bacon.

Oooh - or you could try going gourmet with like ground buffalo and gouda with some sort of fancy flavored hot dog and one of the fancy schmancy gourmet bacons you can get from Bacon Freak. In fact, I might just try that this weekend.

Enjoy!  (And please comment/link if you DO make these - especially if you post pictures anywhere!)


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Friday, January 21, 2011

TurBaconEpic Thanksgiving

I think I'm in love with the Epic Meal Time guys.
"A bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig."
(With like 10 pounds of bacon!)

Watch this and then go follow them on the twitter, like them on the facebook and subscribe to them on the youtube.  Also of note:  The Breakfast Fortress one.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Sweet Dreams!

Go snuggle up with your Bacon Pillow and dream of meat candy.

Sweet dreams, bacon lovers!

















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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Bacon Maple Bar at Voodoo Doughnut

While I was scouring the internets the other day to find the most delicious bacon news to blog about, I came across a news story from Idaho.  It seems that the newscasters were tickled by a local doughnut shop selling bacon doughnuts!  As I read the story, I saw that the Idaho shop gave credit to who they said were the originator of the bacon donut, a shop in Portland, OR called Voodoo Doughnut.

Of course I wanted to get to the source of this inspired creation so I went to the Voodoo Doughnut site to read more.
(NOTE: Site might be NSFW if doughnuts shaped like penises and boobies are NSFW for you!)

I found the most amazing place... where doughnuts are more than just tasty snacks.  There was a voodoo doll doughnut, doughnuts with candy and cereal on them, doughnuts with grape sugar dust, a doughnut that looks like a blunt and doughnuts that look like naughty bits. And, yes, one doughnut even contains bacon!

It's called the Bacon Maple bar and the site description simply says: "Raised yeast doughnut with maple frosting and bacon on top!"

Of course I wasn't satisfied and had to email for more information.  Enter the most gracious Sara Heise, executive wrangler and wedding coordinator for Voodoo Doughnut, who agreed to do a little e-interview via email about the Bacon Maple Bar.

Bacon Goddess: I see from your website you have many unique (and delicious-looking) doughnuts, what inspired you guys to come up with such a variety of tasty treats?

VooDoo Doughnut: Cat Daddy and Tres were looking to take an old school doughnut done with pride and add a twist to a dying industry.  They are as proud of their classic doughnuts as they are with their crazy ones.  They are both creative people who do creative things.  Their doughnut creations just came naturally!

BG: Since my blog is bacongoddess.com, what I'm interested in, of course, is the Bacon Maple Bar. How did this doughnut come to be created and who gets the credit for this invention?

VDD: Maple syrup and bacon is a classic.  Putting bacon on a maple bar is a classic with a creative twist. Cat Daddy is the creator of the Bacon Maple Bar.

BG: How much bacon is on this doughnut?  How did you decide on the perfect ratio of bacon/doughnut?

VDD: One slice of bacon, cut in half and placed side by side.  No too much, not too little.

BG: Bacon on a doughnut might be considered a bit weird by some people, how well does the doughnut do in sales?  Do you have regulars who simply MUST have their daily bacon doughnut? Have any bacon fans made a special pilgrimage from exotic faraway lands to sample this doughnut?

VDD: We have customers that come all the way from Florida or the UK to try our delicious Bacon Maple bar!  Sometimes it is hard to keep on our racks.  For some customers, no other doughnut will do!  We suggest at least 2 B.M.s a day!


BG: Do you have any other plans for doughnuts involving bacon?

VDD: We have over 50 doughnuts on our menu.  As of now we have no plans in making another bacon doughnut but you never know!  For now, we are concentrating on keeping these bad boys always available for our loyal customers.
Voodoo Doughnut

And there you have it!

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, Voodoo Doughnut is only located in Portland and Eugene, Oregon at the moment and does not ship their doughnuts.  It's a good excuse for a roadtrip, though, don't you think?




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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

6 Reasons Bacon is Better Than True Love - The Oatmeal

I'm going to be a lazy blogger today and just link to one of the best cartoons about bacon in the entire universe!

The Oatmeal is one of my favorite sites and should be one of yours, too!

6 Reasons Bacon is Better Than True Love

Monday, January 17, 2011

Porktacular Bacon Hot Sauce Giveaway

While exploring the internets, I found a blog called eatnlisten.com that is sponsoring a giveaway that bacon lovers might want to take note of.  They're giving away six bottles of Bacon Hot Sauce to people who subscribe to their emails or retweet stuff.  Looks like the drawing will be done randomly on February 9th.

Yeah, honestly it seems like there are some hoops to jump through in order to enter. I guess you have to retweet a whole block of hashtag text to enter or provide them with your email address. I have no experience with this particular website/organization so I do not know HOW they'll use your email if you subscribe.  Best bet would be to read their privacy policy.  The uh... interesting site design of eatnlisten seems to point to it not being a very large organization, so do with it as you will.

On a more awesome note, this find DID introduce me to Bacon Hot Sauce. The stuff looks pretty awesome!  They have a site where you can buy it as well as find recipes to use it.  I like it when a company actually gives you good suggestions on how to use their product!

Look at this one on their site (www.baconhotsauce.com/pages/recipes):
Strawberry Bacon Hot BBQ Sauce

  • 16 oz ripe strawberries, capped and quartered
  • 1 cup diced sweet onion
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup Bacon Hot Sauce
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup molasses (unsulphered)
  • 1 packed cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tsp dark cocoa powder (substitute 1 oz dark chocolate)
  • 1 tsp dried spearmint
  • 2 tsp Kosher salt
  • 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Yeah, that looks yummy.  Okay, I'm sold, let's see what it's made of and how much this stuff costs.

The ingredients page says it's made of Water, Distilled Vinegar, Cayenne Pepper, New Mexico Chili, Salt and the standard not-too-bad preservative stuff that you have to put in this kind of product.  So, a basic cayenne sauce with a bit of chili... and bacon. 

The products page reveals that it's only $5.99 a bottle, which is not bad for an independent handcrafted hot sauce.  BUT, when you start to checkout you'll see that shipping is five dollars!  Damn.  Okay, I'm ordering it anyway.  This had better be some really good eleven dollar hot sauce, you guys!

I'm assuming that if you order the three pack the shipping would be more reasonable, but I want to make sure I like it before I do that.  As soon as it arrives I'll make something with it and post a review!

If you have tried it and would like to share your opinion, please feel free to post your review in the comments.

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Saturday, January 15, 2011

The 4th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival - Anyone Up for a Trip to Iowa?

I was surfing the web today and happened upon a glorious sight. Did you know there's a whole bacon FESTIVAL that takes place in Des Moines, IA every year?

That's right, folks, at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival you can celebrate nature's meat candy in style! The theme of this year's event is "Fields of Bacon…If You Fry It, They Will Come".  I have to admit, I lolled.

Chocolate covered bacon
Tickets are only available online at blueribbonbaconfestival.com beginning at noon on Friday, January 21st. The festival will take place at Capital Square in downtown Des Moines from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, February 26th. It looks like tickets are $40 per person to get into the event, which will get you "a commemorative T-shirt, koozie, a wide array of bacon inspired delights from various food vendors, unlimited bacon samples at the Bacon Showcase, live music, bacon educational lectures, and a free drink ticket." 

Did I read that right?  "Bacon Showcase"?  Oh yes I did!

This is their mascot... cooking bacon!
Evidently the tickets sell out really fast, so if you're going, you'd better plan on being ready at noon on January 21st to do some fast clicking!  They're expecting over 1500 people this year!

They also have $125 tickets that get you into the main festival as well as into something called the Bacon Elegance Dinner.  I don't know about you, but "Bacon Elegance" sounds like it's one o' them fancy sit-down dinners to me. Heh. This takes place on Tuesday night, February 22nd, so unless you want to spend the whole week there, it's probably more for locals.
 

Here's the info from their site:
The 4th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival 
  • What – Fourth Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival
  • When – Saturday, February 26th, 10am – 4pm
  • Where – Capital Square, 400 Locust Street, Des Moines, IA 50309
  • Attendance – Planning to accommodate over 1,500 bacon lovers
  • Tickets – Tickets are $40 for entry into the main event, and $125 for entry to the festival as well as the Bacon Elegance Dinner on the evening of February 22nd. The main event ticket entitles the holder to a commemorative T-shirt, koozie, a wide array of bacon inspired delights from various food vendors, unlimited bacon samples at the Bacon Showcase, live music, bacon educational lectures, and a free drink ticket. Due to 2010’s quick sellout, the maximum ticket purchase will be two (2) per order.
  • Consumption –Last year’s 750 attendees consumed 1,200 lbs of bacon which is approximately 30,000 strips. If laid end to end it would reach the height of Empire State Building, 12 times over!
 





Hmmmm... I wonder if a ticket and travel expenses would be tax deductible.


Photos are linked from Blue Ribbon Bacon's Public Gallery on Picasa and are copyrighted by their authors.

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Bacon in My Burrito

For your Saturday enjoyment, here is what I ate for breakfast.

This is a breakfast burrito from a local taqueria. I broke it open and was simply overjoyed with the amount of bacon inside!


It was delicious! I thought it would be only right to share this little bit of food porn on bacongoddess.com.


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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Welcome! Bacon in sweets?

Welcome to BaconGoddess.com!

I love bacon, so I've decided to make this blog to chronicle all the awesome bacon news I find on the world wide web.  From shopping to recipes - if it involves bacon, you will find it here!

Bookmark us, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for all the latest bacon news.
This is our first post, so the site will be developing and growing from here on out!

To get this blog rolling, here's a recipe for peanut butter balls... with BACON?
I wonder how they taste.  Maybe I should try this recipe this weekend?


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