Been thinking about making my own for a while, but my co-worker tipped me off that this stuff will apparently be on the shelves ... somewhere ... in the Northwest ... in about two weeks.

And I share a birthplace with it. All of the best things come from Seattle. God bless the fine folks at Black Rock Spirits. I am looking forward to trying this out.

It's abrichar's fault. Honest. After sistermaryeris posted a bacon peanut butter cookie recipe and I voiced my skepticism, Amanda went ahead and made them and proclaimed the recipe incredible. So the other day via IM, we jokingly discussed a trend of converting every type of regular cookie into a meatcookie:

Bacoroons!
Bacon lemon cookies!
Bacondoodles!
Er -- actually, hmm.

And that was that. This weekend, she gave them a try, and so did I.

( Here are my results ... )

... with making a batch of bacon lardons is that when they're done, you just want to eat the damn things like popcorn.

Caramelized shallots, too.

Tomorrow Nic and I are cooking up a huge turkey dinner to celebrate the 37th Day of Christmas. We just didn't get to spend enough time with some of our friends over the holidays, so they'll be coming over to help us eat, drink, and be merry. My mouth is already watering. Fortunately there's these here lardons to munch on.

Made these yesterday.


( Here's how ... )

I'll post pics from Betsy and Steve's baby shower later!

Portland Food and Drink reports that this will be on the menu at Lincoln, starting tomorrow:

Tim and Nic's Camping Odyssey 2008 was at Timothy Lake on Mt. Hood.



( Words and pictures this way... )

Photo credit: Shauna James Ahern / Gluten-Free Girl
This is for my own reference. I need to figure out how to make these.

An excerpt from Gluten-Free Girl's description of this dish, brought by a guest to a bacon party she hosted:

[P]ork belly braised in aromatic Asian spices, cut down into bite-sized pieces, and then wrapped in bacon. Just out of the oven, these made us all slobber. I knew I shouldn’t, but I ate the first one in one gigantic bite. The rich, dulcet tones of pork belly sang out against the low bass notes of roasted smoked bacon and I wanted to join in with the heavenly choirs. But I just kept walking in the backyard with Monique, speechless, with bacon fat on my chin.

This woman knows how to write:

There’s just something about bacon. Its salty, slightly-sweet crunch, the way it shrivels into itself when we fry it, the heavenly ahhhh one sighs when leaning in for a smell, and the way bacon seems to make everything, everything better. Some foods only mingle with a few others. They’re part of an exclusive club. Smelt ... tastes divine with a few friends. However, chocolate-covered smelt sounds like one of the candies from the Crunchy Frog sketch from Monty Python. But have you tried bacon chocolate? Oh god. Bacon is the most exuberant, open-minded host you have ever met. Everyone is welcome. The door is always open. The sunlight streams in. And bacon is equally happy to see everyone.

(Thanks sistermaryeris and polarbear for the link.)

Step 1: make bacon chocolate chip cookie dough


Sweet, sweet bacon.
Step 2: ???


Nicole gets ready to apply the cinnamon maple glaze and bacon strips.
Step 3: profit!


OM NOM NOM
Based on Andrea's recipe, posted here, but I used 2 eggs instead of one, and milk chocolate chips instead of white chocolate. Also, I wish I knew that you could buy real bacon bits, because it took me about an hour to fry enough bacon (2-1/2 pounds) for 2 cups of 'em.

Took them to Jeff's house for a party last night. Big hit!