Bristol Farms Bacon pt 1 of 2

O.K. so I work in an area that is kind of "hoity toity", I believe I mentioned the Porsche & Jaguar crowd in a previous post, while my bacon colored Honda suits me just fine, I do like to see how the other half lives by going to the premium markets and scoping out their bacon selections. On my way home I stopped at Bristol Farms. It is a pretty cool market, it reminded me of Whole Foods, but with Mountain Dew. They didn't have much in the way of packaged bacon, some Oscar Mayer, Farmer John's, and a house brand. The butcher's counter was quite large and when I checked they had two types of bacon. When I saw how thick the cuts were, I knew I had my bacon for the evening. The first was a generic "Thick Sliced Bacon" and an Apple wood Smoked Bacon that ran about $2 a pound more.

I picked up a pound of both and headed toward the front of the store. On my way I just happened to be in the refrigerated beer section, and there on the shelf, my favorite beer Hacker-Pschorr Weisse, thick bacon and good cold beer, this store may be alright. Part one is the generic "cheap" bacon and once I cook up the other package I'll post part two.

This is what it looked like in the display case. It is a really thick cut and for me that is a plus, I prefer the thick cut to the thin. You can see from the picture that it is a pretty fatty bacon, but more on that in a bit. The package was just over a pound and once I got it open I counted 13 slices. That a great ratio for thick bacon. Time to cook it up. When cooking anything other than "instant bacon" (review coming soon) I usually use the standard LoB approved method, but tonight I felt like mixing it up a bit, being a little more hands on. Tonight I am going to cook it up on the George Foreman Grill, ok... not exactly hands on, but a little more involved than normal. I think I may have been inspired by the Office quote on Royal Bacon Society the other day.

This is a close up of the thickness of the bacon, you can sort of see that it is a fatty bacon. Let me tell you my bacon butter jar got topped off from this batch. I cooked it up till it was barely crispy, and gave it a trey. I was concerned that it would be too salty, but it wasn't. It had a good flavor, hint of smokiness, but it had a very fatty finish. Don't get me wrong I love the hog fat..... mmmm hog fat.... but this had an oily after taste. So it gets points on thickness but loses them on the greasy finish. A smokey finish or at least a meaty taste after you finish is what draws you in for another piece, this just didn't have that. Overall it was a mediocre bacon, it would be great for a BLT or sandwich bacon, but doesn't cut it as a stand alone bacon.

I give it 2 and a half strips.

W.O.W.! Virtual Bacon

I have often pondered about the pounds and pounds of Bacon sizzling through cyberspace - pictures of Bacon in emails, discussion boards on Bacon and even Blogs About Bacon!
....but what about actual virtual Bacon. I mean can you DO that? Actual Virtual?....
Well thanks to the fine femme fatales over at GameBetties.com, we now definitely know that you indeed CAN!
Apparently all you need to do is make your way to the Hellfire Peninsula, find and kill a HellBoar, then just get the meat, make it pure, sweet talk Legassi and his skillet and BAM! You have some HellBoar Bacon! W.O.W.! BAM!


What a world - you can not only find Bacon in a world some say doesn't exist and eat Virtually all of it ( see what I did there ? )!
Oh yeah, did I mention that to aquire this particular VBacon ( For those of you that are STILL newbs to this post( How does that work? ), that is yet another cool way to reference Virtual Bacon ), that you need to be playing a little game we like to call World Of Warcraft.
MMMMmmmmmm Bacon!

More Bacon wrapped madness

I came across this great article, chock full of pictures and great bacon treats. It is a nice collection with everything from bacon wrapped tofu, to a bacon wrapped Mr. Potato Head.

(And for those that were whining, here is that short post you requested)

Lucky Indeed!

Our friend Aaron pointed us to a menu for a Lucky's Pub in Houston, TX.

The last appetizer on the list.....

Bacon Wrapped Bacon - $8.95 Italian pancetta wrapped in Canadian bacon wrapped in American hickory smoked bacon with a maple butter sauce

I need a napkin to mop up the drool.

Now if it wasn't a 1600 mile drive I would totally go there for lunch.  

Anyone from the area that can chime in on this delectable treat, please let us know if it is as tasty as it sounds.

Update:  Bacon Jason made this observation:

Airfare to Houston - $200

Cab fare downtown - $25

Bacon Wrapped Bacon - $9

BEST LUNCH EVER? - Priceless

Tivo Wishlist: Bacon

I love Tivo, and I mean real Tivo here not some crappy Moxi DVR from the cable company. I know people that have told me, "Oh I got the cable company tivo thing, its the same, I'm not impressed" That right there is someone who has never used a Tivo. I have had/have a cable company provided DVR, and it is no Tivo. Imagine if you will Tivo=bacon, then cable company DVR=turkey bacon, its packaged similarly, but we all know, imitation while a sincere form of flattery, in some cases, just doesn't get it done. This is one of those cases. Anyway.... my Tivo has a keyword wishlist for "bacon" anything that mentions bacon, gets recorded. Sure I get to sort through movies or old TV episodes Kevin Bacon has been in, but once you take those out you are left with... well the list below.

This is a list of all the shows my Tivo recorded in September with regards to "bacon", mostly cooking shows, a few other tidbits as well. It is fun to see some of these cooks, their faces light up and they become even more animated when it is a bacon themed show as opposed to just a recipe containing bacon.

9/4 Boy Meets Grill: "Tapas" (Food Network) Mussels; shrimp; squid with bacon and garlic oil.

9/6 Paula's Home Cooking: "Apple a Day" (Food Network) Apple-stuffed pork loin; grilled apple, bacon and cheddar sandwich; apple strudel.

9/8 Tyler's Ultimate: "Mac & Cheese" (Food Network) Macaroni and cheese with bacon; roasted-tomato soup.

9/9 Take Home Chef: "Adriana" (TLC) Baby-spinach salad with smoked bacon and cheese croûtons; garlic and parsley marinated Cornish game-hens with tarragon fettuccine.

9/11 George Hirsch Living It Up!: "Stormin' the Castle" (KHIZ) Ashford Castle in County Mayo, Ireland; falconry; golf; cheddar-potato soup and chive-bacon salad.

9/12 30-Minute Meals: "Believe in Bacon" (Food Network) Rachael's favorite ingredients take center stage.

9/12 30-Minute Meals: "BLT Steak" (Food Network) Beef, leeks and tomatoes with a bacon dressing.

9/14 Guy Off the Hook: "Downhome Diner" (Food Network) Pretzel-crusted chicken tenders; bacon studded mac-n-cheese; sweet 'n' tangy Tennessee lemonade.

9/15 Martha Stewart Show: "Martha takes viewers to her home" (KEYT) Chef Chris Schlesinger prepares pork glazed with molasses and chili; chef Joey Campanaro provides his recipe for a bacon cheeseburger; chef Scott Peacock makes a classic southern side dish; Martha takes viewers to her home in Bedford, NY.

9/20 30-Minute Meals: "Bayou Sizzle" (Food Network) Beer braised shrimp with Louisiana salsa and rice; fried green beans with bacon.

9/23 How It's Made (Discovery) Bacon; snowblowers; luxury cars.

9/26 Party Line With the Hearty Boys: "Buffet Breakfast" (Food Network) Bacon with brown sugar; individual egg baskets; rosemary and thyme potatoes; fruit salad.

9/27 The Cooking Loft: "Break the Rules Breakfast" (Food Network) Crustless quiche; pancakes with a fresh fruit compote; bacon.

9/27 Modern Marvels: "The Pig" (History) Some say pigs are as smart as 3-year old humans' turning pigs into bacon, ham, ribs and sausage; boar semen collection.

9/28 Cooking for Real: "Bistro Night In" (Food Network) Grilled chicken with white wine mushroom sauce; garlic hasselback potatoes with herbed sour cream; wilted green salads with warm bacon vinaigrette.

9/30 30-Minute Meals: "Firehouse Fiesta" (Food Network) Bacon and bean salad; Italian-style chili.

Man am I glad I ate before this post, otherwise I would be dying at the mention of sooo much bacon. Every time I think there is nothing good on TV, I just go look at the bacon wishlist.

Sony Hates Bacon!

I will admit, I am a geek, a nerd, a lover of technology. I have a blog about bacon, way to tech something not at all technological and nerd it up. I am o.k. with it. I have a PlayStation 3, among my many toys. Its awesome, I set the background to a bacon wallpaper and I have 56" of Hi-def bacon in the living room (It's all I can do to keep from licking my TV). I use it as a media center to play my xvids from my PC, I run software on my PC that streams my Netflix movies, hulu, youtube etc to it, oh and it rocks the Blu-Ray. On the PS3 you create an account, select an avatar, etc. for your online profile, that gives the other players a way to track you. I suck at games, but I figured my profile was out there on the PS3s of all the people that I had been pwned by in various games, it should say something about bacon, right?

So I go into to edit my online profile, you get one line for the "about me" portion of your profile, I figure "I love bacon" would do the trick. I input it and click continue and I get a screen like this:

"The text you entered cannot be used. Please enter a different content. Please try again."

What does that even mean??!?

So I try some other options, until I am down to the one word "bacon", to which I am still getting the same reply. I try other words and it accepts them, but as soon as "bacon" is in the mix, FAIL! I decide to try some alternates including, "b@con" to no avail, not only does it not like bacon, but also anything that looks like bacon.

Sony, what gives? Why you gotta hate? maybe some vegetarian programmers? Is there something I am missing? Is "bacon" a gamerz term for something other than sweet sweet meat candy?

Perhaps I will go back and try some expletives, although if it takes those and not bacon, I think I might actually be pissed. I feel censored. I wanna think the founding fathers had worldwide, networked gaming in mind when they wrote that first amendment, but even if they didn't I think Thomas Jefferson would fall to the side of bacon. I found a work around,
b a c o n.

I'll try to do some more research and see if I can come up with a reason as to why Sony isn't on board with the bacon, if I can tear my face away from the TV, I swear I wasn't licking the hi-def bacon......honest.

The Holy Church of Bacon

If Jesus had turned water into Bacon, or perhaps fed the masses BLTs with seven loaves and a pig, perhaps I would have more faith.  No matter, there is a religion that I can get behind; The Holy Church of Bacon.  The strange thing is, and our annoyed co-workers can attest to this, Bacon Jason and I have said time and again, there should be a Holy Church of Bacon, and we should be in it.  Well Bacon prayers do come true, its a miracle enough for me to have faith.  Bacon Brothers and Bacon Sisters, read the Five Baconic Laws, and join us today. May your arteries never clog.

Bacon+RSS = BRSS

Mmmmm bacon feeds, sounds like a recurring dream I have where I am laying in bed while my woman feeds me bacon and more bacon, followed by...... more bacon.  

No this is a post about all the good people spreading the word about bacon.

I use the iGoogle home page for my RSS feeds, I have a whole tab dedicated to Bacon blogs / RSS feeds

I currently have 17 feeds I subscribe to, some post frequently, some I am unsure if they are even maintained.

But here they are, feel free to let me know if there are any I missed in the comments, as I am sure there must be some I have not come across yet.

Alphabetically:

• Bacon Freak:  Bacon Is Meat Candy is a must for all Bacoterians.  Bacon of the month club... need I say more?
  
• Bacon Is the New Black:  No posts since May, but I love the name.
• Bacon Links:  Alexa and the Bacon Boys have a few bacon blogs, true bacon fans.
• Bacon Photo Of The Week:  Name says it all
• Bacon Recipes:  More of Alexa and the Bacon Boys goodness
• Bacon Reviews:  Not very active but they have a lot of blogs to maintain.
• Bacon Today:  Daily Updates on the World of Sweet, Sweet Bacon
• Bacon Unwrapped:  Great blog about my favorite thing...bacon!
• IHEARTBACON.COM:  So do I... so do I.
• International Bacon Day:  Be sure to mark your calendar AND subscribe to this blog.
• MrBaconpants.com:  This guy loves bacon as much as we do.
• Royal Bacon Society:  Tons of links and bacony goodness here.  Royal, that begs the question, Is there a King and/or Queen of bacon?
• Skulls and Bacon:  Its not ALL bacon, but skulls are cool too.
• Tao of Bacon:  Great "action" photos of bacon here.
• The Bacon Show:  One Bacon Recipe, Every Day, Forever.
• The Canonical Bacon Page:  People post bacon links in the comments, I should add a link to this post.
• The Official Bacon Salt Blog:  I LOVE their slogan, "Everything Should Taste Like Bacon" yes it should.

Well that's my list.  If there is a bacon related feed.... mmmm feed..bacon... Sorry got distracted for a second, please post it in the comments.