For the love of bacon

If you know me even a little bit, you'd know that I have an extraordinary love for bacon. I just simply can't get enough of it. It's like my version of crack. I do all I can to avoid it for some period of time, but just like an addict, I suddenly obsess and must have, lest I die.

I am blessed to have friends that share the same bacon compulsion. My lovely Giovanna, for instance. We actually sat at Bible Study for at least 20 minutes sharing just a few of the ways we love bacon. If you had been there, it would have reminded you of the scene(s) in Forrest Gump where Bubba was telling Forrest all the ways he could make shrimp.  That was us. "You can barbecue it, bake it, boil it, saute it. Dey's uh, bacon-kabobs, baconcreole, bacon gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple bacon, lemon bacon, coconut bacon, pepper bacon, bacon soup, bacon stew, bacon salad, bacon and potatoes, bacon burger, bacon sandwich..."  And, really, much more than shrimp, the list goes on. Bacon is like the color black. It goes with everything.

Even chocolate.

You laugh in disgust, but trust me on this.

For one of our Friday night BS potlucks (which was every Friday, mind you), we decided to go with a bacon theme. (Why, you ask? Because Giovanna and I, oh and of course Dale (aka Buddy the Elf) frickin' love the stuff. And our fellow BSers were ok with feeding our addiction. Enablers!) Everything we ate that night had bacon in it in some form. (See prior list.)  For dessert, we had banana splits (or sundaes, depending on how the individual fixed it up.)  I had my bowl of ice cream topped with bananas and a waterfall of chocolate. As I was leaving the kitchen, someone tossed a piece of bacon over  my shoulder, which stuck smack-dab in the middle of my sundae. A crispy, perfectly browned piece of bacon. I just looked at it and thought, "This must not go to waste. I will eat this tasty morsel."

And I did.

And guess what? Bacon and melty dark chocolate is a delicious combination.

The other day, my friend and co-worker Jen (JENNNNNNNN!!!!!!) offered the Chief and I a taste of a bacon chocolate bar she had picked up on the East Coast when she was on vacation. Now... I'm a girl with a taste for bacon. I love the stuff.

But let me tell you, this was not good. It pretty much just tasted like super-salted chocolate with some bizarre little pieces of shredded, semi-crunchy, floaty things in it. Yuck. Seriously. Yuck.  But... it got a good laugh. So, yeah. Jen, thanks for that.

Freshly cooked, crunchy bacon dipped in freshly melted dark chocolate = really good.

Manufactured, shredded bacon mixed with dark chocolate, cooled and wrapped, then shipped to various places and sitting on a shelf for who knows how long before some unsuspecting consumer purchases it for a few giggles = not good.

Giovanna often left me bacon "stuff" in my mailbox at work. I'd go to collect my daily mail, and I'd find a nicely wrapped gift offering of ... bacon dental floss, bacon air freshener, bacon breath mints....  She shared links to websites that had recipes for bacon martinis....  I love this girl. And, together, we love bacon. 

My friend Catherine ("Twinkie") is in town for the weekend. She brought me a lovely gift bag filled with....  4 pounds of bacon. (And two jars of red grapefruit segments... Yum.)  Back to bacon. FOUR pounds!!!  She loves me. She really loves me.



Four packages of bacon.
All for me.



Someday, maybe I'll manage my bacon addiction.

I could quit at any time.

But not today.