For those of you out there, still trying to gauge exactly how HUGE today’s swelling trend of “Baco-Mania” has gotten, let this help you get a clearer picture of exactly how big and important bacon, at least “Gourmet Bacon”  has become in our society over the past few years.

Today our good friends over at “Better Homes & Gardens” dropped by to let us know that their new Holiday Menu Suggestions and Holiday Recipes have now officially been posted, so that we can pass the news on to all of you deeply dedicated “Baconistas” or as “B.H.G.” likes to refer to you as, “Baconites,” which is a pretty clever and cool term that I think I’m going to help them spread around the Bacon World as a proud and popular “Badge of Baconism” around the globe.

They also had some nice things to say about our featured recipes, which was very cool of them to take the time to mention … but that’s just the point, isn’t it? Bacon, at least the truly good, premium quality stuff, is now so popular throughout every single strata and niche of our Western Culture, that long standing, traditionalist periodicals that probably wouldn’t have thought to come by and visit even 5 years ago, are stopping by to be quite genuinely friendly and we truly do value and appreciate “B.H.G.s” for being so cool and neighborly!

Truthfully, I believe that this says as much about how much cooler, open minded and universally expanded the new “visionaries” over at “Better Homes & Garden’s” are, in comparison to many of their stodgier, more traditionally set in their “olds days ways,” competitors.

So really I want to offer up a big, sincere “10 Snout Salute” to the very awesome people over at “B.H.G.’s” and recommend that all of you go check out some of their awesome new features, including a LOT of great “Holiday Recipes!”

YES, of course some of these menu items do include the all important bacon and / or pork and others can simply and easily have some delicious bacon added or substituted in for some other less glorious and “Hog Heavenly” protein!

I highly recommend that you go check out the new, delicious menu items featured over at our new, official “Bacon Friendly” buddies website and be sure to get back to us and tell us what you think! As always, were looking forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing this whole “Bacony” experience with our “Baconite” Brethren and Sistren!

In our continual effort to always keep our readers at the very cutting edge and vanguard forefront of the gourmet bacon world, we here at Bacon Today like to sit down and get the latest and greatest news directly from the horse’s … or should we say … pig’s mouth!

Today … Bacon Today is extremely excited to be chatting with Mr. Nicodemus Green who is the brains and designer behind that totally awesome and increasingly popular “Bacon Is Like A Little Hug From God” graphic that is taking the entire bacon world by storm lately.

BT: Nicodemus, welcome Sir. Thank you for agreeing to take a little time out of your very busy schedule to have a chat with us about the design that is being proudly worn on the chests of more and more “Baconistas,” male and female, all across the country.

NG: Thanks, it’s a pleasure to get to talk to you and all of your fabulous readers today. I love Bacon Today!

BT: So where do you originally hail from and where are you currently located now?

NG: I was born in southeast Michigan, and raised in the small town of Defiance, Ohio. I spent most of my adult life in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. I currently live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It’s a very cool, laid back little city with a great food and art scene.

BT: OK, so the Bacon World wants to know … are you a true, legitimate “Bacon Freak” or was it purely a business decision to step up and fill a void amidst the current rising tide of “Baco-Mania?”

NG: Honestly? A little bit of both. I’m a total “foodie,” I love bacon, and I love art and graphic design, so it just felt natural to me to bring those things together in some way. I just wasn’t really sure how receptive people would be to my design.

BT: That makes perfect sense! So how in the world did your life journey end up placing you in the position of suddenly designing one of the most popular “bacon oriented” t-shirt designs out there?

NG: Ha! Is that true? I hadn’t realized it’s one of the most popular “bacon oriented” t-shirt designs, but thanks for kudos!

The design wasn’t something that I ever planned on showing anybody. During my time in Austin, I discovered my love of all things “Day of the Dead,” so I knew I wanted to incorporate that imagery into the design.

I was a bit bored one cold, dark January afternoon in Michigan, and I just sat down with my laptop … and about 4 hours later, I had the design pretty much finished. I’m not sure where it came from really, it just sort of evolved on its own.

BT: That’s so cool! Alright, you mentioned earlier that there’s an interesting story about how your previous gig at Trader Joe’s ended up playing a positive role in your coming up for the idea for the t-shirt motto?

NG: Actually, the phrase “Bacon is like a little hug from God” was born one morning while I was “scarfing down” some bacon during a morning shift at Trader Joe’s back when I used to work there.

Sunday morning shifts typically start at 4am in order to receive shipments, stock, and clean the store before opening at 9am. Usually, as a reward for loyally showing up early, management would cook us an elaborate breakfast with items from the store and often that included BACON!

I remember sitting on the floor of the store eating bacon with my coworkers and we were all mesmerized by how delicious the bacon was … and the phrase just kind of popped into my head for no apparent reason. It was so catchy and funny; I just knew I had to get it out there somehow.

This was during the whole “bacon craze” of late 2008 and I thought the “foodie” world would be receptive to some kind of artwork featuring that phrase. So I played around with several designs until I finalized the design now on Bacon Freak.

BT: Awesome. OK …I did a little investigating around and discovered that this design of yours is not just loved and adored by the “Bacon World” at large, but actually has quite the following on the contemporary art scene as well. What can you tell us about that very interesting “cross over” success?

NG: It started when I emailed Grace Bonney of “Design Sponge,” which is a very popular design blog that I read everyday, hoping she would feature the print version of the design. She did, and it was a hit.

As an entirely self-taught graphic designer, I was so flattered that such design-minded folks, not to mention professional designers and food people, actually got the joke and liked my work. One thing led to another and now here we are today, talking about it over a couple of glasses of iced lemon water.

BT: Wow … that is so cool! Alright, I would be absolutely amiss if I allowed this session to come to an end without finding out “WHAT’S NEXT” for Nicodemus Green – Bacon Celebrity?

NG: Ah, great question! Well, due to the huge number of requests I’ve received over the last year, I’ve just started researching things like organic fabric tea towels, and letter pressed greeting cards featuring the design.

I even had a gentleman from Australia request laptop decals! BTW, I do have the design available on cotton canvas shopping bags through Cafe Press I would LOVE to work with a larger company designing kitchen-ware, wallpaper and fabrics featuring my designs.

BT: That’s absolutely excellent Nicodemus! Well, the very best of success in your future endeavors and thank you so very much for taking the time to sit and discuss one of the most prominent and popular bacon stories of the current decade, the “Bacon Is Like A Little Hug From God” T-shirt. Thank you Sir!

NG: My pleasure. It’s been a lot of fun!

Recently while I was at the Limelight Marketplace in downtown NYC, I realized that if you like bacon desserts, Limelight may be your new hangout.

I was enjoying my French Toast Cupcake with Bacon from CupcakeStop when a lady at the table next to me said, “Did you see the bacon brownie?” I turned instantly and squeaked excitedly “No, WHERE?!” She looked at me, eyebrows raised and obviously a bit confused by my outburst. You see, she was talking to her husband, not to me, a complete stranger stiting next to her who is bonkers for bacon.

I quickly explained, “I’m sorry! I’m eating a really good bacon cupcake and I write for Bacon Today so when you mentioned bacon, I lost my mind.” She laughed with me (not at me, I’m sure) and then gave me the scoop on where to find the bacon brownie.

She directed me to a dessert counter in the Limelight Marketplace’s Sweet Room called Mari’s New York. Mari’s specializes in tiny “artisanal” brownies, made from scratch, that you can eat in two bites. I thanked my new friend and rushed over to Mari’s counter and blurted out, “I hear you have bacon brownies!” The clerk said, “You heard right,” and handed me a bacon brownie. Squeeee(al)!

I in turn handed her $3 (which breaks down to $1.50 a bite) and took my treasure home. I ate it in 4 bites (I had to make it last) and realized that I would have paid more than $3 for it. DELICIOUS barely covers how this brownie tasted.

The choclate is delightfully rich and the bacon tastes fresh off the frying pan. The moistness of the brownie is a great contrast to the chewyness of the bacon. Sweet and salty, this brownie is terribly satisfying.

If you’ve been reading my articles, you know this is the point where I say, “Obviously I needed to know nore about this porky dish of delish!” So here is my interview with Mari’s New York:

ME: The Bacon Brownie is wonderful! Please explain what the ingredients are that make it so delicious.

MARI’S NY: The bacon brownie has homemade Niman Ranch bacon jam swirled in the batter and a sprinkling of candied bacon on top.

ME: JAM! I never would have guessed that in a million years. How did you come up with the bacon brownie?

MARI’S NY: I started with pureed cooked bacon mixed in but that wasn’t enough to sate my bacon needs – it needed actual pieces of bacon that you’d discover as you chewed. The candied bits on top gild the bacon lily, so to speak.

ME: I’ll second that statement. How often is this bacon brownie for sale at your shop in Limelight? Are they only available here?

MARI’S NY: We try and have enough for sale every day but we have been known to sell out. They are also offered at GRAB Specialty Foods in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

ME: What made you think, “I need to make a brownie with bacon in it”? Are you a bacon enthusiast?

MARI’S NY: I Love Bacon. Who doesn’t?

ME: For real. Who indeed?

MARI’S NY: Bacon goes with just about everything else, so I thought why not brownies? Ever since perfecting my bacon jam, I’ve been adding it to anything and everything at home.

ME: You are my kind of people. So my appetite needs to know if you have any brownies in the future that might contain bacon?

MARI’S NY: Maybe. One thing’s for sure, there will be other bacon offerings at Mari’s New York.

ME: YAY!

– Jennifer Eolin

A popular Portland, OR butcher and renowned chef, Berlin Reed, will start teaching a series of three classes designed to teach bacon enthusiasts the various “ins and outs” of the numerous, flavorful cures (taste enhancers) used throughout the bacon industry, as well as a few special “custom concoctions” of his own, to make the worlds greatest ever flavor (BACON) taste even better!

Chef and butcher Berlin Reed is the insightful and informative writer behind “The Ethical Butcher” a website and blog dedicated to his authentically held moral principals and driven by his sincerely valued personal relationships with the local, small farm owners, as well as his deep love of food and respect for the animals we eat, along with the environment on which we all depend.

We all know that bacon is the ultimate, perfect food, but have you ever wanted to know more about the plethora of herbs, spices, vegetables, flowers, fruit, spirits and other flavorful factors that are infused by manual meat massage in order to create a taste that is utterly unique and found no where else on Planet Earth?

Then you definitely need to get yourself to Portland for this 3-part series of classes, which begins August 10^th and covers a god solid education and ample samples of bacon cured with fruits and flowers. Then, the following week, on the 17^th, Chef Berlin will present bacon cured with various coffees, teas and spirits, all culminating on Aug. 24th, were the coarse focuses on all kinds of delicious glazes and crusts, including the age-old traditions of rolling bacon slabs in everything from oatmeal to pea meal.lasses cost $40 per session or you can get the package deal of all 3 for only $100. For more information, check out Chef Berlin’s blog.

The c

Consider the “Bacon Love!” mini day-to-day calendar from Andrews McMeel publishing. Although the publisher missed out on what would be a sales-boosting slogan for their company (“Without bacon, it’s not a McMeel!”), this stationery commodity delivers a great gift to bacon aficionados everywhere: namely that, with a recipe, quotation, trivia, or celebration on every one of 2011′s 365 days, never again will we let a day pass by without pausing to give thanks for bacon’s crisp and plentiful blessings.

Thinking about the year-long quantification of bacon’s virtues limned in the McMeel codex triggered in me a flashback (which is like fatback, but more nostalgic and less salty) to my high school days, when I was obsessed with the Broadway musical Rent. Yes, unlike the raw materials that constitute bacon, I have long been an incurable ham. What would Jonathan Larson’s Bohemian proto-hipsters have thought about this calendar? Well, it’s probably not their cup of herbal, fair trade, shade-grown tea, based on their predilection for pasta with meatless balls. What I meant to ask was, in the spirit of Rent‘s signature uplifting anthem “Seasons of Love”: how do you measure, measure a year? In rashers, in sizzle, in protein, in B3 (Niacin)…

Okay, on second thought, Rent is probably fine just the way it is (except for a few songs in the second act: I’m looking at you, “Your Eyes”) and the calendar is fine just the way McMeel created it. I don’t think I would want to eat five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred slices of bacon in one year at the rate of one per minute, but thinking about it makes me happy and optimistic about the opportunities for bacon love in the coming calendar year. Do you think they have rush delivery?

Click here to purchase

Recently I stumbled upon this video about the classic age of bacon and the American favorites stream into popular culture.

After watching and hearing about all the bacon products. I decided to search for the best kind of products for bacon lovers! Aside from the normal products, like bacon kitchen utensils and bacon foods (bacon bits, bacon favored cupcakes, etc.) you could also have a bacon scarf (my personal favorite this homemade knitted one) or bacon art or so much more….
Here are my top 10 favorite products found during my search:

10. Bacon Bandaids: Yes friends, anytime you get a paper-cut or the next time you knick your arm on a staple you could cover it up with a adhesive bacon band-aid.

These particular band-aids are even cut to have edges like real bacon

9. Bacon USB: A few of these can be found online, I posted the link to the most realistic looking 4GB at a reasonable price for a trendy commodity. The perfect way to show off your love for bacon with a piece seemingly sticking out of your computer.

8. Bacon Earrings: I own a couple hundred of pairs of earrings, so I have a preference towards them. There are two types of bacon earrings that I really enjoyed. The first being a pair that looks like real little strips of bacon. And then the was a breakfast pair:

7. Bacon Gummies: We have gummy bears, gummy worms, gummy coke bottles and now we have bacon gummy. It looks like bacon, it is packaged like real bacon but it doesn’t taste like bacon. Apparently that is a step to far for the candy makers, its a bacon gummy that tastes like strawberries which just makes it amusing. But I still think it is a pretty cool product.

6. Bacon Formal Wear: You can find tuxs that have bacon designs, dresses, and ties. No article of clothing left unturned even shoes and headbands. (There are even bacon bras ladies, in case you wanted to be ahead of the next trend).

5. Bacon Tape: Much like duct tape but with bacon on it, it’s what holds the universal together.

4. Bacon Envelopes: This one came close to being one of my favorites. Envelopes that taste like bacon!

3.Bakon: A potato vodka that tastes like bacon! We might be exploring some of the drinks we can mix with that!

2. Bacon Jelly Beans: Bacon the candy meat, small enough to swallow in one bite and plenty of them to snack on for an entire afternoon.

1. Bacon: A Love Story. A book filled with trivial facts and enjoyable stories about everyone’s favorite meat.

Remember you  never know what can prove your love for bacon out there! There are over a 100 different types of products and several variations of each!

Here is a very simple recipe for a delightfully delicious and temptingly tasty substitute for that “a little too regular, increasingly boring, every-day vegetable soup that literally every loves but is simply getting a bit tired of / bored with after too many appearances on the kitchen table this year.

There certainly will be no “suffering with THIS succotash, as this flavorful break away from the ordinary is sure to put smiles on everyone’s faces and a good feeling in your heart and mind, knowing that you fed them some seriously good eatin’! Enjoy!

(Serves

1 lb. Gourmet Sun-dried Tomato Bacon

8 ears of corn, chopped into thirds

2 large red bell peppers, chopped

2 large onions, chopped

2 “15 oz” cans of low-sodium chicken broth

4 cups of fresh lima beans

4 cups of green squash 

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. of dried thyme

½ tsp. crushed red pepper

½ tsp. salt

Instructions:

Heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and place the bacon in the pan. Cook the bacon till crisp by frying for 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

When bacon is crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate and once cool enough to touch, pat with another paper towel to remove excess grease.

Now add the onion to pan and cook, stirring and turning continually until lightly browned.

Add the bell pepper, squash, garlic, thyme, salt and red pepper flakes to the pan of onions and cook while continuously stirring for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Pour the chicken broth into the pan, being sure to stir up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Now add the corn and lima beans, turning then often so that they cook evenly and until the corn and beans are tender and the liquid reduces slightly to a thicker, soupy broth like consistency, approximately 5 minutes.

Now chop the bacon into quarters and stir into the mixture, allowing the bacon to saturate itself into the mix for about 5 minutes on a very low flame / heat.

Serve and Enjoy!

When faithful Bacon Today reader Alana Muir visited family members last fall in Duluth, Minn., she had a near-religious experience while dining out. And no, it didn’t involve Norwegian-style Lutefisk, that air-dried whitefish loved by the Norwegians and Swedes who settled in Minnesota.
So what was the focus of Muir’s spiritual moment, even though she didn’t get to try the dish? Look no further than The Duluth Grill, a family-owned eatery in town that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, and a little dessert called the When Pigs Fly Sundae.
But what does this have to do with bacon, you ask? Easy: the When Pigs Fly Sundae a delicious dessert built with three scoops of vanilla ice cream, crispy applewood-smoked bacon, caramel, hot fudge, saltine crackers and a cherry. The dish costs about four bucks for a sweet-and-salty finale to a satisfying Duluth Grill meal.

We’d order that in a minute, but Muir lives in Scotland, which is a little far for takeout ice cream, no matter the bacon content. That’s why you should take time when cruising through Minnesota to check out the restaurant’s site to see what looks good. You might want to call ahead while you’re at it and mention the When Pigs Fly Sundae. On its own the sundae might make the trip worthwhile, although we think the list of burger options might also get us there.
So thanks, Alana, for alerting us to this bacon-fueled dessert. We hope you’ll come back and order a When Pigs Fly Sundae so you can let us know what you think. Now, how far is it to Duluth…

First it was the scintillating sizzle of the State Fair down in Florida and now the happy Hoosiers of Indiana are going hog wild at their State Fair, over the tempting taste treat quickly becoming known world wide as the Bacon – Cheese Doughnut Burger!

The Reas family is at it again, as 53 year old Dennis Reas, of Corydon Indiana was up to his old tricks, custom creating consummate “culinary combination” cuisine by building a delicious bacon cheeseburger safely, securely and semi-sanely, between buns of two Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

Now before anyone starts to question the why someone would consider doing such a seemingly strange act, let me assure you that when this whole Krispy Kreme Bacon Burger business started flaring up about 5 years ago, I set out to investigate the situation and came away fully satisfied that while I would not regularly submit my gourmet bacon and my Top 1.5% cuts of beef to being sandwiched between to sugary sweet doughnuts on a regular basis, every now and then, it truly is a most fascinating and savory flavor sensation.

It seems that the Reas family are the very same folks behind such delectable delights as “Deep Fried Pepsi, Chocolate-Covered Bacon ( one of my personal favorites) and of course, the famous / or infamous (your call) Deep-Fried Butter that has been served up at previous Indiana events of note, so these people already have a powerful pork popularity providing press and public “uh-proval” to pretty much everything that the Reas Family serves up these days.

For those of you “thinking outside the bun,” or should we say, donut, perhaps the Deep-Fried Sushi, Deep-Fried Dill Pickles, Deep-Fried Candy Bars, (am I beginning to sense a trend here) or the Chocolate-Covered Popcorn Balls, Root-Beer Marinated Ribs, or possibly a scrumptious plate of Pork Patty covered with …. Of course, more pork, but this time it’s “Pulled Pork” and yes, if you insist, you can get that served on a bun as well, but like Seinfeld’s infamous “Soup Nazi” would say … “No Krispy Kreme for YOU – Come Back; Six Months!”

Growing up in a family that was originally from a very tropical place, meant that there was always fruit in the house. The counter was always littered with slices or baskets of watermelons, oranges, strawberries, blackberries, mangos, grapes, etc. etc. etc. With such a variety of fruit always at an arm’s reach, it was almost natural to love fruit salads.

Everyone makes fruit salads differently. It’s all about personal preferences. My favorite type of fruit salad has small square shaped chunks of fruit, mixed together with a little bit of condensed milk with grated mozzarella cheese and coconut on top. For anyone who hasn’t tried it, it’s delicious but you have to make sure to use at least 6 different types of fruits (mangos, bananas, apples, strawberries, oranges, and grapes work well). As the end of summer approaches, I decided to look up fun picnic meals. Here is where I discovered the bacon fruit salad.

I didn’t really look too much at what was in the salad (aside from remembering there was watermelon). But the idea of adding bacon to my favorite fruit salad, suddenly seemed amazing. That little bit of salt, I’m not sure if the condense milk would still be as good but I might try it both ways. But the bacon could replace the cheese, or who knows the cheese might be as delicious on the fruit with the added compliment of the bacon. I wanted to share my excitement and suggest to all fellow bacon and possible fruit lovers this awesome combination.