Microwaveable Pork Rinds

If you work in an office environment, you're probably familiar with the scent that often drifts through the cube farm around 4 pm in the afternoon...the scent of microwave popcorn. For popcorn lovers, the scent has an addictive effect that often results in additional people popping their own bags, thus intensifying the odor. And if you are a popcorn hater, this is no doubt the time of day that makes you wish the microwave had never been invented (and that you had an office with a door).

So Lowrey's Bacon Curls Microwaveable Pork Rinds might not be the solution to this perennial office conflict, but now at least there is an alternative for popcorn haters. I was introduced to this low carb snack at one of David Greggory's Aphrodisiac Bacon Dinners where we were each given a packet to take home and try. They come in two flavors - Original and Hot & Spicy. I took one of the Hot & Spicy packets home with me. I've been waiting for the right moment and mood to give these a whirl, which arrived today.

The instructions recommend cooking the rinds for 1-2 minutes or until the bag has finished expanding. I stopped at about 1:40. However, the rinds still cook for a few seconds after they are removed from the microwave so I would recommend stopping at 1:20 or 1:30 at the latest.

While I don't dislike pork rinds, they aren't something I find myself eating often. However, the Lowrey's rinds are actually pretty good and the spicy version definitely has a kick. So they would make a great snack for game day or movie night. But if you're brave enough to cook these at work, just be prepared for a reaction because the scent is definitely strong.

I've been told The Grateful Palate is going to start selling this product on their website soon.

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Baconvision: Chicken Fried Bacon

Brilliant. Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

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Trick or bacon

Source: HGTV

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Kids, time to play with your food!

If you really love your kids, you'll get them a strip of bacon for the backyard.

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Bacon safari

This is a couple years old, but I just stumbled upon a great article over on the Food & Wine Magazine website about a trip that Grateful Palate owner Dan "Captain Bacon" Philips and Details Senior Editor Pete Wells took through Kentucky and Tennessee to explore some of the best small smokehouses. I love reading about other people's bacon adventures and this one is pretty entertaining. Click here for the article.

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Ich liebe spaetzle

In addition to bacon, one of my other favorite foods is spaetzle. As weird as that may seem, I love those little dumplings and got hooked on them while I was an exchange student in Germany in high school.

Yesterday a friend and I stopped for drinks at Trader Vic's at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale. While sipping our mai tais on their beautiful outdoor patio at sunset, we also ordered a few appetizers. One of which was a side dish that consisted of pancetta, spaetzle and several mushroom varieties. While it's sometimes hard to get in the mood for Fall cuisine in Arizona when it's 80 degrees outside, this is a perfect dish for this time of year and, more importantly, it contains two of my favorite ingredients.

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Subliminal

I recently realized that some art hanging in the hallway at the firm where I work has a striking resemblance to something very familiar.

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Asparagus Mimosa

When the headline "Asparagus Mimosa" arrived in my RSS reader as a news item earlier today, all I saw initially was the headline. Before I clicked on the story to find out what an Asparagus Mimosa actually was, the vision (and smell) of pureed asparagus mixed with champagne popped into my head and my gag reflexes just about kicked in. So when I finally clicked on the article, I was surprised to find that 1) it is not a cocktail and there is no champagne involved and 2) the recipe has bacon in it. The recipe actually sounds pretty good - the name of the dish is just absolutely horrible.

This recipe comes from Real Simple magazine and was reprinted in the Idaho Statesman (click here for the original article).

Asparagus Mimosa

Yield: 4 servings

8 slices bacon or ham, crisply cooked
4 4-inch slices focaccia or hearty toast
2 pounds (about 24 spears) asparagus, cooked
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons orange zest
2/3 cup vinaigrette (bottled or homemade)
4 hard-cooked eggs, finely chopped

Place 2 strips of bacon on each piece of focaccia and top with some asparagus. Stir the tarragon and orange zest into the vinaigrette; drizzle over the asparagus. Top with the chopped eggs.

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Pigs Rule

I'm really tired of seeing the California cheese TV commercials that imply a pig would be happier if it were a cow. They're complete bulls**t (pun totally intended). Click here to view the commercial.

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Equinox Bacon

Last weekend, three of my friends and I took a cooking class with Chef Todd Gray of Equinox Restaurant in Washington, DC.

We had two requests for ingredients to be used during the class - risotto and, of course, bacon.

The way the class works is that the Chef sets up cooking stations at the bar, and 'students' sit at the bar and taste each course as it is prepared (in addition to consuming a healthy amount of wine - particularly for 1 o'clock in the afternoon - but I'm not complaining!).

Chef Gray prepared three courses for us. The first was a Butternut Squash Risotto served with scallops, leaks and truffle sauce. I'm generally not a big truffle fan, but the truffle sauce was done so well that it complemented the other flavors in the dish and was not overwhelming at all.

The main course was a BBQ pork loin with potatoes, sweet onions and applewood bacon. That dish was delicious, of course - you can't go wrong when pork loin and bacon are together in the same dish. Chef Gray also prepared a batch of his signature BBQ sauce for us to taste - his BBQ sauce has bacon in it, is relatively simple to make and is very tasty. I'll definitely be whipping up a batch next time I throw something on the barbie.

For dessert, we had a yummy chocolate "Maker's Mark" cake, along with a few glasses of port to leave us properly pickled for the rest of the afternoon.

The class was a lot of fun, and I would definitely recommend it as a fun thing to do with friends on a Saturday afternoon. But in general, Equinox is one of the best restaurants in DC and I recommend checking it out if you're ever in town.

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Bacon Brownies

I have a brownie recipe that I've been making since I was in grade school - it is a recipe I used for a 4-H project at one point, and that my mom and I have played with and perfected over the years. So tonight I decided to take it to the next level and experiment by adding bacon as an ingredient.

The inspiration for my Bacon Brownies came from a very delicious bacon souffle I ate at David Greggory earlier this year. And I must say, the results of my experiment were not bad at all. The bacon gives the brownies a nice smokey kick that is complimentary to the sweetness that makes these brownies so tasty in the first place.

Whenever I tell people how great of a combination bacon and chocolate can be when done correctly, most people don't believe me - until they try it themselves. So I urge you to give it a chance and taste for yourself!

Bacon Brownies

2 sticks margarine
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
4 strips of hickory smoked cinnamon bacon (or your favorite bacon), cooked crispy and finely chopped

Melt the margarine. Add the cocoa to the melted margarine. Separately, in large bowl, cream the sugar and eggs well. Add the flour and mix well. Then add the cocoa mix and chopped bacon and stir well. Bake in a 9x14 inch pan for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

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