First Annual Twitter Bacon Blog Hop

MMMM. Bacon

There's just something about bacon.

People love it.
People love to eat it.
People love to smell it frying.

People love to talk about it and blog about it (say what?)

Welcome! You've arrived to the final destination of the 1st Annual Twitter Bacon Blog Hop. We have 8 stops for your to browse and drool through (don't worry if you've arrived here first, I will bring you to the starting point of the Blog Hop at the end of my bacon rave).

First thing's first. As this IS a papercrafting blog and I'm committed to all things papercrafty, I just have to brag on this card I discovered while writing my blogpost. Bacon and papercrafts come together as one...sigh. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? It's a bacon and egg breakfast card! HOW happy would your eyeballs be to receive this?

Big huge thanks to Kathy (CAKath on Splitcoast) for allowing me to share her personal creation with you! You can see it here.





Bacon Blog Hop - How did this strange thing come to be?

So yesterday I'm knee deep in computer work and have tweetdeck open which allows me to categorize my tweeps (my twitter people I follow) and Lydia says something about bacon. Now, let me back up and say that I follow Lydia for her mad papercrafting skillz so the bacon caught me off guard.... and those who know me know that I'm one who can't resist putting in my 2 cents.

So I sent Lydia a message with an unconventional use of bacon. She replied back! Her office loved the idea. Really? Whoa. What have I stumbled upon here, but a cult-like following of fellow bacon lovers! How odd! How, how so very cool! Bacon lovers unite!

Over the course of the afternoon there were jokes of bacon bake-offs (a bac-off as Lydia called it, how clever!), messages of bacon recipies, and in the time it takes to fry up a pan of the good stuff we had a gregarious group of bacon foodies united through twitter. It turns out that we all blog so the natural progression to this new found bond would be to all blog about bacon, just to be cool, different and to share the love.

Let's take it one step further and we now have the 1st Annual Bacon Blog Hop organized and ready to take you an a small guided tour. Join us on each step of this tour and we'll share with you our thoughts on bacon, our love of bacon, odes to bacon, bacon stories and last but NOT LEAST each of us will share a favourite bacon RECIPE.

Let's take a moment to share a couple of video tributes to bacon, shall we?





Now this. Oh this had me busting a gut laughing. Watch the video and then I'll share something my good friend DG told me.




So my good friend DG, bless him, he's always sends me fun things and food for thought (literally). I posted a comment on my facebook page about the 1st Annual Bacon Bloghop and he posted this memory:

I once cooked off 3 pounds of bacon in the oven over a few hours one night in the oven, and when it was all cooled down, I put it all in a container and placed it in the freezer. I snacked on it off and on for the next couple days here and there, and when i wanted to use some for a burger, opened the container and realized that in 3 or so days, I ate all 3 pounds of bacon, except 3 pieces!

First let me say, what a brilliant idea. Often I want some bacon for my burger but don't want to dirty up another pan....or I've thought of it too late! Thanks DG, you da man! Second let me say, dude...you aren't the only one (mmm bacon) who would be guilty of this bacon snacking goodness.

Let's also give props where they are due and say that DG is also the very same person who led me to a site completely dedicated to all things bacon. www.bacontoday.com The cult of bacon lovers is bigger and badder than you ever knew! Recipes, jokes, a bacon babe of the day (not that I support this but hey, it doesn't come between me and my bacon, so whatevs!)


So I took the time to ask a few people how they like their bacon:

My hubby: a little bit crisp, in an egg sandwich (fried egg sandwich/rye bread)
My small girl: Wis mustard on it! (i know she's just going for the drama here)

My almost teenager: cooked. (hmm. The typical one word teenaged answer that can mean a multitude of things. 1. She'll take her bacon how and where she can get it as long as it's cooked. 2. She doesn't care to speak to me of such things. 3. She isn't speaking to me at all. 4. I'm lame. 5. There's bacon? Let's cut the small talk and start noshing!)
Me: BLT (oh baby oh baby) (on fresh french loaf, with mayo, fresh crisp lettuce, thinly sliced tomato, thick cut bayCON)

Graziela mentioned a spaghetti carbonara (and that made me drool)

Baba (my neighbour) gifted us with a MEAN dish of homemade pierogies with onion and butter and hunks of chopped up bacon love. I love when people reward my hubby's manual labour with home cookin'. OMG. It was comfort food utopia.

Lori-Anne said she didn't like it, so I think you all better change her mind....I said she's not doing it right. ha!


Now how about the unconventional? Something a little bit different? Tonight I will attempt to make the Dark Chocolate Bacon Espresso Cupcake. The thing about cupcakes is they need icing to be a cupcake....i'm a little concerned about this flavour blend, but how can bacon go wrong?

Dark Chocolate Bacon Espresso Cupcake Recipe

12 slices of your favourite bacon (the stronger flavour the better)
2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if your bacon is really salty)
2 eggs
1 cup cold STRONG brewed coffee
1 cup of buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp cocoa powder for dusting

OPTIONAL: 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F/190 celsius

Cook 12 slices bacon to crisp, drain, cool then crumble. Crumble into small bits! Save 4 slices to cut up for garnish.

In large bowl stir together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in eggs, coffee, buttermilk and oil. Stir. Put in crumbled bacon. Stir. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin or foil cups.

Bake for 25 minutes for average muffin and 30 minutes for jumbo. Or until middle springs back when lightly pressed. Cool on wire rack. Frost with favourite chocolate or (creamcheese vanilla frosting) and dust with cocoa. Insert a piece of bacon into the top for garnish.
NOTE: next time I may try this recipe with maple extract and pecans.


Now, if you're ever in Edmonton, AB, rumour has it that Kerstin's Chocolate was selling chocolate covered bacon strips. I'm not kidding. I would never kid about bacon.

I'm officially the last stop and as I promised, I'd link you back to the first stop on the 1st Annual Twitter Bacon Blog Hop where you will be visiting a fellow stamper and bacon lover, Leslie. You will find her bacon bloggy goodness at The Crooked Stamper.

Thanks for stopping by!