My Life With Bacon

Nice breakfast bacon; no time for a full review.  Roundy's Mariano's supermarket is the Wegmans of Chicagoland!

My food-savvy son Sam Murphy got me into using a cupcake pan, and instead of putting in a paper insert for a cupcake, put Canadian bacon and/or prosciutto in there instead.  He got the idea from lifehacker .  Then, fill the cavity with eggs and cheese; bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes (or microwave as appropriate), and you have a ready-to-pop-in-your-mouth breakfast.  I tried to line the pan with bacon instead, but the bacon didn't properly crisp up. In the category of "why didn't I think of this" comes the Bacon Bowl.  Watch the video , check out their website .  Pure genius; I ordered a few and will be handing them out as gifts.  Comes with a recipe book too.  Way overpriced, but worth a look!  Stay tuned.

YES, IT'S TRUE.   Bacon, when used properly, can actually cure a disease , within a couple of hours.  Check out this story about a young woman from Connecticut, who, upon returning from a vacation trip to Columbia, had incredible pain in her head.  She had become infected with a screwworm infestation, known as myiasis, during the trip.  Columbian doctors gave her antibiotics, but they didn't work.  Her US doctors applied petroleum jelly, and BACON to her skin, which resulted in the attraction and death of 142 larvae! The original article is in Discover Magazine. "In the U.S., the agriculture department wiped out screwworms by releasing sterilized male screwworm flies into the wild wherein they bred uselessly with females and obliterated the population, according to Discover Magazine."   Only this simple picture (from the CDC) will be provided, but you can do your own search for screwworm.  Nasty. But the good news is that we found...

The dogs are available at Roundy's Mariano's store (the Wegmans of Chicagoland)!  Will be using a Life hacker method to test 'em. Check out the lifehacker method of cooking hot dogs; it's very cool.  You essentially impale your dog with a skewer, and then cut a spiral into the hot dog.  This lets all the condiments (and that's a big deal here in Chicagoland) have a home on the dog, and not falling out.  Genius !  The picture is actually from the lifehacker site:   The bacon hot dog had only a hint of bacon flavor, but it was distinctive enough.  Worth the buy! Juicy and flavorful. You can only get these in Chicagoland at Roundy's supermarket.  I've inquired at other markets; no dice.  My dog was not as photogenic as lifehacker's.  Or since this is a blog and is supposed to be topical, should I say my weiner was not as photogenic?

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues this week with a review of Louie's Finer Meats bacon, as well as some Bison Bacon from Lester's Country Store - both are from different Wisconsin outfits.  But first, a bit of news! BACON IN THE NEWS . BACON BACON IN TROUBLE .  If you are a Saturday Night Live fan, you've probably heard about this.  If you live in San Francisco, and in particular the Haight Ashbury neighborhood, you're living it.  It's all about the Bacon Bacon restaurant.  The current home page announces " BACON BACON IS VICTORIOUS ". I've written about the Bacon Bacon truck before.  It is the mobile version of the restaurant by the same name, situated in the aforementioned formerly-hippie-now-gentrified neighborhood.  Funny how the hippies who caused trouble there in the 60's and 70's are, today, wrapped really tight.  They've been complaining about the bacon smells in their neighborhood!  So much so, that they got the city to ...

Also Today -  Roundy's Center Cut vs. Corn King Bacon! MY LIFE WITH BACON continues this week, continuing my review of Bacon Freak fare.  After a month or so off, I'm back!  Enjoy. BACON IN THE NEWS .  There has been a lot of news in the last few weeks! Here are my top three. It was only a matter of time before a couple decided to have an all-out Bacon Themed Wedding !  Last week, a pair did just that, complete with bacon bits instead of rice thrown at the couple.  Check out the link - there is a short news clip about the wedding with the accompanying article.  Among the decorations were a bacon printed carpet, bacon printed clothing, bacon wedding cake, maple glazed donut topped with bacon bits, a bacon bouquet and a bacon boutonniere!  The good thing about the wedding, to me, is that most of these items were edible and not throw-aways! Chicago should celebrate the opening of the new Burke's Bacon Bar at 610 North Rush Street!...

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues this week, continuing my review of Bacon Freak fare.  This week it's one standard and one 'specialty bacon. BACON IN THE NEWS .  Thred items worthy of mention this week.  The first is that the (in)famous Yankee Candle has a collection called "Man Candles" ... ugh.  "As many candle buffs know, the Man Candles collection launched last year on the theory that a man’s den, basement, or garage could benefit from pleasing scents." Some of their scents include "Riding Mower" and "Man Town".  I can suggest some scents - how about "Locker Room" or "Tuna"?  But I digress.  But in reality, no self respecting man is going to burn a candle in his den.  Anyway, they announced a new scent - it's called "MMM Bacon".  It's taken them a while to jump on the bacon bandwagon.  Second up on the hit parade is that our friends at Kraft are introducing five new hot dogs, including ...