Don't know about you but

We love

....... LOVE

..........LOVE

Bacon BACON Bacon BACON

and

am certainly are not alone in that addiction.

Have you noticed that all sorts of interesting bacon enhanced

foods are popping up in the news and on menus lately.

Have to say that CuisinEtc has been on to this trend for a while

and you may remember the Elmer's Fudd Delight

that was part of the Wine Country Tasting Menu that we helped Susan Parish Schwab cater in Healdsburg California last November.

We have been serving Chocolate Dipped Bacon

at NYC Catered Events ever since

and our clients certainly love it too!

CuisinEtc even used the recipe for Chocolate Dipped Bacon

when we were catering for Christmas Eve in Baton Rouge Louisiana.

http://cuisinetc-catering.blogspot.com/2008/11/tasting-menu-for-sonoma-harvest-dinner.html

It's fairly easy to make and a fun thing to serve your guests

Chocolate Dipped Bacon aka "Elmer Fudd's Delight"

Buy some thick cut sliced bacon

we actually bought Neiman Ranch Applewood Bacon

as well as the Ultra Thick Cut version from Costco (in the section with the hummous)

and preferred the Costco version for this recipe.

Lay the bacon out on a cookie or sheet pan

lined with parchment paper (makes cleanup so much easier)

and bake at 350 until crispy

drain, pat off excess grease and let cool.

You can cut the bacon in half lengthwise at this point

or just cut some of them in half

so that you have various lengths for display.

Melt GOOD quality MILK chocolate

approximately 1/2 pound of chocolate per pound of bacon

(you may have to come up with some fun thing to do with the left over chocolate)

for some reason the juxtapostition of the

creamy sweet milk chocolate with the

salty fatty bacon works better than dark chocolate

one of the few instances I would recommend

milk chocolate over dark!

When the chocolate is melted and fluid

dip the cooled slices of bacon as you would chocolate covered strawberries

my trick is to scrape some of the chocolate off the back

before laying down on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper

You could also use a new or clean "food only" paint/pastry brush

to brush the chocolate onto one side only

If you want to guild the lily, dip the still wet chocolate

into chopped toasted pecans or slivered almonds.

Let chocolate harden in a cool place or pop into the frig

(pull out for a half an hour before serving to take the chill off)

We actually did a combination of both

"Elmer Fudd's Delight" - Thick Cut Bacon Dipped in Milk Chocolate and Almond Crusted

A version of this is sold at Roni Sue's

in the Essex Street Market on New York's Lower East Side.

They call it Pig Candy!

Here's one of the lastest trends - as seen in this article on NPRs blog
listen to the NPR radiocast and try some of the recipes below
(courtesy of the NPR blogpost)

Would You Like A Little Bacon In That Martini?

Jamesey's Breakfast Cocktail BACON INFUSED SCOTCH

1.5 ounces bacon-infused Compass Box Peat Monster Scotch
.75 ounce molasses syrup
.75 ounce lemon juice
.25 ounce Grand Marnier

Directions: Shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange zest.

Minito With Anchovy Tequila

1.5 ounces Boquerones cure-infused Blanco Tequila
1 ounce Manzanilla sherry
.25 ounce absinthe
2 dashes orange bitters

Directions: Stir. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon zest.

Recently I was reading a post on chowhound.com

and the poster was looking for bacon ice cream

read chowhound post here

although there was no definitive answer on where to find it commercially,rest assured one will pop up soon.

The New York Post's Bacon Whoppee article reveals more bacon madness around NYC

including bacon infused alcohol and bacon doughnuts

My buddy Cowboy John over in Houston Texas

does some amazing things with bacon.

he created a couple of way cool bacon items

including

The Bacon Basket

which can be filled with salad

(sort of an inside out BLT)

and

the Bacon Weave Wrapped Alien Probe

Sausage wrapped around an Anaheim pepper stuffed

with cheese wrapped in the bacon weave
and smoked for a couple of hours.

John calls it manly food but I just call it delicious sounding

photo and directions for bacon fun

Cowboy John really likes to play with his bacon!

Another Catering friend, Mich, in Pennsylvania also likes to play with her food

she created this display of Sugared Bacon Lollipops for a bridal shower

sugared bacon lollipops

and more recently she created this bacon head hair dressing "thing"

with their sugared bacon lollipops

and cheese and fruit skewers

enhanced with foil strips - kind of the new streaky bacon thing perhaps???

Note: As I find more bacon mania items I am adding them
check out this easy and delicious looking appetizer of Bacon Wrapped Breadsticks from
Stacey Snacks Blog

and for the latest in bacon fashion
there is the BACON BRA -
from Seattle's alternative paper
bacon bra

bacon floss

bacon briefcase for the piggy-licious executive

BA-K-47 - that could be one of the few guns we might covet
bacon-ater - obliterating the world one pig at a time

make your own bacon
great article in an Ohio newspaper complete with Ruhlman recipe

latest update 09-27-09
the New York Vendy Awards dessert award nominees all featured bacon in their sweet treats.

Vosges Chocolate Shop on Spring Street in Soho NYC has

this fun display in their shop window this fall

Mo's Bacon Bar and Bacon Caramel Toffee

Their window proudly proclaims

BACON + CHOCOLATE RENDEZVOUS...

...what does taste better with bacon !!