Bacon!

Bacon Dip

Never in my life did I think I would be writing a story about bacon, but here we are.  It all started at my birthday dinner.  My friend AJ was talking about how he went to bacon night at Harris’s Grille and decided that he wanted to have a bacon party.  At first I thought he was joking, then last week a got an email that the bacon party was a go. 

From the day AJ and I started hanging out, he has always been a big Scrooge when it comes to birthdays.  He told me that he wasn’t into celebrating and wouldn’t even tell me his birth date for years.  I guess all it took was bacon because before I knew it, the joke turned into reality and he was inviting me to his bacon party Sunday afternoon! 

Bacon Chowder

He told me all the food was being taken care of, so I knew I needed to get him a really funny gift.  I went to Borders Saturday night after the Steeler game (so their were no customers) and I asked one of the workers what she had on bacon.  She looked perplexed so I explained the concept of the party and she loved it.  She looked at her computer and found a book, “Bacon:  A Love Story.”  I said, “I’ll take it!” but she had to order it.  Foiled!

Bacon wrapped shrimp with pineapples

The only thing in stock was a Bacon calendar, so we proceeded down to the calendar section.  We looked around but couldn’t find it so she got on her headset and said,

“Hey, has anyone seen a calendar about bacon?”

There was a short pause and she repeated, “Bacon.”

Ha ha!

Bacon Cornbread

We found the tear away calendar that had facts, jokes, and quotes about bacon, 365 of them.  I paired that with a Bobby Flay cookbook to complete my gift.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this bacon party, but I went with an appetite.  When AJ said everything would be made with bacon, he didn’t lie.  We had bacon dip, bacon cornbread,bacon pierogies, bacon cheesy bread, bacon wrapped shrimp with pineapple, bacon   wrapped jalapenos, and yes, even a bacon cake. 

AJ and his Elvis Cake

The cake was the best.  It was called an Elvis cake and was made up of fried bananas in the filling and peanut butter cream with bourbon icing topped off with you guessed it, bacon!

 

So my review of the party?  I give it two thumbs up.  It was funny, innovative, delicious, and made for great conversation.  It was hard to move after consuming so much bacon, but it was worth every second.  Happy Birthday AJ and well done!  See this is why we celebrate birthdays, for bacon if for nothing else.