I don’t really know how my husband stumbled upon these delicious-looking bacon lollipops, but here they are in all their wavy glory. I’ve had this type of treat before, like the Man Bait variety. They are typically maple-flavored, because apparently people who make bacon candy have no imagination. There are two things I like about this new product from Vat19: 1) Three flavors! Of course there’s the obligatory maple, but you can also choose honey or bbq, and 2) Cool shape! Of course a bacon-filled lollipop should be wavy like a crispy strip.

So, yes, by all means go to this website and buy this candy, but while you’re there, you have to check out all the hilarious videos they’ve made to promote their products. Like the wares they’re peddling, the marketing is random and weird and highly entertaining. Our favorite was this one for the 26-pound gummy python.

Vat19.com is a great place to shop for gag gifts, stocking stuffers and, what the heck, totally unique and usable kitchen gadgets. Or a fun place to spend the afternoon getting your Internet fix. Either way, satisfaction guaranteed.

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Never truer words were spoken.

I mentioned in my Denny’s Baconalia post that Denny’s marketing campaign was both smart and funny. They showed us clips from the coverage they received for Baconalia 2011, and I can see where they got their inspiration. Late night comedy took hold of Baconalia, particularly the maple bacon sundae, and claimed it for their own. From Letterman to Leno to South Park, Baconalia was fodder for highly relatable laughs because of one important truth: America has been having a renewed love affair with bacon for years, and it keeps hitting new heights.

For their latest promotions, Denny’s has teamed up with the musical comedy geniuses, Rhett & Link, along with my husband’s favorite website, Failblog, to make videos you definitely want to watch.

And part II

In order to let you lovely Baconeers enjoy the Baconalia menu before it’s too late, Denny’s is offering four gift cards to our Bacon Ambassadors. Each ambassador is assigned a number based upon the order in which they sign up, and come 10 pm Sunday night, April 21, we’ll use a random number generator to pick four lucky Ambassadors to try out the Baconalia menu with friends.

So if you’ve been considering becoming an Ambassador but wondered what was in it for you? Now you know. Join now for your chance to win.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Yannick, Hilary, Paul and Christine on winning the Denny’s Ambassador drawing! Enjoy your gift cards, and feel free to share your thoughts here about the BACONALIA menu!

The post Bacon Makes It Better appeared first on Royal Bacon Society.

If you’ve been thinking about a trip to Santa Barbara County’s wine country, now’s the time to start your planning. July 19-21, 2013 is the first annual Bacon & Barrels festival in downtown Los Olivos, in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley, and you do not want to miss this one-of-a-kind food and wine event. There will be delicious food from local vendors, many of which I’ve patronized and can highly recommend, and wine from local vintners, some who may be new to you. I hear there’s even a brewery involved, for those of you who prefer the suds over the sips. I myself am an equal opportunity imbiber. Top it all off with some bluegrass jams and a chance to pet a piglet, and you’ve got a day of indulgence like no other.

Tickets start at $30 ($20 if you’re not a drinker). For $200 you also get a special VIP pre-festival dinner under the stars and exclusive VIP Lounge access throughout the festival. Check out the various ticket packages here, and plan to meet us in Los Olivos for a magical day of Swine & Wine. We’re already counting the days.

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Last week Naseem and I had a crazy, whirlwind experience. We were invited by the marketing and advertising team at Denny’s (yes that Denny’s, America’s diner) to visit their headquarters is Spartanburg, South Carolina and learn about the re-launch of their Baconalia menu — coming to a Denny’s near you this week. Many of you may remember that in 2011, they first introduced this bacon-themed menu to much media attention, particularly because of their bold Maple Bacon Sundae. This taste sensation got Baconalia mentioned on Conan, Letterman, Leno, and got major exposure on at least one episode of South Park. As far as I’m concerned, if Matt & Trey have noticed you, you have most definitely arrived. A number of restaurant chains have thrown in a token bacon-themed dessert item since, but none has committed in the way that Denny’s has.

The morning of the event was filled with anticipation on my part. Prior to being shuttled to the 16-story Denny’s Headquarters building, we didn’t actually know which promotion we were there to cover. What would we be tasting? And who else would share this experience with us? Turned out we were in very good company, with bloggers from Foodbeast, Burgerbeast, GrubGrade, and Mr. Baconpants himself. Perhaps most awesome was meeting the lovely Megan and Jason Day of BBQAddicts, inventors of the legendary and much-imitated Bacon Explosion.

We spent about an hour whetting our appetite on fruit and cinnamon-sugar pancake puppies (which I heart) while the VP of Marketing John Dillon and his team shared some information and stats about Baconalia past and present. They showed us their upcoming advertising campaign and I have to say it was smart and very funny. A song and video by Rhett & Link. A partnership with FailBlog. Commemorative melamine plates! The links are almost endless and the presentation was an experience that I’d like to talk about further, but I’ll save that for another post because I really want to get to the menu. Which is exactly what I was thinking while we talked about and looked at images of the food to come.

Finally around 11 am we walked across the street to Denny’s test kitchen. I have always wanted to say I went to a test kitchen. I feel like a damn Food Network correspondent. There are 12 bacon-themed items on the new menu, nearly double what there were in 2011. Two of the items were pretty basic egg & bacon plates, which were omitted from the tasting, I assume, in the interest of time and stomach space. My favorite dish was also our first: The Caramel Bacon Stuffed French Toast ($7.99). This consisted of two thick slices of French toast, perfectly cooked without any noticeable egg on the exterior, a peeve of mine. Between the slices was a generous layer of white chocolate cream cheese (yum!) mixed with nice-sized chunks of crisp bacon. Topping it all off was a tasty drizzle of caramel sauce and more bacon chunks. It was delicious, plain and simple. I would order this. Naseem and I both had difficulty keeping our tasting to a couple of bites. But with eight more dishes to come, we really had to pace ourselves. The French toast comes with two eggs, two slices of bacon, and a side of warm maple syrup. I’d say the syrup is totally unnecessary.

Naseem’s favorite item (and in my top three) was the Spicy Pepper Bacon Jack Burger ($7.99). We had all discussed the spice level that we expected from this burger, and were happy that it actually delivered. With a chipotle sauce, pepper jack cheese, pepper bacon and, most important, pickled jalapeño slices, you’re actually left with some lingering heat on the tongue for several minutes. There was also much discussion about the veggies included on the burger. I’m a fan of lettuce, tomato and pickle, particularly if the lettuce is crisp and shredded, which this was. The bacon obviously couldn’t be the stand-out flavor in this burger, but a decent burger doesn’t use bacon as a crutch. This item is served with fries, and can be ordered with a turkey or veggie burger.

Naseem and I were both excited about the BBQ Bacon Mac’n Cheese Bites ($4.59). There are six pieces in this appetizer, served atop a pepper jack sauce and drizzled with BBQ sauce. Each ball of cheesy goodness was deep-fried to a crispness that our forks could not penetrate. This is definitely a finger food. As far as being fried mac’n cheese, I liked it. The bacon, unfortunately, wasn’t as prominent as I had hoped. And the sauces weren’t a match for me. Maybe the pepper jack would have been fine on it’s own, but the BBQ sauce dominated the other flavors. It may have even been why I couldn’t taste the bacon. If I ordered this, I’d ask for sauces on the side. But again, I would totally order it.

Other menu items included:

The Ultimate BLT ($6.99): A solid, tasty sandwich with avocado and mixed greens, but I’d need at least two more slices of bacon to call it ultimate.

The Pepper Bacon Avocado Omelette ($7.99): Not terribly interesting. Veggies were nicely sautéed, avocado was ripe but firm, but it also could have used more bacon.

The Bacon Pepper Jack Tilapia ($8.99): Although we were told this item got very high marks in test, I cannot get behind putting cheese and bacon on fish; spinach and pico de gallo? Maybe in a taco situation. The fish itself had a nice texture and mild flavor.

And now on to the famous bacon desserts. The Salted Caramel Brownie Sundae with Bacon ($3.69) was our favorite, hands down. The brownie was super fudgy with a crushed pretzel crust. The caramel sauce, as stated earlier, was delicious. Denny’s uses a 12% milkfat vanilla ice cream for all of these desserts, so it was nice and rich. And finally the diced bacon was diced large and cooked crisp. A killer mix.

They brought back the famous Maple Bacon Sundae ($2.99) and added a Maple Bacon Milk Shake ($3.69). I may be the only bacon fan out there who doesn’t love maple, so neither of these desserts appealed to me. But if you do love that flavor combo, then I think the shake would blow your mind. The bacon is blended to a fine enough mince to get through the straw, and we were all impressed with the crispy texture, even when blended with ice cream. The key there is that each shake is scooped and blended to order; there is no pre-mixed maple-bacon ice cream on standby.

I was totally impressed with the crispness of the bacon throughout the tasting. I recognize, however, that I was being served by test kitchen chefs and culinary experts; I’m anxious to do a testing at our local Denny’s with a few of our readers to see how the experience holds up in the real world of a franchise owner.

If you want to see what all the hype is about, you have 10 weeks to try out the Baconalia festivities. Yes, this is a limited-time promotion, and we cannot guarantee that any of the items you see here will be available in the future. If you do give this menu a try, let us know what you thought and which items were your favorites. Seriously, I eat that French toast one more time and breakfast may never be the same again.

The post Denny’s Baconalia is back! appeared first on Royal Bacon Society.

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Make your dreams come true and wrap yourself in bacon! Okay, maybe it doesn’t smell like bacon or taste like bacon, but it sure looks like bacon! We’ve written about bacon scarves before, but this one is another you just have to see to believe. Made by Natalie Luder, of Swiss nationality, these silk bacon scarves she calls Fou Lard (see play on words below) will make you salivate just looking at them. I conducted a mini-interview with her to find out more about these wonderful creations…

* Where did your inspiration come from? Are you a fellow bacon lover? First of all I must explain that bacon in Switzerland or Europe has not same meaning or symbolism as in America. I heard that calling yourself a bacon lover in America is almost a political statement, saying I enjoy bacon even it’s a nutritional sin. This is not a big topic in Switzerland. I surely do like bacon, I eat it very often since it jazzes up so many dishes. But my inspiration for the bacon scarf came from a very different angle. My work is often inspired by topics in the realm of food culture. The comparison of appearance and reality, nature and culture, as well as the discussion about good and bad taste are fascinating aspects to me. Such categories can be applied to both food and ornament. The spirit of sugar and ornament are quite similar, one pleases the eye whereas the other is a delight for the taste-buds. The large quantity of recipes available to us, tell about our highly developed and specialized sense of taste. Is there a sense in arguing about good taste?

* Why make a bacon scarf? The ambiguous question of what we find attractive or disgusting is very interesting. The preliminary work was a necklace of maggots carved from mother of pearl. In German to feel as a maggot in bacon is a metaphor for being in paradise. I wanted to show this necklace in an exhibition titled paradise. So all I needed to do was the bacon scarf. Only then I noticed that actually the French word for silk scarf “Foulard” already contains fou (insane) and bacon (lard). A foulard is a sophisticated accessory. I like the ironic twist of wearing a precious shiny silk scarf (and when you wear it you don’t really notice that it is the image of a bacon), but the image on it is checkered. Last but not least: I guarantee that the scarf is not leaving any oil stains!

* Does your creativeness continue into the kitchen? Do you have a favorite dish to cook with bacon? I do like very much to cook myself. My parents had a restaurant, so in our family food was always a big topic. I do like bacon almost best on its own. In Switzerland in many rural taverns it is very common to order a “Speckbrettli” which is finely sliced smoked bacon on a wooden board, garnished with pickled cucumbers and fresh bread on the side. Sitting in the middle of the mountains after a long days march and getting this dish is a very happy feeling.

Luckily you can purchase these beauties and have them shipped to you from Switzerland, thank goodness! The scarf is 170 US Dollars plus 15 US Dollars for packaging and shipping with priority mail. Check out more photos and details about the Fou Lard on Natalie’s site: http://www.natalieluder.ch/shop.htm .

And here’s hoping that your holiday season leaves you feeling like a maggot in bacon.

(How awesome is that wrapping??)

The post Bacon Wrapped You appeared first on Royal Bacon Society.

It’s that time of year again! We have updated the Royal Bacon Society Bacon Store with all kinds of new and awesome bacon products.  Here’s our top 20 picks for the 2012 holiday gift giving season.

Be sure to check out our Gifts and Stocking Stuffers sections for more ideas!

1. Yummy You Bacon and Eggs Scarf

$32.99 -Read more and buy it now!

Yummy You! presents this original design by creator Twinkie Chan: a crocheted scarf of interconnected strips of bacon and sunny-side-up eggs. High quality and hand knit.

Browse more wearable bacon

2. Bacon Printed Duct Tape

$8.95 – Read more and buy it now!

Bacon Duck brand Duct Tape 1.88 in. x 10 yds. Ideal for craft applications, coordinating repairs and color-coding materials. Tears easily by hand without curling and conforms to uneven surfaces. Excellent adhesion to a wide variety of surfaces like cloth, vinyl, leather, plastic, metal and laminates. Each roll is 10 yards long.

Bacon stuff for your home and office

3. Sizzling Bacon Plush Key Chain with Sound

$5.99 – Read more and buy it now!

Lovers of bacon, rejoice – it’s the Sizzling Bacon Plush Key Chain with Sound! That’s right. This one really sizzles! Featuring a bacon plush that sizzles with sound, the sizzling bacon plush key chain with sound can be used as backpack decoration or simply as one cool key chain.

 Lots of stocking stuffers

4. Bacon Tin Lunch Box

$12.80 – Read more and buy it now!

Perfect for bacon lovers of all ages, this colorful tin lunchbox measures 7.75″ x 6.75″ x 4.13″ and is sure to get you all kinds of attention.

Bacon stuff for your home and office

5. Bacon Black Fabric By The Yard

$8.48 – Read more and buy it now!

Designed for Timeless Treasures this fabric is perfect for quilting craft projects apparel and home decor accents. Colors include shades of red with ivory and golden brown on a black background.

Bacon stuff for your home and office

6. Fifty Shades of Bacon

$19.95 Read more and buy it now!

Fifty Shades of Bacon is an erotic cookbook that delves into the full bacon experience. Ok, it is not erotic at all, but it is a tongue in cheek delivery of some great bacon recipes. Everything from basic bacon bits to bacon ice cream to bacon au gratin and alfredo. If you are into bacon, want an interesting conversation piece or are looking for a present for the meat lover in your life, this title is for you.

More bacon books

7. Torani Bacon Syrup

$16.99 – Read more and buy it now!

• Torani bacon flavored syrup
• Spice up a drink or sauce with this unique flavoring
• Includes one 375 ml bottle
• Fun gift or novelty item to share with friends and family
• Savory and sweet flavor

More bacon groceries

8. Star Wars Darth Vader Dark Side Bacon Vintage Style Mighty Fine Adult T-Shirt Tee

$24.99 – Read more and buy it now!

This is a high-quality 100% Cotton adult t-shirt from the trusted Mighty Fine brand, featuring a funny “Come To The Dark Side, We Have Bacon” design. Has a vintage-style distressed print.

Lots more bacon t-shirts!

9. Parks and Recreation Bacon and Eggs Ron Mens T-shirt

$17.95 – Read more and buy it now!

This is a brand new officially licensed item. It is made of 100% pre-shrunk cotton or mostly pre-shrunk cotton. The images are professionally applied, not airbrushed.

Lots more bacon t-shirts!

10. Bacon Love! 2013 Day-to-Day Calendar

$14.99 – Read more and buy it now!

Each full-color page of this meaty calendar features a delectable recipe or interesting tidbit about those salty and sweet slices of bacon .
No two ways about it: bacon is crazy good–those salty, sweet slices of pork, fried up to crispy perfection. Bacon freaks (and who isn’t?) will obsess over the delectable recipe or interesting tidbit found on each full-color page of the meaty Bacon Love 2013 Day-to-Day Calendar.

Bacon stuff for your home and office

11. Magnetic Poetry – Bacon Poet Edition

$11.95 – Read more and buy it now!

A sizzling celebration of everyone’s favorite smokey treat! Bacon Poet includes lots of savory words like bacon, crisp, sizzle, goodness, perfection, and satisfy. Kit contains over 200 themed magnetic word tiles. Made in the USA.

More bacon toys & games!

12. Bacon Gift Bag

$4.41 – Read more and buy it now!

This 7-1/2″ x 4″ x 9-1/2″ (19.1 cm x 10.2 cm x 24.1 cm) paper gift bag is decorated with beautiful bacon. While this is the perfect thing to hold a gift for any bacon lover, there better be something pork related inside or they will be severely disappointed. Includes thick string handle and attached gift card.

Bacon stuff for your home and office

13. The Shakin Bacon Dashboard Dancer

$5.39 – Read more and buy it now!

I don’t care if it rains or freezes, as long as i got my plastic bacon. On the dash board of my car. Adds fun to the dashboard of your car or truck. This adorable little slice of bacon wiggles, shakes and sways with the motion of the vehicle.

More bacon toys & games!

14. Disney Vinylmation 9″ Figure – Urban 5 – Limited Edition – Bacon

$49.95 – Read more and buy it now!

This Bacon Vinylmation Urban 5 Series 9” Figure is a deliciously fun addition to any Vinylmation collection. This limited edition Disney Collectible, created by artist Thomas Scott, is one in a series of 7 original designs by Disney artists.

More bacon toys & games!

15. Baconlube- Bacon Flavored Massage Oil & Personal Lubricant

$12.81 – Read more and buy it now!

You’ve always been a lover of bacon! Now you can be a bacon lover with baconlube, the world’s first bacon-flavored massage oil & personal lubricant. No more Horrifying bedroom experiments with bacon grease or 3rd degree skillet massage burns. Just keep it Sizzlin with baconlube!

Bacon stuff for your home and office

16. Jumbo Bacon Candy Cane

$4.99 – Read more and buy it now!

A giant-sized alternative to regular Bacon Candy Canes. This is the perfect item for manly men or anyone with a humongous love of bacon. You get 10-1/4″ (26 cm) of Christmas-celebrating bacon-flavored candy that is almost too big for a stocking. Weighs 3.1 oz (87 g).

Check out more bacon candy

17. Bacon Scented Spray Freshener

$7.00 – Read more and buy it now!

Sometimes you enter a room and the smell is less than pleasant. More often than not, if you’re in a public place; it usually smells like arm pits, cheap cologne, and old bologna. Gross. So we came up with an alternative to this stench. We feel that you shouldn’t have to inhale old bologna. And other people shouldn’t have to either! So we bring you the best scented spray freshener ever! The beautiful and aromatic scent of Bacon! Spray it in the locker room. Spray it in the shoe store… Spray it anywhere you feel needs some freshening up… Grandma’s closet. Freshen anywhere up with the smell of bacon! Size: 5 mL

Bacon stuff for your home and office

18. Bacon Bunting Infant Costume

$21.69 –  Read more and buy it now!

Did someone say bacon? We never thought bacon could be so funny and cute but that is exactly what your little one will be in the Bacon Baby Bunting Costume.

See more bacon costumes for the whole family… even your pet!

19. Get Real and Sexy in this Bacon Strip Costume Dress

$28.99 – Read more and buy it now!

• Bacon Costume Dress (Shoes not included)
• Womens One Size – Per Mftr. Bust 35-38″, Waist 27-30″ and Hips 38-41″

See more bacon costumes for the whole family… even your pet!

20. Ultimate Bacon Sampler

$59.95 – Read more and buy it now!

This Ultimate Bacon Sampler includes our top six Hickory Smoked Bacon in one pound packages.Sampler Contains:* Original Country Bacon* Maple Country Bacon* Applewood Country Bacon* Pepper Coated Country Bacon* Pepper Coated City Bacon* Original City Bacon

MORE BACON!!!!

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The post Top 20 Bacon Gift Ideas For 2012 appeared first on Royal Bacon Society.

Here in Santa Barbara many restaurants come and go as it is a small town with loads of restaurants, but I feel optimistic for the newest one: State & Fig. Why? Because there’s bacon. I recently tried their Mac’n'cheese and their Fig Burger, both of which include our beloved bacon.

The Mac’n'cheese is made with fontina, provolone, parmesan, applewood bacon, breadcrumbs and sure is rich! The bacon really stands up to the medley of cheeses bringing a lovely smokiness to the dish.

The Fig Burger includes fig jam, bacon, caramelized onions, arugula, and blue cheese. This fantastic combo makes each bite a delight. The bacon was perfectly cooked – a perfect crunch yet still with some chew to it. The saltiness of the bacon paired with the fig jam was wonderful and an idea that has inspired me to create some sort of flatbread with these ingredients at home. Hurray for bacon!

Want to read the full restaurant review? Check out my food loving blog at www.bluemoon-eve.blogspot.com.

The post Bacon Sighting in SB appeared first on Royal Bacon Society.

Wishing all you bacon lovers out there a very Happy Halloween!

Here’s a fantastic bacon Halloween outfit from Paul and Helen – thanks for sharing! Looks like a match made in heaven…

 

We would also like to take this opportunity to send warm thoughts to everyone on the East coast and that the sun shines down on you soon.

The post Happy Halloween! appeared first on Royal Bacon Society.

Thank you, National Pig Association of the United Kingdom, for giving us all a heart attack imagining life with a bacon shortage! Insert squeal… The real blame, however, goes to our hyper crazy global media outlets that took the title of the small press release (“A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable”) and went hog wild. The good news? There is NO bacon shortage.

After reading many an article about the “shortage”, I fell upon this very witty bit of writing and decided this would be a fun one to share. It’s from CNN’s tech weekly Apparently This Matters post on September 29th, click here to go read it. All the hoopla has basically lead to this conclusion: the price of bacon will increase. All this drought in the US has lead to less corn crops, which means corn becomes more expensive, and therefore, feeding the piggies is much pricier. This all equals more expensive bacon (and many other corn eating meats…) I even heard this weekend that some farms are feeding candy to their pigs! Candy is cheaper than corn! I wonder how getting chocolate goodness into bacon from the inside will work out….

Fear not fellow bacon lovers, all is well in the end. We’ll just have to shell out more bacon, for our bacon.

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