Bacon Mania

I see and hear about bacon a lot lately. Folks are finding new creative ways to cook and pair the salty, yummy, cured breakfast meat. Let's see... there's chocolate-covered bacon, chicken-fried bacon, bacon-infused vodka (what?!) and bacon-wrapped anything, just to name a few. While inputing searches on Google and YouTube, bacon-related sites and clips abound. This is to include a Wikipedia entry called Bacon mania which tells us that yes, this bacon obsession is a real and noteworthy occurance, having started sometime in the 1980s to 1990s. Seriously!

But is this really a new phenomenon? I mean, bacon has been around for ages. What is the deal? Perhaps it's partly because now we have internet and blogs and recipe-sharing websites that make it easier than ever for us to connect with each other. And now, more people can bond over fetishes, and that includes bacon.

With a taste and texture that is unique to it, it is a symbol of leisurely weekend mornings and perhaps brings back memories of mom or dad, grandpa or grandma, cooking breakfast for you when you were a child. Bacon is homemade goodness, for goodness sake! And alongside a few pancakes topped with butter and maple syrup? Heavenly. Who doesn't make sure to save a piece of bacon for last and then coat it with the pool of maple syrup left after their pancakes have been gobbled? It's soooo good!

This bird's boyfriend knows a thing or two... well, mainly how much he enjoys the stuff. When brainstorming muffin and cookie concoctions, he inspired us to create a muffin containing breakfast flavors of bacon and maple. And while we didn't initially intend to subscribe or contribute to Bacon mania, we have found ourselves among those inspired bakers of the bacon maple doughnuts and cupcakes. It's really a great combination, the result of which is a beautiful deep golden-brown muffin that is aromatic, moist and delicious. We call it Two Strips and a Short-stack. A very good breakfast indeed.

Meg