B-A-C-O-N

It just feels right to start off this year with a post solely about bacon.  As most, if not all of my readers know, I truly love the hell out of bacon.  There is nothing in this world that I wouldn't add bacon to and not think twice about it.  Legit I wouldn't bat an eyelash if bacon came on my sundae, was in a pasta, in soup, on a taco, or inside of a yodel instead of the cream filling.  The taste of bacon is unlike anything else on this planet and if you disagree, then you clearly are an abomination to society.  And speaking of abominations to society, something that prompted me to write this post (other than the fact that I had some amazing bacon recently that I will get to in a moment) is the fact that I keep coming across pictures of friends, family, celebrities, strangers eating bacon, posing with bacon, or claiming that they too LOVE bacon.  Ummmmm no you don't.  There's a big difference between liking bacon and enjoying it when it accompanies your meal and LOVING bacon.  For me, I LOVE BACON to a point where I look for excuses to have it as much and as often as I can.  Friends give me bacon-flavored gifts, bacon-scented treasures, and actual packages of bacon to show me how much they love me.  For Christ's sake my own mother put packages of bacon in my Easter basket last year (Yes, I still get an Easter basket and no I don't care what you think about that)!  All I'm saying is that people need to stop claiming that they LOVE bacon unless they truly do.  Treat bacon like you would your significant other aka with affection and compassion.

Now that this post took an awkward and weird turn, let me introduce you to a few uncured slabs of Maple Wood Smoke Bacon from Vermont!

Secret Santa took place this past weekend between myself and a few other friends and guess what I got?  Bingo.  A few slabs of the finest bacon this side of the Mississippi.  Being the kind and caring person I am, I decided to share the wealth with everyone so more could have their taste buds taken to new heights.  I also had to fight the urge of opening the package and taking a bit out of the raw slab like it was one giant protein bar, but I'm happy I did because there is what came of it:

BOO-YAH-KA-SHA.  I don't even want to continue typing this post because my hands are shaking uncontrollably and I can't stop staring at this picture.  The bad slab is a pure slab or heaven while the front slab was coated with brown sugar.  Essentially we're looking at dinner in the back and dessert in the front.  Let me just say this... once I had my third bit (I got overly excited with my first and second bites and tried the bacon when it first came out of the oven and was still hissing in the pan... about 25 and 65 seconds post removal from the over respectively) I was brought to a mental state of bliss where no wrong could find me.  All the worries of the world were washed away by this bacon and all was right with the world.  If Obama made a law that everyone had to eat one of these bacon slabs, I feel like the crime rate would go down, global warming would stop, and world hunger would cease to be.

I can't thank Ray enough for getting me this phenomenal Secret Santa gift.  Tears were in my eyes (due to initial pain of it being scalding hot and then inevitable happiness) and I couldn't be happier about it.