Tag: cheese

the Bacon Explosion — I must try this!

Speaking of bacon weaves, I recently heard about a dish called the Bacon Explosion.   It uses two pounds of bacon and two pounds of sausage, plus barbecue seasonings.  Some have called it a monster of meat.  I’m not scared of it, although the after-effects might be strong (more on that later).  This food item is football-sized, and it contains at least 5,000 calories and 500 grams of fat.  Needless to say, you shouldn’t eat it all in one sitting.  (Although Michael Phelps could consume two of these in one day on his extreme workout diet!  But imagine the effect it would have on his swimming…)

At the BBQ Addicts site, there is a full recipe with pictures.  Here’s a quick summary.  Create a 5×5 bacon weave; coat it with a barbecue pork rub; spread out two pounds of sausage; cover with crumbled up bacon that’s already cooked; cover with barbecue sauce; roll up; add more barbecue seasoning; then slow-cook in a smoker with hickory smoke; after cooking, cover with more BBQ sauce.   (That site used Italian sausage, but I would prefer pork sausage / breakfast sausage, which others have used.)

Here at Buffet o’ Blog, we’ve had our own Buffet o’ Bacon a few months ago, which was awesome.  Well, one experimental item created what we called a “gut-bomb”, which I suspect would happen with this Bacon Explosion dish.  See, the problem arises when the bacon grease isn’t able to escape.  But with the Bacon Explosion, not only would you have trapped bacon grease, but also trapped sausage grease.   So it might be doubly as potent.  Nonetheless, I would like to try it someday.  (Guys, I think this calls for a Buffet o’ Bacon 2!  Although everyone might be required to sign a release form stating we’re not liable for the after-effects!)

You can read more about the dish here.  One excerpt I want to highlight from that article is this review:

After preparing a version of the dish, Andrew Vennari of the San Francisco Food Examiner said the dish tasted better than expected, “but I didn’t learn the true meaning of the bacon explosion until the next day.”

That’s what is meant by the term “gut-bomb”.  (FYI, if you eat this, you might want to equip your bathroom with a fan and some magazines.  I’m just sayin’…)

When we perform our research* on this, you’ll get a full review.

* num num num num

I’ve been thinking about what we could serve with it, besides plenty of sweet tea.   I know, it might seem like culinary perfection already, but I don’t think our bodies are accustomed to such awesomeness anymore.  Our modern diet just doesn’t prepare the body for that.  All the “health foods” we eat now have weakened our digestive system, which can make dishes like the Bacon Explosion dangerous, because we aren’t used to such awesomeness.

Anyway, back to side-item ideas.  Perhaps some bread (biscuits or rolls), and maybe some cheese dip to dip it in.  🙂  Actually, I’m thinking of adding some cheese before and after cooking.   Surely it would be better with cheese!  (Just be prepared for the “sudden dramatic weight loss” mentioned in the infamous bacon and cheese diet!)

In closing, I realize some health experts or registered dieticians might be frowning upon this discussion.  I’ll let them take that up with the “Important Doctor”, one of the regular readers here.  But I will add this nugget of wisdom for you to contemplate:

Would a longer life be worthwhile if it had to be lived as prescribed — without French-fried onion rings, pizza with double cheese, chocolate?  (Remember, living right doesn’t really make you live longer, it just seems like longer.)

All that said, who wants to join me in a taste-testing session of the Bacon Explosion with cheese dip?   🙂

the special days of June, pt 2

Now we’re going to continue our look at the special days / holidays / celebrations / observations of June.  These are the daily holidays.

1 Dare Day — I dare you to read this blog every day for a month and then try to truthfully tell me it’s not funny.  🙂

1 Flip a Coin Day — Uhh, why is this a holiday?

2 National Bubba Day — Why do people named Bubba get their own holiday?  I should get my own holiday.  It could be called National Beppo Day.  🙂

2 National Rocky Road Day — I’m going to assume this is talking about ice cream and not bumpy pavement.

3 Egg Day — You can make a number of good meals with eggs, like omelets, cakes, cookies, etc.  Or you can just cook them and have some bacon and/or sausage on the side, as part of a balanced breakfast.  🙂

4 Cheese Day — Ah, the power of cheese!  You may think that’s just some gimmicky promotional phrase for commercials, but think about it — cheese makes the world a better place.  And cheese can make your day better.  In fact, today I had lunch at my favorite restaurant and was treated to a free large cheese dip.  It certainly made the day better.  🙂

4 First Ford Made — This isn’t really a holiday, but more of a remembrance.  The first operational car was made in 1896.  Can you imagine life without vehicles?

4 Applesauce Cake Day — What?  I’ve never heard of an applesauce cake.  Have you ever had one?  Hopefully it’s not just a cake made with applesauce.  If so, then it doesn’t deserve its own holiday.

4 Hug Your Cat Day — If you don’t have a cat, I guess you’re just left out of this one.  Although June is adopt-a-cat month…

4 Old Maid’s Day — This is a day for the single ladies who aren’t getting any younger.  Here’s to all the fair maidens who are still waiting on Mr. Right.  Although, is a fair maiden the same as an old maid?  I don’t think I should continue this discussion…  🙂

5 World Environment Day — Today you should be thankful that we have an environment in this world, and that it’s habitable.  We take it for granted, but we have the best environment among all the other planets in our solar system.  Earth’s environment is much better than Mars.  We’ve discussed this before, and living on Mars would be worse than you expect.

6 National Doughnut Day — This is a good reason for a holiday.  Donuts are scrumptious.  I prefer the chocolate-filled variety.  Also worth mentioning is the infamous Krispy Kreme doughnuts, particularly right after the come off the assembly line.  They almost melt in your mouth when they’re still hot and fresh.  Mmm…

6 National Gardening Exercise Day — One website that listed this holiday suggested you “get out and exercise with your plants”.  WHAT?  Who came up with that?  This is just silly.

7 National Chocolate Ice Cream Day — Now we’re back to a good holiday.  I don’t have to tell you how good chocolate ice cream is.  And if all you have is vanilla ice cream, you can get some Oreos and crumble them up in there, or add Hershey’s syrup to it, or both.  My research has proven that all three together is awesome.

8 Name Your Poison Day — Some people use this phrase to ask how you’d like to die.  Personally, I plan to live forever.  (So far, so good!)  So I’m not participating in this holiday at all.

10 Iced Tea Day — It’s already National Iced Tea Month, so I don’t know why we need an individual day for it.  If you’re already drinking extra tea for the month holiday, I guess you can drink even more tea on this day.  Just don’t stray too far from a bathroom if you’re drinking 2 to 3 times your normal amount of tea.

12 Red Rose Day — Again, this is already Rose Month, which I don’t care about.  But if you want to buy some red roses this day for your wife/girlfriend, you might could get a good deal on them (as opposed to February, when the price is run up because of Valentine’s Day).

13 Blame Someone Else Day — This holiday is always the first Friday the 13th of the year, so it’s not always in June.  But this year it is, so here goes.  I don’t think this needs to be a holiday, because so many people already do this on a regular basis, and it’s destroying our country.  Folks need to learn to take personal responsibility, especially our politicians.

15 Smile Power Day — Smiling is good for you.  And it helps those around you, too.  But I should add a caveat — some people say it’s easier to smile than to frown, which may be true, but it’s not the whole story — it’s actually easier to look like you don’t care.  🙂  But really, smiling is healthy for you, along with laughing.  That’s why this blog exists.

This is getting long, so I’m going to finish this in the next post.  Click here to search for the other entries for June.

the special days of April, pt 1

As we’ve done in previous months, we’re going to look at the special days and holidays of this month.  As usual, this is not a complete list — those can be found elsewhere.  But I guarantee you will not find another list like this one.  This is not a mere list, because we add our own unique commentary and analysis.  In other words, we try to make it more fun.  And you are welcome to add to the discussion in the comments section.

Let’s get started with the month-long celebrations and observances:

  • National Humor Month — Then this is a great time to be reading this blog, because we’re all about humor!
  • National Pecan Month — To me, this says “eat pecan pie”.  Mmm…
  • International Guitar Month — Rock on, dude!
  • National Garden Month — This is when Mango-Man starts his infamous all-natural “survival of the fittest” garden.  That is, he doesn’t use chemicals and pesticides, and he doesn’t even bother watering it much.  It truly is survival of the fittest.  🙂
  • National Mathematics Education Month — I hope you already know the basics that are needed to get through life.  As far as the advanced stuff, I took Calculus I & II in college, learning all about derivatives, integrals, differential equations, abstract algebra, matrices, etc., and I use absolutely none of it in real life.  A few people might need to know it, but I didn’t need it for the computer programming I’ve done.  But I digress…
  • National Grilled Cheese Month — We’ve already discussed this before.  You can also add ham or bacon to your grilled cheese, and Miracle Whip goes well with it, too.  Mmm…

The only week-long observance I want to bring up this month is:

  • Week 1 Read a Road Map Week — Being a man, I don’t need road maps or directions.  However, in the spirit of this holiday, we should do what is implied here: take a road trip!  Does anyone want to take off for Colorado?  🙂

Now we’ll look at the individual day holidays:

  • 1 April Fool’s Day — You already know about this.  You play pranks and jokes on people.
  • 2 Children’s Book Day — I usually don’t read children’s books, because too many of them are dumbed-down (unnecessarily so in some cases).  But if you consider The Chronicles of Narnia to be a children’s series, that one is definitely worth reading.
  • peanut butter jelly sandwich2 National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day — I like the food holidays.  🙂
  • 3 Don’t Go to Work Unless it’s Fun Day — I figure most people would choose to stay home.  Although even with my current job, where I get to do work I enjoy, I still could use another day off.  After all, we have to work more days than we have off, and we should strive to be balanced in life.
  • 4 National Walk to Work Day — So you get a day off, then they want you to walk to work. Ideally, though, this is a good idea, and a good time of year for it. But sometimes it’s just not practical.
  • 4 Walk Around Things Day — This is vague.  But I suppose if you’re walking to work, you’ll have to walk around buildings and parked cars and such.
  • 4 Tell a Lie Day — You shouldn’t do this.  Why is this even a holiday?  It’s immoral!  Even if it’s a “holiday”, we’ll still have to give an account to God for all that we say…
  • 7 Caramel Popcorn Day — I prefer cheese popcorn, but still, it’s a food holiday.
  • 7 No Housework Day — This is a great idea!  I’ll have to tell my wife about this one!  🙂  Instead of housework, we could do something more fun, like play games or watch movies or play sports outside.  Almost anything is better than housework!
  • 8 Draw a Picture of a Bird Day — Uhh… I’ll pass on this one.  But, if it’s your thing, go ahead…
  • 9 Name Yourself Day — On this day, you can change your name for the day.  So if you don’t like your name, or if you’d rather be known by a nickname, this is the time.  I’m thinking about going with “Master of the Universe”.  So all my co-workers (including my bosses) will have to refer to me as such, or I will ignore them.
  • 11 Eight Track Tape Day — I barely remember these (because I’m not that old).  I never owned any, but one of my friend’s parents did.  They were interesting, and some argue they were better than cassettes, which replaced them.  But now they’re relics, replaced with CDs and MP3s.
  • 11 Barbershop Quartet Day — Is it a coincidence this is the same day as 8-Track Tape Day?  Just kidding!  This would be a good day to check out the musical style of barbershop quartets.  Try something different for a change.  You can probably find some online to listen to.
  • 12 Big Wind Day — This day blows me away!  (Sorry…)  This is a holiday because on this day in 1934, the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory recorded the highest surface wind ever measured, anywhere on earth.  This big wind was officially recorded at 231 miles per hour.  To celebrate that, take notice of the wind outside, watching its effects and listening to it.  If there isn’t any natural wind, feel free to create your own big wind.  (AWW-RIGHT!)
  • 13 Blame Someone Else Day — I think politicians already do this every day, along with much of the mainstream media.  It seems like everything is President Bush’s fault, somehow.  I don’t care for this holiday, because people already do this too much.  We need to take personal responsibility for our lives.  If you’re going to enjoy life, it’s up to you to make it happen.
  • 14 International Moment of Laughter Day — On this day, you should take (a lot of) breaks to have a moment of laughter.  After all, laughing is like jogging on the inside — it’s good for you.  So for your health, make time for laughing.  And, of course, this blog is a good source of laughter.  🙂
  • clouds over island14 Look up at the Sky Day — Go figure out why the sky is blue…  Seriously, take a moment to enjoy the clouds.  It’s even better if there’s a storm coming through, with dark clouds and lightning.  I enjoy storm chasing, but it can get dangerous…

This is getting really long, so I’m going to break it up into two posts.  To be continued…  (Click here for the next part.)

Get your home fabricator here!!!

Have you ever watched an episode of star trek where they walk up and speak into a little computer in the wall and ask for something… anything… and it generates it for them? And you thought to yourself… man! I wish I had one of those!

Well now you CAN… The future is HERE… well… almost…

The day may not be far off that rather than going to the store and purchasing a new television or remote control that you can have it fabricated in your very own home using a printer-sized factory to download and build it.

Introducing the fabathome fabricator (home page found here)

Unfortunately the technology is still in the development stages but check out this website (here) to see some examples of the things they can currently make.

Be sure to scroll down this page and watch how they print out a flashlight, lego car tires, and house of cheese… THAT RIGHT’S… a house of CHEESE!!! this is just almost too much awesomeness to comprehend… and YES!!! it’s edible. They also fabricate various other things such as a watch band, and stuff made of cake icing. mmmm….

On the popular mechanics website there is a short video clip describing the technology (watch it here) they explain the process and show how they made things like a working flashlight, circuit boards etc… You can print with any number of materials including acrylic or even chocolate~

For $2400, you can buy a Fab@home desktop fabricator that lets you build objects out of acrylic; the company hopes to produce units that can build with multiple materials in the future.

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology predicts that personal nanofactories will be in operation by 2020. Jamais Cascio, founder of Open the Future and a director at CRN, says nanofactories will have a huge impact: “If it becomes cheaper and more efficient to have something printed out locally instead of made in China, it will have a big effect on things like trade balances, international labor, and…our national economy.”