November 27, 2008 by Naseem

November 27, 2008 • Filed Under: Bacon Gifts , Bacon, Holidays, Thanksgiving

So after years of Marianne raving about Thanksgiving at her house, I am finally going to be attending her feast today.  I was so excited yesterday (and still am today!) that I spent the evening creating a gift for Marianne  to thank her for being such a great friend and for cooking Thanksgiving dinner for about a dozen Santa Barbara orphans.

Duh - of course it was a bacon gift!!! I sewed up these two little munchkins you see in the pic above with felt, stuffing, pipe cleaners, a glass of wine, and two kittens who discovered pipe cleaners are their new favorite toy.  They have removable hats so I can make them Santa hats and devil horns for future holidays, or just leave them in their naked bacon glory.  They’re about 10 inches tall and wonderfully plush and bendy.  I get the feeling these will either end up in Marianne’s nephew’s grubby little hands or in Brutus’ bacon-loving mouth today. I can’t wait!

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

November 11, 2008 by Marianne

November 11, 2008 • Filed Under: Bacon Recipes , Bacon, cheese, Holidays, Thanksgiving

I have never in my life considered making a cheeseball. Until now. My memories of cheeseballs include unnaturally orange Wisconsin “cheddar” rolled in chopped nuts of some sort. Probably walnuts. Gross. This looked to be the same type of cheese you could find in a crock. And crock cheese is not, in my estimation, cheese at all. I love cheese, maybe more than I love bacon, so I’ve got very strong opinions on these matters.

That said, my friend Christine has once again given me reason to reconsider a classic. This holiday cheeseball recipe from the Houston Chronicle encourages you to use cheddar and blue cheese, but I feel confident I could pick any 2 of my favorite cheeses from the local cheese shop and be pretty happy about it. To make things even better, you add cream cheese and sour cream. It’s a dairy-goods heaven. And of course, the piece de resistance, you roll that bad boy in fresh crumbled bacon. Or smoked almonds, but which do you think I’m going to choose here?

The article that accompanies the recipe is great, particularly if you’re a fan of 1960’s cocktail party history. And who isn’t? Remember rumaki? That must have come from the same minds that brought us the cheeseball. Just last weekend, my sister and I ran into some fabulous 60’s cookbooks in my mom’s library and decided to make our next holiday get-together 100% retro. Turkey aspic. Deep-fried beef livers. Fondue. And now, the cheeseball with Ritz crackers.

It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas.