Featured Archive

Summer is truly the season of salads. I just showed you how to make something a little different, in a quinoa salad, and now let’s hop back on the traditional bandwagon with good old fashioned creamy macaroni salad. I’m going to change it up a little bit with the addition of some more slightly exotic vegetables in zucchini and shallot, but also season it with some gorgeous fresh dill. Can’t say that this isn’t summery! Continue reading this article…

If you’re anything like me, the moment the weather even hints at spring, when it’s raining three-quarters of the time and only the bravest and most stalwart crocuses dare show their faces, I’ve already fired up the barbecue. While I love to bake (bacon cupcakes, of course), and there is much to be said for the zen-like serenity that only comes from gently caramelizing onions in a saute pan (for a bacon and goat cheese tart), there is something elemental about barbecuing that gets me in touch with my inner Caveman. There is no denying than any meat (including bacon) that passes through fire on its way to my mouth infinitely more delicious. Not to mention that standing in front of an open flame, wielding tongs and soaking up the warm weather, is possibly one of the most quintessentially summery activities that exists. Just thinking about getting my BBQ on puts me in a good mood.

Now, this might just be a personal think, but I just can’t have a proper barbecue without potato salad. This classic side-dish is just as necessary to the barbecue feast as the sauce, the flames and the bacon-wrapped chicken breasts I am about to grill. This dish brings me right back to my childhood every time. To this day, I still have dreams about my mom’s potato salad, creamy and smooth with just a hint of dill. Continue reading this article…

I’ve spoken previously about the wonders of quinoa when I made my Vegan Curried Quinoa Stuffed Peppers… with Bacon. It truly is a superfood. It’s great for summer because it tastes just as good cold as it does warm. This makes it easy to make so many different delicious salads incorporating one of the best foods you can put into your body. Super-salad indeed. Here’s just one idea – a greek style salad with lots of veggies, some feta, a simple Greek dressing and bacon, of course. Get creative here! Quinoa is a slightly nutty blank canvas to work with. Possibilities are endless. Continue reading this article…

To me, there’s nothing better than fresh tomatoes right out of the garden. I could literally eat them like apples! Now, unfortunately, it’s not quite tomato season, so it takes a little bit of effort to make those tomatoes taste optimal. I start with a little bit of basil. Basil and tomatoes are a match made in heaven. Add a beautiful grilled Portobello cap, some gorgeous, fresh tasting mozzarella and… I think you can guess what I’m going to say next… BACON! Toast that on some lovely Italian bread and you’ve got a beautifully summery sandwich, if I do say so myself. Continue reading this article…

I haven’t really experimented a lot with fish and bacon here at the Republic of Bacon. I think it’s time to dive in and really explore. Sure I’ve done some bacon-crusted salmon and steamed some mussels in a beautiful tomato-bacon broth. Of course we can’t forget the two ways I prepared bacon wrapped scallops. There’s so much more out there, though. Two of my absolute favourite, shrimp and calamari (or squid) haven’t been touched! So let’s use them both in a wonderfully summery and fresh dish. I pan fried the calamari here, but you could very well grill it, too! Continue reading this article…

I’m always at a loss as to what I’m going to put as a side to the protein or main component to my dinners. Everybody has about a million ways they can prepare chicken, a hundred thousand ways to prepare beef and countless ways to prepare pork. But what about the stuff you complement it with? How many ways can you make potatoes? Ten, maybe? How many ways can you prepare asparagus? This is why it’s necessary to have a fantastic arsenal of side dishes that you can whip up lickety split. Here’s one that can be made in no time! Continue reading this article…

I’ve always been intrigued about making my own Jiaozi, more commonly known as pan fried dumplings or pot stickers. There is a local restaurant that serves FANTASTIC dumplings, but I wanted to try my hand at it. I finally had some extra time to do something a little fancier so I jumped at the opportunity. Now, I must admit, this will take a little bit of time… especially if you try to make 70 dumplings all yourself like I did. If you’re smart, you’ll round up all of your housemates, whether they be siblings, parents or friends, and have a dumpling making party. It’s a great bonding experience and you can plow through a ton of these in no time! Now you don’t have to pan fry these either, you could just steam or boil them, too! But pan-frying them gives a super crispiness to the bottom and some extra delicious flavour. Continue reading this article…

It’s been a while since I’ve done a salad, and since spring is upon us I thought I’d bless this website with some more nice fresh flavours. Herein you will see how gosh darn easy it is to make your own raspberry vinaigrette. It literally takes no more than two minutes in a blender. You no longer have an excuse to buy the processed stuff at the store! Now, my philosophy to making a salad is quite simple. Pick a lettuce, pick a fruit, pick a nut, pick a cheese, finish with bacon. Here, you can be so gosh darn creative. I went with arugula, raspberries, cashews, brie and of course bacon, respectively. GO CRAZY WITH YOUR SALADS!! Continue reading this article…

It seems I’ve gone back to my Italian roots for my past few recipes. I thought I’d continue the trend with an absolute classic. The origins of this dish are slightly debated, but they all follow one common trend: the fact that this pasta is super easy, super quick, and super inexpensive to prepare.

As one version of the story goes, this dish was prepared by some of the female… peasants back in the day after a long day of work. Since they were starving by this point, they would scavenge up anything they had lying around, throw it in a pan and quickly put something like this together for them and their families. As so another story goes, this was prepared quickly between “jobs” and set out on the windowsill to attract potential customers. I’m sure there are as many variations of this story as there are dialects in Italy, so I’m just going to show you my take on this delicious classic. Continue reading this article…

Nothing says indulgence quite like a dish that features bacon. The rich, salty taste is one of those flavours that only only permeates and transforms any dish that it is added to, but immediately causes that dish to become something decadent, the best kind of comfort food. Suddenly, even a salad becomes something to dig into with gusto, a meal that is not just fuel for your body, but a reward and a pleasure.

Sometimes, though, even I wonder if there is a maximum amount of bacon that can permeate the world, a kind of bacon saturation limit. Will there ever be a time when we run out of products that can be effectively baconified? Will we ever find ourselves growing tired of this miraculous food?

Well, if a series of newly unveiled snack foods in any indication, then it seems like bacon is here to stay. The fascinating thing that links these products together as well is that, rather than ordinary foods that need sprucing up with bacon, all of these dishes are already generally considered snacks or occasionally treats. Even foods that are already indulgent can be further improved with bacon! Continue reading this article…