If we were asked to choose our favourite cooking instruction of all time, it would have to be: “wrapped in bacon.” We maintain there is nothing on the planet, including lettuce and birthday cake, that cannot be improved by wrapping it in bacon. We are also inclined to think that you, our loyal readers, tend to agree. All of the articles and recipes that we have shared about wrapping things have bacon have become ranked as some of the most popular on the site. There is no doubt that bacon lovers will take every opportunity to make their favourite foods even tastier by wrapping them in bacon.

Despite our culinary adventurousness, even we have to admit that, every once in a while, we come across a recipe that surprises us. There are some food that are just plain weird to picture with a strip of bacon wrapped around it, despite how delicious the final product might be. Were are some of the strangest edible things wrapped in bacon that we have ever come across.

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Yesterday was an unseasonably warm day in my city [Editors Note: You can say you live in Toronto, you aren't that famous ]. You could hear the call of gulls and the chirps of other small birds. Kids playing basketball in the street in their shorts and t-shirts… in early March! It immediately reminded me of the free-spirited nature that summer imparts on the population. I needed to make something summery for dinner to carry on this trend. It hit me that I had not made a club sandwich for the Republic of Bacon and I felt it was an excellent opportunity to break the classic mold and infuse some freshness into the sandwich: citrus marinade, orange slices and avocado! This will have you feeling like you’re on vacation in no time!

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We think that we do a darn fine job here at the Republic of Bacon when it comes to serving your bacon needs, keeping our loyal army of bacon lovers up to date on current bacon affairs. We’ve reported on news and recipes and products and events, and anything else we could think of that a bacon aficionado could possibly be interested in. We’ve even written about bacon being launched into space!

But we know that we can’t cover every angle and perspective, and that there is far too much happening in the world of bacon for one single online publication to cover. Luckily, there are many more great sources of bacon knowledge out there, from writers and bloggers and artists each with their own unique perspectives and voice. For your reading pleasure, here are some of our favourite bacon blogs!

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While working in the incredibly awesome field of bacon promotion (I love my job), you develop a certain level of experience that makes most things merely very exciting instead of mind-blowing and life-changing. For example, when a fast-food chain recently announced that they were selling bacon milkshakes for a limited time, most people were over the moon with bacon-love and excitement. For those of us at the Republic of Bacon, however, it was a great announcement and we were happy to see bacon getting more mainstream love, but we’d all had, and been writing about, bacon milkshakes before. We are ahead of the bacon curve, and so it can be hard to get as worked up about things as the general bacon-loving population. We’ve become the hipsters of bacon.

However, every once in a while, something floats across my bacon radar that changes everything. A completely new idea of product emerges from the depths of someone’s kitchen or the internet, and I find myself as excited as I was the first time I took my first bite of a bacon explosion. I rekindle that first love I had for bacon. Today, I have found something that gave me that feeling again.

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Sloppy Joes flat out bring me back to my childhood – eating one of these bad boys, having it spill out of the bun and get everywhere, then having my mother yell at me because I made an absolute mess. Oh, those were the days. I was feeling a little nostalgic yesterday, so I decided to whip these up. Did I buy the Sloppy Joe sauce in a can? Heck, no! We can do better than that, can’t we!? Let’s make our mothers proud and make a super Sloppy Joe with some surprise ingredients!

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There are lots of ways to demonstrate your devotion to bacon. You could, for example, choose the route that I have chosen and write brilliant articles for a blog devoted to bacon. Another less literary, albeit more permanent option to show your overwhelming love of bacon would be to get a fabulous bacon tattoo. While some of these are fantastic (and others, even we have to admit, are somewhat ill-advised), I do realize that body art might not be for everyone. Another equally striking, but much more casual and changeable option is sporting some super styling bacon jewellry.

There are many options for bacon-related baubles for you to wear to show your affection for this most delicious of all meats to all and sundry. Here are a few of our favourite pieces.

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Bacon festivals have been gaining in popularity all over the globe. As bacon becomes more and more of a cultural force, capturing the hearts and minds as well as the tongues and bellies of intelligentsia and common folk alike, gatherings celebrating the wonder of bacon are becoming more and more popular. We’re written before about the various bacon festivals that are beginning to make a splash in the Canadian scene, but even these extravaganzas are nothing compared to the bacon parties they throw down south.

The greatest of these American bacon celebrations is the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, which took place this past Saturday on February 18th 2012. The party, which takes places in Des Moines, Iowa, is being celebrated for the fifth time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

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I’m a big fan of southern cooking – yes, I love Paula Deen, too. This style of food is not only delicious, most of the things are super easy and super quick to make (aside from the 12-hour smokehouse style barbecue that I truly adore). Cornbread is one of these things. Super simple and goes with pretty much everything. Get creative with this recipe, throw in your favourite spices, change up the cheese, don’t use cheese at all, use a different vegetable… combinations are endless!!

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For all of us bacon-lovers, it is hard to imagine the world without bacon. Because this food has become such a key part of our diets and is ever more considered an important part of our very culture, picturing a time before bacon is difficult to fathom, But just like such seemingly indispensable items like the toothbrush and deodorant, bacon was something that has to be invented. And, also just like the toothbrush and deodorant, we’re also very glad that we exist is a time in history well after the discovery of bacon.

That said, it is still important to have an awareness of history, even those dark, bacon-less times far in the past. Learning about the historical significance of bacon can give us a great appreciation for it here and now.

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Ever since I went to my first Brazilian Steakhouse and had this mystery green sauce spread over my steak, I was intrigued. I had never seen something so bright and vibrant spread over a nice hunk of meat and, boy, was it delicious. I enquired with the waiter – the sauce was called Chimichurri (Chim-mee-chur-ree).I liked it even more. It’s a staple in Brazilian carnivorous cuisine, so I decided to fuse it with the smokiness of bacon(and its fat) and use it on Mexican style steak fajitas as the marinade for our beautiful skirt steak. Here we go!

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