Every day it feels like it is getting hotter. I’m trying not to move. It’s become difficult for me to even get up to get a glass of water, let alone search through the depths of the web for bacon-related clips.

With the help of some AC pointed directly at my face and my feet in a bucket of melting ice, I think I’ve found some crazy things for you, including a planet made of bacon, a ring made of bacon and some bacon-wrapped money. Click the link to check out the article before my face melts off. Gah.

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We’ve all heard about that rumour: on hot days you can fry an egg on the pavement. But if you are going to fry an egg, shouldn’t you have some bacon to go along with it? It makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s certainly been redonkulously hot in Canada lately.

Apparently there is a dome of hot air just hovering over our country, slowly cooking us. If that’s the case, why not conduct an experiment in street bacon frying, to see if it will work? Please click on the link to see our answer to the question: can bacon be cooked on the sidewalk?

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Since a lot of this blog’s audience is Canadian and we have some Americans, we often get questions about this mysterious food product that circulates North of the 49th parallel, forever out of reach of our American bacon friends’ reach. What, exactly, is Canadian bacon?

Unfortunately, making things worse for our American friends is the fact that they have something already in their grocery departments that makes the absurd claim that it is Canadian bacon, but it’s actually something else entirely. Today, on the Republic of Bacon, we delve into this matter and try to pull out the juicy truth of it all. Follow us after the break as we tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Canadian bacon.

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I proved to you during the scallop instalments that bacon literally goes with everything (bacon and scallops with hazelnut spread). I will show you in this instalment  how well bacon and hazelnut spread go together.

Now, I must admit this is not a Chef Rob original. This recipe comes to us from a lovely woman named Paula who loves hazelnut spread just as much as I do. The recipe was so perfectly simple and elegant that I couldn’t change it. Now I didn’t have any fleur de sel, but go ahead and add it to your list if you do. The recipe reminds me a lot of Andrew back bacons How to Make Bacon Candy for Halloween.

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Microwaving bacon is always an option of last resort. I mean, when you could go for the traditional flavour of a good fry up or easily add some brown sugar to some baked bacon, cooking bacon in the microwave is what we do when our laziness quotient is through the roof and we need to stuff bacony goodness in our gobs ASAP.

Since I’m an occasional bacon microwaver – especially late at night – I’ve always wondered if those bacon microwaving thingamajigs are worth it. One thing’s for sure: they are weird. After the break, join me as we run down some of the most popular (strangest?).

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Friday is here again, and not a second too soon. I’ve been dreaming about all of the bacon BBQ stuff I’m going to make this weekend – I should probably pick up some Maple Leaf bacon before I drive home. But before we escape, I should leave you with a sweet taste on your tongue with some Friday Link Love. After the jump, we’ll explore the mouth-watering goodness of everything from an Italian bacon-stuffed mushroom dish, to the insanity of the Bacon Spock Poster.

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Rigatoni All’Arrabbiata (al-ah-rah-BIA-tah) roughly translates to pissed off rigatoni from Italian. As you can imagine, if a dish was described as being pissed off, it’d probably be a little spicy. When I used to work in a kitchen, I loved it when an arrabbiata order got called. Why, you ask? Well, on the odd occasion, there would be a fool who would request that the chef make it extra hot. Hotter than the fires of burning hell. I would smirk, and kindly tell the waitress, “Sure! Not a problem!”.

I would conjure up a concoction that would be sure to have him begging for a glass of water, a beer, milk, something to soothe his ailing face (No, not just his tongue. His whole face). Now, why would I do such a thing? Other than to sell more beer for the restaurant, it would make the poor bastard really happy. “Finally, somebody makes a spicy pasta around here”, he would tell me. Then go off on his way. Did he come back? Of course. Some Italians are stupid like that (I am Italian, I am allowed to say that!).

The key to making a killer Arrabbiata sauce is not just some awesome hot peppers, but it’s the ingredients around the peppers that truly make the dish shine. That’s true for any pasta sauce, really. The success of the dish will rely heavily on the quality of these three ingredients: the tomatoes, the wine and the cheese. Choose tinned Italian tomatoes, preferably San Marzano. They are remarkably sweet and not very acidic. Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. Finally, choose Parmigiano Reggiano cheese – this is NOT the same as the pre-grated, shaker can of “Parmesan”. No. Put that down. Buy a piece of Parmigiano Reggiano and grate it yourself. It makes a WORLD of difference. Just like our Bacon Recipes make a world of a differnce to the world or I’d like to think so.

Quality in, quality out. You really can’t go wrong. Hmmm That sounds like all Maple Leaf products… quality in, quality out… you can taste the difference. (I really should be a marketer, similar to the musketeers but we serve ads).

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When Sunday rolls around, and we have to face the yawning chasm of another work week, it’s always nice to have something comforting for dinner that will set us on our way. It’s like being tucked into a snugly bed by our favourite person in the world. Since my favourite person in the world is bacon (and I have a feeling it’s yours, too), why not have a Sunday dinner that celebrates bacon’s life-affirming powers? You can give scallops wrapped in bacon a shot or you can put some bacon in your meatload. Making a super bacon meatloaf.

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A couple of years ago, I received a waffle maker from a really good friend of mine. To this day, it is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received. It makes ridiculously delicious waffles. I don’t know if my waffles are better than my bacon and eggs recipe.

I, like most people, like to have my waffles with maple syrup and a side of bacon. Mind you, I have pretty much everything with a side of bacon. What if I were able to incorporate both of those things INSIDE the waffle. I think it would make for a pretty friggin’ delicious waffle, if you ask me. I’ve decided to make a cornmeal waffle for two reasons. The first being that I’ve never made a cornmeal waffle before and the second being I that I’ve been told cornmeal waffles are delicious – crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. That’s what I’m going for here, folks.

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The economy remains in dire straits. We’re all cutting back to save a little more of our hard-earned money. And when we are choosing to spend our money, we are trying to save it up for the purchases we prize the most: like eating bacon. This has been often a good idea. Bacon is generally a cheap and plentiful product, and bacon makes us happy (check the Best Bacon Recipes). But recent indicators suggest that a problem could be brewing down South: our American friends may soon be experiencing a hike in bacon prices. And there’s some sad indications the same sort of problem could pop up on the Canadian side of the border. Full details about this potential bacon-otastrophe are after the jump.

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