It’s that time of year, when there’s a distinct crispness in the air, when nights are getting longer and days are getting colder and suddenly it seems every baked good and filled ravioli has pumpkin in it. And depending on your own family dynamic you’re met either with a sense of comfort or deep foreboding at the upcoming Holiday Season.
In my family, we’re blissfully conflict-free, for the most part. We come together, we cook, and we all know to get the hell out of the kitchen when my Godmother kicks off her annual gravy-making frenzy. But, Be it politics, power struggles, too much alcohol (or a catastrophic lack of it), there are all kinds of reasons why the Thanksgiving table can be a tense one.
So why not bring a unifying element to the table. Something that everyone can agree on. Something without politics, without baggage. Something that brings people together and makes everything better. Something like bacon.
This isn’t to suggest you simply cook up a rasher of bacon and bring it to the table (though not the worst idea ever considered). No, get creative! From soup to nuts, there is a whole host of ways to introduce bacon to your Thanksgiving table.
Consider this Thanksgiving menu:
Cauliflower soup with crispy shallot and bacon pieces
Green peas with pearl onions and garlic bacon
Southern mashed potatoes finished with bacon grease
Applewood-smoked Bacon wrapped turkey
Brussels Sprouts with pepper bacon (see last post!)
Maple-Baconified Apple Pie
Now of course, reading over the menu, it feels like it could be a little one-note, right? A little redundant? Think again. In fact, by marrying different kinds of bacon with all these different flavors, you really have the opportunity to explore and engage the range of bacon’s flavor profile. From savory to sweet, from bitter to whatever the opposite of bitter is.
Providing you don’t have a vegetarian in your midst (and we’ve found even some of them can be swayed), we believe bacon can be something the entire family can find common ground in. Change up tradition. Make a new one. And make sure to save some bacon for turkey sandwiches the next day.
February 17th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Your website is great
February 17th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Keep up the good work!.
December 14th, 2010 at 6:12 am
this site is my intake , really good design and perfect written content .
March 25th, 2011 at 4:09 am
This is NOT SPAM, all I am asking you to do is read this…PLEASE and pass it along. This is a TRUE UPDATE on the Gulf Coast BP Oil Spill!!
Have you ever heard of Whipple Van Ness Jones, III?
Probably not, unless you watch the CBS daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.
You see, according to Wikipedia….
Whipple Jones III is a fictional character on CBS’s daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful. He had been portrayed by Rick Hearst from February 13, 2002 to August 29, 2002 and was absent for nearly seven years before returning to the show on July 17, 2009….
However, what they don’t tell you is that Whipple Van Ness Jones, III is a real person.
Whip resides in NW Florida with his wife, 3 children, and pets.
The problem is that when the BP oil spill happened Whip and his family lost their family business in Seaside, Florida the name of the store was Molly Caroline’s named after his two daughters Georgia Caroline and Molly Catherine (Whipple Van Ness Jones, IV wasn’t born yet when they opened their store).
Whip loved the idea that The Bold and the Beautiful named a character after him, he thought it was fun because obviously how else would they come up with the EXACT SAME NAME for the show.
Whip contacted the show early on (sent a copy of his birth certificate and drivers license), they didn’t offer any money (and Whip didn’t ask for any), just an autograph from the star portraying him.
The problem is NOT that Whip has a character on a show, the problem is Whip and his family lost their main source of income due to the BP oil spill.
Now when Whip applies for a job, and the employment places run a reference check on him and find a Wikipedia article calling Whip a fictional character on CBS’s daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful, they claim he is using the name of a soap opera character…
What Whip did was start his own dot com…. http://www.whipplejones.com …. and is allowing people to post blogs on his site for free, just to show that he is a real person.
Google does give Whip a TINY amount to have ads on the right hand side of his webpage.
Please pass this along to your friends to show that Whipple Van Ness Jones, III is not only a real person, but a man trying to keep food on his family’s table.
Thank you!!
PS- Whip and his family did put in a claim with BP, they just haven’t heard anything yet. AS OF MARCH 24, 2011
PPS- Also, some people consider CBS to have BORDERLINE stolen Whip’s identity. Whip doesn’t see it this way, but how would you feel if you couldn’t get a job based on what Wikipedia says about you????
July 20th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
This is a likable web site. Good stimulating interface and lovely explanatory blogs. I’ll be coming back soon, gracias ?for the? marvelous article.