Every single day this week has been essentially the same: tumble out of bed, stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition and yawn and stretch and try to come to life. Or at least that would have been the case if my name happened to be Doralee and I was struggling with how to handle my manipulative, chauvinistic boss. Nonetheless I've had a hard time rising and shineing this week.  Its taking me longer than normal.  One reason could be the fact that we allow 1 or both large dogs to sleep in bed with us.  Sure, we kick them out initially but I swear - as soon as they hear us snore, they smile and up they come.  Then THEY snore, kick and dream of chasing pheasants or something....Well, not Indy - she's gun shy.  Cupboard slamming shy, really.  Poor Girl.  I digress.  I really don't remember my point anymore.  I still surprised them today with a GIANT long lasting Pigs Ear from.....you guessed it...U-Bake.  They really are delicious...or so the dogs seem to think so.

Last night I was flipping between HGTV and Food Network – as I tend to do on all the days that end in “y” – and do you know what show was about to come on Food Network? DO YOU KNOW?

A show called “The Best Thing I Ever Ate – With Bacon.”

(!!!)

It was like I had died and gone to fried pork heaven, y’all.

(And do you know what you do in fried pork heaven? You talk incessantly about bacon. THEN YOU EAT IT.)

I won’t spoil all the delightful bacon-related details in case you haven’t seen the show yet, but I didn’t just watch that show: I talked back to it. I almost shouted “AMEN” one time, but I caught myself and just said “YESSIR” instead. However, I’m pretty sure that if I’d had a handkerchief in my hand I would’ve waved it. And a couple of times the food looked so good that I thought about standing up and stomping my feet in affirmation, but I figured my husband was probably disturbed enough that I was talking back to a TV show about bacon, so I erred on the side of restraint.

Anyway, watching the show made me think about the best thing I’ve ever eaten with bacon, and initially I decided that I’m a purist – someone who likes thick-sliced bacon fried really crispy, the end. But then I remembered the first time I cooked Spicy Barbecued Shrimp – eight or nine years ago, probably – and after I tasted it I thought oh, the bacon TOTALLY transforms the flavor of this dish. To this day it’s one of my favorite recipes, and in light of tonight’s TV show, I thought I’d share it with y’all.

And this is not an original recipe, mind you. It’s from Southern Living, but since I can’t find it on SL’s recipe site anymore, I’ll just type it out here. Because apparently it’s very important to me that we all enjoy the bacon.

Spicy Barbecue Shrimp

 

1/4 pound bacon, chopped
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, pressed
2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
2 teaspoons hot sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 pounds unpeeled, medium-size fresh shrimp

Saute’ bacon a large skillet until crisp. Add butter and next 4 ingredients, and cook over medium heat until onion is tender. Stir in lemon juice and shrimp; cook, stirring often, 5 to 7 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Serve with French bread. Makes 3 to 4 main dish servings or 8 appetizer servings.

One amendment to the recipe: after you eat all your shrimp, you really need to sop up the remaining butter and bacon grease and seasoning with your French bread from U-Bake. I just want to encourage you to do that, okay? It’s BACON-INFUSED BUTTER, for crying out loud. There’s just no good reason to be timid. Except for the sake of your cholesterol, of course, but you can worry about that another time.

And by all means, if you have any bacon-related recipes (or even bacon-related memories) that you’d like to share with the class, I think I can speak for all of us and say THE INTERNET WOULD BE SO GRATEFUL.

In fact, if I may paraphrase something that Duff from “Ace of Cakes” said during tonight’s show: it’ll be a “celebacon.”

Peace out,
Kris