Chocolate-Covered Bacon. Yep.

I'll try to combine the practical recipes and the out-there ones on this blog as much as possible. This recipe? In the out-there category. Bacon is pretty trendy these days, but I guarantee you haven't had it like this. Get some good-quality thick-cut bacon. Avoid center-cut (too lean) and turkey bacon (ditto), because they won't give you the whole bacon-ness we're going for. The recipe I'm giving you is a compound one. I am using Chocolate Pumpkin Bark, available seasonally, particularly at Cost Plus World Market. You can absolutely use other chocolate as follows: no candy bars. only good quality chocolate in morsel or bar form. Avoid dark chocolate-- it's just too bitter. White chocolate can be too light in flavor and miss the mark. Stick with semi-sweet or bittersweet if going purist. Cook the bacon, probably a little different than you usually do-- put each rasher (did you know that's the name of a slice of bacon? crazy!) on a wire cookie rack over a sheet pan with a rim. Pre-heat the oven for 450 degrees and "bake" the bacon for about 20-25 minutes. The fat will drain off (and you can save it to cook other stuff later) and you'll have flat, delicious bacon strips. Let them cool. Microwave your chocolate of choice in 30-45 second bursts until it's smooth and melted. If it's too dense, even well-heated, add milk, stir very well, and heat a tiny bit again. Drag cooled bacon through the chocolate, and return to the wire rack to drain and solidify. You don't want super-runny chocolate, because it will never harden, but you also don't want gloppy, chunky madness. ;) Once everything is dragged and dried, refrigerate. As little as 30 minutes is good, but it gets more integrated with time. And please! Get creative! If you want to turn white chocolate-covered bacon into a dried cranberry walnut white chocolate bacon brittle, do it!!! Just start simple and slow, experiment on your willing family and friends, and let me know if you create something new and amazing!!!