Bacon, bacon, bacon: a bacon extravaganza

Today I cooked a three course meal with every dish featuring bacon. This was a special treat for some dear friends of ours who will sadly be leaving Davis after many years here. One friend has always made it clear to us that she loves bacon, so I thought I would cook her a meal to remember.

The appetizer — for which I stupidly forgot to take a picture of — was Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs. The bacon was cooked on top of a wire rack in the oven (to try to reduce the fat content a little bit). I used an English mustard (Colman's) which has quite a tang. Eggs were served with a few cherry tomatoes on the side that were drizzled in olive oil and served with a large drop of a local Black Currant Balsamic Vinegar.

The main course was a bacon-wrapped cheddar and stout meat loaf (my first time ever cooking meat loaf). The organic beef was grass-fed and from a local source.

 

Accompanying the meat loaf was some mashed potatoes (which included some of the bacon fat, plus a couple of handfuls of crushed cooked bacon) and a green bean and garlic recipe that we love (you add fresh lemon zest right at the end).

 

For dessert, we did not attempt to shy away from bacon. I made some beer-candied bacon (using the same stout that went into the meat loaf) which was served on some vanilla bean ice-cream with a little bit of dark chocolate with sea salt.

 

I have never cooked so much bacon in my life! I guess I could have gone the extra step and also prepared a bacon martini but maybe that would have been too much?