Everything's better with bacon

About five years ago, Chad and I were having a discussion with some friends about the merits of bacon. Not the health benefits, mind you, but how adding bacon as an ingredient just naturally makes everything better. Salads, sandwiches, steaks...really, think about it. (I'm sure it comes as no surprise that the men were leading this conversation.)

Since then, we have occasionally stumbled back on this topic. Inevitably, someone will suggest a food item (soup? bread? ice cream?) whose marriage with bacon seems suspect. But every time one of these food groups is suggested, somebody else finds a way to incorporate bacon that makes it seem feasible. (As repulsive as it may sound, there is a bacon ice cream. I checked.)

But today, I found one that trumps all for the bacon lovers I know. If we ever have our "Everything's Better With Bacon" party, which has been threatened, I am making the Bacon Explosion, which was featured in the New York Times earlier this week. They call it a "massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce."

As my friend Robert asked when I emailed him this article, "Does the cardiologist come with it, too?"