I’ve only ever had two birthday parties in my life – when I was 10 and when I was 40. The party I had when I turned 10 was a complete bust – only one person came because I scheduled the party on the same weekend as the Girl Scout camp out and I was a Camp Fire Girl… The other party, when I hit the big 4 Oh, was fun and fabulous. A lot of people, from every walk of my life, celebrated with me in style, complete with a live band. That party ended when the cops came and broke it up, and we never even made it to the hot tub part of the party!

Love Donovan’s shirt!

Instead of waiting another 30 years for a birthday party, this year I got a wild idea and decided to throw myself a party with a Bacon Birthday Bash. In case you are wondering, this is what comes from spending too many hours on Pinterest looking at bacon recipes. I found a ton of bacon based recipes and came up with a menu and a time frame: I’d do an afternoon open house because it was the same weekend as San Carlos Hometown Days, the Maker Faire in San Mateo, and the Bay to Breakers in San Francisco; and I’d make Smoky Bacon Chili, Candied Bacon, a few bacon hors d’ouevres and Bacon Bloody Marys.

Me and Bryce after the race.

After hanging out at Hometown Days on Saturday, I came home and started the chili and the candied bacon. The next morning my middle son, Bryce, and I ran the Rotary Fun Run. He decided to walk home after his 5K instead of waiting for me to finish the 10K. After practically throwing up after I finished the 10K, I enjoyed their pancake breakfast. Then, I headed home to clean up and start the other food. Thankfully, the boys helped me with both things and were super helpful rolling tater tots in cheese and wrapping them in bacon.

From 2 pm to 9 pm people stopped by, bringing their favorite bacon dishes – from bacon covered dates to bacon covered asparagus to chocolate chip cookies with bacon to bacon tacos to a bacon tart with apple and blue cheese. There were even a few non-bacon dishes to balance out the sodium-inducing coma dishes.

I have to say my favorites were the candied bacon, cracked bacon, cheeseball rolled in bacon, and the chocolate chip cookies with bacon. (I spent the next week eating bacon things)! A few links to the recipes can be found here:

• Candied Bacon – I made several versions based on this recipe – with cayenne, or Hot Hungarian paprika and a combo of maple syrup and brown sugar or just brown sugar. Most with out the nuts. All were tasty!
• Smoky Bacon Chili – I loosely followed this recipe. I put in about 18 spices, 4 types of meat, 5 types of beans… it resembles the third place winner we made for the Chili Cook Off last October.
• Tater tot bombs – we used shredded cheese instead and it worked out fine. These are easy for kids to assemble. These should definitely be done in a way the bacon grease can drain as they cook. Tin foil on a rack over a broiler pan or cookie sheet with edges works well.
• Cheesy Bacon dip – I used the bacon bits from the giant bag I bought at Costco. This was a lot of dip. I should have plugged the crockpot in where all the teens were!
• Cracked Bacon – these are incredibly simple to make and disappear in moments after being removed from the oven! These are easy for kids to assemble as well.
• Bacon Cheddar Ranch Cheeseball – this was good, no, actually, it was great! We out bacon in the cheese mix and we rolled it in the bacon. Again – the Costco bag of bacon bits was fabulous for this recipe!
• Bacon Bloody Marys – I loosely followed this recipe and used Clamato or spicy tomato juice depending on the drinker’s preference, and fresh squeezed lime juice instead of lemon. I used celery sticks and the whole candied bacon slices as garnish. I should have made a giant pitcher of this mix beforehand but ended up making them on demand for the party which made a giant mess of the kitchen as we were making the cracked bacon and tater tot bombs. Oh well. Live and learn!

Clean dishes!

Although it wasn’t a present kind of party, people did bring wine and bacon related chocolate, both of which were fabulous (and I am still working my way through)! We were having so much fun we forgot to take many pictures! My favorite moment of the day was when I came back from the race to find that Bryce had cleaned the dishes including the really scruffy candied bacon pans from the night before!

A bacon themed party was incredibly fun! Having it open house style was even better because it meant I could visit with a steady stream of people instead of having everyone there at once and only being able to visit with a few people at a time! I highly recommend hosting your own Bacon (Birthday) Bash!