For the Love of Bacon

Hello everyone!

I know I need to tell my story and all that jazz, but a mama only has so much precious time to write a post before her child wakes up from a nap. I know, I know. How could I possibly begin to complain about the lack of time with only one child. Well, I won't start. It'll take up too much time anyways, but I would like to give a shout out to all those mamas with multiple chitlin's out there. Kudos and God bless!

Anyways, I figured that since Valentine's was coming up I better go ahead and post this tutorial on how to make bacon roses. Not those lame ones that use skewers to make bacon on a stick. I wanted the full ambiance of bacon on a stick of fake flowers. Much more classy. I really can't think of a better present to give to a husband. Mine will be working late that night as he's in specialty training for the military. This present really is a two-fer. Use the stem of the roses to make a bouquet of bacon for dinner (or breakfast makes more sense for most people,) and use the petals for dessert. Is there anything more sensual and romantic for a dude than that? I had one problem, I was unable to attain all the tools that would normally be used for bacon roses. I couldn't find any kind of disposable muffin tin and wasn't going to ruin a perfectly good one by drilling holes into it. Most bacon rose tutorials require these materials. So, I simply didn't use any kind of muffin pan. On that note, here we go.

What you will need:

• Bouquet of fake roses from any craft store
• Wire Drying Rack
• Pan to catch access grease
• Bacon
• Preheated oven to 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit
• Vase

It's that easy. No toothpicks, no drills or nails, just use what you already have in the kitchen.

Michael's had these set of roses for 60% off $1.99. I bought two which will make a total of 16 bacon roses.

Strip the petals off but keep the leafy base and the "plug" that will be found at the very center of the rose bud. Put the leaf base and plug back on the stem leaving about 1" of the stem on top. Don't throw away the plug as the leaf base will be too loose to set the bacon on. You can tape it if you want to, but I knew my husband would eat the bacon and didn't want glue that close to his food. Even if it is dry glue it just weirds me out.

Here's a closer look.

You'll be left with this mess of petals. Cut them up to make individual petals for a romantic night.

Now take your the wire drying rack and put it on top of the pan to catch the bacon grease. (Doesn't really even need to be a step does it?)

Now the good stuff. Roll each slice of bacon into a rose shape with the fatty side down. Tapper it off so that the inside is slightly higher than the outer part of the rose. I bought regular bacon and "center-cut" which is shorter in length and a little thicker to create different sized rose buds. If possible you can try and fan out the lean side, (which should be facing up) to try and create the blooming effect.

Place the bacon roses on top of the wire drying rack, fatty side down. Don't worry about having them fall down. It's not the end of the world.

Bake the bacon at 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes occasionally checking on them. I babysat mine to make sure I didn't burn them. I wanted to slightly undercook them so my husband could still warm them up and eat the rose buds. Cool and place at the top of the stem of roses. Place in a vase and let others marvel at your handiwork.

And there you go. Thanks for reading and please comment with any comments or questions. I'll be happy to answer them!