8 Great Bacon Recipes

Recipes that prove bacon makes everything — chicken, cheese, pasta, and more — taste better! Here are 8 great Epicurious Dot Com recipes from Yahoo! Shine:

Grilled Cheddar, Tomato, and Bacon Sandwiches
Ingredients
• 8 thick-cut bacon slices
• 8 slices country-style sourdough bread or batard (cut on deep diagonal into 5x3x1/2-inch slices)
• 2 cups (packed) grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces)
• 8 tomato slices, seeds removed, slices drained on paper towels
• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise

Preparation
Cook bacon in heavy large skillet over medium heat until brown and crisp, turning occasionally, about 6 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels and drain. Wash and dry skillet.

Place 4 bread slices on work surface. Press 1/4 cup grated cheese onto each slice. Top each with 2 tomato slices. Sprinkle with pepper. Place 2 bacon slices atop each, breaking into pieces if necessary to fit. Press 1/4 cup grated cheese over bacon on each. Top sandwiches with remaining bread slices, then spread 1/2 tablespoon mayonnaise over top of each sandwich. Heat 2 heavy large skillets over medium heat. Add 2 sandwiches, mayonnaise side down, to each skillet. Place plate atop both sandwiches to weigh down. Cook sandwiches until bottom is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Spread top of each sandwich with 1/2 tablespoon mayonnaise. Turn sandwiches over, mayonnaise side down. Top with plates and cook until golden brown on bottom, about 2 minutes. Transfer sandwiches to work surface. Cut sandwiches crosswise in half and serve.


Sweet and Spicy Bacon

Ingredients
• 1 1/2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• Rounded 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• Rounded 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 lb thick-cut bacon (12 slices)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F.


Stir together brown sugar, cayenne, and black pepper in a small bowl.

Arrange bacon slices in l layer on a large broiler pan and bake in middle of oven (or upper third of oven if baking with eggs) 20 minutes. Turn slices over and sprinkle evenly with spiced sugar. Continue baking until bacon is crisp and brown, 15 to 20 minutes more, then transfer to paper towels to drain.

Note: This one I tried, and although I did it in a nonstick frying pan rather than in the oven, it turned out very well. I love it!


Onion, Cheese, and Bacon Tart

Ingredients
Crust
• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling
• 3 thick-cut bacon slices, chopped
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• Pinch of sugar
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Generous pinch of salt
• Generous pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (packed) coarsely grated Gruyère cheese

Preparation
For crust:
Blend flour and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and process until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured work surface to 11-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Press dough onto bottom and up sides of pan. Pierce crust all over with fork. Freeze 10 minutes. Line crust with foil; fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake crust 10 minutes. Remove foil and beans. Bake until crust is set and partially cooked through, about 15 minutes longer. Cool crust while making filling. Maintain oven temperature.

For filling:
Sauté bacon in medium skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 4 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Add onion and pinch of sugar to drippings in skillet and sauté until onion is deep golden brown, about 20 minutes. Whisk cream, egg, egg yolk, pepper, salt, and nutmeg in small bowl to blend. Spread onion over bottom of baked crust; sprinkle bacon over, then cheese. Pour cream mixture over.

Bake until tart is puffed and filling is set, about 25 minutes. Cool tart on rack 10 minutes. Remove pan sides. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Click here to continue to the rest of the article..

A Martian Sunrise

Another must-see enlarged!

Via

Meow

Thanks Tammy!

Thank You

Image Source

I just wanted to send out a big thank you to a bunch of you who have helped me out a long the way. It's been about 14 months now, and although my site is still in its infancy, I have enjoyed seeing such great progress. I view this progress in terms of several different things.

It is you, the reader, who takes the necessary 5 seconds to forward one of my links, or twitter it, or stumble it, or the like. I appreciate each and every one of you, and urge you to come back often - because I do my best to find only the best of stuff to post.

It is also due to a handful of large, well-respected, and highly ranked sites linking to one of the things I've posted. I want to personally thank the following:

• Joanne Casey over at I Have Seen The Whole Of The Internet

• Charlie @ Interesting Pile

• The entire team over at Look At This...

• John Walkenbach @ The J-Walk Blog

• Jonco @ Bits and Pieces

• Gerard @ The Presurfer

• The guys at I Love Charts and Chart Porn

• Last but certainly not least, Ernie over at Ernie's House of Whoopass has truly pushed it into another dimension today.

And of course, I have probably forgotten a few of you who have graciously found something from my site or linked to it, and I thank you as well. It's each and every little post that makes any good site what it is, and I thank you too!

Lightning-Struck Lady Liberty Captured

This is the moment the Statue of Liberty was hit by lightning - and caught on camera by a photographer who waited two hours in a storm-hit New York City.

New Yorker Jay Fine apparently waited more than 40 years for the shot before braving the storm last month in Manhattan's Battery Park City.

The 58-year-old photographer caught the incredible snap - but it was a rather arduous process capturing the perfect picture.

More here..

Via

Lawn Helper

Source

Via

Pregnancy Simulation

A couple just started their Lamaze class and they were given an activity requiring the husband to wear a bag of sand - to give him an idea of what it feels like to be pregnant.

The husband stood up and shrugged saying, "This doesn't feel so bad."

The instructor then dropped a pen and asked the husband to pick it up.

Image Source

"You want me to pick up the pen as if I were pregnant, the way my wife would do it?" the husband asked.

"Exactly," replied the instructor.

To the delight of the other husbands, he turned to his wife and said, "Honey, pick up that pen for me."

Via

The War In Iraq

Via

Incredible Aurora Prelude

A must-see enlarged!

Via

Oops! 10 Great Rock 'n' Roll Bloopers

Mistakes. We’ve all made ’em. Some of us more than others.

Rock stars are not immune to the embarrassment of a glorious clanger, and sometimes these little whoopsies, wonky notes and unwanted warbles can even make their way onto vinyl/tape/mp3 for all the world to hear.

Sometimes they make it through to the listener intentionally, and sometimes they sneak by purely by accident, but however they get to us they’re part of what makes rock and roll so much fun, and what keeps kids wedged between a set of headphones when they probably should be studying.

Image Source

So here are 10 of the greatest mistakes that made it to tape:

10. The Beatles – “Helter Skelter” (The Beatles, 1968)
“Helter Skelter” is one of The Beatles’ most frenzied songs – in fact, a case could very well be made that it has a lot in common with the prototypical heavy metal that would soon follow. One of the most fiery aspects of the tune is the intense drum performance by Ringo Starr. According to The Beatles: The Biography, Ringo recorded 18 takes of the drum part on September 9, 1968. The very last take was the one used for the master recording, and it’s also the one in which Ringo performed one of the greatest tantrums in rock and roll, screaming out “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” at the end of the take. You can hear Ringo’s outburst at 4:24.




9. Joe Satriani – “Surfing with the Alien” (Surfing with the Alien, 1987)
Joe Satriani’s sci-fi tones and out-of-this-world phrasing aren’t just the result of inspiration and perspiration – sometimes a little bit of serendipity and a whole lot of electronic malfunction play a role, too. For the lead guitar tone on Surfing with the Alien’s title track, Satriani used a wah-wah pedal and a harmonizer. The former worked perfectly, while the latter was in its death throes. Satriani told Guitar World, “The sound that came out of the speakers blew us away so much that we recorded the melody and the solo in about a half-hour and sat back and went, ‘Whoa! This is a song, man!’” Then the harmonizer broke down and couldn’t be fixed. “We couldn’t do anything,” he said. “We lost our tone. When we finally got it working again, we weren’t able to recreate the original effect. It just sounded different. So rather than screw up a wonderful-sounding performance that may have had a couple of glitches, we decided to just leave it, because it was just swinging.”




8. Frank Zappa – “Muffin Man” (Bongo Fury, 1975)
Frank Zappa often said he saw lyrics as a necessity that he didn’t quite enjoy. In his autobiography The Real Frank Zappa Book he said he felt that if he had to write lyrics, he might as well make them something that appealed to his particular skewed worldview. Nowhere is this more evident than the monologue at the start of “Muffin Man,” where the text and the voice he reads it in so appeal to Frank’s worldview that he breaks character to laugh at himself (0:48), before saying “Let’s try that again” and giving the line another shot.




7. Megadeth – “Paranoid” (Nativity In Black, 1994)
Megadeth’s take on this Black Sabbath classic was recorded for an all-star tribute which also featured Type O Negative, Sepultura, Biohazard, White Zombie, Corrosion of Conformity, Ugly Kid Joe, Faith No More and others. Megadeth’s version of “Paranoid” was a little faster and a lot angrier than Sabbath’s 1970 original, and the anger was ratcheted up tenfold when drummer Nick Menza continued playing by himself after the song was supposed to have ended (2:23-2:30). Menza is cut off by Dave Mustaine shouting “Nick… Nick …NICK!” – and when he realizes his mistake Menza berates himself with some choice words of his own.



Next: Metallica – “The Four Horsemen” -- Continue to the rest of the article..

Via

The World According To San Francisco

Via

Fortune Cookie Thanks You

Via

Philosoraptor Expresses Serious Concerns

Via


Via


Via

Finish It!

Via

I Iz Ready

Original Via

Trapped Under Ice

Via

OK there's your Metallica reference. It's what I think of when I see this. That and the old '70's-'80's cartoon where the sad ostrich jams his head into the dirt.

I had to post this - I remember seeing this on a show on Animal Planet the other night. If I remember right, it's a big fox going after a huge fish that he had just witnessed a seal swim away with under the ice.

A Graying Congress

The 111th Congress, which convened in 2009, is among the oldest in U.S. history. The average age of members of Congress has risen steadily since 1981, with just a slight hiccup in the early 1990s; the rise is likely the result of a high incumbency rate, the aging of the U.S. population, and the first-time elections of older candidates.

A great interactive chart - Click the pic!

Source / Via

Mom's babies born on 8/8/08, 9/9/09, 10/10/10

Unlike many moms, Barbara Soper never gets her kids' birthdays confused. That's because her first was born on Aug, 8, 2008, her second on Sept. 9, 2009 and her most recent on Oct. 10, 2010.

Yes, that's 8-8-08, 9-9-09, and 10-10-10.

The Rockford, Mich., mom and husband Chad weren't thinking about dates when their children were born.

Their doctor had to give drugs to start labor for the couple's first daughter, Chloe Corrin Soper, who was born full term on Aug. 8 at Spectrum Health's Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Their son was a surprise all around. "He wasn't a planned baby at all, he was a miracle," says Barbara Soper. He was due on Sept. 20, 2009, but because sister Chloe's birth had caused some hemorrhaging, their doctor, Andrew Van Slooten, suggested he come out a little early so he'd be smaller.

Soper was started on drugs to induce labor on Sept. 8, but it took 24 hours before Cameron Dane Soper made his way into the world, arriving on 9-9-09.

Soper says she and her husband had thought it would be "neat" if their third child was born on 10-10-10 but because her due date wasn't until Nov. 4, it seemed unlikely.

But it ended up being "kind of a mandatory eviction," says Soper. She developed blood clots in her legs and three weeks before her due date doctors told her the baby needed to be delivered.

The induction was begun on 10-9-10, but it wasn't until 6:53 on Sunday night, 10-10-10, that Cearra Nicole Soper arrived. Despite being three weeks early, "she's feeding well," says mom. "She's a trooper."

While the dates might seem "incredibly rare," they're really not. Such a lineup can only happen in the first 12 years of the century and at least 10 months apart, says Shannon McWeeney, a professor of biostatistics at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.

"Given that the first birth occurred in that window, the probability is not as astronomical as you might be compelled to think," she says.In fact, it's not that high a number at all, says Philip Stark, a professor of statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. "The 'chance' you get depends on the assumptions you make," he says. One set of assumptions gives a chance of about 1 in 50 million. More realistic assumptions — including allowing at least 11 months between births — increases it to about 1 in 2,500. Since thousands of women in the United States had kids in 2008, 2009 and 2010, this suddenly seems a little less extraordinary. But humans "like to look for patterns, to make sense of things" he says. For the Sopers, three is simply their lucky number — "we don't have any more planned," says Barbara.

Source

A Great Impromptu Piano Duet

Via

Fran & Marlo Cowan (married 62 years) playing an impromptu recital together in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic. He turned 90 in February. The song is Old Grey Bonnet.

And check out a great story about these guys here.

Generation Gap

Via

Coach Ginobili

Via

This happened at the end of last night's San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles Clippers preseason NBA game in Mexico. Spurs were down by 2 with 8.3 seconds left of a game during most of which they trailed by double-digits.

I know it's only preseason, but that's an example of what great basketball teams do during the preseason. And what a highlight! Pop oughta let Manu do this more often!

And Yet It Has Braille On It?

Via

Cool Quote - Even Better Image

Click for bigger..

Via

Indian Wanting Coffee

An Indian walks into a cafe with a shotgun in one hand and pulling a male buffalo with the other. He says to the waiter: "Want coffee." The waiter says, "Sure, Chief. Coming right up." So he gets the Indian a tall mug of coffee. The Indian drinks the coffee down in one gulp, turns and blasts the buffalo with the shotgun, causing parts of the animal to splatter everywhere, and then just walks out. The next morning the Indian returns. He has his shotgun in one hand, pulling another male buffalo with the other. He walks up to the counter and says to the waiter: "Want coffee." The waiter says, "Whoa, Tonto! We're still cleaning up your mess from yesterday! What was all that about, anyway?" The Indian smiles and proudly says, "Training for position in United States Congress. Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, leave mess for others to clean up, disappear for rest of day." Thanks Ryan!

The Miracle Beer Diet

Via

How Cute Is This?

Via / Via

Why Middle-Aged Women Shouldn't Drink

Via / Via

Man Gets Speeding Ticket - Buys Department's Domain Name

Image Source - (Unrelated)

Most of the time, if you get a speeding ticket you just grumble about it and pay the fine. It’s usually not a big deal for most people unless it happens a lot or they get caught going a ridiculous amount over the posted speed limit. You can fight it in court or just pay the ticket, and for most people those are the only options.

However, after receiving a $90 speeding ticket in Bluff City, Tennessee, Brian McCrary discovered a third option. The Bluff City Police Department had forgotten to renew their domain name, BluffCityPD.com, and let it expire. McCrary bought the domain name for $80 and posted his side of the story with information about speed traps in Bluff City and the $250,000 per month they cost the town’s 1,500 residents.

The police department had no idea their domain name had expired and that McCrary owned it until reporters started calling them to ask about it. Bluff City Police Chief David Nelson said they may approach McCrary about buying the domain back from him, but they are not optimistic.

McCrary’s goal is to get enough attention to put pressure on the local government to remove the traffic enforcement cameras in Bluff City.

Source

Via

More on this story here..

Happy Columbus Day

Via

Sometimes I ask, "What was it he did, again?"

I say we get rid of a few of these useless holidays (government & post office holidays), and add a few that would be a lot more relevant: Super Bowl Sunday, the opening day of dove/deer season, and each person's birthday.

Iron Maiden - Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

And the rest of Powerslave. One click - tons of material.


Image Source

Click the pic!

Just Re-posting This

My Alice in Chains - Dirt Review

Screwed By Technology

Image Source

Well it appears that Brett Favre is now pulling a Ben Roethlisberger. Or does it?

There is now something that's technologically very unique. It is the combination of Internet and incredible personal handheld machine. Of course, the cell phone. Which is now not just a phone, calendar, wristwatch, alarm clock, clock, long distance service, personal organizer, address book, roladex,

and portable answering machine. It is now something that's just as an important piece of our pocket contents as our wallet, car key, and home key. And it probably comes third.

It is now also a camera, and has also been that for some of this time. But now it is also a typewriter, instant messenger, hand held technology of the late 1990's, which used to exist on our desk. The same desk that is now analogically our desktop, or our main phone
Image Source

background.

It is also now capable of video recording, huge file storage, mass communication, large file transfers, better online capability than most computers 10 years ago... and so on.

How many mothers had their children arrested for finding a picture of theirs, which took the camera beyond so many technological thresholds? Most girls who had such a regular picture taken of them had no idea it existed, because guys were unequipped with the technology they are today. Similarly women are now able to "take advantage" of this technology as well. And it existed because of the camera first. Now it's existing all over again because of the capabilities of this new personal attachment we carry everywhere. And it's doing so for all of us in some way!

What Big Ben did was at best a misunderstood bad incedent, and at worst worthy of the punishment he received. The girl in that case was understandably somewhat lucky in that it was someone famous who did that to her. This girl in the Brett Favre investigation is lucky for that reason. But she's also lucky for a bigger reason - and that's because she and Favre worked for the same employer at the time.

This device is now becoming a major target of judicial systems everywhere - mainly due to

Image Source

texting. How much further is society gonna go before they accept the device as a major part of everyone's lives? Are they gonna make us stop eating burgers on the way to work? What about listening to the radio? Or having a soda in a cup holder next to us? You get where I'm going.

Go easy on Favre.

Very Old Beer

Via

Otherwise known as motor oil.

Cool Bag

Via - (NSFW)

I wanna get one of these and go directly to the airport. Or would that be some kind of crime? I think it'd be funny - especially if you filled the bag with a bunch of kids' toys or something. Or a tiny silver gun pendant, a bomb-shaped pencil eraser, a cardboard knife, and 27 boxes of Ex-lax pills.

Get Me Outa Here NOW!

Via

Look At That Incredible Light Fixture!

Via - (NSFW)

Computer Man Is Watching You

Via

Math Humor

Via

The Adventures Of Johnny Impotent

Via

Dude Finds FBI GPS Device On His Car - FBI Demands Device Back

Image Source

A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.

It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted its expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.

The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.

Afifi, a 20-year-old U.S.-born citizen, cooperated willingly and said he’d done nothing to merit attention from authorities. Comments the agents made during their visit suggested he’d been under FBI surveillance for three to six months.

An FBI spokesman wouldn’t acknowledge that the device belonged to the agency or that agents appeared at Afifi’s house.

“I can’t really tell you much about it, because it’s still an ongoing investigation,” said spokesman Pete Lee, who works in the agency’s San Francisco headquarters.

Afifi, the son of an Islamic-American community leader who died a year ago in Egypt, is one of only a few people known to have found a government-tracking device on their vehicle.

His discovery comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying it’s legal for law enforcement to secretly place a tracking device on a suspect’s car without getting a warrant, even if the car is parked in a private driveway.

Brian Alseth from the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state contacted Afifi after seeing pictures of the tracking device posted online and told him the ACLU had been waiting for a case like this to challenge the ruling.

Photo courtesy Yasir Afifi

“This is the kind of thing we like to throw lawyers at,” Afifi said Alseth told him.

“It seems very frightening that the FBI have placed a surveillance-tracking device on the car of a 20-year-old American citizen who has done nothing more than being half-Egyptian,” Alseth told Wired.com.

Afifi, a business marketing student at Mission College in Santa Clara, discovered the device last Sunday when he took his car to a local garage for an oil change. When a mechanic at Ali’s Auto Care raised his Ford Lincoln LS on hydraulic lifts, Afifi saw a wire sticking out near the right rear wheel and exhaust.

Garage owner Mazher Khan confirmed for Wired.com that he also saw it. A closer inspection showed it connected to a battery pack and transmitter, which were attached to the car with a magnet. Khan asked Afifi if he wanted the device removed and when Afifi said yes, Khan pulled it easily from the car’s chassis.

“I wouldn’t have noticed it if there wasn’t a wire sticking out,” Afifi said.

Later that day, a friend of Afifi’s named Khaled posted pictures of the device at Reddit, asking if anyone knew what it was and if it meant the FBI “is after us.” (Reddit is owned by CondeNast Digital, which also owns Wired.com).

“My plan was to just..." (cont'd)

Continue to the rest of the story..

Via