The "Handy" Bear Claw

This weekend's blog is short and sweet. I'm going to profess my love for an inanimate object: The Bear Claw. 

No, not the pastry.

No, not an actual bear claw. 

This little thingamajig.

I bought it at Smoky Mountain Knifeworks in Tennessee, but you can find them almost everywhere. It's awesome for scratching your back. But it has multiple uses in this household.

Like putting down the toilet seat. 

Or picking up that wayward sock that fell behind the dresser. 

Or helping get (non-breakable) items off really high shelves. 

But the VERY best non-traditional use for this little bugger is for getting at all the tennis balls that go under the couch. I just cleaned them out last night, so there aren't many today. But look... you can still see confetti from New Year's! I should probably clean more thoroughly. (I also see a tissue that missed the garbage can.)

We all have our little tools to make life easier. I think I'm going to pick a couple more of these up. You never know what other uses I might find for them! 

Because BACON

BACON: You either like it, hate it, or want to cover everything in it. I love it. And so I popped my Baconfest cherry and went to this year’s Baconmania VIII in Des Moines.

This is MOST of us. Stephen, Kari, Nick, Ninya, Me, Tonya, Nikki and Sheri. We are missing Brian and Chris.

There were A LOT of us, so Ninya (another baconfest virgin) and I became bacon buddies and started making the rounds and sharing everything. My initial plan was to take photos of everything, but I became obsessed with stuffing my face; so none of these photos are actually mine. They are either from someone in our group or I was able to snag them online.

Bacon buddies

Since it was only a little after 10:00, we started with breakfast: Hotel Pattee’s Deep Fried Bacon-Wrapped Cinnamon Roll. It was DELICIOUS. At the end of the day I went back for another, and though it was still good, they were going through them too quickly for the maple icing to really thicken so it wasn’t quite as good as the morning one.

Next was Guru BBQ’s Korean BBQ Taco. Not exactly a breakfast food, but good pulled pork with thin little slices of cucumber and bacon and a “taco shell” that was really a big wonton wrapper. It was zesty and flavorful.

The rest of the group had gone directly to Jethro’s for bacon wrapped ribs so we headed that way, although neither of us wanted ribs yet. Ninya and I had a chance to try them later in the afternoon and they were so tender the meat fell off the bone. The bacon was the only thing holding it on.  Near to Jethro’s booth was Gusto Pizza and their famous Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon pizza of which we shared a very tasty slice and I also purchased their Bacon Banana Scotcheroo.  I was a little impressed at how well the flavors of the scotcheroo all went together.

After that, I got “bacon brain” and can’t remember the order we ate anything else in. We had a Bacon Grilled Cheese sandwich from Say Cheese Grilled Cheese. They used South Union white bread and I’m not sure what exactly they did to it, but it was the perfect crispiness without being too greasy. I tried to watch what they were doing on the griddle, but could only see they were using shredded cheese, which is genius since it melts faster.

We had Bacon-Infused Dynamite Shrimp from Sakari. Cream cheese. Need I say more?

From Local Yocals we tried their Frisian Farms “Ultimate” Fried Bacon Gouda Cheese Curds and “Bam Bam” Bacon & Cedar Ridge Caramel Cheesecake. They are BOTH at the top of the list of the things I loved the most at Baconfest. 

Mott’s Famous Sweetcorn - Pulled Pork Sweet Corn Bacon Mac-n-Cheese LOOKED delicious but was mushy and devoid of flavor. I LOVE sweet corn, but it was just not appetizing in mac-n-cheese. We did not finish this dish.

Hy-Vee had advertised early their creation of the Maple Bacon Bourbon Doughnut Sandwich. I think fresh it would have been fantastic, but since they made them ahead of time and they have ice cream in the middle, the whole thing was frozen. My spork didn’t work so well, but that didn’t stop me from picking it up and shoving it in.

We had Bacon Rangoon from Café Fusion. I couldn’t really taste the bacon, but again, cream cheese… so there wasn’t much to complain about.

We only partially ate a La Mie Bacon Cheddar Croissant since we were so stuffed and it was pretty large. (It was perfect because I ate the rest of it on my 2 hour drive home with a big hot chocolate from QT. It made my rainy drive quite pleasant. )

The last thing I remember trying before we left was Old Man Chance’s Bacon Funnel Cake. This was Ninya's choice. I only LIKE funnel cake. I normally go for the mini donuts. But if all funnel cake tasted like this I would get it at EVERY fair. The dough of the funnel cake tasted like powdered sugar donuts. Add syrup, bacon and whipped cream and it was the perfect dish to end Baconmania VIII with.

I ate many delectable creations inspired by bacon. I got to hang out with some pretty awesome people. I never had to stand in line for more than a couple of minutes.  I made it home before the snow hit. It was an awesome day that I hope to be a part of again next year!

One of the many awesome bacon related t-shirts at the event.

The crowd at Baconmania VIII, Iowa Events Center, Des Moines