Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival

It's been an amazing day, and I'm thrilled to share my little adventure with you all.  I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in Des Moines.  The tickets sold out in 20 minutes, and I still can't believe I got one.  It was an awesome event, and all the bacon-inspired food was so good, I think I ended up eating like 2 pounds of bacon in one afternoon.  But so worth it!

There were huge lines for most of the food booths, so I often didn't know what I was going to end up eating until I got to the front of the line.  I let out a little squeal when I saw the menu at the Gusto Pizza Booth.  Bacon, peanut butter & banana pizza?  Yes please!

"The Elvis" - bacon, peanut butter & banana pizza.

Another favorite was the Maytag blue cheese paired with bacon & honey.  I could have eaten the whole tray-full.

To be honest, I wasn't all that excited to stand in line for the bacon tacos, but they turned out to be delicious.  It was a new spin on the classic BLT sandwich. I must try this at home!

My favorite bacon dish was actually a dessert -- the caramel bacon gelato from Chocolaterie Stam.  Sounds strange, but it was so good. I may never eat ice cream without bacon again :)

And I couldn't resist buying a couple slices of chocolate-covered bacon.  I was lucky I bought it when I did, because they were sold out within a few minutes.

Now I'm in a bacon-fat haze as I write this, but I'm giddy from all the new foods I tried today.  Who knew that bacon was so versatile?  I'm proud to live in the nation's top pork-producing state, and I'm glad there's a festival where we can celebrate this ultimate comfort food.  Ohhh, Bacon!