What I've been up to: Bacon Fest, baby showers & cupcakes

Back before Christmas, I hovered over my computer at work over the noon hour, waiting for tickets to go on sale for the annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in Des Moines.  I kept refreshing the website until the tickets went on sale, bought two tickets and then found out that I was lucky, because the 8,000 tickets available sold out in 3 minutes!

I brought my pregnant sister along to the bacon festival this year.  This was my second year at the festival, and I couldn't believe the wide variety of bacon dishes this year!  I wish I could have tried more, but I actually couldn't eat as much bacon as I had hoped.  (Maybe because I had just gotten back from my trip to Arizona, where I ate huge meals three times a day!)

It was so crowded at the festival, we couldn't really walk around first to check out what all the restaurants were offering.  We just stood in whatever line we could find an end to.  One of the strangest things we tried was this bacon peanut butter banana panna cotta.  It was OK, but we really couldn't taste the bacon.  We also ate a gigantic bacon chocolate chip cookie and bacon caramel gelato (one of my favorite dishes I discovered at last year's festival).

Bacon peanut butter banana panna cotta.

My favorite discovery this year was the "man candy" -- sweet and spicy bacon chunks, with a side of bacon-flavored homemade potato chips.  I would love to find the recipe for the "man candy."  It really was addicting (just like a good man! LOL!)

Of course, there were lots of free bacon samples to try.  I think we ended up eating 20 strips of bacon!  No wonder I didn't have room for more bacon-wrapped sandwiches!  I bought my sister a bacon maternity shirt to wear at the festival.  She looked absolutely adorable!  My niece is going to be a bacon lover, for sure!

The last two weekends, we've been celebrating my sister's new arrival with back-to-back baby showers. How cute does my sister look!  We're all looking forward to meeting the little one in a month.

Diaper cake and owl decorations for the nursery.

 The Ames Hy-Vee bakery did an awesome job with the baby shower cake!

In between the baby showers, my hubby and I celebrated Valentine's Day by baking up his favorite banana split cupcakes. Since he requested them, he also agreed to frost and decorate them.  Don't forget the cherry on top.  It's the best part!

 As you can see, I've been busy the last couple weeks, but it's been a fun busy.  Now I'm looking forward to tackling some new projects at home!  And the days are already getting longer, so that should help my motivation!

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!