Meatzapalooza 2012

This Memorial Day weekend we hosted what I called Meatzapalooza 2012. On the menu was some of what you expect, hamburgers and hot dogs, and some of what you don't expect, the infamous bacon explosion and a traditional low country boil. I think some veggies made a token appearance but, really, who cares? It's all about the meat.

I had a couple of other items planned but we got so busy I put them off. Don't worry, you'll read about them soon enough.

Speaking of busy, the only picture I got was of the smoker cooking the bacon explosion. Yes, that is the same smoker as the one in my blog header. I recently sanded and repainted it, and restained the wood handles and shelf slats. Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

I've written about how I made my first bacon explosion, so I won't go into the details again. I will say I used a bit too much Italian sausage (just a bit, really!) and the bacon weave wouldn't quite cover the sausage roll. So I had to slap some more slices of bacon over the gaps to make it complete. Think of it as bacon spackle. I assembled the bacon explosion several hours ahead of time. Everything had time to set up and so it all held together when I put it in the smoker. Besides, how bad can be it be if you have to add more bacon? To anything?

The low country boil was pretty basic. Baby red potatoes, corn, smoked sausage, and shrimp in a pot with Old Bay seasoning and Zatarian's Crab Boil. Basic, but great flavors.

Both the bacon explosion and the low country boil were hits this year. I bet they will be again next year.