I had an occasion calling for bacon themed food and my mind immediately turned towards the famed bacon mat. I needed something a little more single-serving though, so I decided to attempt bacon cups. In the bacon mat instructions there is mention of draping the mat over an overturned metal bowl and cooking it so that it would turn out in as a bowl shape. I decided to try using the backs of various muffin and mini cake pans, I ran out of bacon before I got to try as many as I would have liked so I'll have to try more at a later date. Any excuse for more bacon.

I set the oven at 400 degrees and carefully formed foil over the back of the muffin pan. I did not coat with cooking spray, it would have been easier to remove but I suspect that the bacon would not have held the form as well if the foil was oiled and would have popped apart half way through cooking. On the other hand some bacon did break when I was peeling away the foil. I cooked the bacon, moving the pans around, until it was crisp looking and waited for it to cool before removing the foil and shaped bacon.

This all took three hours and my house filled with smoke, but it was worth it. Be sure to put a cookie sheet with a rim below the cooking bacon in the oven, there was a lot of dripping fat and I saw a few flames. Watch your oven carefully!

For cup shapes I used the back of this Wilton King-Size Muffin Pan. These are the width of jumbo muffins but are almost twice as tall (see this cupcake for a visual).

For the first try I used two layers of bacon on the sides and wove it like a basket, or at least like I imagine a basket would be woven:

I turned out to not be enough after the bacon cooked and shrank:

It held its structure very well though:

The next time I used three layers of bacon on the sides, this worked out better:

For as floppy as the bacon is when trying to weave it, it keeps its shape really well once cooked to the point that it is crisp.

I also tried to make small round bowls using the back of a Betty Crocker mini filled cake pan.

It shrank up quite a lot, leaving more of a shallow rounded shape:

Going for a breadless BLT I filled the cups with lettuce (the arugula was the best) and sliced cherry tomato. After some serious investigation it was determined that the shallow bowls were the easiest to eat as finger food, while the cups were dramatic.

I had hoped to make a mayo-based salad dressing to really fill out my the BLT theme but I completely ran out of time. Overall, a success!

The people at DB Clay gave me a Version 3 wallet to give away! I hope you don't mind if I had a little look at it, it's excellently manufactured. DB Clay makes limited edition wallets out of a material they call Tope: "Tope is strong. Tope is durable. Tope is heat and cold resistant. Tope is smooth textured. Tope is water resistant. Tope is robust. Tope is eco friendly." The material feels great, and I bet if they sold it by the yard Etsy makers all over the world would buy it like crazy.

DB Clay's designs are awesome, I'm going through a pattern phase, and I'm enamoured of their Ms. Frey patterns, which come in a few different colors. And the Lights of Spain is cool.

The wallet I have to give away is the Faith on Juniper. "We found a stained & polished wood box at a thrift store in SE Portland years ago. We transferred the old box's rich & textured image onto this new piece of pocket art." I think it also looks like a vintage tie, a cool vintage tie. It has a pocket for bills, four card pockets, and two spaces for you to tuck cards into behind the card pockets (you know, the places where small receipts and the fortunes from cookies end up). The wallet is excellent, and you want it. Leave a comment here and the trusty Random Number Generator will pick a winner.

Fine print:
- I'll choose the winner on Thursday night, Feb. 28th at 8:00 p.m. PST. The Random Number Generator has chosen a winner, thanks to everybody for entering! I'll ship the wallet as soon as I can, this might depend on working off-hours postal machines.
- You don't need to leave your real name, but do leave a valid email address. I'll be the only one who can see your email address (just don't put it in the actual comment box as well). I'll write to get a shipping address when you've won.
- If you have never left a comment here before I'll need to approve it before it publishes so don't worry if your comment doesn't show up right away. That said, you might not end up being the comment number you see so know that if you want to say "lucky number 351!" you might not be comment number 351. I don't know why it works that way, and I'm sorry, there is very little certainty left in this world and this isn't helping any.
- If I have not heard from an initial winner by March 6th I will choose another winner.
- The winner will be picked by the cold, unfeeling random number generator.

Last weekend I visited the Packaging Specialties Store here in Seattle in search of some crepe paper. I had gotten lots of suggestions on places to buy crepe in Seattle (thanks!) but this one was on my side of town. I was blown away by the store, it was like finding the hiding place of all those things I had to search so hard for when I was living in San Francisco -- ribbons, tins, papers, boxes, all in one place. I was a bit overwhelmed with how much they had, and how many varieties of everything.

Here is what I wrote down in my notebook: Midori ribbons (must be the whole line), tissue and crepe, fake flowers, paint cans of many sizes, soup cups (for packaging candy), Altoid sized tins, round tins, lip balm tins, paper lanterns (square!), blank stationary, boxes of all sizes and shapes, Envirosax, craft paper in colors, gift bags of all sizes and colors, bindi tins and boxes, colored twill, silk ribbon, beautiful papers, variety of gift tags, Cath Kidson books, oil cloth, Chinese take out boxes in colors and sizes and frosted plastic, glassine, cookie bags, coffee bags, clear tubes with lids, lunch box, favors, large rick rack, bridal goods, magazines, favor boxes. They had posy boxes, people, many many kinds! That is special. Everything appealed to me, there was little hint of country twee or "Party Store" garishness. The website doesn't do justice to just how complete their offerings are.

By comparison I went to a Paper Zone store directly afterwards and the variety of packaging goods was boring by comparison (I realize that Paper Zone is more for those who scrapbook and make stationary). So, if you're hoping to find a certain type of packaging for your homemade bath crystals or cookies I can recommend a trip to the Packaging Specialties Store down in Georgetown, there is also a location in Redmond.