Get your merit badge in treyf soapmaking this weekend, courtesy of this twisted tutorial from The Black Table - "From Bacon to Soap: The Impossible Journey":

Why? The question of why may befuddle even the most nobly, batty individuals, but that doesn't diminish the importance of having something you hold near and dear to you in your soap dish. Bacon is truth, friend. It's not only a food that knows no culinary boundaries, it is a forceful, vengeful, little pile of fat that loves to make things crispy and dangerous.

Bacon makes everything crazy. Tie two hot dogs together with bacon. Strangle Bay scallops with bacon. Devil an egg and then stab it with bacon. Stick seventy-seven strips of bacon up a Cornish hen's a....

No, seriously. After this laborious, ancient and hazardous [e.g. requires a bottle of lye crystals] project is finished, you will have a lovely set of ice-cube shaped bacon soaps that cleanse the hands and smell nothing like pork. The two weeks you'll spend scrubbing down your kitchen are only a minor drawback. [via LDMA's Life in the Wor Zone]

On the other hand, if you're in the mood for something sweeter and more Republican this weekend, don't bother with Condoleeza Rice - try Star Spangled Ice Cream™:

I suspect not everyone will go for Star Spangled Ice Cream - Ice Cream with a Conservative Flavor. They feature such flavors as Iraqui Road, Choc and Awe, Smaller Govern-Mint, and Gun Nut.

Somehow I don't think Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, will go for these flavors. After all, Ben & Jerry's flavors lean a little more to the left: Cherry Garcia of course, but also Economic Crunch, Entangled Mints, and Doonesbury. [via FoodGoat]

Worship at the gleaming altar of almighty Butterfat! Even better - why not try a game of Firebox™ Chocolate-Chili Russian Roulette? Each milk chocolate bullet contains a tasty praline center. No, wait...I lied. One of the "bullets" on the circular tray contains what appears to be a mega-Scoville-unit birdseye chili pepper, and believe me, you'll know when you or one your game buddies "bites the bullet." [via Dog Snot Diaries]

And finally, from the "haute guilty pleasure" files, this recipe for Fresh Wasabi-Panko Soup Balls (Dry Ice Style) with Reverse Noodle Sauce, Truffle Foam, and Caviar, courtesy of Crescat Sententia guest-blogger and gourmand extraordinare, Waddling Thunder:

Make a cheese soup, spiced with Fresh wasabi flown in yesterday from Japan ($10 supplement). Pour the soup into ice trays, and freeze in dry ice. Dip the frozen soup balls into beaten quail’s eggs, and then bread with panko (Japanese bread crumbs). Repeat twice to ensure tight seal.

Freeze again in the dry ice, then remove and fry in mixture of olive and sesame oils. Once brown, quickly remove and place in a martini dish lined with Reverse Noodle Sauce (a clever deconstruction of the ingredients of noodle into a sauce). Top dish with truffle foam, with or without tandoori spices, and then add Caviar ($40 supplement). Serve with chopsticks.

This reminds me of a very elegant version of an odd 80's Japanese convenience food called "Soup-Sand" - breaded, fried soup-filled (!) patties served on a sandwich bun.

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