Looking for a fun party idea? Try Holiday Entertaining with a Bacon Bar!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Smithfield. as always, all opinions are my own.
Make sure to check out the end of the post to find out how you can win free bacon for an entire year!
Holiday entertaining season is upon us! I don’t know about you, but I am always trying to come up with new ideas for parties. Sometimes I like to serve easy appetizers, have a sit down dinner, a casual taco bar, or even ask guests to bring dishes for a potluck. Those methods are all tried and true and are always a hit, but want to really knock the socks off your guests? How about a…wait for it….a bacon bar!!
That’s a ridiculously good idea, isn’t it? Everyone loves bacon, so it is sure to be a welcome surprise. Speaking of everyone loving bacon, I have a confession. For the first 30 years of my life, I wasn’t bacon’s biggest fan. I would eat it once in a while, but wasn’t really into it. I could definitely take it or leave it. Well, with my 2nd pregnancy, I craved bacon. Thick cut, super crispy bacon. I tried my first bacon cheeseburger a few months into the pregnancy, and I was sold. I couldn’t believe that I had gone so long in life without eating bacon! Now, I can’t get enough!
So how can you make your own Bacon Bar? Start with some Smithfield Bacon and create some delicious bacon flavors. Here are some idea starters!
Maple Bourbon, Beer Baked, Peanut Butter Dipped, Brown Sugar, Black Pepper, Chocolate Dipped
Or check out Smithfield’s Bacon Bar page for tons of recipes and ideas!
Set out all your bacon flavors beautifully displayed in some mason jars. The clear jars are the perfect vessel to hold up your bacon! Don’t forget chalkboard labels! You can print these directly from Smithfield’s Bacon Bar Page!
If you want something more filling in addition to your flavored bacon, Smithfield has a ton of delicious recipes like Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves!
Here are some great ideas for how you can entertain with a Bacon Bar!
A New Year’s Eve Countdown Bacon Bar
Invite your friends over for New Year’s Eve but with a twist. While counting down the hours to Midnight, bring out new additions to the bacon bar. By the time the clock strikes 12, have at least 12 different types of bacon or bacon recipes on your bar! Have some light appetizers to round out the menu like my marinated tomato crostini! Add some bacon to it and you have the most delicious BLTs.
A PJ Party Bacon Bar
Have a kid who loves bacon? Invite their friends over to celebrate Christmas break and wow them with a Bacon Bar. Have them wear their jammies and serve some traditional breakfast foods alongside a bunch of different types of bacon. My mini maple pancake muffins would be perfect alongside the Bacon Bar!
A Pig Out Potluck Party
Everyone loves to pig out, but what better than on pig?! Have everyone bring a different type of flavored bacon to the party. Have the bar already assembled and have labels out for your friends to label their bacon creation.
Blind Bacon Testing Party
This is a fun one! Make up a bunch of different bacon flavors but don’t label them! Have your friends taste test the flavors and guess what the flavor is. The person or couple who identifies the most wins a prize!
Bacon Exchange Party
Love cookie exchanges? Mix it up with a bacon exchange! Like the potluck party, have guests bring their favorite flavored bacon recipe in cute carry out containers for exchanging!
{Printable Labels and Recipes Here!}
Want free bacon for a year? One lucky reader of this post will receive a coupon booklet valued at over $400 for free bacon! Just check out Smithfield’s Bacon Bar Website and tell me in the comments which recipe looks the best to you! I will select a winner next week!
This is a sponsored post for Smithfield, as always, all opinions are my own.
Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda & Apricot preserves. Wow, my mouth is watering
The Caramelized Bourbon Bacon looks and sound absolutely delicious.
Definitely the Crispy Bacon Twists! Sounds amazing.
Bacon twists sounds addicting!! Can’t wait to try it! I also love those Bacon labels
Cherry Bacon Jam with Thyme and Cloves…. Cherries AND Bacon? There’s gonna be a party in my belly.
HAHA Yes! sounds like a party to me too!
Oh my goodness. It’s very hard to choose when I’m drooling over bacon and recipes but I have to say the
Cherry Bacon Jam with Thyme and Cloves sounds fantastic especially since I think cloves would taste SO good along with Thyme and BACON. Jam with Bacon, Cloves and Thyme .. yes please!
Caramelized Bourbon Bacon and the Bacon Waffle Bake sound delicious!
Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves — bacon and cheese = both obsessions of mine! Thanks for the chance!!
This is my kinda party! What a fun idea to have the entire party fare revolve around bacon?! I’d definitely be adding the blind taste test identifying game to my bacon party.
The crispy bacon twist with Gouda & apricot preserves sound delicious!
Yum! I want to try the cherry bacon jam, but everything looks great. I’m a huge bacon fan!
Bourbon brown sugar bacon
Bourbon brown sugar
The bacon twists look amazing!!! We put bacon in and on anything we can!
Cherry Bacon Jam with Thyme and Cloves Looks right up my alley
Yes! Right up my alley too!
Can’t decide between Caramelized Bourbon Bacon or the Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Over Pasta with Lime Butter Sauce or the Bacon-Wrapped Peaches with Balsamic-Honey Glaze and Basil. I will just have to try them all…
That pasta recipe sounds incredible! I can’t eat shrimp but think I am going to try it with chicken!
Bacon and peaches would be an incredible sweet and salty combo!
The bacon waffle bake , bacon jam, and caremelized bacon look delicious. If I won I would make every single bacon recipe. My fam LOVE bacon!
Bacon waffle bake sounds just amazing!
My four year old just discovered how delicious bacon is and keeps asking me to make it with dinner!! I need all these recipes so I don’t run out of ideas!
Haha, yes we are a bacon loving family. Still crossing our fingers!
The bacon twists with gouda are my favorite
I was looking for a spicy, sweet recipe like honey and jalapeno Bacon but the chipotle one did look good. My favorite though would definitely have to be the Carmelized Bourbon Bacon. That looked so good. I feel like I could get addicted to it quite easily.
I was hoping for a spicy, sweet recipe like a honey jalapeno. I did like the look of the Chipotle recipe but the one that really stood out was the Carmelized Bourbon Bacon. I feel like I could get addicted to that quite easily.
Honey jalapeno is a great idea!!
I have to go with Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves. Bacon and cheese, you can’t go wrong! And the sweetness of the preserves would be the ultimate touch!
The apricot is such a good combo with the salty bacon and cheese, you’re right!
Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves Looks amazing!!! Something I could actually make and super unique! Plus what a great party food!
Yes! They sound easy and unique!
The Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves recipe sounds and looks delicious. Definitely going to try and make this for the husband one weekend. Can’t wait to try it I’m sure it will be yummy.
I love gouda so that would be my choice too!
There are so many things that go well with bacon so a bacon bar would be perfect! I would love to try this at my home. I have a lot of ideas of what I think bacon would go well with and one I already know that I love is syrup, it just goes so well together!
Crispy bacon twists ❤️
I would love to try the Cherry Bacon Jam with Thyme and Cloves it looks amazing
I think it sounds amazing too! Especially on some fresh biscuits!
I love your bacon bar. It’s genius. I don’t know anyone in my family that doesn’t eat bacon. My hubby is addicted to it. It’s low-carb too.
Now this is my kind of holiday food. You can never have too much bacon. All the recipes look super tasty but my favorite is the Bacon Twists. Thanks for the tasty giveaway!
Me too! the perfect holiday food!
Wow! Free bacon for a year. I know someone who would really love that. Lol! Makes a meal great.
Yes! it definitely makes any meal better!
The caramel sea salt bacon sounds amazing. I can think of so many things to do with that! Pancake topping, ice cream topping, eating it just like that … yum!
Caramel and sea salt is always a great combination!
I think I need to try the twice baked sweet potato with the bacon! I need to win this bacon since I’m addicted to it with shredded brussel sprouts! Now I might be addicted to it on sweet potatoes?
Oh, WOW! Having a bacon bar sounds like an amazing way to have a party! Everyone in my family but my oldest daughter loves bacon and they would be so excited if we had a bacon bar. Your marinated tomato crostini sounds amazing! I am going to have to try them for our next party.
That crostini is so good! It looks so elegant too but is really easy!
My family and I love Smithfield bacon!!!!
Every recipe looks and sounds delicious.
I’d love to prepare them all…
I think my favorite would be the crispy bacon twist with Gouda and apricot preserves.(Such a flavorful combination)I’d love to win!!!❤️
Congratulations in advance to the winner of this wonderful contest!!! And thanks for the opportunity oldhousetonewhome.net?
OHMYGOSH Seriously How Can we Choose Just One Of Those Bacon Recipes!?!!
That Page Was Bacon Heaven! I Would First Try The Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Over Pasta With Lime Butter Sauce! How Amazing Does That Sound?
Next I Would Try The Orange Laced French Toast Cassarole With Carmelized bacon.
I would then keep going down that List of recies and then look soe more up to use Smithfields Deelicious Bacon With!
I know! So many good recipes!!
Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves looks amazing! Reminds me of when we had an apricot tree as a kid!
Is a girl allowed to have a bacon bar every day of the week? I am drooling over the idea of all this bacon! Yum, yum! I don’t think there is any other protein I enjoy more than bacon.
A Bacon bar for breakfast everyday sounds great to me!
Cherry Bacon Jam with Thyme Sounds so creative. I want to try it !
I’ve got to admit that Smithfield IS my favorite bacon without anything special done to it at all, but the Carmelized Bourbon Bacon looks pretty yummy!
The Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves look absolutely delicious!
The Crispy bacon twists with Gouda and apricot Preserves looks and sounds so delicious.
I think both sound incredible, but if I have to choose I would say the crispy bacon twists
They both sound amazing, but if I have to choose, I would go with the crispy bacon twists, how can you go wrong with bacon, bread, and cheese!
Bacon twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves. Talk about YUM!
I’d have a hard time choosing between the Caramelized Bourbon Bacon and the Bacon Twists. The chalkboard labels are adorable!
Recently I have discovered beef bacon. It tastes just as amazing as the pork bacon but it’s the unique factor that’s making it quite more addicting. Setting up a bacon bar requires creativity in mind and focusing on what friends would love.
Beef Bacon!? I have never heard of it but would love to try it!!
Our whole family loves bacon! My youngest refers to it as “beef.” I want to try the recipe for the mini maple muffins! They look delicious!
Those maple muffins are soooo good!
Oh and don’t forget MY favorite — bacon wrapped dates! Yum! 🙂
Yes! Those are delicious!
Carmelized bourbon bacon
I haven’t try the crispy bacon but I’m sure it’s so yummy and I love to have a bacon bar on our family reunion. I’m so glad that you share this with us.
The cinnamon toast bacon pancakes sounds yummy!
My favorite is the recipe for bacon cheddar biscuits. It is almost an all-in-one breakfast.
Yes! I love easy breakfasts like those!
Bacon twists and bacon cheddar biscuits!
Those biscuits are seriously calling my name!
The Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves is my favorite! Can’t wait to make this for my family!
Andysavi.Mom@gmail.com
Everyone loves those bacon twists!