Paul Woods

A few weeks ago (just before Christmas) the infamous “Bacon Explosion” recipe made its way around work.  This culinary work of art is about 5000 calories of smoky bacon goodness.  The ultimate BBQ meal.

So I decided to take the challenge of the Bacon Explosion head on, and created one for breakfast on Christmas morning.  Now that is a pretty high risk move – trying a recipe untested on your in-laws!  But as it turns out, the Bacon Explosion did not let me down, and it was enjoyed by all young and old.

After the success of the Bacon Explosion, and with Australia Day now just a few weeks away… I thought it was time to try to improve what no one thought could be improvable.  The Challenge… create an Aussie version of the Bacon Explosion for Australia day.  And something that Sam Kekovich would be proud of.

Introducing… the Lamb Explosion

(Preparation time:  20 minutes, Cooking time: 90 minutes)

Before we get too far into it, note that this recipe will likely be the biggest contribution I ever make to Australian Culture.  If you are from the Australia Day Council… get the forms ready for the Order of Australia, because after you taste this great US recipe I have copied improved for us Aussies, there is no way you could live with yourself knowing that I didn’t have OAM after my name!

To create this great dish this Australia Day, you will need to go down to your local supermarket, and get your hands on the following:

The Shopping List

• 1KG of Middle Rasher Bacon
• 1KG of Lamb Sausages (if you can get the mint and rosemary gourmet ones, they are the best)
• 1 small tub of Greek Natural Yoghurt
• Rosemary Leaves
• Thick Mint Sauce (or Mint Jelly)
• Aussie Flag from Woolworths

Step 1:  Prepare the bacon wrapping

This step is exactly the same as the original Bacon Explosion recipe.  The goal here is to great a lattice of Bacon, that will encase the rosemary and minty lamb goodness.  Take your middle bacon rashers and lay them out on top of each other.  Cut the rashers so they form long rectangles.  Doing this will ensure that we can get the squarest Bacon lattice possible.  Keep the off cuts though, we will use them later.

Lay down some grease proof paper, or some alfoil.

Now that we have our strips of bacon, start weaving the bacon lattice together.  The easiest way to do this is to lay down 2 pieces first, turned 90 degrees away from each other, with the end of one piece overlapping the other.  Now lay down another piece parallel to the bottom piece, but with an end overlapping  the second piece.  Now fold the bottom piece back, and lay down another piece of bacon parallel to the second piece.  Replace the folded back bacon.  Repeat this process (just like in the pictures) until you have a nice bacon lattice!

Step 2:  Season the bacon wrapping

Dust the bacon lattice with rosemary leaves.  You can use fresh ones, or ones from a jar… because seriously, this isn’t Master Chef, so who cares

Step 3:  Cook up the off cut bacon

Chop all the left over bacon into reasonably small pieces, and then fry them in a pan until they are nice and crispy!  If you can multi task in the kitchen, get this on and move to step 4 whilst they are cooking

Step 4:  Add the Lamb Sausage

Skin your Lamb Sausages and place the sausage meat into a bowl.  Using your hands, mash them together so they no longer look like sausages.  Now spread the lamb sausage meat across your bacon lattice, ensuring you get as much coverage as possible.  Try to maintain an even thickness across the entire lattice.

Step 5:  Yoghurt time

With a dessert spoon, take three or four big dollops of yoghurt and then with the back of the spoon spread the yoghurt across the lamb sausage meat.  Don’t be afraid to add more yoghurt – remembering it is better to have an  even coverage across all the lamb.

Step 6:  More bacon

By now your bacon pieces should be nice and crispy.  Take them out of the fry pan and evenly distribute them all over the yoghurt.  Feel free to eat a few at this stage, as you will be hungry from all the awesome smells!

Step 7: Roll the lamb

This can get a little messy.  Very slowly, roll the front edge of the lamb meat (not the bacon, just the lamb).  Continue to slowly roll the sausage away from you, ensuring that the lamb doesn’t tear away as you do it.  Once you get about 3/4 of the way along the lattice, stop rolling the lamb, and now roll the bacon back towards you.  Doing this step slowly is the key, you don’t want to ruin the structural integrity of the bacon lattice, or the lamb/yoghurt/bacon roll.  Once you are done you should have an awesome looking Lamb Explosion, almost ready to go in your Weber BBQ, or the oven.

Step 8:  The glaze

Get your bottle of Mint Sauce, of Mint Jelly, and cover your Lamb Explosion with as much minty goodness as you want.  Just make sure you get some on every surface, otherwise the bacon will burn.

Step 9:  Drop it in the oven, or onto your BBQ

If you are totally Aussie, and have an old school Webber BBQ (not the new Webber Q ones, but the real old school ones) just drop the Lamb Explosion in for about an hour and a half with the hood on.  If you are not as extremely Aussie, or just prefer to cook in the oven, put the Lamb Explosion onto the middle rack of your fan forced cooking machine.  You should have preheated the oven to 230c – as soon as you put the Lamb Explosion in, drop the oven temperature to 180c.

Step 10: Beer

At least one, if not two beers will be required to be consumed before progressing to the next step (it is for Australia Day after all!).  Having a round of totem tennis with your family is optional

Step 11: Reglaze every 30 minutes

A heap of mint sauce will now be surrounding the lamb explosion, mixing with all the lamb and bacon fat.  Get your spoon and reapply that glaze to the Lamb Explosion, ensuring you don’t miss out on any of the fatty minty goodness!

Step 12: Get it out of the oven or off the BBQ !

After about 90 minutes the Lamb Explosion will be perfectly cooked, with the mint sauce caramelised to give the dish a nice golden brown finish.  Take it off the heat and onto a chopping board ready to cut.  There is no need to rest the meat like they say on Master Chef, but if you are afraid of burning your fingers whilst cutting the dish, best leave it for a few minutes.

Slice the Lamb Explosion just like you would a meat loaf.  Make sure your friends gather around so they can see the unveiling of the beautiful lamb and yoghurt spirals

Step 13:  Eat it

Lamb Explosion is best served with cold beer, and someone else doing the dishes.

If you love the look of this recipe, make sure you become a fan of the Lamb Explosion on Facebook – and post your Lamb Explosion photos for the world to see!  If you really like it, feel free to buy me a carton of beer next time you see me.

Happy Australia Day!

PS.  If you ever do this yourself and take photos, make sure you get a waterproof case for your camera… my DSLR now smells like raw meat!

37:  If it is going to more than 10 people – send it to someone else to check before you unleash the message on the masses… two, three, four pairs of eyes are better than one.

and how about…

38:  If you want me to respond, put me on the To: line.  If you don’t want a response, CC: me please (actually you should just reconsider if need to read it at all!)

… you can read #1 – #36 of the Email Checklist over at Seth’s blog.

The other day I got an email inviting me to contribute to Brazen Careerist.  What is Brazen Careerist? In my words, it is basically a group of ‘younger folk’ like me who are passionate about their fields, and ready to change the game.

Or in their words…

What’s this site all about?
Remember those college career centers that you never used? You probably wish you had taken advantage of them (like we do), but now (maybe) it’s too late. Well that’s what we’re here for. We’re an online career center aimed at Generation Y — young professionals who want to design and define their careers using the new rules for success.

What’s a Brazen Careerist?
A Brazen Careerist knows that defining your own career, finding the right field, and pursuing it are key ingredients to a fulfilling life. Like the tag line suggests, when you define your career on your own terms first, you control your life.

Where are all the good bloggers?
Right here, of course. The Internet is loaded with talented writers, but there is no way to easily search for them. The Brazen Careerist network is made up of a vibrant, curious and ambitious group of career-minded bloggers, passionately covering a variety of fields: personal development, entrepreneurship, public relations, technology, marketing, and politics, each blog offers a unique, informed perspective to our ever-expanding audience.

So make sure you check out some of my new friends at BrazenCareerist.com  Check out my Brazen Careerist profile  and my articles here.

… was posted by Brian Clark on CopyBlogger this morning.  If you ever wanted to figure out how to increase conversions, whether you are a B2C or B2B marketer – check out this great collection of landing page resources.

As a marketer servicing a dozen or so internal customers… all with their ideas of what marketing is and what it should be… I am inspired to pull this one out of the bag every now and then.  Whether it is a campaign or a piece of copy… I think this would get my point across!

(From the Pacifica Group blog)

This is a true story.

Steve Cosmopulos is an old art director in Boston.
(Hill Holiday Connors & Cosmopulos was his for awhile.
It got too big and he left, but he left his name on the door.)
He’s a tough little fireplug of a high-school-educated Greek guy.
Always wears a tailored suit and tie.
Always.

He walks into a presentation.
Late.
Big conference table at client offices.
Everyone sitting expectantly.
Silence.
He has a duffel bag.
Sets the bag on his chair.
He doesn’t sit.
From out of the bag he pulls a board.
With a bed of 100 nails sticking up out of this board.
Sets it carefully on table.
Pulls out an aluminum frying pan.
One of those nonstick Silverstone jobs.
Silence.
Holds up frying pan.
Silence.
Slams it down as hard as he can on bed of nails.
Repeatedly.
Holds up frying pan.
Shows dings in bottom.
Silence.
Puts board back in bag.
Pulls out another identical board.
But this one with just one nail.
Puts it on table.
Silence.
Slams down the frying pan on the single nail.
Pries frying pan off nail.
Holds up frying pan.
Hole in bottom.
Shows it slowly to everyone.
Asks:
"Now how many copy points do you want to put in this ad?"

Proof that an art director named Stavros Cosmopulos is
THE PATRON SAINT OF MARTYRED COPYWRITERS.
This is not only a Boston legend, it’s a true story.
I asked him.

I am off to buy some nails now!

At the moment I am participating in a little experiment called "Use New Marketing to Prove New Marketing" (UNM2PNM) being run by Joseph Jaffe.

What is Joseph trying to achieve?  Apart from spreading his ideas and selling a few more copies of his book, ultimately it is about proving if this whole social media thing actually works, if it is measurable etc.  Pretty interesting stuff for a marketer like me.

Here is the deal – Joseph asks for people to participate (I put my hand up).  His publisher sends a copy of the book (free book for me!), I read it, write a review and post it online.  He gets link love, I get link love.  He gets free PR, I get a free book and a good read.  He gets rich, I get smarter (hopefully!).  Now that is new/social media at work.

My copy of Joseph Jaffe’s book "Join the Conversation" arrived at work yesterday (the one thing holding back society as we know it is the fact that it takes 4 weeks for stuff to ship from the US by snail mail!)… so it is time to hold up my end of the bargain.  Stay tuned for my review of the book, coming soon.

And if you are interested in reading the book – buy it here – proceeds are going to charity