No pictures because we've all seen pig candy anyway, but I have to tell the story!
A few months back, Art (ACW3) gave me a jar of Super Pig. Then, at a contest we both judged in November, he gave me a sample of some chocolate covered pig candy he'd created. Awesome! Trouble is, I'm a low carbohydrate eater by necessity and can't often venture into doctoring up my bacon at the expense of my glucose level. So, I hung onto the Super Pig waiting for the right opportunity thinking the Christmas season would be good timing.
Well, I was right about the season but the audience wasn't the one I'd planned. I figured I'd probably make a batch of pig candy for family consumption along with all the other goodies that land on our table at this time of year. Not quite the right scenario as it turns out . . .
One of my "extracurricular" activities in my (doing what I've always wanted to do but never could becaue I was on the road all the time) retirement is being part of a crew that teaches Purpose Driven Life classes at the local prison. At Christmas, we are allowed to bring home-made desserts to the inmates. Long story short, I made pig candy. To be exact, chocolate-enhanced pig candy ala Art's sample provided earlier.
The way this is supposed to work is we have a little "dessert time" prior to the lesson and discussion. On the table for the group (27 inmates and 5 teachers) were huge peach, apple, and cherry cobblers, buckets of ice cream, tubs of brownies and cookies, and my foil pan full of pig candy bits (it took six pounds of bacon to produce enough for the group). Generally, everyone eats and we quickly get on with the lesson.
However, discussion hovered around and came back to the subject of pig candy instead of staying on life direction, as intended. Pig candy proved to be a major distraction to the evening's usual direction. Everyone (teachers and inmates) wanted to know its composition and manufacture details. Several references were made to its addictive qualities (bear in mind that some of the inmates have addiction problems, of course). I wound up verbally providing the recipe and even got in a plug of sorts for Super Pig although the audience isn't exactly able to rush out and buy it!
I guess this story could have several morals if I wanted to put an Aesop-ese angle to it, but as most of us who participate on LTBBQ already know, food (particularly the kind we fix outdoors) makes friends. There are now 27 more pig candy addicts out there!
Merry Christmas . . .
Hub
