There's toffee, and then there's BACON toffee.

Toffee is probably my favorite candy ever (but don't tell Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Trees or Cadbury Mini Eggs). Bacon is probably my favorite breakfast meat ever--no exceptions. So, when I came across THIS recipe on the bacon-clogged interwebs, I had to try it, and Thanksgiving was the perfect excuse. The combination of excessive sweetness and fattiness practically screams Thanksgiving!

15% repellant, 75% heaven:

To add to the spirit of excess, I also contributed chocolate-chip cookie dough truffles to our family dinner. They sound, look, and taste decadent, but are really simple to make--at least once you practice chocolate-dipping a bit. My suggestion? Get an extra tub of chocolate melting wafers so you don't have to toss the truffles around too much as you near the end of the chocolate. Here's my little "taste-testing" plate:

Because of my attention to quality, I make sure to check everything three times...well, assuming I like the first taste.

As if the caloric content of bacon toffee and chocolate-chip cookie dough truffles weren't enough, I also decided to add a fruity element with fresh cranberry fruit jellies. Something of a play on traditional canned cranberry sauce, THIS recipe makes super-sweet, lightly-gelled candies. The color is a gorgeous burgundy, and they taste absolutely fresh and fruity. Unfortunately, these ended up being too sweet for me, and I have a serious sweet tooth. They also didn't set up well, but I believe that's because I doubled the recipe without completely doubling the amount of liquid pectin. I really wish that I hadn't doubled it, as I was looking forward to cutting out individual jellies with my mini leaf cookie cutters! Even so, it was a fun experience to try the recipe out, and the cranberries and pears were absolutely gorgeous as they began to cook down: