Since I am all about the confessions today, I may as well own up to one of my other HUGE faults...I don't share my favorite foods very well...and I never have. Yes, I will pull the normal adult-humans-trying-to-justify-their-faults card, and say it's a result of being one of six kids in a large family whose special food treats in life were far and few between. At least that's how this little kid perceived the situation and I'm really not exaggerating all that much when I say we had very little bacon in our house as we were growing up.
Along with being deprived of some of my other favorite foods like fried chicken, chocolate, nuts and hard cheese...bacon did not become my secret lover until I was an adult and found my own way through the grocery store and began to pay for the food that I ate. Not only was bacon a bit on the expensive side for the quantity that I chose to eat, it was pretty darn messy to cook and I've never been very fond of cleaning up greasy pans in the kitchen. Then came the invention of the microwave that allowed you to cook bacon with no fuss and no muss on a paper plate with paper towels to soak up the grease. Guess what, I went right out and bought me one of those new fangled $780 bacon cooking machines and quickly became addicted to the crunchy, salty flavor of my favorite form of pig...and so the affair began. You may be thinking, holy crap...who in their right mind pays that much money for a microwave (it was 1979 and that thing weighed 75lbs and was a huge monstrosity at 30x20), however, we had no choice of models at the PX in Germany, so we put one on lay-a-way, and paid it off just about the same time we took Stacey home from the hospital.
This paid for itself many times over and still worked when we moved on to a smaller more powerful model many years later--I loved my first microwave!
What new mom doesn't need a time saving appliance to help around the kitchen? My daughter-in-law Taryn's favorite coffee maker crapped out the day she brought Hopper home, and has since been making due with daily runs to the Starbucks around the corner.
So where was I.....oh yeah, me and bacon...I LOVED IT, I ATE IT....and then I found out all that fat was not good for me....HUH????? Now that's just not fair :(. I did indulge throughout our child-rearing years, but kept my lusting ways under wraps for the most part. And being someone who was always conscious of eating healthy, I denied myself the pleasure of delicious bacon for years. Flash forward to 2000 when we moved to Florida and reintroduced ourselves to the world of cruising and the much-loved idea of breakfast buffets. Although I almost always abstained at home, I allowed myself the treat while on vacation and was in heaven every single morning of each cruise, as I gazed longingly at those huge piles of crispy all-you-can-eat bacon....and I DID, at every opportunity. Just imagine how much fun I had on our transatlantic cruises with 12 mornings in a row of heaping plates of my favorite breakfast food. I'd run up to the buffet early, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, to fill up a plate and take it back to the cabin to enjoy out on the balcony, while I watched the miles of Atlantic Ocean disappear behind the ship.
Just me and my bacon making memories to last a lifetime...in case you are wondering, the subterfuge began many years ago on that very first cruise ship when I would leave a sleeping husband behind in the cabin as I'd make my way through the buffet line. He was never the wiser and often times I'd join him later in the morning for a second breakfast with yet another serving of....you guessed it....bacon :)
Interestingly enough, even with such an abnormally large consumption of bacon over the course of each of our cruises, all that extra fat didn't seem to be causing me to gain weight. Could the nutritional researchers and the government have been wrong all along...was bacon and animal fat good for you???? Here I had been denying myself all these years and come to find out, I really didn't have to skimp on the bacon servings. As the honor bound consumer that I am, I've made up for lost years of eating my beloved bacon and cook it now at every opportunity.
Some mornings I eat traditional bacon and eggs with my own personal twist by adding greens
Apparently I've passed my love of bacon to our children, in particular my son and I share our passion for finding organic, humanly raised pigs to source our bacon. I love bacon at any time of day, and have been known to wrap it up with some avocado in a lettuce leaf for a quick snack. In most instances for Brian, it's a breakfast choice, and the bacon fat left over in the pan is a prized possession set aside for cooking later in the day. Yes, he is a good cook and appears to enjoy preparing food and taking a turn in the kitchen to feed his family. Stacey loves to cook and is also extremely comfortable and competent in the kitchen, but that's a story for another day.
Now that I have finally opened up the door to introduce you to my "hidden" secret, I thought you might be interested in seeing first hand, my morning ritual of "loving/cooking and eating the pork"
Whole Foods in a pinch when I'm out of Amos' good farm fresh pork--thank goodness on Monday we fill up the freezer again!
Brian introduced me to this thick variety
I like to chop it, cooks easier in the pan
A seasoned cast iron frying pan...nothing better
Spatter shield...always important!
My favorite green to cook up with bacon...it gets just as crispy as the bacon if you find the right variety
Chopped up into bite size pieces
The bacon is almost done...
Snap crackle and pop--the water in the Kale reacts to the hot grease
And it's quickly fried up and ready to eat
Time for breakfast!!!
So when you are thinking about cooking up a yummy meal any time of the day...just remember...bacon in the morning...bacon in the evening...bacon at suppertime...it's all good!
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