Smile, it's bacon!

You have no idea (or maybe you do) how happy I am now that my home Internet connection is working again. It's amazing how dependent we can become on some of these things that were not even in the public mind 20 years ago.

I found this pic while purging old files on my computer, and it made me laugh just like it did when I first saw it. Then I thought that I shouldn't be selfish; I should share it with everyone else! My apologies to Stacy May -- I know you abhor bacon. But for those who are not among a defiant minority in a bacon-loving world, this pic is just priceless.

Hmmm . . . it makes me hungry just thinking about it. I think I'll have some bacon. Actually, I did have some bacon for breakfast the other day, along with eggs and an English muffin. I've started to enjoy life more by enjoying food more, and that morning provides an excellent example. I don't just scramble eggs; I toss in some black pepper, dill weed, and extra sharp cheddar cheese. If am making filling for a breakfast burrito, I'll also throw in some marjoram. And the English muffin I topped with butter (not the real thing -- I actually like the Smart Balance Light brand which is somewhat spreadable and supposedly "healthier" for you) along with cherry preserves. Mmm mmm good!

The other night I had another good example -- pizza with pepperoni and peaches! I know it sounds weird, but it was really good. For some time now I have known about pepperoni and pineapple on pizza. The sweet of the pineapple tames the spice of the pepperoni so that the flavors of the pizza come out together more instead of being overwhelmed by the pepperoni, which in reality has served to mask the shortcomings of many pizzas. The peaches did the same thing as the pineapple only not as much; the end result was a taming that left just a little kick in the pepperoni. It was really good.

I tried this on a frozen pizza. I usually take whatever I bake out halfway through the baking cycle so that I can turn it around. In my experience the back of the oven is usually a little hotter than the front, so I turn my item around halfway through for more even cooking. But this time I took the pie out of the oven so that I could add the diced peaches (which I took from a can of lite fruit cocktail). Then I stuck the pie back in the oven and let it finish its normal baking cycle, and voila! I know it sounds weird, but just like those roasted chicken flavored potato chips from my college days, this was actually really good!

As part of my continued effort to live more fully, I'll have to include more spotlights on good food and recipes in future posts. And lest anyone think that good taste means an increased waistline, I lost a total of 41 pounds last year on the Dr. Curtis Plan. I love eating what I want and still losing weight! Maybe I can go into more detail about this as well in a future post. For now, Tashi wants to play, and as every man knows, when the female says jump, the man just jumps. Plus she was upset with me the other night, but who can blame her? I left at 7 AM, got back at 9 PM, and didn't even call to let her know where I was or when I would be coming back. I didn't call of course because I didn't think that she would pick up, but that is obviously no excuse! I tried to make it up to her by buying her some new toys, and now part of my penance is to spend more quality time with her. So here I go. Woohoo!