Monthly Archives: September 2010
Bring Home the Bacon
I convinced myself for years that I do not like whole milk and I do not eat bacon. Guys…if there are guys out there reading this blog…you will never understand, but the women know what I am talking about. Then, when I was pregnant with my first child it hit me..whole milk tastes like liquid ice cream and I *heart* bacon.
This new found love of bacon is something that I share not only with the bacon masters a.k.a. my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Steve, but with the aforementioned first son.
Not only do I love to eat bacon, I really love to cook with bacon. My Grandma Brown always told me that you can fix anything with whipping cream or gravy. I will tell my grandchildren, “You can fix anything with bacon or bacon grease.” Seriously, you can.
I posted a year or so ago about these amazing Fried Green Tomato BLT sandwiches. UMMMMMMMMMM! Now, I have improved them. You cook the bacon first and then fry the tomatoes in the remaining bacon grease. I will never fry without it again.
My mom always loved a good Wilted Spinach Salad. Why not, wilt the spinach with bacon grease? Try this recipe…..Warm Spinach Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Pecans. I have made it and I will tell you it is amazing.
Several years ago my bacon loving Aunt and Uncle introduced me to the Two Fat Ladies cooking show. They take the love and use of bacon to a whole new level. Every time I get that excitement in my heart at just the smell of bacon think of these women and their passion. “When was the last way I felt this way?” you ask. Vancouver when we went to the amazing restaurant that served “Bacon Fried Rice”. It was like I had died and gone to heaven. It was as good as it sounds.
So, ladies, if you share the guilt of this little guilty pleasure you must check out Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright and Jennifer Mary Paterson.
Finally, if you find yourself needing some bacon and you have “forgotten” how to prepare it The Art of Manliness has some great tips…..or just call Uncle Steve.
So, Law Man….you Bring Home the Bacon and I will take care of the rest! 
In the Works….A Shawl
I love to knit lace. It is very cathartic for me. It is involves just enough through that I have to block most other thoughts out. I also love shawls. I guess it is the grandma that hides inside of me. I will say that it is a bit ironic that I like shawls since I am ALWAYS hot. But when it is cool enough for a shawl, you can bet I will have one one me.
I knit this shawl a couple of years ago for a firm event that I went to with Law Man. I decided that it would be fun to wear something that I made to this very formal event. I was right….it was very fun.
Fast forward a couple of years and I was fondling yarn at Victory Ranch and decided I needed to make myself a shawl out of their Alpaca. I had this book with this pattern so I bought this yarn.
(Do you see the mistake? It is right between my fingers. This was just before “weighted it down and frogged back to a pearl row and picked up stitches with a smaller needle”….to fix the mistake….and it worked.)
Then, I read this blog and I was really inspired to get started. I started, I frogged, I started, I frogged…..and well…..I am going now. I hope to get it finished before fall is over.
I *heart* alone time
I first saw this video on Piper of Love. I started reading her blog because she was a fellow OKC resident. Then, a few months into my reading, she had a major life change. I have since been awestruck about how honest she is with her grief. I often wish I could be this honest, but I guess I was just more concerned about being the “gray cloud” in people’s lives more than I felt compelled to grieve. So, I grieve in my alone time and when there is not enough…….my cup runneth over, you could say.
Sometimes you just have to tell it how it is!!!
Have you ever sat down to write an e-mail to say I’m sorry? I had to do this recently and I found the process character building to say the least. My only goal(s) to say “I am sorry” and to only say the honest truth.
How was this character building? I typed, erased, typed, erased, typed, erased. I could not believe how many times I made excuses for myself, minimized the wrong, and recounted the situation a little differently than what really happened. But, I ended up with an end result I am proud to have written.
I have been encouraged and inspired by several fellow bloggers and their willingness to be honest. So…..I have an Honest Blog Award I want to hand out to the following blogs. It is not that hard to just hang out all of your dirty laundry for all to see. However, these two women eloquently describe the ups and downs of life in such a sincere way. This….I think is much more difficult. Who would you give an Honest Blog Award to???? Go ahead, do it, they deserve it.
Alice Harn Park
I think I can say with confidence….the party was a success. It took a lot of planning and a lot of help, but it happened and everyone had so much fun. The only regret….I was too busy to get all of the pictures I wanted.
My guess is that there were over 200 adults throughout the evening and well over 100 kids.
We had a great turn out for the art show. Twelve people from the age of 3 to much older participated. We had so many people bring art that we ended up using a favorite climbing tree as a display easel.
The food and beer was amazing. Darcy and Leslie out did themselves. I heard nothing but good things and it lasted most of the night. The craft beer was also a huge success. It was a bit of a challenge for Law Man to move the giant kegs soaking in ice, but I was able to beautify them with some vintage table cloths.Â
The Coop Ale Works peeps were not there because they were knocking them dead at the Great American Beer Festival. The report was that everyone loved the DNR and the IPA….both of which were featured at the Harn Park Event.
Loose Change was amazing. Everyone loved them and they were such troopers when we couldn’t get the power going until 5 minutes before the beginning of the party. ***Note: when you have an event in a park…..things do not always work properly.
My amazing neighbor fixed the power issue. We rewarded him with a “big boy cup”. BIG MISTAKE!!!
Games of all kinds…..with the exception of video games….were enjoyed by all.
Brandi Parks…..a local artist, painted the park as the event happened. The painting turned out beautiful, everyone loved watching her work and it was auctioned off by silent auction at the end of the evening.
It was such a laid back evening….everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. If you look close at the pictures, you can see the vintage table clothes. That made the whole evening for me. They were collected from a couple of neighbors and my aunt and her amazing collection.
When it was over, it was over. The sun went down and well……it was dark.
