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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Ode to Bacon

Bacon in the morning,
Bacon at noon.
Bacon is so good
He sends me to the moon.
*With sincere apologies to my many friends and family members who do not eat pork on moral or religious grounds.  Truly.
I don’t eat bacon every day, nor every week.

Most months I do eat some bacon either on its own or as seasoning, especially in soup.  

I’m not addicted to bacon; I can give him up, er, it up, any time I want!

Yeah, right.

I never eat bacon on a burger, never eat ersatz/turkey/soy bacon, never eat “bacon bits.” If these are some of your favorites, this blog is a safe place—I do not judge you.

I can’t eat more than three strips of bacon per day, or it triggers a migraine. No, really. Helps give bacon that dangerous edge, no?

Yet bacon is one of those foods I don’t want to live without.

Bacon and I go back as far as I can remember… it was a sunny spring morning, and Bacon and I were racing to each other across a meadow of daisies…

Or was it a glittering nightclub in Harlem, in 1924, when I saw him dancing in another woman’s arms, and yet I knew…

Or was it that day in the market in Barcelona, when he looked up from under the brim of his Cordobés, with a dimpled smile of destiny?


Whenever it was, Bacon and I became lovers.


Much later, after Bacon and I smoked a cigarette, I made soup.

Almost every soup in my repertory (yes, I am a soup maven) includes at the onset two strips of bacon and a diced onion, browning in the bottom of a stock pot. By the time the soup is complete, you barely know the bacon is in there.

The bacon flavor is elusive, adding a depth of flavor to the star of the soup: the mushrooms in Cream of Mushroom, the potatoes in Potato/Cheddar cheese soup, or the clams in Manhattan Clam Chowder.

The aroma of bacon cooking is why, although a confirmed animal lover and kitty foster mother, I may never be a vegetarian.

If you fry bacon in my house and I don’t come to investigate, you know I am extremely ill. Quite likely, dead.

Bacon will mourn. Comfort him any way you can.

6 comments:

  1. You, madam, are inside my head. I have a saying, and my family will back me up, "There are few recipes that are not improved by the addition of bacon and garlic."

    "The aroma of bacon cooking is why, although a confirmed animal lover and kitty foster mother, I may never be a vegetarian."

    I hear you!

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  2. Bacon does make everything taste better. Well, almost everything - I haven't been brave enough to try bacon ice cream yet. We might have to grill up a couple-few strips for supper tonight, though.... Yum!

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  3. SLR: How could I forget my friend Garlic? He is also always in the bottom of the soup pot, with Bacon.
    Jane: Bacon says to say "hi."
    Desi: I love bacon and breakfast food in general for supper! So hard to stay under my 3-strip limit, though.

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  4. I think my son would change his name to Hewholovesbacon if he could. He'd eat it every day, at every meal.

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  5. Ha-ha! I did a Wordle of my blog today and the two biggest words on it were Bacon and Bacon!

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