THIS WEEK'S BACON is not from the belly of the beast, but rather the jowl (cheek)! Daughter Jennifer brought it up from the city last weekend and I just make it up. Placing the cold pieces on the room-temperature griddle was a bit like putting a bacon jigsaw puzzle together. As opposed to the 'dress right, dress' approach to making bacon popularized by Oscar Mayer and others, the jowl is an irregular shape and doesn't lend itself to straight stippage.
The package was attractive, and I've had other bacon from The Smoking Goose, and it was good. Eager with anticipation, the bacon sizzled on the 'cue. I stepped away for a moment and it got a little overcooked, but was outstanding nonetheless.
As an encore, I did fry up some of my leftover Oscar, and as you can see, it was quite regularly shaped. Lined up perfectly.
And I conclude with the Oscar and the Jowl on the same plate. Reminds me of the fact that Army can march; Navy, on the other hand, is quite 'irregular' on the parade field (or the field of the Army/Navy football game). We'll beat them this year, December 12 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philly. The below image came up with a cursory google search for "Army Navy march on comparison". There are many. We always seem to say "At least we won the march-on" - Army on left, Navy on right.
WHY DO WE LOVE BACON? Some of you know that I'm a big fan of Simon Sinek and his communicaitons philosophy of "Start With Why". If you don't know Simon or heard of this approach, I encourage you to watch his TED talk. VERY POWERFUL stuff. In the same vein, ever wonder WHY you love bacon so much? This article tells you why. A brief excerpt below. I wish I knew what the "volitile organic compounds" are. Maybe I should have paid more attention in Organic Chemistry class:
"When bacon is heated, fats melt and sugar and amino acids have a very unique chemical reaction..."This specific reaction releases a medley of around 150 volatile organic compounds from the bacon which float through the air and create the amazing smell, ultimately stimulating your mouthwatering response."The article ends with the age old adage, "As with all things tasty, moderation is the key." Nonsense. My Navy Seal friends tell me "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing." Plus, bacon has GOOD fats; just read this.
HUFFINGTON POST LOVES BACON and one of these days I'll have to chronicle how many times they've written about it. In fact, I just did a Google search with the terms "Huffington Post" +bacon, and came up with About 1,070,000 results
This week, they blog that the best way to make bacon is to bake it! NOT. There's probably no bad way to make bacon. But I'm not in agreement with this article.
THE LAKE BLUFF, ILLINOIS PARADE was incredible - their 106th annual. At least four solid marching bands, schools, politicians and everything you could ask for. Two hours. And drinks at my favorite local restaurant, Inovasi. Proprieter John (left) and hostess (and much more) Abby (right) worked the bar with two of their friends, and a great time was had by all. I've written about Inovasi before. Great place, food, ambience, service - go there!
ATTENDED THE AWESOME LAKE FOREST FIREWORKS LAST NIGHT to celebrate our nation's independence. Had all five of my children and one boyfriend with us, it was great!
Jack, Cait, Sam, Jill, Jen, and Matt
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