My Life With Bacon

 My Life with Bacon continues... I was reminded that I haven't blogged about bacon in quite a while. So, given my year+ journey into Artificial Intelligence, and having taken a great course from Vanderbilt on Prompt Engineering, I did the unthinkable: I asked Google Deep Mind to do an analysis for me about the health risks of consuming bacon. Here's what it came up with. Take it with a grain of salt and a slice of bacon. Plenty of links to explore. Just wait for my next post in a day or so!! I've italicized and bolded with highlights the parts I thought were the most interesting.  And I've underlined my comments. And yes, I was interviewed on NPR in 2017. Enjoy: Key Points - Research suggests bacon consumption is linked to increased cancer and heart disease risks. - It seems likely that nitrates in bacon form harmful compounds, unlike in vegetables. - The evidence leans toward limiting bacon due to high saturated fat and sodium content. - Controversy exists on risk magn...

MY LIFE WITH BACON  continues! February 26, 2013 was the date of my first post in this blog. Ten years ago this past February. Time flies! During that time I've reviewed lots of different bacons from around the country, visited numerous bacon-fests, gave a presentation at Zingerman's Camp Bacon, and reported on many crimes involving bacon. Bacon will continue to be the theme here, but with the addition of Health & Fitness , as well as  sprinklings of Stoic Philosophy throughout my posts. And of course, I will report on crimes involving bacon. TODAY'S CRIME STORY . This one is pretty dumb. A 'career' criminal (anyone with more than three or four convictions for theft qualifies) gets arrested for stealing 'multiple packs of bacon' is currently held on a $10,000 bond in the Wichita County Jail. If this were Chicago, San Francisco, or LA, I don't think she'd even be arrested. It's interesting how criminal behaviors are enforced and treated diffe...

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues after a VERY LONG HIATUS with a quick review of more crimes involving bacon . I'm not talking about the Bacon crime family (a family of people whose last name is "Bacon"), although that's a very interesting topic. I'm talking about crimes that have to do with the improper use of bacon. The only proper use of bacon is for eating! I've written a bunch of posts about bacon crimes, and even spoke at Zingerman's Camp Bacon ! (Here's an article about it , and here's my full presentation , which includes a fun video of a perpetrator throwing bacon at the cops, while calling them pigs.) Subscribers take note: the next post, and those going forward, will be different.  Different. McDonald's Cook Arrested: So here we go: a cook at McDonald's (one of my favorite Quick Serve Restaurants) decided to eat the bacon. Eat the bacon she cooked. All the time. Her manager had a small issue with that. Aside from the unsanitary n...

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with an excellent Lifehacker post on why you should save all your bacon grease, and ends with some bacon in the news. SAVE YOUR BACON DRIPPINGS! I've been doing it for years. Here's why: it's excellent to cook with. Imparts incredible flavor. Fry bread in it for your egg sandwich. Fry the eggs in it. It's called "Eating Trash With Claire"... you'll have to put up with a commercial first, but worth watching! BACON BUTTER. Yum. Nice mayo recipe.  Link . I have a large bacon dripping jar in the fridge. DOUBLE CRISP YOUR BACON : Read this interesting article about a restaurant in Austin, TX called Joe's Bakery (nice name). They lightly coat their bacon on both sides with flour, and then fry it normally in a pan. Link . On the menu there, this is the Joey Rocha plate, which includes Two eggs any style served with pork carne guisada, potatoes, beans, sausage, or bacon and two tortillas. The place is pretty nondescrip...

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with a visit to Wright's BBQ in Fayetteville a few months ago. Sorry, I'm just getting around to posting this. Lots of backlog material in the queue. THIS PLACE IS THE BOMB . Outstanding BBQ. On the plate you can see some brisket, ribs, tips and of course, there was also BACON. Highly recommended location; real hand-crafted smoked BBQ on site; if in Walmart-land, stop by. BACON IN THE NEWS There are LOTS of bacon stories out there. Just two interesting ones : KOSHER BACON possible? Maybe, according to Rabbi Gavriel Price of the Orthodox Union. He's in charge of determining if 'clean meat' could be turned into bacon."Clean meat' is not really meat; it's grown in a lab. The "Impossible Burger" is in this category; not really meat, but tastes like it. Interesting article . Some lab meat in a test tube above. SUBWAY CUSTOMER MAD ABOUT UNDERCOOKED BACON : Yeah, I hate undercooked bacon too, but it...

MY LIFE WITH BACON CONTINUES this week with a visit on my wedding anniversary to a new place in Highwood: Greenwood. The site of an old bowling alley, Greenwood is naturally a complete makeover. And the interior wood paneling is actually greenish. It was very busy on Saturday night, but the noise was not overwhelming. Our server Sarah and her able assistant-in-training, Matt, were very attentive and even watched me do a bar trick (with which they will make lots of money). The meal was excellent and very reasonably priced. Owner and head chef Mark Newman came out to visit when I asked where the bacon came from. Turns out that it's from the North Country Smoke House in New Hampshire! I was given some of this bacon as a gift in the past from my friend Bob at NEPS , and it was excellent. You can find my evaluation in the archives. For my main course, I ordered the skirt steak, and in an attempt to go low carb, I did not want the potatoes; instead  I ordered a brussels sprout...

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with an old tweet by a justice and a new twist, and a new location for Bar Bacon. BACON IN THE NEWS Aside from Kevin Bacon being selected for a new   Tremors reboot pilot , it appears that bacon has made it to Congressional testimony this week. Interesting article in Business Insider: " Patrick Leahy, a top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday questioned a federal judgeship nominee's ability to interpret Supreme Court precedent over a tweet about wanting a constitutional right to marry bacon." Back in 2015, Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett tweeted a satirical comment, basically saying that same-sex marriage was a slippery slope and that he'd support marrying his bacon.  Funny - if you look at the tweet, 76 people "loved" it at that point in time. This is pretty funny, and reminiscent of the young man in the UK (about whom I've written previously) who changed his name to "Bacon Do...