Bacon Is Not Just for Guys

Bacon, bacon, oh bacon, how do I love thee! (You should be hearing a happy, lilting, tune in your head.) The un-kept secret is out: I LOVE bacon. I just finished cooking a whole bunch of bacon. (Note to self: bacon is HOT right when it comes out of the skillet.)  Which is why you can see flecks of bacon in today's brekkie:

You might also be able to see the thin slices of cheddar cheese coyly poking out of the side of the Eggbeaters.

I don't normally buy bacon, because it's a pain to cook -- and then I eat too much! I have found the pre-cooked bacon to be good in that I can use just one strip for an omelette and put the rest back into the fridge. But that stuff's expensive! 

So I merrily cooked up the rest of the half pound pack. It didn't look happy uncooked in the fridge. In fact, horror of horrors, it looked like it might turn. (Or become "off" in some people's parlance.)  So I rescued the bacon by cooking it.

Which brings me to my next problem: the ton of bacon grease.  What do you DO with it? Now that I'm cooking "healthy," (that drives me crazy! It should be "healthfully!" but I sometimes go with the flow 10 or 15 years later in grammatical terms) I have very few leftover cans. And ... we are recycling cans and bottles and they must be clear of sludge.

So my solution is to let it congeal in the skillet and mop it out with paper towel and toss it.  Aye, and there's another of my conundrums. If we want trash/garbage to decompose, why the flock are we putting them in plastic bags which will not decompose for a hundred years?  Why don't we have kitchen sized trash bags made out of wax paper? Or starch? 

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Yeah, yeah, I know: I'm always showing you pictures of food. What can I say? This was last week's breakfast, but the real reason for the picture is to show you the cookies.

I should have taken a better picture ... anyway these are low carb chocolate-coconut cookies and they were great! Emily didn't think they were sweet enough, so I added sugar free frosting. They were even better! The ingredients include Swerve (artificial sweetener), unsweetened shredded coconut, coconut flour, etc.

The recipe is probably from the blog called "All I Think About Is Food" by Carol Ketchum. I have gotten some really good savory recipes from two of Maria Emmerich's cook books. 

Low carbohydrate eating has been quite an odyssey for me. Most of you  know that I have struggled with obesity for all of my life. But now that I am no longer in denial and can say, 'I have diabetes,' I have decided to do something about it. I went to a doctor who specializes in diabetes (who used to be my general practitioner) and she gave me new medication and a new determination to be proactive.

So while I am not fanatical about counting carbs, I try very hard to ingest the lowest amount possible. I'm also testing my blood sugar three times a day so I have a very good indicator of when I goofed on what I ate.

I am worried when people congratulate me -- I have lost 32 pounds -- because I know how easy it is for me to blow it. Right now, I'm in one of those plateaus which is very hard. It's obviously time for me to go and tread water in the pool and maybe add some bicycle.

Anyway, all of this is to say, I'm finding and trying many low carb sweet recipes because I don't want to deny so many foods that I go back to unhealthful eating. Today, by the way, I am going to make cauliflower "bread" come hell or high water.  I had great success making parmesan cheese crisps last night!

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I have been remiss.

Here's our Merry Maple taken from my car. It's on the Town Common and it really is very pretty.

And here's my window. The Children's Room decorated three windows which chart the travels of little owls on a journey by land and by sea. And they ended up at the Jones Library! (That's my office.)

Yes, that is a dinosaur on the left. No, Cyndi, it's not a squirrel. I sure hope the dinosaur isn't me, but I think it's one of the owl's buddies.

And, yesterday, I came in to work to find this:

I have a new glass owl! I love him; Sharon gave him to me for Christmas! Joe (my gardener) told me it's an immature snowy owl -- before all of its feathers go white. And they have gold eyes ... who knew?

And the rest of today's pictures.

You're right, I should iron the table runner. After I made it, I had packed it away. Look at the cute cat opening a present that Ann made.

My glass collection has moved into Christmas mode. See the teezel? It's the critter on the left with the green hat. It's another Ann creation.

And, no, you are not seeing snow outside. It was chilly -- about 37 F. -- but really windy. It's now down to 32.3 F. (Yes, Al, I still have my digital thermometer. Those hundredths of a degree are important!)

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More from the I Have Been Remiss department:

On Dec. 6th, I went to hear a talk at the Unitarian Society building. It was called Emily Dickinson's Irish Servants: The Poet and the Maids by Anna Mundow who is a reviewer for Barnes and Noble.  It was hosted by the Amherst Irish Association.  The talk was fantastic. I learned a lot about life "downstairs" then. Actually, most of the household help lived in their own houses and did not live on site. I can't imagine how early they had to get there to crank up the stoves and fireplaces. The talk was wonderful and very informative.

Afterward, there were home made scones, pots of jam, and (of course) good tea with cream and sugar. I had some wonderful black bread with a texture that made me think there were groats in it. It was good with sweet butter!

Oh, did I mention that there were musicians to entertain while you enjoyed your scone?

I was made to feel very welcome and I will definitely go to future talks. Their schedule is here: http://amherstirish.org/. A donation is welcome, but the program was free!

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Seen on the way to the Unitarian building:

 This structure above is hiding commercial trash cans. I like the sneakers!

Opposite the sneakers is the side of Rao's Coffee Shop. Robert Frost is in the middle, Emily Dickinson on the right. I am embarrassed to say that I have no idea who is on the left.

This is my Tiffany window which is on the front of the Unitarian Society's building.  I call it mine because it was restored with public funds (Community Preservation Act Committee funds).

And even though I walked around the building a couple of times, I found the way in, which is behind this bench. I like the leaf pattern, do you? (Thanks, Sam, for waving me in.)