I like the way you think Annie. And the way you eat.

Wonderful. That bacon looks so much better than anything you can buy.

~Ann

Sounds like my kind of food!!!

"-------Yeah, I know, that's gluten, high fat pork, too much salt in the bacon, probably cancer from something or another. I. Don't. Care. Oh, and I made homemade mayonnaise with raw eggs from my own hens. It was yummy and if I could have found one more substance that I could get lectured by someone about, I'd have added that too. ----"

Creosole from the bacon is gonna kill you! LOL!

Pork will be very expensive. Bad weather and pig disease is making pork a luxury food item this year.

dcarch

I'm so envious Annie! Having your own food supply is heaven. Everything looks delicious!

As DC said the price of pork (and beef) is skyrocketing this year. Our local news had butchers on, and they said that beef will double per lb, at least. Blech!

So people are cutting back on beef and eating more chicken and turkey........tada!! The price of THOSE will increase due to demand. Can't win.

How about...bacon mayonnaise!?!

Looks lovely, Annie!

Long ago we once toured an "urban commune" that was trying to show people that a family could be almost entirely sustained through a food garden, hen & rabbit raising, water conservation and solar energy, even in a major city with the usual 1/7 acre lot. These were radical ideas in the 1970's; it's funny to see people finally accept some of them.

While touring the place, a baby bunny got out and one of the workers was chasing after it. The bunny was so small, when I stuck my foot out, it stopped in its tracks. The worker thanked me, picked it up and put it back in its cage.

One woman on the tour whispered to another, "Oh, I could never kill and eat anything so cute!"

My DH asked me if I could do it. I replied, "Sure I could. You could too, if you got hungry enough. Remember, your father almost starved up in the hills when the Japanese invaded his home village in 1940, and shot one Chinese villager every day to get the resistance fighters to surrender."

Fortunately for us, we're strictly urban dwellers and only go hunting at our local Safeway! :) I get a real kick out of watching Andrew Zimmern/Bizarre Foods, though. Last night he was eating beaver chili and roast guinea pig. My parents were both farmers, and as soon as they could, they got as far away from the farm as possible, and never went back, LOL.

Annie, I sometimes look at things people make and say, "No one oughta eat that!" but your pictures show food (albeit some are ingredients). For people who are healthy, the most important thing is a varied diet. Bacon and eggs are the current darlings of the fine dining chefs. :) I'm not sure anyone should ever eat bacon cheesecake or battered twinkies deep fried in lard, or not more than a bite...

Your bacon, egg and asparagus in the lard (I assume) crusted pie looks wonderful. :)

Annie, I just love everything you do! Love those pictures and now I have a big craving for bacon.

My mother always said I should have been a farmer, and I would have if things hadn't gone the way they did. If I was 20 years younger and DH wasn't in such bad shape, I'd have followed that path.

Enjoy your life to the hilt and know you are living a lot of people's dreams.

You Rock!

Straight out of memories of my granddaddy's farm. At the time I didn't appreciate and grandma's efforts and talents. And I certainly didn't appreciate have to eat a piggy.

I wish I could go back to my childhood show appropriate appreciation.

Ah, but Cathy, you can show your appreciation. Just eat some piggy and think of Grandma and everything she taught you. She'll know.....

Madonna, I think some people are meant to be farmers. I'm happy just going to the farm, playing in the dirt, messing with my animals, building something. I go home tired and dirty and achy and it feels so.......GOOD, if that makes sense. I know others think I'm completely bonkers.
You can always come on up and play in the dirt with me, I got lots of dirt!

plllog, I agree, no one should really eat a deep fried Twinkie, but I'm on the fence about the bacon cheesecake. (grin) And that most definitely is a lard crust.

jkom, it's amazing what a person is capable of when they are hungry enough, isn't it? Actually, the reason I grow my own food is because I really, really like animals. If I didn't care about their health or their welfare or their treatment, I'd just buy grocery store meat. I have to admit, though, that the bunnies ARE awfully cute and fuzzy and that's why I don't raise them to eat. Yeah, I know, I'm soft. (sigh)

jasdip, I know the price of meat is going up. And up. The pigs are getting PED, new to the United States and they have no resistance to it. It's nearly 100% fatal to piglets and millions have already died. The beef herd is smaller than it's been since the 50s because of the ongoing drought in the West. I don't think it'll get better for a couple of years, unfortunately.

dcarch, if something is going to kill me, it might as well be bacon, LOL.

Ann T, I think I just get tired of hearing how we should all eat sprouted grains and air. I know some people only eat to live, but taking all the enjoyment out of the acts of cooking and eating isn't living. All things in moderation, of course, and that definitely includes moderation. The bacon is just the way I like it, with quite a lot of lean but enough fat to make it bacon, and an old fashioned cure and smoke that takes 3 weeks. It was worth the wait.

islay, I'm glad you approve, I've often thought that I'd like many of the things you post. The only thing missing is dessert. Any suggestions? :-)

Annie

>>dcarch, if something is going to kill me, it might as well be bacon, LOL.>>

I think that must be a motto for my DH !!

Hmm, dessert: we had the following on a recent Monterey/Carmel trip. This is from my review, which I write mostly because otherwise I don't remember from one trip to the next, what we ate!

Review: Montrio in Monterey, CA, April 2014
(excerpt) ..We chose the Bourbon Cake. Carlos was somewhat dubious about the "Pecan-Bacon Crisp", but the Spiced Pear Compote and Maple Ice Cream sounded like a good combination. We received a 1" high round white cake barely the size of a half-dollar -- as we said, these are genuinely petite dishes. The ice cream was just faintly flavored with maple, so it didn't overwhelm the genuine but also mild flavor of the bourbon in the petit-four-sized cake. The cake was a little dry, so the ice cream and compote moistened it up nicely. The compote was diced firm pears and golden raisins, heavily glazed and yet not super-sweet. DH detected a hint of ginger in the compote. The crisp turned out to be a generous sprinkling of finely ground cookie crumbs that again, offered only a whisper of bacon, so there was no objectionable smokiness and the slight saltiness also helped balance out the fruit compote.

It was the perfect size and intriguing enough that we really enjoyed dissecting the various flavors, all of which complemented one another with nothing overwhelming in any single aspect."

=========

There you are, Annie, dessert using bacon!

This is such a fun thread--I am glad that I read it. It does make me wonder if the moon is full though.

"------dcarch, if something is going to kill me, it might as well be bacon, LOL.----"

Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!

In the past couple of weeks, I entered into two separate cooking competitions sponsored by two different cooking forums.

I won both competitions! I used bacon for both entries.

dcarch

No fair, dcarch, we've got to know what the entries were, it's not nice to leave us hanging out here.

Betsey, welcome to the Cooking Forum where we often have lots of fun and usually cook, and some of us howl at the moon!

jkom, now you have me thinking about a pear/maple crisp with a sprinkle of bacon. I love pears and I love maple and I like bacon pretty much too..hmmmm......

Annie

"--No fair, dcarch, we've got to know what the entries were, it's not nice to leave us hanging out here.---"

I will post this weekend.

dcarch