Recipe Time: BACON... How I love thee...

So, I have a confession... I love bacon.

Bacon is about the best thing on this earth for me... besides coffee... but if I could eat bacon at every meal, every day of my life... (AND NOT have a coronary) I probably would.

Here's the thing. I HATE when it splatters on me, and I have way to many bacon grease burns to even go into.

I have friends who have put bacon in the over to cook it.  I never tried. WHY? I likes my bacon crunchy and very well done and I just couldn't understand how it could get that yummo in the oven.

Then, I tried to make it on my own.  EPIC FAIL.  I put the bacon onto a pan and well.... when it was done it stuck to the pan. I wanted to try it, so I had to use my finger nails and chip if off the pan.

So then... I figured it out... what I needed.  Why didn't I think of that first!  So I set out to make my bacon.

This specific blog post is for my sweet and loving brother in law, Scott.  I wanted to show him that YES... bacon in the over is just as good... OR BETTER than on the stove top.

Ingredients:
Bacon, bacon, and wait... more bacon (I tend to use the Farmland low sodium but this time I had the thick stuff)
Parchment paper


Yep.  That is it.  NO special sauce, pepper... or anything.  Just your bacon and parchment paper.






Directions:

Heat your oven to 400 degrees

Place a sheet of parchment paper on the baking pan (with sides)

Place bacon on top of parchment paper


Once oven is heated, place pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes

Remove bacon and let cook on paper towels.

Eat the damn bacon.

 

 

 

That is it. YUMMO. Have a fantastic Wednesday!!

I.HATE... I mean REALLY, RELLY HATE----

I absolutely hate cancer.

I mean, I don't know anyone who really LOVES cancer.... Most of us hate it.  I hate that this disease can take away a loved one in a matter of months... days... years...

I hate the fact that there isn't a "one cure fits all cancers" out there.  I HATE the fact that cancer metastasizes differently in everyone.... so what may work as a cure for some won't work as a cure for others.

I hate that I lost four loved ones in the past year... and more than I can count on two hands in my lifetime.  I am just ONE person.

I think pretty much everyone we know has been touched by this dreadful word... cancer... Either you have been diagnosed with it, your loved one has, your friend has, your co-worker has...  maybe you are a caregiver to someone who has heard those three horrible words... "YOU have cancer."
 I want to shout from the rooftops and tell cancer to bleep the bleep off... but I can't.  You see, it cannot hear me.  It cannot emote and express it's opinion and tell  me how it is NOT FAIR that I center my hate around it... but it can attack.  So how do I fight back?

I am just ONE person...

I am just ONE person in a town of thousands.  How can I make a difference?

I am just ONE person who lost another friend to cancer today.  When I was younger, this nice lady at church would always smile at me, and hug me.  She always asked how I was doing.  She was always there when I needed just a hug, and with no questions.  She was a greeter at my church, and even on the coldest days, she would stand outside in the Iowa winter and shake a hand, give a hug... be there for anyone who needed some unconditional love.  She was a woman who loved me when I was alone, single... a mother of an infant.  While others may have shunned me for having a child out of wedlock (and it was my second child, my son was from my first marriage), she loved me. When my children came with me to church service instead of Sunday school, she loved on them and told them how important they were. She was a natural soprano I, in which I was extremely jealous... lol,  when she sang in her high register, instead of the tone being tinny.... it was thin... strong, and powerful.  Kinda like her.  That is it, her voice was just like her; thin, strong, and powerful. She sent me notes, told me I was on the right track.. I will NEVER know how she had my address, but she did. And every few weeks, there would be a love letter in the mail to me from Mrs. R.  She made such a difference in my life... more than a difference, she made me feel like I was important in the eyes of my family, and God. Even though I know she is in a much better place... I know she is in heaven, I mourn her departure from this earth, and I know I will see her again.  I just wasn't ready to say good-by yet. And I don't know if we ever are really ready to say good-by to those we care about...

 She fought.... and she fought hard. 

So why can't I? I mean, I have two working feet, a cancer free body (thank GOD for technology and me finally wising up).... What can I do?

I am just ONE person...

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with the fact that I am just ONE person, I forget there are a lot of ONE persons out there. People like me, with their own cancer story to share.  Whether it is one of surviving, like sweet Dawn (YOU GIRL are an inspiration), or one of caregiving.... God bless oncology nurses... my mother is one and what you do every day I cannot imagine doing.  Or maybe you, like me, have lost one too many family members... lost one too many friends... There are a lot of US out there.

I am just ONE person... with a dream of a cancer free world. 

I started walking in Relay for Life after my mother in law (my ex-husband's mother and one of the most amazing women I have ever known) was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.  I continue to walk, and raise money for American Cancer Society in her honor, my way of giving back to a woman who was taken from us too early, because of cancer.

So, I am going to turn my ONE person journey and invite others to walk with me.  You can walk in spirit, you can come out in June to walk beside me.  Help me make this ONE person--- ONE HUNDRED....

Relay started with ONE man... who ran ONE night.... for ONE cause.  Dr. Gordy Klatt...

Why can't we continue his dream? I am going to turn my anger, my sadness...into action...

I will celebrate the time I had with them and the life I have. 

I will remember with honor those whose lives were ended early because they heard three little words too late... "You have cancer."

I will fight back for those who can't. 

I will fight so that my kids will never have to know what it is like to hear those words, ever.

Big Win!

The Superbowl was pretty good this year. 

There were no wardrobe malfunctions during the halftime show (but how you could have a wardrobe malfunction with very little clothing? HAHA).... The teams played a solid game that kept me on the edge of my seat... the power went out at the stadium (how does that even happen?)... AND the commercials were pretty good except for a few.

Big win goes to all of the writers for every commercial aired.  I loved the Coca-Cola commercials with the "race" , the viva mas  Taco Bell commercials (come on, nothing cuter than 80-somethings partying and carrying on like that) but my most favorite was the Dodge commercial.

There was one where we all reacted with a huge, "EWWWWWWWWWWW, GROOOOOOSSSSS!!!!" with the rest of America... Thank you Go Daddy for your horrible on air kiss. Maybe MTV will give you the worst.kiss.ever. award.  I mean it was pretty gross but it got my attention. And any attention is better than none, right?

How many of you watched the Superbowl and you can remember the Go Daddy commercial because you were so disgusted by it, yet you don't remember what you had for breakfast on Saturday?

EWWW, seriously. Why must the Go Daddy commercial keep popping in my head. Hum...they are a local company. I wonder what they do. I should google them.

See what I mean? They got my attention and NOT in a good way...

Any attention is better than no attention at all... keeps coming back to my mind.  Kinda like with my kids... if one is getting attention, the other one will act up to get MORE attention because they will get in trouble and have a time out... and what happens is the good child will wait for me to come back. So, how do we resolve this idea --- "any attention is better than no attention at all"...

I am going to really work hard on giving positive attention and making it count and minimizing my time with negative attention... to see if it works.

I will PRAISE my kids when they do something kind for someone else... I will do it right then and there and make them know how proud I am of their choice.

I will NOT spend over FIVE minutes when a child has an outburst, and for time out I will put them in a spot where they cannot see me (or bug their siblings).

I will encourage good choices and reward based on that.  With Maddy, I will use more words like, "That was a great choice Madelynn... how does that choice make your heart feel?"  She is my toughest one when it comes to getting negative attention... maybe it is being the youngest, maybe it is her age... But she is very stubborn and she can have a diva-tude. She honestly will do ANYTHING to get attention (she will even lick random strangers, or pretend to be a kangaroo....)

I will look over homework with each child and acknowledge the good things they did and actively help them with their struggle areas and homework.

I will start speaking in Spanish with Alex to help her with it and to have something for just us to share.

I will be silly from time to time and dance in the kitchen with them while making dinner just because they LOVE being silly.

Just a few fun things to do to award good behavior and give the attention to each child in the manner he/she will appreciate it most.

So kids... they are like Superbowl commercials.  They just want your attention and they will get it however they can, even if they gross you out while doing it.....