Bacon

It spits, pops, smokes up the place, and yet nothing beats the smell of bacon!  The comfort that hearty perfume brings when walking into the house is beyond compare. Even the sound of it snapping and sizzling in the pan is difficult to articulate the satisfaction it brings.  Then by the time you eat it, oh my goodness! Food of the gods. It might not be good for us, but the taste is good for our souls!  

I particularly like this bacon better than the rest because it is the first time we’ve had home-raised pork.  We’ve had beef, chicken, and eggs on our plates ever since I met my husband, and I’ve had to figure out how to make BB-ridden pheasant and gamey antelope tasty as well.  Now pork finally gets to take its rightful place next to the other ranch-raised foods.

I should be clear though, we don’t do it all.  We aren’t in the time position to raise this many animals; we have too many babies of our own.  Chicken comes from my husband’s grandma, pork came from the neighbor to the south, and even veggies come from our neighbor to the east… that’s about all the neighbors we have though.  It really does take a village--a village for which I am thankful because we certainly haven’t been able to find the time or energy to do many of these things on our own.  However, even the things we don’t grow or raise on our own are still used as resourcefully as possible.  Back to bacon.  

Images are from Christmas cookies, not bacon.

Just prior to sitting down to write, and with fingers still greasy, now slathering out words and letters, I used that original bacon grease from the night before to hand-season a cast iron pan in which I would make homemade bread.  The grit of the porous pan underneath my fingertips, and the smell of that bacon grease made me feel like I was doing something good for my family and myself. It allowed my entertainment for the day to be in baking bread, teaching little ones to crack eggs, stir gently, knead it down, and then patiently wait together.  It all reminded me that even though the bacon might not be good for our health, at least not for our cholesterol level, it is good for our hearts because it brings us together to make something with our hands and from our own resourcefulness.