More Bacon

I guess I'm not the only one into pork products these days, as today's New York Times notes in a story about a mighty meaty creation called "The Bacon Explosion," whose recipe can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/281brex.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Bacon%20Explosion&st=cse

I haven't tried the recipe, which frankly looks a little too greasy, even for moi, but if 16,000 people on the web have checked it out, it's certainly worth a try. The fact is, I think the more bad economic news we hear, the more we turn to salty comfort foods.

Believe it or not, I actually ate cereal for breakfast yesterday, something I have not been interested in since maybe October. I'm pretty sure it's because we've had so much sun, which, as the John Denver song so aptly puts it, almost always makes me high.

I threw a handful of dried cherries on top of a bowl o' Go Lean Crunch -- fiberama (8g), with way too much sugar (13g), 9g of protein -- and organic lowfat milk. Was I sated? No. Did I feel hungry in two hours? Yes. So it was a ham, provolone and salami sandwich on 7-grain bread for lunch, and that got me through the rest of the day until dinner, which I made in my cast-iron pan: sauteed chicken, tomato-basil quinoa with salsa on the side, buttered green beans (I'm into frozen organic right now because the ones in the market look gray and are probably grown in toxic chemicals in some faraway land). Much better.

This morning I was back on the bacon-and-egg-for-breakfast bandwagon. I am not so sure it was any less healthful than the cereal. I use a small amount of butter in the pan, fry two eggs, one for me and one for Joe. He and I have devised a good way to make bacon in the microwave, sans much grease, and it comes out very crispy and flat: Layer two paper towels (white is best) on a dinner plate. Place the bacon on top without the pieces touching. Cover with another two pieces of paper towel and layer more on top. Eight pieces are about all this method can handle. Microwave on high, a minute for each piece of bacon, turning the bacon/toweling over halfway through. Remove from microwave with hotpads. Peel the bacon off the toweling. Deelish.

It is another gorgeous day of sun, so I'm heading out to the gym.

More Porking Out

So just as I am preparing my ridiculously calorie-laden morning meal, I glance at my Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter, whose back page headline shouts: "High Egg Consumption Associated with Diabetes Risk." Okay. Now I feel worse than I did when I got up and read the thermometer outside my window. Zero.

I couldn't sleep all night because I chowed down on too much spaghetti and (ouch) Italian sausage, so here I am making more cholesterol bombs for my bloodstream. I did use high-fiber pasta at least, but man oh man, I've gotta stop eating pork sausage with God knows what inside.

During my all-nighter, I watched Cox Newspapers' Bob Deans interview David Sanger, the New York Times chief Washington correspondent, on C-SPAN's Book TV Show, After Words. I'm fascinated and freaked out by Sanger's new book, The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power. Sanger points out that America has been in an economic time warp thanks to our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as China has become a superpower supastar. Who's our daddy? China. No kidding--what with every man, woman and child from now until eternity owing China our inheritances and our grandchildren's, too. That interview runs again on Feb. 1 at 11 a.m. so check it out. Or if you can navigate the strange website and download, do it to it. http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=10189&SectionName=


I just read that Iceland's government collapsed today, a huge glacial ice shelf in the Arctic is about to collapse, and because I have not had much sleep, I am teetering on the edge of collapse as well.

So, excusez-moi mes amis, au revoir--I'm heading back down to the kitchen to forage in my freezer for a little more comfort food. Most probably it will be more pork.