Month: April 2013

Baconfest 2013

/ Shane / Leave a comment

2013 logo

Ah, spring is in the air, and that means a young man’s mind turns to thoughts of bacon.

Our turn to host once again, and I think the food went pretty well. I kept feeling guilty, like I didn’t spend enough time planning things out. I think this was a combination of, 1) this is year 3, so we kind of know what we’re doing, 2) I spread out a lot of the planning over the course of the last year, and 3) we did some recipes that we have made before, which shouldn’t be viewed as a bad thing, since we know they are good recipes.

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The Menu

Breakfast

Piggy-shaped Pancakes

Bacon Taste Test

Lunch

Bacon-Cheddar Swirl Buns

Smokey Bacon and Corn Chowder Soup

“Bacon and Eggs” pretzels

Dinner

Kale with Bacon and Cannellini Beans

Dark Chocolate Chunk and Bacon Cookies

Snack

Roasted Chickpeas and Bacon

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There were no heart attacks, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s a win!

The bacon can get a little overwhelming, but I didn’t think it did this year. I’m always on the lookout for “bacon related” recipes that don’t actually involve bacon, such as the “bacon and egg” pretzels and the piggy-shaped pancakes (harder to come by than you might think). Also, our recipes that did involve bacon also involved a lot of other healthy(ish) ingredients. I think this was the first year that I didn’t really feel like a bloated pig (no pun intended) at the end of the day.

The day was broken up with music class and swim class, and Oliver in particular had a hard time leaving the festivities. However, these seemed like minor distractions and didn’t take away from the hours and hours spent watching Evie’s puppet shows and plays. We didn’t have any bacon related activities this year (no Kevin Bacon movie), which is maybe kind of a bummer in retrospect, but we were pretty busy all day so I don’t know when we would have fit it in.

And not one person commented on our matching shirts while we were out and about! This is especially strange to me since I practically always get a comment when I’m wearing one of my baconfest shirts around.

I must admit that we did not actually eat the roasted chickpeas and bacon until the following day. The idea was to eat them that night while we played a couple of rounds of Pandemic, but, as usual for the evening of baconfest, nobody was hungry. So we ended up making it for lunch the next day. The good news is, we did manage to keep the swine flu from taking over the world (to say nothing of the bacteria-resistant chlamydia!). I think I’d take a game of Pandemic over watching a movie any day. Lots of fun!

Baconfest is always a fantastic time, an excellent tradition, and full of delicious, bacony goodness. Evie is absolutely convinced that it is a national holiday, right up there with Easter and Christmas. I have to admit, I probably enjoy it more than a lot of other holidays!

Quote Monday learns a bad word

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Ollie: “My eyes are tired, but I’m not tired!” – said every kid everywhere

Evie: “Is ‘woooooo doggy!’ a bad word?”

Sara: “Can I take credit for looking continuously decent in every picture?” – not a big head on this one…

::Evie, making ‘bacon and egg’ pretzels for Baconfest::
Evie: “Look, it’s genes!”

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I think she meant chromosomes, but hey, still pretty impressive!

Evie: “Are two of the three kings named Orly and Tar?” – We three kings of Orly and Tar…

Italian Rice and Beans

/ Shane / 2 Comments

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

We have an endless, insatiable hunger for quick, healthy meals that can be made on nights when we are busy. This is one of our favorites in that category.

The Journey:

There’s really not all that much to say, which is exactly the beauty. You toss it in a pan, cook it quickly, and you serve it. The rice takes awhile, so you do have to remember to get a head start on it, but it’s not “active” cooking time.

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The Verdict:

Wonderful. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything quite like it, which is probably why I don’t get sick of it very quickly. The mixture itself is so flavorful, that you can go pretty heavy on the rice ratio, and still have something amazing. This makes it pretty easy to scale up or down as needed. It’s also great as a reheated leftover for lunch the next day.

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The Recipe:

Recipe from Vegan Yum Yum (note, we use a modified version of the one in the cookbook, which is slightly different than the one on the webpage).

  • 1 cup brown rice, uncooked
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme (or 2 – 3 teaspoons fresh)
  • 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (vacuum packed if you can find them, oil-packed if not), cut into strips
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts (you can substitute sunflower seeds)
  • 1 can canellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 4 ounces of baby spinach
  • zest from 1 lemon
  1. Cook the rice.
  2. When the rice is finished, heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.
  3. Add the herbs, tomatoes, and pine nuts.
  4. When the pine nuts start to turn golden brown, add the beans. (Be very careful not to burn the pine nuts or sun dried tomatoes!)
  5. Toss gently, trying your best to keep the beans whole.
  6. Add the salt and vinegar and stir gently. Turn the heat to low.
  7. Place spinach in one layer on top of the beans. Cook for ~3 minutes until spinach starts to wilt.
  8. Mix gently and taste. If it doesn’t have that “pop”, add in a little bit more vinegar and salt to taste.
  9. Grate the lemon zest on the top of the rice and beans and serve.

Bacon Level 11

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Some people get tired of all the stupid April Fools jokes that run around on the Internet. It seems like every company has some “joke” up their sleeve, to the point where there’s just no chance of anybody tricking you on that day.

On the other hand, I like it. April Fools day has turned into something like an Internet holiday. Wearing a green, pseudo-Irish outfit and drinking beer doesn’t make sense either, but everybody goes along with it because it’s St. Patrick’s day, and why not? Putting out a silly fake ad or doing something dumb on your website is the April 1st equivalent of wearing green. It shows you’re participating.

So, in honor of the 3rd annual baconfest this weekend, I give you Scope’s contribution this year: bacon flavored mouthwash, “for breath that sizzles”

This is the perfect example of an April fools joke. It’s a ridiculous and terrible idea, and yet it’s *just* plausible enough that a bunch of talking head idiots at a company might try to capitalize on the bacon sensation. Plus, there’s some serious production value on that commercial. It’s more enjoyable than a lot of actual commercials.

ThinkGeek, on the other hand, continues to use April Fools “pranks” as a way of beta testing perfectly good ideas to see what people actually want to buy. Seriously guys, there is an art to a good April fools joke. You have to start by making something that’s ridiculous, and then convince me, despite my skepticism, that it is a real thing. That’s a well done joke. Just showing me some products that you could make and sell, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet, is not a joke.

Scope link via Sylvain (and it should be mentioned this video came out *before* April fools, lending it credibility).

Happiness Inflation

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Inflation is a term that is usually applied to economics. Merriam-Webster defines inflation as, “a continuing rise in the general price level usually attributed to an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods and services”. In short, inflation refers to the fact that, over time, you need more money to buy the same thing. These days, we pay $5 instead of $0.90 for the same gallon of gas.

However, it seems like more and more I’m seeing a different type of inflation. Let’s call it “happiness inflation”: it takes more “things” to buy the same level of happiness.

Yeah, yeah, so what’s new? Who doesn’t know that?

I know. It’s obvious, right? But like regular, economic inflation, you don’t really think about it all that often, because there’s nothing you can really do about it. Everybody knows gas costs more these days. We don’t dwell on it. We can’t bring down the price of gas, and it’s just a part of life, so on we go.

The important thing to remember is that paying $5 for gas doesn’t mean we are getting more gas. The same goes for happiness inflation; even though we are getting more things, we are still the same amount of happy.

I probably wouldn’t notice happiness inflation either, except for being a parent. It takes on a lot of different aspects when it comes to kids.

There’s present inflation. When we were younger we got a certain number of presents, and we were happy. Now, kids get 10 times that number of presents, and they are about the same amount of happy. It’s not one outfit, it’s 3 outfits. It’s not one playset, it’s the whole line. We feel embarrassed if we only got one book, or only spent $20, or if our present doesn’t have a built in computer chip.

In fact, as a parent you see a lot of birthday inflation in general. Think about birthday parties when you were a kid. Your aunts and uncles and cousins came over and maybe you had a cake. That’s it. But it was exciting, and you looked forward to it. You were happy. Now there are themes, and gift bags, and entertainers, and catering. It takes that much more for a 3 year old to be the same level of happy.

There’s candy inflation: getting 5 pieces of candy thrown to you at a parade isn’t sufficient. You have to have 500 pieces. Or a handful from each house at Halloween instead of one piece, or a full sized candy bar. You can’t have an ice cream cone in the summer as a nice treat, you have to have an ice cream cone every day, with a slice of pie on the side. But wait, you can’t just get an ice cream cone, it has to be dyed some kind of “fun” color, because, you know, ice cream cones just weren’t fun enough by themselves.

Just like economic inflation, it is impossible to fight. If I go to the gas station and say, “I only want $0.90 of gas,” I don’t get a gallon. Similarly, if I throw a birthday party and don’t give out gift bags, I don’t get the same level of happiness that we used to get before people gave out gift bags. Now I have to give the gift bags if I want to obtain a gallon of happiness.

The thing is, each person only sees what they are giving, but only the parents can see the big picture. Other people can’t see how out of control and over the top it is. They want to see a kid’s eyes light up when they hand them some jelly beans on Easter, not realizing that 5 other people gave them a handful already. Each person gives as many gifts or sweets or outfits individually as their own kids got total from everyone when they were little.

People just can’t seem to help themselves.

We’re not immune to this as parents. We want to make our kids as happy as anyone else does, probably more so. But I feel so trapped by the whole thing. Either we go along with it and contribute to the overall rise in inflation, or we deprive ourselves of the joy of making our kids happy, turning ourselves into “mean parents” who never give our kids anything. Just bow out and let everybody else get the satisfaction of seeing their faces light up. Because inflation is everywhere, and there’s so much on all sides, the only way to average it out is to never give anything.

Maybe it’s not the kids who are suffering from inflation, maybe it’s the adults. Maybe our tolerance for making a kid’s face light up has gone up over time. We need more and more “hits” to reach the same level of satisfaction, so we selfishly press that button as often as we can.

I can’t fight inflation. The only way to stem the tide is if everyone, everywhere, all at the same time, tackles the problem. Frankly, that’s not going to happen. All I can say is, look at the obese kids and the debt problems and the selfishness of the world and think about how you personally are contributing to it.

Maybe if we all did that a little more often, we could experience a little bit of “happiness deflation”. Trust me, it’s better than it sounds.