Birthday Bacon

Today was my birthday. Rapidly approaching the 2/3 of a century mark, but that's ok. So, how was it? Quite good, is how. Got a couple of new suits, and some nice ties to go with them. Maybe not too exciting for you, but they are my first suits of the 21st century. Got a new little garage air compressor to replace my 30-year old one that failed recently. And finally, my kids got me a membership the the Bacon Club from The Pig Next Door. Yup, there really is such a thing. It's gonna be awesome. Check it out at http://www.thepignextdoor.com/.

More on the bacon when it starts arriving. Also planning another Bacon Explosion soon.

AC-DC, or Is the Library Great or What?

A few weeks ago, I went to the Humble Rodeo, which, by the way, isn't a rodeo at all, with sons, daughters-in-law and grandkids. The boys got a sweet gig there - judges in the BBQ cookoff. Anyway, we wandered around, went to the petting zoo, got some kettle corn, fried turkey leg, sausage on a stick, funnel cakes, you get the idea. One of the local businesses had some tables set up and said it was fine for us to sit a while. They even brought us some complimentary beers! Really nice folks - D&D Collision. They had some decidedly non-rodeo music on. I think it was our classic rock station. While we sat there, they played a block of AC-DC. Kind of got me in the mood to listen to a little more.

Where do you go when you want to listen to a little AC-DC if you don't have the CDs or anything on you iPod? The library, of course. You order up aCD, check it out, take it home, and listen. When it's due, you take it back. While I was checking out the catalog for AC-DC, I found another engineering dork AC-DC item. Is there such a thing? You bet. Here they are.

On the right is AC-DC's Black Ice CD. On the left, AC/DC. I'm just starting this one. It's the first real standards war - the bitterly fought struggle between the proponents of alternating and direct current to see which would be our electricity standard. Beta vs VHS or BluRay vs HD was nothing compared to this. Just thought the similar titles and cover appearance with one being screaming rock and the other being a standard war fought in the 1870s was sort of interesting, at least to an old engineer who likes old rock and old engineering stuff.

In the Spring . . .

A man's fancy turns to thoughts of . . . Well, I don't know about the rest of y'all, but for me, it's BACON. Yup, that's right. By now, everyone on this planet with an internet connection has seen the Bacon Explosion. We thought it was one of the most intriguing foods to come along for a while, and had planned to try one over Spring Break in another week or so. However, my bride was out of town this weekend, and I did get several chores done, and therefore thought a little fun would be in order. So I tried one.

Here's the deal. They're really easy to do. And, I think I learned a couple of things that will help on the "real" one in a week or so. You start with a woven bacon mat. Sprinkle it with whatever rub or spices you like. I used some Tony C's.

By the way, while you're weaving the bacon, you can be frying the remainder of the 2 lbs you started with. Make it crisp, 'cause you're gonna have to crumble it. Then you form your sausage into a big patty that covers the bacon. It's good to separate the sausage from the bacon with a sheet of waxed paper at this point, because the sausage is rolled separately. Then you sprinkle some more of your rub on the sausage, put on the bbq sauce, and then put on the crumbled bacon. I used Owens sausage - one pound of regular and one pound of hot. BBQ sauce was a basic honey hickory smoke sauce. The sweet sauces make a shinier glaze. Tip - actually press the crumbled bacon into the sausage - helps when you roll it up. I shoulda used more bbq sauce, too. When you think you've got about the right amount on, add about 50% more.

Then you roll up the sausage / crumbled bacon layer, seal the edges, and then roll that up in the bacon mat. Coat the whole thing with more bbq sauce and put it on the smoker. I had to use the little smoker box on my grill - it'll be better on a real smoker - but this worked. Just keep the heat low, and get a bit of smoke working. I used apple.

Two to three hours later, you get this glazed, smoked beauty. Cut into it and enjoy. It's disgustingly good. Lessons learned - use more bbq sauce, press the crumbled bacon into the sausage, and it'll be better on a smoker. A grill runs a little hotter, and the bottom got pretty crispy. Not burned, but close.

I've got a friend, using a very loose interpretation of that word, who believes eating these is a good plan. With the economy the way it is now, if you eat these regularly, you probably won't have to worry about not having money for retirement. You really won't last that long.

That's all for now. Gotta run out for Lipitor.

Born to Party

New Year's Eve. THE party night. Some people avoid parties and major celebrations on New Year's Eve, terming it amateur night. You know, the night when the relatively inexperienced party wannabes get all out of control and crazy. Others, however, who really know partying have a great time on New Year's Eve. Noise, food, drinks, etc.

Personally, I prefer to do my New Year's partying pretty close to home. There are a lot of people on the road who probably shouldn't be. So that's what we did this year - entertained at home. We got a couple of photos while the party was at its peak. Here's one of them:

One of the keys to a great party is to have a variety of guests who have different interests and viewpoints. Ours, as you can see, spanned the generations with attendees from both the 20th and 21st centuries. We were also a multi-species party, which, of course, added to the fun. It sort of ceased being fun for one of the guests when some fireworks were set off nearby in the neighborhood. She spent the rest of the evening under the bed. The rest were undaunted, however, and partied on into the wee hours, as you can see by the clock on the wall.

After a party this intense, the guests found themselves a bit too tired to drive home, so they spent the night, and actually hung out a good part of New Year's Day as well. We rang in 2009 and got it off to a good start.

Call Before You Dig

I work for an energy company. We operate pipelines. One of the biggest threats and dangers to underground pipelines is excavation damage. People with backhoes and trenchers and things like that can damage pipelines, and put themselves at great risk. That's why there are one-call systems - places in each state where they have maps of the pipelines and anyone who is going to be doing any excavating can call, tell where they are going to be working, and have everything marked for them within 2-3 days. It's free - the pipeline and cable and telephone companies pay for it. The system works very well, and there are initiatives to improve damage prevention even more.

In fact, now there's a nationwide number, 8-1-1, where you can call and reach your one-call system. Use it, even if you're just going to be putting in fence posts or deck footings in your back yard.

Now, why am I writing about this? A public service? Sure, in part. However, it really struck me on the way home from a meeting in DC last Friday. I'd been there most of the week, and was tired and looking forward to a family weekend. No upgrades on this trip - they're hard to get on the DC trips - too many platinum members. I did get an exit row window in coach, though. A little extra knee room. Pretty full flight, so most of the middle seats were occupied, too. A kind of strange guy sat next to me. Not talkative, which is generally a good thing on a plane. However, about half way through this 3-hour flight, he began a major nasal excavation project. Took him half an hour or more. I suppose he could have gotten through it more quickly if he had power equipment rather than the basic hand excavation. Usually, when you're digging in the yard, hand excavation means using a shovel. In this case, it was literally hand excavation.

He finally completed his task and went back to reading his book. Hope it wasn't from the library. I'd hate to be the next person to get it. At any rate, at some point during this project, it occurred to me that I should have given him one of the 8-1-1 Call Before You Dig cards with all the safety information. He was probably lucky he didn't do some real damage. Whatever happened to the practice of going to the lavatory and tending to these sorts of things in private, and with a tissue?

Thanksgiving Fryday

Man, do I like Thanksgiving! It's probably my favorite holiday, or at least in the top two or three. And, before I go any further, yes, I do, in fact, know how to spell the names of the days of the week. The appropriateness of the apparent misspelling will become clear in the next several seconds, depending on your reading speed.

Over the past few years, our family has established a new, for us, tradition around Thanksgiving. When we gather at our house for TG, we have our traditional dinner on Thursday afternoon - turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and home made noodles, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, corn, a meat stuffing, mayo salad, pumpkin pie (two kinds, actually - best pumpkin pie in 4 states) buried in whipped cream, plus snacks earlier in the day - spinach dip, veggies and chips with a ranch dip, etc. Then some turkey sandwiches, another round of pie, plus some of the other leftovers in the evening. Okay, that's Thursday.

The more recent undertaking has been the next day, which has evolved into Fryday. That's when we do the second turkey. It's usually a little smaller. This year, the TG day turkey was a 20-pounder. The second one was about 14. Of course, the second one is fried. In a regular turkey fryer. In 4 gallons of peanut oil. That's the most expensive part - the peanut oil. So, to get ready, you shoot up the turkey with some cajun marinade - you can get the injectable liquid stuff at supermarkets or grill stores. Then you coat it with some Tony C's cajun spices. Let it sit while you do some other stuff. The other stuff starts with heating the 4 gallons of oil in the fryer to about 350 F. Then you start frying. We did some sweet potato fries - pretty thick cut - about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch by 2 -4 inches long. They fry up nice in about 6 minutes. Cut 'em ahead of time and soak in very cold water. Then we did some regular fries. Then some onion rings. These were all appetizer offerings to munch on while the turkey was frying. It went in next - takes about 45 minutes for a 14 pound turkey. Yup, that's right - between 3 and 3-1/2 minutes per pound. After the turkey comes out of the fryer, it has to cool and firm up a bit for slicing. Perfect time to fry some more sweet potato fries, french fries and onion rings. Also, got a challenge from K, our daughter-in-law. She said, "Hey, Pops, you're always talking about chicken fried bacon. Why don't you make some?" (See the earlier post on CFB.)

So we did. We used the same batter and breading we had been using for the o-rings. Coated bacon slices and dropped them in the fryer for a couple of minutes. You need to fry until both the breading and the bacon are crisp, but not burned. Pretty comparable to Sodolak's. So now there are two places in Texas you can get chicken fried bacon. Unfortunately, one of them may only be serving 1 or 2 days each year. It was really good. We didn't have any of the white cream gravy like they serve the CFB and chicken fried steaks with, but I did try it with a little ranch. Very nice taste combination.

So, anyway, that was Fryday. Yeah, it may not be our healthiest eating day, but it sure was good. The kids and grandkids and various granddogs and cat were here. These are the best days ever.

Business Travel - The Good Life

This week I had a meeting in Gettysburg, PA. Unfortunately, no time to visit the battlefield, but I did spend a day there last year. The weather was great, the trees are turning color - we don't see that much fall color here in Houston. So, we drive back to Baltimore for a 3:30 or so flight from BWI to Houston. Due to the severe storms in Houston, we have about an hour and a half ground hold. Then we have to do time in a holding pattern on the way. Finally land in Houston about 7. I had ridden to the airport with a colleague, D, and we had parked at one of the surface lots. The lift pumps that pump all the heavy rain water away had gone out, so everything around the airport was flooded. We took a bumper to bumper round about way to the parking lot. The 7-10 minute ride took almost two hours. We were moving so slowly that one of the other passengers considered calling Domino's and ordering a pizza to be delivered to the shuttle bus. Finally, we pull up behind D's truck. It's not raining quite as hard now. But, we have one other thing to do before we pick up our luggage and get off the bus. We sit back down, take off our shoes and socks, roll up our pants legs, and then wade through 6 - 8 inches of water to the truck. Almost drove off with my shoes on the roof. It's all a good time.