Tomorrow I have a starving blood test at 8:30 in the morning, plus a long drive to the doctor’s office, so I decided to do something wild and have bacon and eggs this evening.

It’s been a while. Almost had them last week in Florida. And I haven’t gone to the grocery yet to get the ingredients for that new recipe for Lamb and Apricot Stew from the new Everyday Food magazine. I’ll let you know what I think when I get around to making it.

This completely mortifies the vegans and vegetarians, but. . .well, y’all eat beans and foliage and soy-based fake food anyway. I don’t tell you to eat meat, and I’m allergic to soy, so chill, please.

I love to poke fun at veggie folks. They’ll never starve waiting for a wild cow to come by, and there’s plenty of grass to nibble. 🙂

I love eggs, but don’t do all the stuff I used to with them, especially I sort of gave up dairy by default a few years ago. Mostly I boil them lately, but enjoy making main dishes with them, too. There is a delicious curried egg recipe in one of the Martha Stewart annual books, but I don’t remember which one. Hmmm. . .maybe this weekend. Lots of tomatoes and curry powder.

Don’t get me started on frittatas, I could eat them all the time. And often have. I used to make a bacon and egg pie for a week’s worth of breakfast (no crust) but I don’t buy cream anymore. I put almond milk in my coffee and tea, and long ago quit drinking milk of any kind. A little cheese, a little butter, ice cream once in a while, (yogurt–yuck) but dairy doesn’t happen much for me anymore.

See, much as I love to cook, as much as I enjoyed doing the parties at my last job, and as much as I enjoy our annual Thanksgiving open house (thank you, Lisa) sometimes, even I don’t feel like cooking. And my one of my favorite go-to alternates is the Meaty Burrito from Jack-In-The-Box. They’re made the same no matter where you go, and they hit the spot. Unfortunately, sometimes I get busy and eat more than one in a week. Then they start tasting exactly the same no matter what you add to them. But that’s been a while.

I also like sweet potato fries, but they don’t come out well at home without a fryer–which I don’t have. So I’ve taken to getting them at either Cafe Express or at the newly built Carl’s Jr. near my home. I actually don’t like Carl’s Jr because of the way I was treated the first time I went to the drive through, but have gone back twice for a batch of them. But like a lot of things, not very often. I do enjoy baking them at home with olive oil and a spice mix; I can do that all week long if I want.

Note: I thoroughly loathe and despise sweet potato pie, and all recipes combining sweet potatoes with brown sugar, marshmallows, pineapple, or anything else sweet. Adding anything besides butter, salt, savory spices and/or olive oil on a sweet potato in any form is disgusting and should be made a felony.  If you like that stuff, please keep it on your side of the table. Thank you.

Oh, and many thanks to Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, for the tip about putting bacon in the OVEN, rather than messing with it on top the stove. The countertop (aka “toaster”) oven makes it even easier, and doesn’t heat up the kitchen. Maybe one day I’ll do a blog posting about the virtues of a countertop oven. It was a show I saw with Sara Moulton years ago talking about cooking with one, and I’ve had one ever since. If you have the space and the means and love to cook or bake. . .it’s worth having one.

Well, the bacon is done, and it’s about the only thing that seems to have enough salt in it for me. Eggs are cooked correctly (the way I want them) and so I will take my leave for the night.

Ok, I gotta go think. . .I mean, eat. . . .

Happy Dining!