Bacon!

If you don't like pork don't read this post! Really, just stop now, I don't want to offend any of you pork haters.

I love pork, seriously, I love pork! And I'm so excited because we are going to go pick up our freshly butchered hog tomorrow. To make the whole process even better, my niece Lena raised our hog, she's 14. She's also raised a turkey and a lamb that we've eaten, isn't that cool?

I have to say that bacon is at the top of my favorite food list. If you like pork you must go to www.cafepress.com where you can buy t-shirts that say things like "I love Bacon" and "Bacon is meat Candy". You know, sayings that you can really stand by, with passion... and dedication :) Let me warn you now though...the government will most likely be adding a fat tax to those of us who love pork, ya, I'm one of those!!! I"m joking, but not totally... a local grocery store here has posted that effective July 1st 2010 that there is an added tax on all candy and pop.... I'm sure bacon will be our next tax!

I have a new wish item on my bucket list, a friend of mine went to Chicago recently and she went on a bacon tour in the city! A real bacon tour, can you imagine? I hate the thought of the calorie count in all that bacon but I'd find a way work it off. Unfortunately, she had a little too much to drink and she wasn't really able to remember the tour. Maybe she should go back with me:)

I have a pork recipe that is one of my all time favorite comfort foods, and I know that every time I eat it that I will eat too much.... and then I'll eat the left overs too....

Pork Chop, potato and mushroom gravy.

4 pork chops- with or without bones
4 potatoes- peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 to 1 cup milk, just to enough to get the right gravy consistency you like.
Vegetable oil
Salt and Pepper
Flour

-Peel and slice potatoes and layer in the bottom of a large baking pan, salt and pepper.
-Heat oil in skillet. Place flour in bowl, add salt and pepper and mix, coat pork chops in flour and brown in   oil. Make sure they get a really nice brown color. Remove chops and place on top of potatoes.
- Add soup, sour cream and milk. Add salt and pepper.... and any other seasoning you might like. Heat through and pour over pork chop and potatoes. Cook at 350 for about an hour, or until potatoes are done.

Now..... enjoy one of my favorite comfort foods:)

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.  ~Voltaire

Time

Time is an interesting thing, isn't it? When it comes to things like work, cleaning the house or having an awkward conversation with some woman in line at the grocery store who gives you her life story in 2 min, 37 seconds...painfully slow...  Anyway, it's times like this that time seems to move incredibly slow. Or how about when you've spent months preparing for a trip and everything is all set.. and you don't depart for another 4 months.... time creeps by!

I just want to know how to slow time down with a few things:) ridiculous I know. But if you have any tips I'd be interested in hearing them. Mostly I thinking about my granddaughter Layla. She's is with us this weekend and I've done everything I can to make sure that she has my undivided attention so that she and I don't have any regrets with the time we've had together. For the last year or so she has said " I need to stay 2 nights, 1 night is not long enough". So, this weekend she's staying 2 nights, and she has been such an amazing joy. But here we are, it's Saturday night and she's fast asleep, we'll have her for a few hours tomorrow and then it will be over, we'll make some memories tomorrow morning and she'll come to church with us, but then it's over. Time has gone way to fast!

Here's a few Layla quotes from the weekend
While on a walk last night. -
-"Nana, don't pick that up, it's trash"
-"I love you Nana"
-"You're the best Nana ever"
-"Nana, these flowers are so beautiful, can I pick them for my mommy"?
-"Nana, I'm going to remember these beautiful pink clouds in my heart forever"
-" You get what you get each day with clouds" Saying that they are different everyday...so precious!
-"Nana and Papa, I've told you a hundred times, that is not a Lama, it's a Lamb, a Lama walks on two legs but looks like a Kangaroo"..She was dead serious and spoke with amazing conviction, and hand gestures!
There were so many more precious things she said, and next time I'm going to write everyone of them down!

Pure joy!

Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old.
                              ~ Mary H. Waldrip~