Sure, this stuff will kill you, but what a way to go!

Bacon.  Every once in a while, you've just gotta have it.  Well, I've just gotta have it.  Therefore, for lunch today, I had this meal:

I finally cooked some of the fabulous bacon I bought at the farmers' market from the guy who sold me my Thanksgiving turkey.

I like my bacon well done but not overly crispy (and then there is my perennial fear of high heat), so I start it out on medium high heat for not very long (maybe thirty seconds or a minute) and then turn down the flame to cook it, relatively speaking, low and slow.  More of the fat renders before the meat is cooked all the way through.

While the bacon drained on paper towels, I spooned out most of the fat before cracking in two organic eggs -- smaller than the others in the dozen, so probably not as good for recipes.  Yes, eggs fried in bacon fat.  Say it with me ... Mmmmmmm.

Bacon and eggs like hash browns, but I am not so good at making hash browns, at least not quickly, so I tend to stick with mashed potatoes, which I find to be more versatile anyway (and which can always be fried a bit after the fact if you must have crunch).  I boiled up some red potatoes, tossed in a bunch of butter -- go big or go home, right? -- and herbed soft French cheese, and mashed with a fork.

It was worth every calorie and every gram of fat.

You can't eat like this every day and be healthy, but I think that part of what makes a meal like this taste so fantastically good is that it is an occasional indulgence.  I chose to indulge today and will compensate accordingly for the next several days with lots of steamed vegetables.

Market Day

While the temperature only made it into the low-to-mid-forties and the wind was blowing fiercely, the sun was shining brightly, and there was still a farmers' market to be found.  Sadly, today was the last "winter market," and the regular summer schedule doesn't start up until mid-June.  On the bright side, most of the farms that I buy from welcome visitors.  It's just that they are a bit spread out, so being able to visit them all at once at a market is much more convenient.

The selection is still a bit limited, but I still came home with a nice bag full, of green things -- spinach and mesclun and something called Tokyo Bekana -- a dozen eggs, aged farmhouse cheddar made from raw goat's milk, and a pound of bacon.

The bacon came from the farmer who sold me my fabulous Thanksgiving turkey last year.  I saw the bacon at the last market, but I was good and bought chicken breasts instead.  This week, however, I decided not to resist and bought a pound when I signed up for this year's Thanksgiving turkey.  It's too bad that I am not more of a fan of meat because he sells all cuts of beef and pork, including whole and half animals butchered and wrapped to the customer's specifications.  It just sounds like such a good idea ... if you have a large family to feed and/or eat a significant amount of meat.

I haven't decided what I am going to do with all of the greens yet, although I think that some of them could be wraps for salad made from the eggs, but I have already eaten a good chunk of the goat's milk cheese.  It tastes like a smooth but tangy blend of cheddar and feta.  Yum.

So start looking around for farmers with spring greens to sell and let your palette know that it is spring!