Everything's better with bacon

About five years ago, Chad and I were having a discussion with some friends about the merits of bacon. Not the health benefits, mind you, but how adding bacon as an ingredient just naturally makes everything better. Salads, sandwiches, steaks...really, think about it. (I'm sure it comes as no surprise that the men were leading this conversation.)

Since then, we have occasionally stumbled back on this topic. Inevitably, someone will suggest a food item (soup? bread? ice cream?) whose marriage with bacon seems suspect. But every time one of these food groups is suggested, somebody else finds a way to incorporate bacon that makes it seem feasible. (As repulsive as it may sound, there is a bacon ice cream. I checked.)

But today, I found one that trumps all for the bacon lovers I know. If we ever have our "Everything's Better With Bacon" party, which has been threatened, I am making the Bacon Explosion, which was featured in the New York Times earlier this week. They call it a "massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce."

As my friend Robert asked when I emailed him this article, "Does the cardiologist come with it, too?"

Fido's fitness

The other night, I was catching up on my Guideposts magazines (another gift from my mother-in-law), reading about a woman who decided that both she and her dog needed to lose weight. The story went something like this: the woman worked from home and the dog would sit at her feet all day. Every time she decided she wanted a snack, which usually was convenient but not healthy, she would give her dog a treat as well. Unhealthy eating habits and a sit-around-a-lot lifestyle meant they both needed to lose a few pounds.

While the tale was heartwarming, and the woman and her dog lost 47 pounds by going for walks and watching their portions, I kept thinking about how Lucy would never tolerate this. She'd be stir-crazy if she never got out of the house. (I'd be crazy, too!)

So at the end of the article, there's a side story about how to "get fit with Fido." It suggests small ways to get your sedentary dog moving again, one of which was "move your dog's bowl upstairs so he'll have to climb to supper." I read this to Chad and he laughed out loud. One flight of stairs would do absolutely nothing for our dog.

To add a bit of context here, Lucy runs up and down the stairs several dozen times a day. She also gets at least two walks, one at noon when our friend Cathy comes over lunch and one when we get home. We grab her bowl when it's time for dinner, upon which time she runs down to the basement, waits by the closet door while we walk down and fill her bowl, and runs back upstairs to wait again. (If you're taking too long, she'll run back down to figure out what the hold-up is as well.) And she's still got enough energy for all three of us. Some days, I have to admit, I'd take Fido!

Ice, Ice Baby

We don't get much "winter" weather here. But as I spent 30 minutes scraping ice off of my windshield and windows this morning, I was longing for the days in high school when my dad would exhibit a quiet gesture of kindness scraping off my car before continuing on to morning chores. I never asked and never expected, but it sure was nice to have a perfectly clean windshield on those cold, icy mornings.

(Granted, he probably did this because it offered peace of mind that I wouldn't drive to school staring out of a peephole that I scraped off myself. He probably also would have worried that if I scraped my own car I'd be even more likely to catch a cold--which he was always warning me about--since I went to school every day with wet hair.)

So I was thinking about him today as I was slipping around in a skirt and heels while chiseling my windows and trying to keep my patience.

I was also thinking about my mother-in-law who, by some stroke of good fortune on my part, thought to give us a spray bottle of de-icer for Christmas which came incredibly handy today for Chad, myself, and our neighbor. Midwesterners sure are problem-solvers.

Group Hug

Whenever Chad comes up behind me and gives me a squeeze, Lucy clearly feels very left out. He's now started to include her and is calling it a "group hug."

Janice happened to be over for our cookie fiasco and had the camera nearby to document this. Welcome to a random Friday night at our house, sweats included:

Cookie catastrophe

I had a brilliant idea at the end of last week to make some fire engine and fire hydrant cookies for a party we were having for our friend Nick, who just graduated from the fire academy. I was sure that this was going to put Martha Stewart and me on the same level.

So, I found the cookie cutters, bought all the ingredients, rolled out the dough, cut the cookies, baked them, frosted them, decorated them...and four hours later, I was wondering where my evening went! (To be fair, Janice helped--and we did enjoy each other's company at least.)

To make matters worse, the cookies got fat in the oven and didn't even resemble fire trucks when we took them out (see below). As a final touch, in my failed attempt to make the frosting a little redder, I added a few drops of blue in the hopes that it would darken. I must have missed the day in third grade where I would have learned that red and blue make...purple. Though they did at least taste good.

I have no idea how people have the patience or the skill set for this. "Cookie decorating" is going on the list of things that I do not plan to do again. Right after making another meatloaf.

Advice for a good life

Two of my friends separately sent me an email at the end of last week with tips for living. There were some good things to remember. Here are my favorites:

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, "My purpose is to __________ today."

3. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.

6. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

7. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter"?

8. Forgive everyone for everything.

9. What other people think of you is none of your business.

10. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

To my faithful blog readers (and yes, I know there are only about a dozen of you)...if there's anything missing from this list, let me know what it is with a comment!

Souper duper

I have been loving this tasty soup we make lately, so much that I have to share the recipe. Here are its benefits:

1) Good for you. (Really! Low in fat, carbs, calories...you name it)
2) Easy: It can be made with most things you have in your cupboard or, even if you have to buy a few of the items, they keep for a really really long time in the freezer or fridge.
3) Quick! As in, less than 15 minutes.

Without further ado, here's the recipe for our new favorite soup.

Stir-Fry Beef & Vegetable Soup

• 1 lb boneless beef top sirloin or round steak
• 2 tsp. dark sesame oil, divided
  
• 3 14-oz. cans of low-sodium beef broth (or make your own from bouillon, about five cups total)
• 1 package (16 ounces) of frozen stir-fry vegetables (if you don't like those, substitute a package of frozen broccoli, green beans, snow peas, etc.)
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced (you can easily keep these out, I don't think they make a huge difference)
• 1/4 cup of stir-fry sauce (a little thicker than soy sauce, you find it in the Asian food aisle or with the marinades)

1) Slice beef lengthwise in half, then crosswise into 1/8-inch strips.

2) Heat Dutch oven over high heat. Add 1 tsp. sesame oil and tilt pan to coat bottom. Add half the beef in single layer; cook one minute, without stirring, until slightly browned on bottom. Turn and brown other side about one minute. Remove beef from pan; set aside. Repeat with remaining one tsp sesame oil and beef; set aside.

3) Add broth to Dutch oven; cover and bring to a boil. Add vegetables (still frozen); reduce heat and simmer 3-5 minutes or until vegetables are heated through. Add beef, green onions and stir-fry sauce; simmer one minute.

Then it's done! This is really easy to double and also to freeze. As further testament to how good this is, Rachel cleaned her bowl when she had it (and many of you can attest how rarely that happens!).

Happy eating!

Hillbillies

We have a heck of a time getting Lucy tired. Even after the longest walks or an hour at the dog park, she's barely fazed. While it's nice to have a pet that keeps us active, we started wondering if all of our hours at the cabin would be spent containing Lucy's relentless energy.

That is, until Chad took a few cues from his football-playing days and suggested we start throwing her balls and sticks down the steep hills. She'd bound down and run right back up, which seemed to do the trick! While she got exercise, she also got clean because it turns out she loved to fetch from the river, too. (Lucy's Polar Bear Plunge was not nearly as traumatic as mine!)

The bonus in all of this is that when we were all ready to relax at night with a movie or dinner or a game, Lucy was tired too. On Monday, this is what she looked like...at 3:30 in the afternoon!

First time for everything

So yesterday we inaugurated the first African-American President. In honor of this milestone, here is a recap of all the "firsts" from our weekend away:

• First time I took the Polar Bear Plunge. I went in to the river to retrieve a ball of Lucy's that I accidentally threw in. (See my post-plunge photo to the right.) Chad thought I was nuts, but I was feeling quite proud of this accomplishment until later that afternoon when Lucy nosed it down the hill herself and right back into the river. At that point, I was already dry and I was not going back in!
• First time dealing with a burst water pipe. (Fortunately, the owners quickly came to fix it and gave us a free weekend whenever we want to come back for handling it so competently! That made the 90 minutes we spent bailing water out of the basement and the kitchen well worth it.)
• First time I beat Chad at checkers. Ever.
• First time I got a fire started without a match. We used the coals from the day before.
• First time Janice and Nick joined us! Rachel and Paul came, too, though they weren't all there at the same time.
  
• First time I've been in a hot tub when it's 30 degrees outside. And it's awesome!
• First time Lucy purposely went to her bed at 3:30 in the afternoon and didn't get her energy back until the next morning. She loves being outside, and we kept throwing her ball down the hills, which wore her out quickly.

Inauguration prep

I was in Target this morning at about 9:00, thinking that I'd really be able to miss the crowds by being such an early bird. I was surprised to see people bustling around like they were preparing for Black Friday.

Wandering past the cash registers, I stumbled upon a morning meeting of all the employees and the store manager. Being in retail, and always curious to hear these things play out, I decided to linger a little bit near the laundry detergent to figure out what he had to say. Not surprisingly, the focus over the next few days was going to be Inauguration-related. The store manager told them to make sure all the necessities are stocked, which I suppose includes everything from batteries to cereal to warm clothes.

Just a few minutes before, he said, a woman who was staying at a hotel across the street came in to buy an air mattress (the store was almost sold-out). Perhaps all of those tourists who are cramming into hotel rooms are finding the floor a little uncomfortable. Here I was thinking that the only way retailers benefited from these things was from the Obama t-shirts I've seen all over the place.

As I was checking out, a man in the other aisle was buying a bunch of thick shirts and socks. He told the cashier he worked at CNN as a cameraman and had to spend all day Tuesday on the Mall.

Chad and I have different Inauguration Day plans. We're leaving town and heading to the cabin we visited in August. I was at Target this morning for charcoal, some starter logs and, of course, snacks. The car is packed and I'm just waiting for Chad to get off work. These people can have their crowds and their freezing temperatures and their traffic. We're outta here!

Not exactly wrinkle-free

One of my favorite quotes has always been from Mark Twain: "Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been."

I love that. It puts things into perspective. It means that there's nothing really bad about growing old because the lines on your face will simply mirror all the wonderful memories and experiences you've had. (Unless, of course, your wrinkles are from all the years you spent scowling and then, well, maybe you need to figure out how to change that.)

As I rode the elevator back up to my room in New York the other night (I was on the 40th floor of the hotel, so lots of time for thinking), I started to realize that it's getting easier to tell where those "smiles" have been. I tried to rationalize this by telling myself there was harsh lighting, I had been up for about 19 hours, my make-up was wearing off, and I was tired. But still, the outline of a few wrinkles were just clear as day to me. And I didn't like it!

Unintentional insomnia

I have been in New York City since Friday afternoon for our Annual Convention, which draws about 18,000 people and 300 reporters.

The days have gone something like this:

• 5 a.m.: Hit snooze
• 5:15: Get out of bed
• 6:15: Catch the staff bus to the Javits Center
• 6:45: Eat breakfast
• 7:15: Open up the press room
• 8:00-6:30: Talk to reporters, attend sessions, blog, walk several miles in heels, grab food on the run, hobnob with CEOs, and put out (proverbial) fires
• 6:30 p.m.: Close the press room
• 6:45: Get back on the staff bus
• 7:00: Attend a dinner or reception or both with a business partner of some sort
• 10:30: Call Chad
• 11:00: Go to bed

I am not alone, which is a good thing. Four of us from the PR team are here along with probably 50 other people from NRF. But I’m exhausted. No wonder why they call this the city that never sleeps!

Duty calls

I've never been drawn to public service. Perhaps I'm too selfish or too squirmy or just too bullheaded to pursue something like that. So I have an extra appreciation for people who do these things.

About a year ago, Janice's boyfriend, Nick--and one of our good friends, too--decided that he wanted to make a difference in a job that involved a lot of activity. He felt a call to become a firefighter. In order to achieve this goal, he went through months of exams and was accepted into one of the most difficult academies in Virginia last summer. (This is no small feat--several thousand people take these tests and only a few hundred are accepted.)

Over the last six months, he has gone through rigorous training, learning everything from water rescues to how to respond to terrorist attacks to, of course, the best ways to fight certain fires. In training, they ran through burning buildings, were tear-gassed (which would have done me in), and did a lot of push-ups to achieve peak physical condition. Additionally, Nick has spent the last week learning everything there is to know about installing car seats, a skill set that those of us who live less exciting lives may be able to capitalize upon someday.

You can read all about this journey on his blog.

This six-month sacrifice meant waking up at 4 a.m. and getting home at 7 p.m. five nights a week. (I lament my schedule!) And it meant studying on the weekends and cutting back on social activities (ie: football) that might provoke injuries incurred during grueling daily workouts (think: running seven flights of stairs a dozen times in a row).

But it's all been worth it. Today, Nick will graduate as one of the top in his class. He is officially a firefighter, protecting all of us.

Congratulations, Nick! We all all so proud of you. And, thank you. You are far more selfless than I ever will be.

Warm welcome

Since we took an unintentional exercise hiatus over the past few months, I forgot how much I like the older man who works the front desk in the mornings at our gym. (They take your card and give you a locker key and a towel, so these people are the first ones you see when you come in and the last ones you see when you leave.) He's a soft-spoken, energetic, likable guy who calls Chad "young man" every time he talks with him. Kind of the African-American version of my Grandpa Howard.

And when you call, which I have had to do on occasion, he always answers the phone, "Thank you for calling the YMCA. How can I make you smile today?" It's very sincere; he doesn't say it in one of those this-is-how-the-corporate-office-is-telling-me-I-need-to-answer-the-phone sort of ways. He does make me smile.

And that makes getting up at 5:15 in the morning a whole lot easier.

My favorite things

It's time for me to post an update of my new favorite things. I've done this once or twice before, but I've started to notice lately that there are quite a few products I'm starting to wonder how I've done without. Among them:

Emergen-C: I got hooked on this stuff while I was back in Illinois. I swear it works. It's got 1,000 milligrams of Vitamin C, lots of B vitamins and other minerals and vitamins too. It comes in individual packets and dissolves quickly in about six ounces of water. And it doesn't taste like chalk or glue like some of those other "powders." I've tried tangerine, but I see they have raspberry, which might need to be next on the list.

Case in point: I woke up this morning feeling like a little cold was coming on and took some of this stuff and I feel fine. It's either great medicine or a placebo. Either way, I don't care. It works.

Lamp timers: Whoever thought of these things created one of the best inventions of our time. Or perhaps of all time. I got one of these for Christmas (because I had been complaining about forgetting to unplug the tree), plugged it in a few nights ago, and now our living room light turns on at 5 p.m. and off at midnight.

When I come home the lights are on (both good for crime prevention and so Lucy isn't sitting around in the dark), energy-efficient since it doesn't have to stay on all day to accomplish those goals, and I don't have to remember to turn it off at night or in the morning. Plus, they're easy to use and cheap. As in less than five bucks. How cool is that?

SIRIUS: This is my new guilty pleasure. Our Jeep came equipped with a satellite radio and we decided before I drove home for Christmas to explore how much it cost to actually activate the thing. (Turns out it's just a few bucks a month.) I still stick to a small group of music channels, but it's so nice to be able to listen to the radio without commercials or all that jibber-jabber of the morning talk show hosts.

On the way back to DC, I kept myself awake from 11 p.m. - 2 a.m. with the 90's channel while Chad slept. Then he listened to the "all AC/DC station" while I slept--or tried to. It paid for itself in about fifteen minutes, as far as I'm concerned. I can't imagine going back!

New Year's resolutions

Sitting around the table eating breakfast yesterday morning...

Ellen: So, what are your New Year's resolutions?
Chad: I don't believe in resolutions. They don't work.
Ellen: [sigh] Think of a resolution as something you want to do more or less of for whatever reason.
Chad: In that case, I want to eat better and work out more. That's my resolution at the beginning of every week. And I'm starting on Monday.

Fair enough, I thought. Here are mine:

• Get to the gym more consistently
• Find a church we really like, or get more involved with our current church
• Be more decisive
  
• Cut out the clutter--both physical and figurative
  
• Plan more meals at home instead of the current default option of going out to dinner
  
• Decrease utility bills by ten percent (a good suggestion from a Suze Orman column I read)
  
• Keep the cell phone charged
• Read or listen to a new book every month

I figure if I posted these resolutions for enough people to see that maybe I'd be more likely to keep them. If not, at least it will give us all a good laugh on December 31, 2009.