Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Mmmm...Bacon



I laughed out loud when I saw this cartoon. It is SO true! Craig Ferguson, host of CBS' Late, Late Show, says he was a vegetarian for almost a year until one day he smelled bacon cooking and he quit the vegan life. I can totally relate to that.

There are few smells that compare to bacon cooking. One is coffee perking. I have never had a cup of coffee in my life (believe it or not), but I used to make my dad's sometimes and I loved opening the can of Maxwell House and getting that first whiff of ground coffee, and then, as it percolated in the pot, the smell would permeate the kitchen, and waft through the rest of the house. Mmmm... Good memories. I believe part of the reason I love(d) the smell was because it is so attached to my dad. When I was making his coffee, it meant that he was home from traveling, usually on the weekend. Mom didn't drink coffee, so the house didn't smell of it when Dad wasn't home. Such a sweet association. I still get flashbacks at the grocery store when I walk down the aisle where they have coffee beans and the coffee grinder. Starbucks just doesn't do it. It has to be the freshly ground coffee.

Another smell: burning autumn leaves. I haven't smelled that wonderful, acrid smoke for decades, and probably never will again. Burning leaves like we used to in my youth has been outlawed because of environmental issues. But it was great while it lasted.

Those are some of the smells I recall from my youth. I am much more careful now about eating bacon - knowledge of carcinogens, cholesterol and bad fats have taken some of the fun out of it.

But, ahhh...the memories...