Hmmmm, bacon

I recently looked at my budget on Mint.com (which I signed up for long ago and then completely forgot about, even though I do get weekly e-mails from them - OK, let's be honest, I'm just really lazy about financial matters). Anyways, I realized that I have been spending way too much on eating out. So since I had Friday off and had time to plan and get organized for a visit to the grocery store, I came up with some really good ideas of food to eat. For instance, last night we had filet mignon topped with blue cheese and walnut butter, along with baked buttercup squash and cheddar garlic mashed potatoes. Add some lovely merlot, and you've got yourself a meal my friend.

But what I'm really proud of, and what this post is all about, is this delicious salad I made, topped with warm bacon dressing:



Honestly, I never knew that salad could be so scrumptious. Granted the bacon dressing probably kills any nutritional value of the salad whatsoever, but I have to tell you it is a delightful taste explosion and I loved it.

Spinach Salad w/Warm Bacon Dressing

Spinach
Blue cheese
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
Grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
Almonds
6 slices bacon
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

1. So the salad is basically some spinach topped with the blue cheese, sliced eggs, tomatoes and almonds.
   
2. To make the dressing, I cut up the bacon into small pieces first. You could cook whole then crumble. Anyhow, cook the bacon to your desired doneness. Remove from pan, reserving the bacon grease (see this where you know the recipe is going to take a turn for the un-healthy).
3. Cook the onion in the reserved bacon grease until tender. Stir in the bacon, sugar and salt. Keep stirring until the dressing thickens a bit, then spoon over the salad.

Deliciousness!

There's probably enough dressing there for 5-6 salads, depending on how much you like bacon. We had for dinner on Friday night, but had enough left over dressing to have it for lunch again on Saturday. I just stuck the dressing in the fridge Friday night and then put it in the microwave for about 1 minute 30 seconds the next day, and it tasted just as delectable.

I thought these would be the awesomest socks in the universe

[And then the mustard ended up right next to the bright green, and it ended up looking kind of, I don't know, "pukey." I mean, overall I still really like the socks and think that they are pretty neat, but they could have been a whole heck of a lot better if I had had the foresight to think about how the colors were going to line up. Such is life.]

May I present to you, the Socks of Kidness. They are a birthday present for my dear friend who unfortunately has a birthday four days before Christmas. I always like to make sure I give her separate birthday and Christmas presents, and she specifically requested a pair of my hand knit socks for her birthday this year.

When I saw the skein of Noro Kureyon sock yarn (colorway 164) I figured it could easily be made into the best pair of socks ever. The colors were perfect for my earthy, fun-loving pal. I had read up about the nifty striping effects you can create with Noro. I carefully wound the big skein into two separate balls, and then cast on for the pattern on my teensy, tiny size one needles. I alternated four rows of the pattern from each ball. I loved the zig-zag effect immediately, although I gotta tell you, I'm not much of a fan of lace (counting is hard!) either. The socks did go surprisingly well, although I'm not going to lie and say I didn't have to rip it out once (or maybe like five times, whatever).

The colors were looking pretty good at first. Manly, almost (the one that starts with the gray and mustard is the first sock). The boyfriend thought they were really neat and wanted a pair for himself. That is of course, until they went into the bright green. Then the bright green melded with the mustard, and the socks started to look kind of, um, unfortunate. The second sock doesn't even look like it came from the same bunch of yarn because it's mostly teal and green. I really like the teal and green combo but it is the complete opposite of the first sock. The second sock also unfortunately had the pleasure of the green/mustard combo too.

Oh well, I love them just the same. They are quirky and unique. I hope my friend will see them that way too.