Today I realized that I needed to cook some bacon that I bought during a recent trip to the grocery store. I had planned on cooking a full hot breakfast a couple weeks ago, but never got around to it.

Instead of frying bacon, I have for several years now been cooking it in the oven. There is a lot less mess when you bake it.

What inspired my wandering thoughts tonight was actually the smell of the uncooked bacon. Many people do not know that I worked in a small butcher shop (Ye Olde Meat Shoppe) during my first term of college. In that job I learned a lot about different cuts of meat and also their smells.

A lot of memories of this job, which didn’t last but a couple months, came wandering back. My next job was in a grocery store, but not in the meat department. Instead I worked as a bag boy and checker before starting to work in the pharmacy.

The smell of uncooked bacon also brought back memories of working in packing plants across the country. I worked for a packaging and labeling company out of Kansas City for a couple years and spent lots of times working around meat in different stages of production. You could always tell when you were near the bacon processing areas of a plant because of the distinctive smell.

My mind also wandered to my many travels to England and having English style bacon for breakfast. I actually like this bacon better.

I also thought of many breakfasts around the world and how the bacon is cooked in different places. Eating bacon for breakfast is one of the little pleasures I indulge in when away from home.

I am not a morning person, so unless someone else is cooking my breakfast for me I usually don’t have anything that takes a lot of preparation.

Bacon for breakfast is one thing I miss when I go to Israel.

That doesn’t mean that I haven’t had bacon in Israel. Jacob’s Pizza in Jerusalem has a great bacon pizza.

I am also thinking of bacon wrapped little smokies. I had some of these on New Year’s Eve. Some friends brought me some all the way from Patterson. It was good to see them for a few minutes, even though we stayed distanced from each other and wore our masks.

Bacon…….

Steven