Bacon = flavor

Bacon makes my life happy. Any chance I get to eat bacon is really a chance at happiness. I bought some bacon the last time I went grocery shopping with Matt and brilliantly Matt suggested I freeze it. At first I was a little miffed the first time I took the bacon out of my freezer. It was all stuck together. What was I supposed to do with that? Well I just decided that I would make it last longer by cutting it into hunks and then dicing it. So much easier to do frozen.

All of that was complete nonsense brought about from me feeling the need to explain ever conclusion I come to BECAUSE IT NEEDS TO FILL 5 PAGES!!! I've been writing way too many papers people, give me a break. Back to the bacon.

I love bacon. It holds so much flavor. Yesterday I decided to try to make my own lentil soup. It called for ham, but I didn't have ham. I decided to risk the last of my bacon on a soup that could end very badly. See I've never tried to make a soup with beans from scratch before. When I say scratch, I mean hard beans. Anyone can open a can. One time my mom tried to make soup from hard real beans; it was awful. I love my mom to death, but this soup was just inedible. The beans were crunchy and it was just gross. She swore against ever trying to make a soup like that from scratch again. I swore with her, until I found these lentils for $1.42 at Walmart and thought "Yum lentil soup."

So here I was risking the last of my bacon on something that's success was iffy. This just had to work. I fried up the bacon and an onion and a clove of garlic. Yeah talk about a lot of goodness in one frying pan. I then washed the lentils. I wasn't quite sure how one was supposed to wash lentils, but I washed them the way I washed rice during my time in Panama. I put all of the lentils in a bowl. Filled the water so it was above the lentil and swooshed it all around. Repeat 3 times. Do you want to know why 3 times. I do too. The women in Panama didn't even know. They just said the rice was ruined unless they washed it 3 times.

After washing, I Poured the lentils into a pot. I added 4 cups of water and a beef bullion, some salt, and pepper, and let it boil. Once it came to a boil, I covered and let it simmer. And simmer. And simmer. And simmer.

Ok so here's the thing about homemade lentil soup. It takes time. I kept taking spoonfuls to see if it was done and I would find done lentils done lentils and then a hard one. Ugh not done! I did that for about 20 bites and then finally after adding more water and waiting another 15 minutes it was done. And it was good, shockingly so. The bacon was well worth it. Only I had eaten about half a bowl of soup in the process.

I put some cheese on the soup and packed it for lunch today. Woah so much better the second day! There is supposed to be snow tomorrow. While my mom swore to never make real bean soup again, I would suggest it is time for everyone to try some lentil soup. It's good for you. But remember season with bacon or ham. I got my recipe from Goya and we all know Goya knows what is going on with food. It's called flavor folks!

Happy Eating!!!

Emily