Bacon and Chocolate

You guys. This was a very good day.
I started the day with bacon cooked in the oven (!); and now, Downton Abbey and a chocolate-espresso cake  to share at tomorrow's rehearsal. (Kiss him, Sybil! Yes!)

First, bacon in the oven: I've heard of this technique before, but have never tried it. But there it was, on Pinterest, so I gave it a go. There seem to be several variations on the oven temp and baking time; I started with 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I let the oven preheat while I placed slightly crinkled aluminum foil on a baking sheet, then placed the bacon slices on the foil. After 20 minutes, I checked the bacon; it was close to the crispness I wanted, but I decided to separate the slices a bit more, and bake them for another 4 minutes. While the bacon was bakin', I made buttermilk-blueberry pancakes. This elaborate breakfast was partly because the youngest had a friend sleeping over, and partly because I made the time to put forth a Sunday morning feast for my fam. Sidenote: I made supper on Saturday evening as well, and as my kids commented on how good the mashed potatoes and gravy were, I said the food was made "with love", like you do. At which point, my son remarked that nobody ever says they made food with hate. And we wondered how hate-made food would taste; probably not palatable. I thought food made with disdain would at least be tolerable, just really snooty. These are the kinds of conversations we have with the boy around. He makes for highly entertaining dinner conversation!

And so it goes. After a hearty breakfast, I was ready for some theater work. It's been a productive weekend for Shadowplay Theatre as we prep for our next production, The Mousetrap. The set is up and ready for the actors (some finishing, trimming out, and set dressing still need to happen, but the walls and doors are up and working); the lights are hung and focused, with a truly wonderful effect for the murder (ssh! If you don't know the ending, DO NOT go to the Wikipedia page for this play; some yahoo has given away the identity of the murderer. Stupid stupid stupid!); the costumes are coming along and ready for fitting on the actors.

I made it home in time to put together a nice pasta & meatballs dinner; then, I got an itch to start baking. First, the cake referenced above; then, just for me, tiramisu. I've had a no-bake tiramisu kit in the cupboard for a while, and I finally got around to making it. (Ok, all tiramisu is no-bake, as long as the ladyfingers are already made. Whatevs.) See, I'm really the only one at home who likes tiramisu; it's my favorite dessert. I just need to indulge myself a little bit; I've earned it, dammit.

My super-busy February is progressing, the house is still standing, the plays are going up, the kids are still making me laugh and keeping me sane. And there's bacon. And chocolate. Life is good.