All Parts of the Pig Weekend

It has been a while since we bought our house, but the last time we did, all the rage was to have chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven when you entered an open house so you felt welcome and "at home" (and didn't smell the pets that lived there for the last decade). A fine strategy if you are in love with chocolate chip cookies. But if you want to sell me a house, here is the correct recipe:

Heat up a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan, add some thick cut bacon or pancetta, let simmer for a few minutes--then when you see me pulling up to look at your house, throw in some garlic. Result? I walk in and offer to buy your house on the spot, because I want to live in this house with your bacon and garlic.

That, in fact, is one of the smells that you would have experienced in our house this weekend during the great Christmas blizzard of 2009 as we were buried in two feet of snow in 36 hours. But only one, as there was much cooking (and shoveling, and sledding, and other snow activities--not to mention cookie making) at our house. And much involved pork as Neats responded to the oncoming storm by reverting to her German heritage and bought pork in as many forms as she could imagine using during the storm--a ham, bacon, and sausage (two kinds). That resulted in the following:

• Saturday Dinner: Risotto with ham, mushrooms, green beans and cheese (with a base of garlic and onions of course).
• Sunday Breakfast: French toast and sausage.
• Sunday Dinner: Bacon, garlic, tuna and spinach tossed with spaghetti (a killer recipe that is an easy and quick fall back on any well stocked pantry when you are in a pinch).
• Monday (snow day!) Dinner: Slow cooked red sauce with Italian sausage over penne along with a spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing and apples and pine nuts.

Lest you worry that we only eat pork, there were other items in our diet this week . . . like cookies--five kinds in fact, all fresh made for the holidays! And suddenly, I feel the need to sleep.