Stix ‘n Brix

Bacon is one of life’s great guilty pleasures, but the standard 1-pound package is way too much for one or two people. Our need is for anywhere from two slices (fresh bacon bits are a great garnish for a batch of fresh cooked spinach) to five or six slices when accompanying a pancake breakfast. At our house we eat bacon so seldom that even it’s long refrigerator life isn’t sufficient for us to consume a full pound.

We tried breaking a package into breakfast-sized packs and then freezing those, but that didn’t help when all we needed were a couple of strips for spinach. Besides, pancake breakfasts are typically a last-minute treat so the need to defrost before cooking was an inconvenience.

In recent years pre-cooked bacon has appeared in stores. It’s very convenient, but way too expensive for the convenience, and the selection is limited. Why couldn’t we do that ourselves? We can, and we do. Yesterday we bought a couple of pounds of Oscar Mayer on sale. I fired up my trusty pan and cooked up the entire mess  layering the cooked strips between paper towels on a platter.

Once drained and partially cooled I put the stack into the freezer for about an hour. Then I simply peeled the now-stiff strips from the towels and popped them into a heavy-duty zip-top freezer bag. Since they were frozen separately they won’t stick together in the bag. All we have to do is remove as many strips as the occasion calls for and zing them for a few seconds in the microwave, just enough to heat them up.

Let’s not forget about the bacon grease. A teaspoon or so does wonders for that spinach. While the bacon is cooking I cut 6-inch square pieces of foil and press them into a muffin tin as liners. Into each cup is poured the drippings from a five or six strip batch of bacon. The entire tin is placed in the freezer until the grease has frozen into solid pucks. The foil is folded to enclose, and the entire batch of pucks is frozen in another zip-top bag.

The technique of bacon-frying is becoming a lost art, but I think pan-fried bacon tastes much better than microwaved. I like my bacon chewy-crisp, with (nearly) all the fat cooked off, but not so crisp that it fractures before bending. For those with the same preferences, here follows my technique.

The ideal bacon-frying pan is a nonstick with a lot of mass. This gives the most constant, even heat. A 12-inch diameter fry pan holds up to 6 stips without crowding. Pre-heat the pan over a large burner at dead-center medium heat, 5 on a scale of 10. Avoid the temptation to quick-preheat at a higher setting. You want the pan’s temperature distribution to be as even as possible.

Lay your strips into the pan putting the first strips near the outside and working in towrds the center. The edges will always be colder, so you’ll want those strips to have those few extra seconds of cooking. Temperature control is important: There should be a gentle sizzling, but no big pops or spatters. Adjust your burner setting accordingly.

Once five or six strips are comfortably in the pan, put on a spatter guard if you have one and just WALK AWAY. Resist the temptation to fiddle with things.

In about a minute it will be time to shift the center pieces to the edges and the outer strips to the center. It is NOT time to turn them over yet. Just rearrange them to even out the cooking.

In about another minute the first side will just be starting to brown. (Don’t go by the clock, go by the look.) Now is the time for the first of two turns, before the first side is done.

The second side will brown up much faster. When it’s a beautiful medium-brown with just a few specks of dark, turn again, and also rearrange outer strips to inner again as you do.

In just a few seconds, almost immediately as you turn the last strip, the first strips will be done. Remove all the strips to drain on paper towels for about a minute, then turn them over to drain the other side. Put a paper towel on top, for the next batch.

When cooking multiple batches, I use a silicone spatula to scrape any brown bits and as much grease as possible from the pan into my muffin-tin “puck molds”.

Every batch is different, but once you find the right heat level don’t mess with it. Best and easiest is to adjust cooking time by using your eyes.

It feels great when visitors compliment your home’s decor, but it’s even better when you can tell them ”I made that myself.” Sadly, most of us lack the talent and training to create even simple art.

Paint by number kits came into being over 50 years ago for just that reason. They rode high on the wave of do-it-yourself crafting for over twenty years before slipping into obscurity. To be honest, those early kits were not much to be proud of. They were crudely rendered in only a few colors. Their smelly oil paints were slow to dry and messy to clean up. Many were laughably poor reproductions of famous works of art. They became teh butt of well-deserved sneers.

That’s all changed now. Paint by number has exploded back into popularity. Today’s kits  are beautifully designed. They include two to three times as many colrs for more subtle, attractive shading. Paints are usually low-odor, fast-drying acrylics that clean up with soap and water. Brushes and easy-to-follow instructions are included. Paint-by-numbers are still affordable, too, with prices ranging from six to thirty dollars.

There are more kits than ever to choose from, too. One online craft shop, Uptown Sales (www.UptownSales.com) stocks nearly two hundred different kits. And to prove that paint by number is not to be sneered at, some of America’s most popular artists like Charles Wysocki and Thomas Kinkade produce paint-by-number designs.

So if you’re looking to fill that space on the wall with something that has a “personal touch”, take a look at paint-by-number kits. They’re an easy, attractive, and affordable way to add custom decor to your home.