Everything is Better With BACON!

Who doesn't like crispy brown BACON??

The grease is like a secret ingredient when I fry potatoes!

I bought a package of maple cured bacon yesterday mainly for the BACON GREASE!

 Everything tastes better when you fry something in a little bit of bacon grease!

I am always amazed at how MUCH bacon shrinks!

It goes from THIS.....

to THIS!!

All to get THIS!

The GREASE!

The 'secret ingredient!'

Louis Dean and I are sitting in our warm little camper waiting for my youngest son and my first born daughter to arrive!! I have a pot of potato soup for them and will be making some garlic toast as soon as I hear they are close! I am so excited you would think I'm in a Hallmark card commercial!

Our first overnight guests in the camper!!!

Benjamin is the reason for the grease!!

I boiled some potatoes when I got home from Quadville today and will fry them up along with some onions in a little bacon grease for breakfast in the morning!

This is his FAVORITE meal!!

He's been living and working out in California and tonight will be the first time I've seen him since early LAST December! 

As cold as it is (and it IS cold in Houston tonight!) Louis Dean and I put our gazebo back up!

I plugged the lights in and it is all bright and welcoming!

I think they will find us!

Like Motel 6 - we're leaving the light on for them!

We'll be waiting!

A "SON" Day Dinner!

Nothing like having your SON over for SUN-day Dinner!!

I love it!! It has been the BEST day! My youngest son, Benjamin, lives out in California and I have not seen him in MONTHS and MONTHS! I think it was NINE months to be exact. Once I didn't see him for one YEAR and one month - so this wasn't a record but STILL!! The timing for his visit was perfect! His birthday is Saturday!

Dinner was at 6:00 so I had all day to prepare.

It is traditional to bake up a batch of chocolate chip cookies for him and totally stands in for not having a birthday cake.

I always keep a vanilla bean in my sugar canister. Nothing like vanilla sugar!!

Cookies turned out great! Chocolate chip for Ben. Chip LESS cookies for Louis Dean and a few butterscotch chips for ME!

Plus a special cookie jar for our little neighbor girls!

 Win! WIN!!

Louis Dean made his famous brisket - and I made the BBQ sauce.

First course was this surprisingly good soup - from my favorite store (unless you count Publix which IS my favorite store!) - HEB!

Steamed veggie medley and company mashed potatoes rounded out the meal.

We cheated with store bought rolls but these are SO good!!

24 rolls for $3.99 at Sam's is a good buy!

Louis Dean is going to learn to make these as they are Mike's favorite!

I had Ben's baby book out so we strolled down memory lane.

He will be 24 on August 11th.

My how quickly he has grown up!

Birthday card and a 'to go' bag of dinner food and it was all too soon time for him to leave. When he comes into town there is a whole line up of people to see and things to do - as is only right for a young man who lives so far away and has a lot of family and friends to see!

I am so proud of the son he is and the man he has become!

It was a lovely Sunday and I enjoyed seeing my son.

Louis Dean and I told him we will have a bunk in the camper all ready for him when he visits us down in Houston.