Whether Friday is a holiday for you or just the 4th day of the month (a tip o'the baseball cap to our international readers, and Happy Canada Day to the Great White North!), there will be a glorious display for you if you happen to be looking skyward.

Many in the U.S. will be watching fireworks displays. I'll be trying to find a patch of sky free of city lights and gunpowder debris.

I'll be looking for the spectacular planetary alignment: Saturn, Mars, and the crescent Moon with Earth-shine. "Earth-shine" is that peculiar phenomenon where the Moon is a sliver, yet you can see the darkened round completed due to reflection of light bouncing off of the Earth. You may doubt your eyes, but it's there, and quite lovely.

Now, if you're at all like me, you're going to find this inspiring. You're going to want to translate this into a project. Here's a start. Follow the link. You'll see what I mean. Not the frog, specifically, but imagine what you can do with your OWN design...

I hope you'll look for the sky show, I hope it inspires you to a new project, and I hope you have a safe celebration!

-->rebecca.

 

Can't get enough of bacon? Read on. Tired of it? Catch another blog post. Sorry.

Were you puzzled that The AntiCraft -- of ALL folk -- didn't have their own take on that most hallowed of all American food items, the BaconBurger?

I've done it. In fact, I've AntiCrafted it. It's steampunked.

Fire up the grill!!

A bit of back story, while we're waiting for it to heat up.

My friends have this way of beating the winter blahs every end-of-January-into-February. We have four weeks of Iron Chef competitions. We gather at one home (it's big. REEEEAAALLLLYYY big.) and ingredients are supplied and we separate into teams. This year we had a theme imposed upon us which was the movie "The Great Race," a movie based on an actual race which passed through my city in 1908.

So each week of this competition was to be based on a different leg of the movie race, and the first week would honor the 'wild west' leg. We competitors were each given 2 lbs. of ground beef, a pile of the same ingredients to use or not as we chose, and assorted one-of-a-kind ingredients to fight over or to use for barter.

We all had to make something different. I heard "chili". "Meatloaf." "Something Else" -- clearly, it was sooooo not a player... And there was a vegan option, too. I couldn't believe no one chose "hamburger": SOLD. And there was an unclaimed package of hickory smoked bacon. Again, a no-brainer: ch-ching and SOLD.

This recipe, by a record-breaking overwhelming vote, was the first winner of the 2008 Friends & Family Iron Chef Competition. I also served it at my Father's Day picnic, and both my Mother-In-Law and my dad's fiance asked for the recipe. (It's written up for submission to the magazine because it was. But there's only so much room, and it's not fair for the editors to take up ALL the space!!)

It is made of pure win. Make it for Canada Day AND Independence Day.

Bon apetit!
-->rebecca.

PS: There are pictures of this on my blog.

SteamPunked Bacon Burger Meisterburger

It felt like they were breathing down the back of her neck, but they were in fact at least twenty-five, maybe thirty miles behind.

Still: too close for comfort.

But it wouldn’t do to skip meals. That trophy could never happen on an empty stomach. This strip of road? No double arches, no giant cowboy hats. Not here! Gonna have to do it herself.

She pulled to the side. A glance in the cooler, some rapid mixing, deft application of aluminum foil. A pop of the hood and the metallic packet nestled securely on the manifold.

As she drove the next 230 miles the aroma of cooking meat tantalized her, speeding her across the continent.

Victory smells like a juicy bacon burger.

Suggested Watching
The Great Race (1965, rated “Approved”)
Wacky Races (1968, rated G)

Difficulty Level
Rrrrgh….Brains….

Finished Measurements
# of burgers = 8-12, depending on the size of the patty

Tools/Ingredients
2# ground beef
2 packages onion soup mix
2 eggs
1 1/4 C (151g) dried bread crumbs
1 medium onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
3 T (29g) minced garlic
2 t (5.7g) fresh ground black pepper (or to taste)
1 t (2.45 g) cayenne pepper (or to taste -- I prefer more!)
1/4 C (20g) dried parsley
Hickory smoked bacon (1 pkg.)

Mixing bowl
Knife
Chopping board
Grill, grill pan, or griddle
Metal spatula, large

Chef's Notes
One very effective way of forming the hamburger patties is to make a very large ball of ground beef, wrap the bacon strips around the ball so they intersect twice (once above, once below), then flatten the patty on the bacon intersection points. Your burgers will keep their shape, and the bacon will not shrink or squeeze the meat out between the strips.

Directions
Preheat your grill, if you plan to use one. You want a warm grill, not hot -- this burger needs to cook a bit slowly, due to the bacon. If you’re “grilling” this burger on the stove, use a medium-low flame/comparable electric setting.

Mix all ingredients together except the bacon. Form into patties. Wrap the bacon around the patties in the form of Xs (see Chef's Notes). Make sure there is an X on both sides of each patty. Press gently to embed the bacon in the surface of the patty.

Place the burger patties on the cooking surface. Let them cook at least 5-8 minutes without pressing or lifting it! (Seriously -- walk away if you have to! I know the temptation is unbearable for some.) Cook these burgers sloooooowly. Flip after 15 minutes. Flip again, watch and make sure the bacon doesn't cook too fast for the burgers; cook until the burgers are done to your satisfaction.

The fresh vegetables in the meat actually steams the burger from the inside while it grills. It will be VERY juicy.

Serve on toasted sesame buns with onion and tomato slices, with a little barbecue sauce and horseradish. Or don't bother with the condiments. This burger's got plenty of flavor on its own.

 

I'm one of the many deeply saddened by the passing of Tim Russert.

I'm a news geek. I know I've mentioned both here and on the forums that I'm an unapologetic NPR addict. I have a lot of respect for the way Mr. Russert respectfully, yet firmly interviewed his guests. No one got away with anything; Sunday mornings won't be the same.

There've been other significant passings this month, and that doesn't surprise me; it's June, and in my experience, that's when it happens.

So it got me thinking.

Some of my favorite Mementos Mori are embroidered samplers. I thought I'd share a few with you. One is actually called 'Memento Mori'. It's extraordinarily elegant and more than a bit on the Edward Gorey side: perfect, in my book.

There's a whole page here, complete with a bit of history.

I hope that's enough to get you a little interested in the topic, and to help show you that samplers can far exceed the flora and fauna, poems, and alphabets that many of us have found familiar and comforting.

Needlework of all sorts can provide more comfort than just the images of the comfortable. It's occupation during a trying time. It's a portable gravestone for an early American family driven to follow the call west, desperately gambling on the frontier. It's a record of time passed and time past.

Now, go and do likewise!!!

(Um, the needlework thing. Not the needing to be memorialized. I've had enough of that, thanks.)

-->rebecca.

 

Father's Day means that it's time for the annual Duct Tape Festival.

Avon, OH makes its mighty claim to fame as the "Duct Tape Capital of the World" because Henkel Corporation, the makers of Duck(R) Brand duct tape, is located there. Also, (and I heard this in a radio interview with a Henkel rep 2 days ago while promoting the event. It was NPR, so it must be true... >wink<) no one else in the world has staked a claim, so why not?

Anyway, it looks like fun. Check it out. If you're in the area, go! It certainly will be colorful!! There are 20 colors of duct tape, and I have no idea if that includes clear, which is inexplicably my favorite.

If like me, you can't make it, there's always the Duct Tape Club. You don't even have to go to meetings.

Now: why can't I go, when this marvelous festival is just on the other side of my county?

Because I'll be here as part of Parade the Circle (this link has a slide show with very colorful pictures). (I know you're jealous. Yes, it's EXACTLY like going back time to a real Carnevale festival.) It's practically in my front yard, though since it's not literally, I'll be riding my bike. Valet parking is provided for bikes. No kidding.

OK, so where does the 'wabbit' come in? My backyard. Squint; my cameraphone isn't great about nature's camouflage, but it's there. Right in the center, at the base of the lupine.

We have a nest of four baby rabbits in a flower bed right in the center of my backyard. Oh yes, very sweet. And as long as they stick to eating just the daisies and buttercups (which are legion), staying away from the more unique plants such as my lupine and 2 delphiniums (fine, '2' is not 'unique', but still!!) and others, they will remain welcome.

I'd prefer to avoid spiraling into the murky depths of the dreaded "where's my lunch, where's my hassenpfeffer" syndrome.

Happy creating, happy hunting!

-->rebecca.