The Swine Flu or Quite Possibly, When Pigs Fly?

Monday night's focus at school was on Safe Serve. In this course, we learn how NOT to make people vomit after eating the food we've prepared. The pictures in our textbook show only the foods that could be infected and NOT the infected food. Even more thankfully, there are no pictures of people that have been infected. It does however talk about the diseases and what they are capable of doing to you if you get them. While this information is vital, interesting and disturbing, it has another very helpful trait - - IT IS A GREAT DIET TOOL! Upon learning about just how sick one little mistake can make you, it becomes VERY easy to resist eating anything that was made by somebody else. Herbert, (That's what I've named my belly) may need to find a new home soon, as I will have this course for 12 weeks and it's only going to get more informative.

Now, I'm not going to go into any further detail on what we learned. I also promise, that when I'm told where someone recently ate, that will not say "EWW! You Ate There?!?!?!" and then suck air through my teeth and look wide eyed. BUT, I will share one safe food tip. At your next picnic, don't worry about leaving the mayo out for a burger. Contrary to what we all have heard, store bought mayo is not going to hurt you when kept out. I know, I know, we were all taught it was the killer. Truth be told, Mayo, by itself, is so acidic that bacteria can't grow in it. Once you add cooked potatoes, pasta or chicken however, you have only a few hours before you've got a science experiment.

So, while we were discussing just how sick we might get and which disease was likely to be the culprit, the subject of the Swine Flu was brought up. The opinions expressed by the class were very interesting. Some were petrified and wondererd if we should be wearing masks while others thought that it was over hyped and not such a big deal. My first thought... OOOH! Bacon! MMMMM, crispy, yummy, cooked piggy. Yep. You better believe it. What ticked me off was that it wasn't the end of the class when this discussion came up, so, I was now craving bacon for the rest of the night.

Now, before you think me completely nutty, tell me right now you aren't envisioning bacon? I bet you are. Either with eggs or on a burger. There is something so awesome about bacon, hell, about all pig. (Unless you don't eat meat in which case this is probably no fun for you). In fact, we all know how loaded with fat the pig can be. It doesn't stop us from eating it. Here's a great example... at our Oscar Party earlier this year, one of the nibblets we prepared was Tempura Bacon. Yep, just like it sounds. Deep Fried Battered Piggy Goodness. Now, I imagine you have a look of horror on your face. Most of our guests did when they heard it was on the menu. Then they smelled it. Then they saw it. Then they ate it. They'd try to pass and then say "Okay! One piece". God said to Moses "If you make it, they will come". Well, I say, "If you make bacon, they will run".

VIVA LA PORK!

Tonight is baking class and we are scheduled to make muffins! I promise to update you tomorrow!