I'm back home and only about half-ready to jump back into real life--I can't say I'm too upset about this two day week leading into another long weekend, though! Arizona was a nice change of pace, and although most of the pictures I took were with my phone, I did take my camera out a few times to snap a few decent ones.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
--
(See a bit more from Arizona here.)

It's bizarre, to simultaneously feel completely hopeless about one thing and so incredibly blessed about everything else. But I think that's just how life is sometimes.

To say that we stayed in this weekend would be an understatement. On Saturday afternoon Rob, Sean, and I ventured out to the mall to do some Christmas shopping and literally bought one thing before looking at puppies and then going home. Not productive. At home, we watched movies and ate a huge seafood dinner of scallops, lobster, and shrimp with my parents. We sat on the couch by the fire on Sunday morning and drank tea. Sunday afternoon brought a cooking marathon between my mother and I, and then Rob and I took a walk down to the dock and sat on the boat for a while.

I spent so many moments this weekend looking around me and feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. This family, this man, this food and these things that I sometimes take for granted without a thought. I feel so, so lucky for this life I've been given.

This recipe was inspired by several things. First of all, fall is the perfect time for apples, isn't it? But more than apples, I have been eating a lot of dark chocolate recently. Like, really dark. I eat it at night, with a glass of red wine, while I read or listen to music. It's really nice, and it makes me feel fancy. And finally, I don't think I need to remind you how much I love bacon.

I sent my mom a text message before I left work last night that said, "Do we have apples, bacon, and chocolate?" and believe it or not, she didn't say, "Get a grip, Megan!" She actually said "Let me check," and then "Yes," so I rushed home with excitement.

This is what we're going to do--we're going to dip some apples in dark chocolate and then we're going to cover them with homemade bacon bits--because, why not? Ready? Let's do it.

 

Ingredients:

One Honeycrisp apple

A bar of dark chocolate (I kept it Paleo with this one)

Several strips of bacon

1. Cook the bacon until it is really, really crunchy. You're going to turn these into little bacon bits.

2. Once it's cooked, chop it up. I used a chopper to get it as fine as possible. 

We're talking almost bacon dust, people.

3. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.

4. Slice up your apple and set up an assembly line with apple slices first, then chocolate, then bacon.

5. Dip a slice in the chocolate, let it drip a little, and then sprinkle the bacon bits on the chocolate.

6. Plate them, show your friends, and feel like a culinary genius for a few minutes.