Yesterday for Fathers' day, we started with breakfast

at Conifer VFW Post 12009's Country Breakfast. (Hi Kirk!) Those boys really know how to make an awesome breakfast. $7 for all you can eat breakfast (grownups -- $4 for kids -- they haven't seen how much my son eats!). My plate had eggs, biscuits and gravy, sauteed potatoes, sausage, and of course, bacon.

The bacon was the real thing, cooked and drained and served from a steam table, but somehow it was still just awesome. Nice and crisp, but not dry.

After a busy day hiking at the lovely and peaceful Beaver Brook Watershed, we went home for dinner. I planned to cook up some sausage on the grill, but when it came off the heat it didn't smell good (I'd had it in the fridge for too long) so I changed gears to do bagel sandwiches (with bacon!).

Since the grill was still hot, I put a vegetable-grate (with lots of small holes so nothing falls through) on the heat, and put down strips of the inexpensive store-brand pork bacon I buy weekly. It's nothing special but it's real. I'd cooked turkey bacon on the grill before, but not regular pork bacon.

I turned it several times of low heat during the course of ten minutes or so. A lot of the fat cooked off into the fire and it shrunk quite a bit, but the result was excellently crispy and smoky -- much tastier than the same thing in a pan or in the oven or microwave. I cooked up the entire package so I could use some during the week. The last batch I forgot about while cleaning up after dinner and it got too overdone. I can always chop it up for bacon bits.

Happy Summer Solstice and Fathers' Day, Bacon Lovers!