Free Range Friday ~ Eat Up Summer

The summer solstice arrived at 5:45 a.m. here. It woke me up, or maybe that was my house sitting cat, who felt impelled, at that moment, to leap over me and stare longingly out the window, watching summer arrive on a drifty invisible breeze.

Wouldn't this be great on the beach?

One of my favorite days of the year, for all it meant and all it means; in the old days, school was out, marathon beach days were in. My bike that trudged me to school flew me to the woods and beach and rivers. I liked school, but I loved being outside more. Much more. What better classroom, playroom, adventure course was there than our own beaches, our wooden bridge, our fishermen and boaters, spending endless shining days climbing what seemed like cliffs, down to the water to see hundreds of horseshoe crabs mating (and if you think you are quite the experienced and sophisticated sexual voyeur - of the not human variety, thank you - you haven't seen some weird until you watch horseshoe crabs procreate), tossing fish we just caught to dolphins, making bonfires on the beach...summer.

These days, it's more like this...'this' being a very full weekend that started last night: a flea market in town tomorrow, parties and birthdays, music, and more parties, culminating in Noche de San Juan, where at midnight we will walk into the warm sea 3 times. Backwards. For good luck.

When we were young and my father made all of our breakfasts (yes, I've done eggs before, so you can skip out now if you've already read this, because I'm doing them again), he would carefully spoon bacon fat over our sunny side up eggs, barely cooking the shiny yolk with the heat of the grease. I made this on Father's Day, a tip of the pan to my Dad.

These days, unable to buy decent, as in not raised grimly and full of antibiotics and god knows what else, bacon, I rarely succumb to its lure. But the other day I did and used it in about five dishes to enjoy my very guilty pleasure. Premier among them, simple bacon and eggs. Ok, the deviled eggs with shrimp and bacon in them were pretty good too.

Bacon cooked over a medium heat until crispy. Right before you burn it, stop!

A paper towel to absorb excess fat off the already not exactly heart healthy meal

At least I know the eggs are organic and delicious! Gently tip the pan and spoon the hot bacon fat over the tops of the eggs.

Serve. With rye toast. I replaced Dad's obligatory giant glass of milk and another of OJ with a cup of tea and a small glass of OJ. Buen provecho!

 Have a feed your frybaby yearning Friday. Do something feastable. Happy Summer!