A Collection of Good Food that Celebrates – Every Day
It doesn’t have to be fancy to be fabulous, but Life – and Food – should be celebrated every day.
Occasionally, it’s perfectly propped and primped – like we’d want it to be for a party. But more often than not (even for a party), it’s graciously served as is – the way it happens in real life – because it just has to get on the table and make people happy.
We love good food. Real, honest, delicious food that pays homage to the way our Grandmothers cooked. Classic dishes and heirloom-in-the-making recipes are among our favorite things, but we also love playing with new tastes and trends. Trying new recipes, discovering new ingredients, and pushing our personal culinary envelope makes our world go ‘round.
Bacon Fatte is more than just A Recipe Collection: It’s A Place to chronicle experiences and lessons learned in the kitchen… A Place to gather and share ideas with friends and family… A Place to meet new people who also love cooking and experiencing different foods. It’s a perfectly imperfect place – slightly rustic with splashes of elegance and pops of whimsy – where *fabulousness* is a must.
‘Home. Made.’ Creativity and Ideas
Whether simple, everyday ideas, family-style meals, or playful party fare – “Home. Made.” is where it’s at. Sometimes we indulge in elaborate dishes that take hours to prepare because we actually like LOVE being in the kitchen! Other times, we’re just hungry and we need food fast. In any case, bland and boring need not apply.
Good Food that brings Good People together
to enjoy one Unabashedly Delicious experience after another.
We celebrate anything just to have an excuse to get together.
No matter what, we’re into food that is unabashedly delicious – we don’t apologize for loving good food or using decadent ingredients now and then. We’ll balance it all out tomorrow.
We appreciate yesterday, LOVE today with our whole hearts, and can’t wait to meet tomorrow head-on to soak up all the beauty and deliciousness it holds.
That’s what Bacon Fatte is made of. I hope you enjoy being here and that you’ll come back often to share this place and the things we have in common!
Cheers, and much love,
Michele
There’s a little more to The Story if you’re interested…
HOW?
One of my dearest friends and my amazing sister-in-law insisted upon hosting a wedding shower for me. Among the details they included in the invitation: A request that guests bring one of their favorite recipes to share with the bride and groom. {Love!}
One of those recipes was not only incredibly delicious, but it turned out to be pretty inspiring as well. It was a recipe for Butternut Corn Chowder from a long-time friend with impeccable taste who – let’s just say – happens to know a thing or two about good food. On the recipe card, she noted that “This is my favorite after trying many different ones”. {Say no more!}
I made the chowder for the first time on a sunny afternoon in March. After cooking the bacon, I let the rendered fat cool so I could save it for future dishes. While spooning the cooled fat into a little container, I fondly recalled that my grandmother always saved her bacon fat because it makes everything taste better.
While labeling the bacon fat container for storage {which, um, doesn’t always happen, folks!}, I randomly decided that the word fat looked better with an extra “t” and an “e”.
For some reason, this simple, intentional misspelling made me ridiculously happy.
“Things don’t have to make sense,
they just have to make me happy.”
-M
WHY?
I had been working on a blog concept for quite a while, and the name for the blog had finally materialized. Bacon Fat[te] is a wonderfully familiar and relatable term that’s just unique enough to spark curiosity and interest. {Perfect!}
Wanting to make sure the word fatte didn’t have negative connotations in other languages, I did a general search online for its meaning. There wasn’t a lot of information, but several sources indicated that it was an Italian word meaning “made” or “to make”. {Yes!}
Not knowing much about the Italian language except that you don’t want to get it wrong, I reached out to an Italian-born friend who quickly confirmed its meaning. {Woo-Hoo!}
I purchased the domain, and held on to it – and thought about it day and night – throughout the whirlwind of a year that followed…
WHAT?
We moved {sold everything, put our house up for rent, and bought a big boat to live on… I’ll tell ya all about it sometime}, and then moved back again within the course of about six months. It was then that I decided – with the insistence of my ever-enthusiastic husband – that it was time to make this project that I’d been dreaming about for so long happen.
“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.
In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”
-Julia Child
We all need the occasional what-the-hell kick in the pans {HA!} to inspire us to try something new and different – in life as well as in the kitchen. Life is just too precious and short to do – or eat – the same things over and over.
And isn’t it funny how the silliest little things can be the catalyst that causes something really good to happen? If you’re into quotes and idioms and/or somewhere-out-there meaningfulness that puts an inexplicable spring in your step like I am, you know that bacon can also mean “to accomplish a task; to be successful or victorious.” {Can I get an A-men?!}
I like to think that Julia embraced this notion of bacon in her life as well as its more traditional value in her kitchen. Through Bacon Fatte – while occasionally wielding a slightly over-poured glass of Cabernet – I’m endeavoring do the same and I hope you’ll join me!
Bon Appétit!
Michele
P.S.
Just so you know: We love bacon, but we don’t eat it every day. And, while we don’t cook with bacon fat all the time, we do love cooking with Bacon Fatte and hope you will, too!
P.S.S.
Oh, and when we do crave some good ‘ol fashioned – or newfangled – salt-cured deliciousness:
Enter – truly and tongue-in-cheekily – bacon, and every fabulous connotation that comes with it.
It’s been said that “When it comes to adding flavor and richness to your cooking, there’s little better than bacon fat”. (Oui, oui, Bon Appetit!)
Bacon is it’s own kind of culinary adventure. It can be deliciously sweet, and divinely savory.
No matter what, it’s just plain good in so many ways!
Enjoy!
