I really can’t believe how fast time is going by. I was booking a hotel tonight for San Francisco and I realized that I’m leaving in less than two weeks. I feel like I’m in one of those shows where they speed up the time and the characters begin to talk in extremely fast high-pitched mouse voices. All around me things are starting to rev up and I’m like “Wait! Hold up! My little legs can’t go that fast!” On the bright side, my outreach event on Saturday went smoothly without a hitch – 71 girls and all was well! I was exhausted by the end of the day but all that hard work planning paid off. Now it’s just a few more meetings and some wrap-up and I am done my school commitments until September!

I can’t deny though that I did a happy dance with the hotel that I just booked. It’s very swanky. (I’ve always wanted to use that word). Before I start at Google, I’m spending a few days in SF with a friend I haven’t seen in two years. We met at a Google thing a few years back and have kept in touch ever since, but he lives in Atlanta and I live in Van so our postal codes don’t exactly match up. I was really beginning to doubt that I’d ever see him again, so I’m really happy that we’ll be able to hang out before I immerse myself in Googley-ness. I think with booking the hotel, though, it started to hit me that I’m actually leaving again for the summer, and I got super conflicted about it. Don’t get me wrong – I know it’ll be amazing, just as it was last time, and I’m going to have a great time. But being out there does mean that I miss out on people who are here, people that I’d rather not miss out on. I suppose you can’t have it all. This would all be solved with a person-sized suitcase, I swear.

To stave off any melancholy, my friend came over yesterday and we had an adventure in ice-cream making. Specifically, we made french-toast-chocolate-bacon ice cream. Yes, you heard me right. We were trying to think of a snappy name for it, but the best we could come up was breakfast of champions ice cream, which really doesn’t capture it well. It was very interesting to see how different people reacted to it though; my friend and I loved it, my dad and sister were indifferent, my mom and boyfriend were very undecided. It’s definitely interesting.

French Toast Chocolate Bacon Ice Cream (adapted from various sources, including David Lebovitz)

Chocolate Bacon

• Bar of your favourite chocolate – we used dark and added some chocolate chips in
• 6 pieces bacon

Ice Cream

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 3/4 cup half and half
• 5 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons rum
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. To make the bacon: Cook the bacon in a frying pan and cool on a sheet with a paper towel. Melt the chocolate in a bowl.

2. Dip the cooled bacon into the chocolate until it’s coated. Try not to make the chocolate too thick, or the bacon taste won’t be that strong. Butter wax paper on a cookie sheet and place the chocolate bacon onto it. Stick in the fridge until hard, and then chop into little pieces.

3. To make the ice cream: melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar and half of the half and half. Pour the remaining half and half into a bowl in an ice bath and put a mesh strainer on top (you’ll need it later).

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks. Pour in brown sugar mixture, whisking as you pour, and then pour it all back into the saucepan.

5. Cook over low to medium heat until it’s thick enough to coat your spatula. It’s okay if it’s still runny. Strain into the half and half in the ice bath, stirring constantly, until the whole thing is cool. (This part was a little strange if your custard gets a little too thick. We just took a spoon and pressed it through the strainer). Add vanilla, rum and cinnamon. It looks a little strange. That’s okay.

6. Freeze in your ice cream maker; when it’s done stir in chocolate bacon and drool.