Plus: Paper Bacon!
Meteors: Summer is one of my favorite seasons for stargazing. From Ganymede to the Thunder Moon the night sky will be alight with celestial wonder July and August.
The most anticipated event for our family is the annual August Perseid Meteor Shower. We have a whole Star Watch Party with themed food, a bonfire (which we extinguish near viewing time), and of course, hot cocoa. I also like to have a fun playlist of nostalgic or mellow music and to my delight, I found that there are quite a few such collections on Spotify! NASA has a Super Moon one that's a blast and has people singing along. They have ones for the eclipse and even launches. You should check out Third Rock Radio, NASA's feed for all things space.
This one is my favorite...
My husband inflates our air mattress and we all curl up on it on the lawn. I highly recommend having your own Perseid Party this year and just gaze at the cosmos. Its awesome! Here are some cool facts about the meteor shower that might get you motivated to check it out.
We've made some pretty cool snacks and desserts for our stargazing parties, and they are almost as fun to make as actually watching the stars streak across the night sky. This star cookie recipe was a hit at our last one.
GHOST STORIES: California is shutting down once more it seems, and so I have been on the hunt for fun things online that might be good for filling up those long quarantine days and nights. I came across a great list of 20 Horror Stories You Can Read For Free Online and it is chock full of famous authors like Stephen King and Daphne du Maurier.
If you're a bit of a scaredy-cat like I am, here is a list of 50 Scary Stories for Kids that might be more our speed. And finally, for those who have no time to read during the busy day, here is the popular, Real Ghost Stories Podcast.
Paper Bacon: Our Quarantine Kitchen hijinks are in full swing. This time we wanted to have some good old fashioned BLT's because our yellow garden tomatoes are ready to come off the vine.
As a vegan for health reasons, I really do miss the things I loved before we changed our diet. One of those is a juicy BLT sandwich with a nice, warm tomato straight from the vine.
A sandwich with bacon is obviously a problem for plant-based eaters. I found this recipe at one of my all time favorite Vegan Food Channels on Youtube called, The Edgy Veg. Now, I know that everyone says this but...I totally tastes just like bacon!
This recipe calls for the use of rice paper for the bacon body which is dipped in an amazing smoky-sweet marinade that just screams pancakes and bacon in a log cabin. Yes, that good. It was fun, easy, and worth a try. The Rice Paper Bacon recipe is available on her channel and here on her blog.
If you all plan on watching the meteor showers, or if you do try the bacon recipe and post pictures, please tag me so that I can see it!
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I share news on tech innovations and how they affect us, publishing industry news, updates on my near-future thriller books, and recipes from my characters.