you're welcome, pancreas

Did you hear the terrible news about bacon earlier this week?  Or was I the only one quietly sobbing over my breakfast?  Well, misery loves company, so let me be the first to tell you that a daily dose of bacon has now been linked with a 19% increase in a person's risk of developing pancreatic cancer.  Now we're both sad.

Turns out the study isn't new.  Similar information was released in an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute way back in 2005.  And it actually finds a correlation between higher risk of pancreatic cancer and a daily dose of any processed meat.  Thankfully, most of us aren't in the habit of eating bacon or sausage every day.  But cold cuts, that's a different story.  Those innocuous looking deli meats were a lunch staple in my household.  Were.  Meet my impeccably timed Christmas gift from Beau.  It's a meat slicer.

Last weekend, long before I'd openly wept into a bowl of oatmeal, my husband and I spent an afternoon turning a $12 turkey into about $45 worth of groceries.  Every shred of dark meat was ground, the bones were boiled for stock, and the breast was slathered in herbs and roasted.

When they emerged from the oven, they were the first pieces of meat to go through my new slicer.  Inaugural sandwich meat.  That's a noble calling, in my opinion.

After a quick five minutes of concentrating on not cutting off my thumb, we had a platter full of delicious, homemade cold cuts, free from nitrates, added sugar and bucketfuls of salt.  

Isn't it beautiful?  This is a new tradition that will keep my pancreas and mouth happy for a long time.


P.S. Welcome to anyone hopping over from the Homestead Barn Hop and the Patchwork Living Blogging Bee!  Do you guys and girls make your own cold cuts, too?