Bacon Ice Cream ... like licking a cold pig on a hot day!

Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and try something that scares you. The only problem with that philosophy is that once you throw caution a couple of times you start to get braver and doing wilder and crazier stuff.


So when I was a very young man, my mom encouraged me to try new things, and especially food. Later in live I challenged myself to try new foods all the time, sometimes in a foreign country with questionable sanitation and unrecognizable meats.\

This has led to a lifetime of foodie thrill seeking and the latest is bacon ice cream. Don’t stop reading now, you really need to try this as it is incredible and worthy of a thrown caution!

I’ll get to the point, below is the recipe … try it and let me know what you think … oh and remember I’m a insurance agent and I’m wanting to quote your business (although if you are such a risk taker with your food, I might have to rethink that.


Bacon Maple Ice Cream

1/4 pound Bacon, raw, roughly chopped
2 cups half & half
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar, light, packed

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine bacon, half and half, cream, maple syrup, and sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Reduce to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat, cover, and set aside to steep until a deep bacon flavor develops, 10 to 20 minutes. Strain through a medium-mesh strainer and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Put it in your ice cream machine and run it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Makes about 5 cups of ice cream.

Candied Bacon bits

While waiting on the ice cream to get done you can take ¼ pound of bacon and pack brown sugar on top then boil in the oven on low until the sugar is melted and the bacon is crisp. With kitchen shears chop up the bacon into small pieces to sprinkle on top of the ice cream.

Now buy life insurance from me cause you’ll need it if you keep this up!

Justice!!!

People all seem to have a natural since of Justice.  We all want the bad guy to get it in the end, and the mean kid to get what's coming to them. But is that what we should really be focused on?

When we here about someone being accused of something, we usually think they are guilty regardless of how unlikely their guilt is.  When we hear of misfortune for those accused we often say "serves them right!"  But I've been around long enough to have seen the Innocent accused and the guilty go free.  How do we feel when the convicted are proven to be innocent?

Justice is a concept with a flaw in it ... the flaw is we are too flawed as humans to pick the right punishment for the crime.  We get it wrong too often to be considered a good judge.  Why do I bring this up?  Well, its been on my mind with some recent events in the news and I find myself thinking that we are stilled flawed and that our judgement should be slow, measured and only after thoughtful consideration.

More than anything we should be slow to act in matters of judgement and forgiving of those convicted cause we are seldom certain of anything when we are called to judge truth from lies, fact from fiction and real from imagined.

J

Sour grapes are still sweet when they are dried!

Some people are just sour.  They can find the downside to everything.  If you get a raise at work they say "you'll pay more taxes now."  If you buy a new type of shoe they say "you'll get a blister if you wear them before you brake them in."  Order a steak and they'll tell you how bad the last one they had was, or how bad the service was the last time they were at that restaurant. 

Nothing is every just good or great ... there is always a downside and those folks are there to show it to you.  But now you can't let that get you down.  Just like the downside there is always an upside and that's what you need to keep your eye on.  Don't let a few Debby downers get to you. 

Be unshakable, stand firm in the face of sour people, your attitude is just as infectious as their bad attitude so reflect the upside and ignore the downside.  People with sour attitudes must have agreement to spread their sourness.  If you refuse to agree with with them and refuse to help them spread their doom and gloom then they can't change you.

Plus, if they can't shake your optimism over time something happens ... they start to change and they will begin to have a sunnier disposition.  Just like grapes that have been dried into raisins, these sour people may start out sour but a warm sunny day will sweeten them right up and they won't even look like the same people.

Moral - Stay sunny ... and you'll dry out the sour people (or something like that)

J

Email me with your questions on Life Insurance.

Ever need something and not have it?

As an insurance agent, I often review client insurance policies to make sure they have the appropriate type of policies, amount of coverage and most cost effective policy. The most commonly overlooked protections is a personal umbrella policy.
An Umbrella or personal liability policy is usually an all risk, all peril policy with coverage limits that start at $1,000,000. There are some very specific reasons that you might want to consider purchasing an umbrella and there are also some adjustments that you will want to make to your homeowners and auto insurance if you do. How do you know if you need an Umbrella?
Well, do you have youthful drivers in the home? One of the most basic reasons to purchase a liability umbrella is if you have young children that are learning to drive or are under age 25. Young drivers are inexperienced, easily distracted (friends, cell phones, texting, etc.) and statistically are involved in more accidents than any other age group. An umbrella policy will cover them all and protect you from losing everything if one of your children happens to cause a serious accident.
Do you have assets to protect? Most homeowner and auto policies have liability coverage between $300,000 and $500,000. But if you have assets in excess of this amount, you are exposed to a potentially higher liability problem if someone decides to sue you. Maybe you were involved in a car accident or someone slipped on your property, etc. If they sue you for more than the $500,000 and win, the rest will come out of your pocket or you may have to sell some assets (usually at a loss). If your net worth is over this limit, (value of home, land, retirement, autos, investments and all other assets added together) consider purchasing an umbrella policy for the appropriate amount. Think about the last time you heard about a lawsuit for less than a million dollars, how many do you hear about that are below two million these days?
Another reason to consider is if you are in a profession where incomes are typically high. Someone may think that you are wealthier than you are just because of your title or profession and may be more inclined to sue for a larger amount.
Today we live in a sue happy society. Lawyers are suing for larger and larger amounts and if you bear any liability, they are winning. Even if you are not liable, the legal defense fees are expensive. Some say that having a million dollar umbrella causes attorney's to sue for more. This may be true, but if you need the protection, it is better to buy the policy and hope you never use it, than it is to need it and not have it.
For many families today, young drivers, increasing net worth and higher incomes make personal liability protection a necessity rather than an option. The additional cost is not extreme, and if you make increase your deductibles on other policies, you can possibly cut your extra out-of-pocket cost in half.

Email me if you want to discuss your Liability needs

2 Fish and 5 Loaves

Everyday we get the opportunity to do good in the world, some days we get a chance to right a wrong and occasionally we get to help change some one's life for the better.

This summer the people of Bloomfield, Indiana will get to do some good, right a wrong and change a bunch of lives!  This summer we will join a growing effort to feed the children of families that live under the constant threat of hunger.  The churches, organizations and individuals of Bloomfield are stepping up to take responsibility for making sure our children get the nutrition they need!

Each year 20 million school children get free or reduced lunches in their schools but during the summer, even though the need still exists they don't have that resource.  The USDA offers a free lunch program during the summer but it takes volunteers to serve those meals and resources to prepare them.  Starting the week after school gets out, the people of Bloomfield will start a free lunch program to feed children Monday through Friday and give them a place to go for safe fun and care.

This program will help expand the Bag buddy lunch program that Tulip Church runs during the school year, which sends a bag of food home with kids to supplement their food for the weekend.  Plus the new program will augment the long standing Soup on Saturday program run by the churches of Bloomfield on a rotating basis.  Using this platform we will be better able to promote the existing food programs (such as the food pantry operated by the Baptist Church).

So, if you live in the area and you want to spend a couple of hours this summer to volunteer in the Bloomfield Hunger Project, just send me an email HERE.  We'll let you know what needs to be done and how to get started.  No one should go hungry in Bloomfield Indiana and we want to make sure they don't ... there are lots of ways to help so email me today and sign up.

Like our Facebook page Bloomfield Hunger Project and join us this summer!

J

Getting Mixed Signals?

Ever notice how the guy with no money is an expert on making more money?  Sure he is, just ask him.  The fellow with the crappyest car is knows exactly what you need to do in order to get your car working better.  I mean, live is confusiong enough with all the experts on TV and the web giving out conflicting advice ... go left , go right, stay straight, buy, sell, hold ... take the stock market today, one radio expert tells you to buy gold to preserve your principle and get out of stocks so the market doesn't devalue your cash, the next will tell you to buy all the under valued stock you can so when the market rebounds you'll bring home the bacon.


How do you know who to trust? Good question, here's my advice; if they don't know what you want to accomplish with your money then don't trust them.  A good advisor will ask more questions than you want to answer but that is part of the process, if they don't ask you a lot of questions then how do they know what you need.  If they don't know you, how can they give you advice on financing?  Find someone that you trust and talk to them about what your goals are, and let them help you explore your options.  Don't be afraid to say that you want to think about it, because if the advisor has your best interest at heart he will want you to think about it.  Don't be afraid of scheduling a second meeting, if you want to think about it set up the next meeting at the end of the 1st one.  If you're anything like me you won't give it another though unless you have a deadline.  Finally, if you are married involve your spouse, have them go to the meeting with you, they may not trust the advisor like you do or they may have different concerns than you do.  If you are not married then take your mom or dad or if you are older yourself take your kids.

I don't listen to the radio and TV "experts" because well 'they don't know my life' and they don't ask me any questions.  I also don't take cooking advice from a plumber or plumbing advice from a chef ... be sure the people you are listening to are advisors or agents not the guy in line at Walmart or your friend with the minimum wage job and no money for lunch.  Those folks have a lot to say but it's nothing you want to listen to.

Investing is tough because everyone is different in how they handle the stress of risk, and in what they want to accomplish with their money so there is no magic path that everyone can take, just a lot of paths leading in the direction you want, so follow the guide that makes you feel the safest.

J

Let me ask you questions about what you want your money to do!

What would grandpa do if he won the lottery?

You know it's funny to think about what would grandpa do with $650 million dollars.  But most of us have a different perspective on the matter.  Each of us are in a different place in life; young with a family, single, middle aged with college aged children, empty nesters, or grand parents.  Plus we all have different goals; fun life style, secure future, leaving a legacy for the grand kids.

Very few people have any experience with that much money let alone getting it all at once so finding experts to guide you is important and I mean more than one. 

Some advisers will have a plan for all your money but you are far better off having a couple of different advisers and spreading it around so that you can get more than one opinion and get the advantage of multiple perspectives on your money.  Even if you don't win the lottery you should discuss your financial goals with at least two different insurance agents or financial advisers, even agents that offer financial advising differ in their approach from financial advisers so take advantage of the opposing views. 

For example you might have a $10,000 CD and want to leave as much money as you can for the children, the advisor might say take the CD and roll it into a higher yield variable annuity that will grow with the market and the agent might say that advantage of the tax benefits from a single premium life policy and use the $10,000 to buy a $30,000 death benefit.  Each will bring a different perspective to you and give you a clearer path toward your goals.

Good luck on the lottery and call if you win.

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