A few weeks ago, the Stoned Soup staff took a tolerance break. The idea is that taking a break from daily infusions of dope will let your system clear out so that you can get more out of your buzz when you go back to that sweet sweet weed. I can tell you, that was a tough week. Frank got so bad we couldn't get him out of bed. Still, day by day, our red eyes cleared up, the strangeness of the world grew less important and the smells coming from the kitchen normalized. Interestingly, Cohen Brothers' movies are still trippy.

Our hiatus was scheduled to end on a Sunday morning, the perfect time for a wake and bake. There is nothing like a bit of herb to make you forget that Monday is coming. Saturday night, everyone came over to play Clue and psych each other up for the morning to come. Jennifer pulled out a quarter of sweet Blue Dream buds. While she ground them up, Frank claimed that he was getting a contact high. Meanwhile, Cook fried up a pound of bacon. He wrapped up the cooked bacon and strained the rendered fat into a small sauce pan. Jennifer dumped in the ground bud and set the pot on a low heat. Cook tossed in some chopped onion and garlic and let the concoction simmer.

By the time we figured out that Miss Scarlett did it in the conservatory with the vaporizer (We play a kinder gentler version of Clue), the bacon fat was thoroughly saturated with ganja goodness. Cook strained it and everyone headed for bed.

Trying to sleep that night was about as hard as it is for a 7 year old to sleep on Christmas Eve. The only one who slept at all was Cook, who snored the night away. Even he couldn't resist calling it morning around 5:30. He clanged pots and pans, chopped vigorously and generally banged around the kitchen until everyone was out of bed and gathered around the coffee machine. Jennifer had thoughtfully set it up the night before so we were all treated to a cup of Bolivian dark roast while Cook chopped potatoes into little cubes.

The potatoes went into a skillet with some olive oil, salt and pepper on high heat until they got brown. Some onion, garlic, parsley and a hint of chili flakes went in the pan and cook turned the heat down. When everyone was wrapped in the smell of sizzling garlic and onions, Cook crumbled some of the bacon into the pan and added the infused bacon fat. Frank complained a bit about cholesterol. Cook answered him by tossing in a handful of grated cheese.

While the guests debated, Cook put a pot of water on the stove. There was a dash of salt and a spoonful of vinegar in the water. When it began to boil, he swirled the water with a spoon until there was a little whirlpool in the center. He cracked an egg into the whirlpool. The spinning water kept the egg together until it started to cook. In a few minutes, when the egg was perfectly poached, cook scooped it out onto a paper towel. He repeated this until there were eggs for everyone.

My contribution was the toast. I was dying to try out the new toaster that I found on Amazon. It made slices with a pot leaf image burned on the side. Cook placed a slice of toast on a plate, slipped a poached egg on top and scooped a generous pile of hash browned potatoes next to the toast. After the time away, the fresh scent of weed beckoned and we dug in.

Frank made Bloody Marys until the dope kicked in. Somebody cheered at their favorite football team. Jennifer and Cook sang Joni Mitchell songs. No one thought about the upcoming Monday.