Engraved on the inside of Michael’s ring is the phrase, “Put it back on!” My thinking was that the phrase would remind him to quickly place the ring back on his finger anytime he removed it so it would never be lost or forgotten. It has worked, most of the time, over the past five years. The exception? When Michael plays basketball.

A few weeks back, Michael played basketball with the usual crowd. He placed his ring on a bench alongside the court for safekeeping. Ahem. Right. His buddy pulled a prank on him and snagged the ring after they were done playing. Hours later, a panicked Michael was trying to go find it when his buddy revealed the ring. You would think he would learn…

The next week, Michael again played basketball. This time, a “wiser” Michael threw the ring in his jeans pocket in his (unzipped) messy gym bag. When he arrived in our apartment parking lot after basketball, snow was falling heavily. He quickly grabbed his bag out of the back seat. He recalls hearing a “clang,” but quickly dismissed it as his belt buckle hitting the side of the car (since his jeans were dangling out the gym bag). He carried about his evening as if nothing was amiss.

Fast forward to the next morning and 6 inches of snowfall later: Michael is frantic because he can’t find his wedding ring and he thinks it’s in the snow in the parking lot beside his car. He searched in the lot before he took off for work, then asked me to search throughout the day. I looked as thoroughly as I could throughout the day, but no luck. With Michael’s car gone, it was hard to know precisely where to look, and pushing snow around with your boots only gets you so far. The snow kept coming, and I started to hear the distant, ominous sound of snow plows and snow blowers. It wasn’t looking good.

The plows started pushing through the lot, and I could only keep my car parked in the spot for so long. A couple days passed. I figured we’d never find the ring, or if we did, it wouldn’t be til the Spring when the piles of plowed snow at the very end of the parking lot finally melted down. I had lost hope.

Michael did not. Resourceful as he is, he found a place that rented metal detectors. Three days after the night he lost the ring, he was outside “detecting” like one of those guys on the beach searching for treasure. It was cold, and the detector was quite sensitive, so there were several false alarms. His hope was dwindling, but he pursued. After about an hour of searching, the ring was miraculously found!

Never again will we make fun of metal detector guys. And thank goodness, Michael’s back off the market.

In honor of the found wedding ring and metal detectors, I made an appetizer ring filled with cream cheese and bacon. Great for game days or to bring to a potluck. At Christmastime, you could add some broccoli to make it red and green, and fill the center with some pretty rosemary.

Appetizer Ring
(adapted from Betty Crocker)
Ingredients
6 slices bacon
8 oz cream cheese
1 t dried dill or fresh chives (or both)
salt and pepper to taste
2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 egg, beaten
Directions
1) Heat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Cook bacon as desired until crisp. Drain on paper towel, crumble and set aside.
2) Unroll both cans of dough; separate into 16 triangles (I only used 14 triangles). On ungreased large cookie sheet, arrange triangles with shortest sides toward center, overlapping in ring shape and leaving 4-inch round circle open in center. Crescent dough points may overlap edge of cookie sheet. Press overlapping dough to flatten.  
3) Mix cream cheese with dried/fresh herbs and salt and pepper. Spread cream cheese spread on dough to within 1 inch of points. In small bowl, mix crumbled bacon and bell pepper; spoon onto widest part of dough. Pull end points of triangles over mixture and tuck under dough to form ring (filling will be visible). Carefully brush dough with beaten egg.
4) Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. With broad spatula, carefully loosen ring from cookie sheet; slide onto serving platter. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator.