Craving-Crushing BLT

      This past weekend, I satisfied a very strong food craving: a BLT. I am not sure when the craving started, but I know it lasted weeks, perhaps because I rarely eat bacon. Not that I have anything against bacon, mind you. Mmm, salty crunchy goodness. But, you know, health reasons, so I don't usually have it in the house. I may rethink that, though—a bit of bacon in the freezer for when a craving strikes or there is enough time to make a tasty breakfast is far from a sin. I digress.

      I wanted bacon, and I wanted it in the form of a fresh, crunchy, creamy (mayo) BLT. I thought my prayers were answered when I found a local bakery offering up a rendition on toasted brioche, but I was disappointed by the order. They charged $5+ for a sandwich that was hardly wider than a single strip of bacon. Hardly any lettuce, and it was iceberg (useless!), barely any bacon, and zero crunch, and a tasteless probably beefsteak tomato. The only thing we got right was pairing the sandwich with mineral water. I could do better, I thought, and so I planned my grocery trip to Wegmans.

      My first change was the bread—I picked up some fresh croissants from their bakery. Next, the produce—I opted for arugula for some crunch and punch, and I was crazy-lucky to find an heirloom tomato this far out of season. I realize this sandwich will taste even better next June, but I can hardly wait as long as I already have, so imported heirloom was as good as I was going to get. Finally, the bacon—we went with Uncured Applewood Smoked. I probably would have gone organic, but I couldn't find it, so I opted to trust Wegmans's "Food You Feel Good About" classification.

      Back at home, there were just a few things I needed to do to get the sandwich just right. First, I lightly buttered and toasted the croissants—tricky as croissants are so airy inside, but with the effort. Second, I used a good-quality jarred mayo. I bet you could take the sandwich that much further with homemade mayo. Maybe next time. This time, I used Spectrum Naturals Organic.

      Finally, to the good part. I cooked my bacon in a cold oven, as recommended by Danilo Alfaro, the Culinary Arts expert at About.com—easy, I can walk away and not worry about grease spattering about, and I collect the bacon grease for later use. I built my sandwich with arugula first and last, mayo on top, and bacon and tomato inside. My husband even sprinkled the tomato with a bit of Maldon sea salt. He opted for some Maille dijon mustard, but I avoided it on purpose. The scene was set, the water was poured, lemon sliced, and my sandwich was ready.

Bliss.

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Craving-Crushing BLT

by tishtacular November-17-2014

Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon
• 2 croissants
• butter
• 1 heirloom tomato
• arugula
• mayonaisse

Instructions

Line a baking sheet with foil. Arrange bacon slices on sheet, place in cold oven, and preheat to 400°. Close the oven door and walk away. Set timer for 17-25 minutes (mine took 22 minutes to get to my preferred amount of crispness).While bacon is cooking, preheat a skillet. Half croissants lengthwise and lightly butter. Toast in skillet for a minute or two until you reach your desired level of toastiness.Spread mayo (and mustard, if you must) on one half of each croissant.Slice tomatoes into quarter- to half-inch thick slices. Have arugula on stand-by.When bacon is done, remove from pan and place on paper-towel-lined plate to dry while assembling sandwich.My order: arugula, tomato, bacon, more arugula, top of croissant with mayo. Put stuff on croissant to your liking and consume with relish.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 35 mins Yield: 2 sandwiches

Let Dinner Tonight text you dinner ideas!

     This is quite possibly the coolest and most helpful thing I've seen in a while. Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine has a new text messaging service called Dinner Tonight by SMS. If you sign up for this service, the kind folks at Dinner Tonight will text you a recipe title every day. This is where the service gets cool. You don't like the title? Delete the text. It never came, and you can forget about it. You do like the title? Sounds like it might be tasty?


Dinner Tonight by SMS
Reply with the word "cook". The text messaging service will then text you a shopping list and email you a copy of the recipe. This means that I'm sitting at my desk, it's 5pm, and I'm wondering, "What am I going to make for dinner when I get home?" Boom, a text message with a recipe titled Penne with Two Tomatoes and Mozzarella. Sounds tasty, I think, and I reply. Boom, there's my shopping list, and I can mentally tick off what I have at home versus what I have to pick up from the store (mozzarella). I stop at the store, pick up my cheese, and when I get home, I sign on and have the recipe there, 20 minutes to make, and dinner's on the table.

     The recipes have all been about 20 minutes cook and prep time, too. It's really a brilliant service, and I am looking forward to the quick recipes that it will share. If you're interested and have a cell phone (no smart phones necessary), I suggest you try this out as well.

EDIT: As of 8/1/2012, This service is no longer available. Sorry, non-smart phone users!

WFD: Meatless Monday

     Have you ever visited MeatlessMonday.com? In general, I am a health spectator. I've learned all about what is necessary for good health, like exercise and nutrition. I've taken classes on it, and I think that I could advise someone about their own personal wellness, if I were so asked. However, I certainly do not participate in all of this knowledge. I do not practice what I could possibly preach. Not in a weight-loss frame of mind, but in an overall wellness frame, bodies like good food and to move. I have learned about good food and how to move, so I just need to do it. Back to MeatlessMonday.com. Their about statement:

Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. Our goal is to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.

And that just so happens to be a purpose with which I agree. Wellness for me, the people, and wellness for the globe. I am down, so I will give it a try.

     It also helps with my favorite question: WFD? What's for dinner? I browsed the recipes with my pantry inventory in mind, and tonight, I think I will try the Tagliatelle with Mushrooms. I have mushrooms, and I should probably use them up soon. I might pick up a flavored tagliatelle, as the recipe suggests, if I can find one in Whole Foods after (or before) I go to the gym. Baby steps. :)

     N. B. Another great answer to WFD can be found in my brother-in-law's new blog, The Militant Carnivore Cooks for his Vegetarian Wife. My brother-in-law is brilliant with the food-stuffs, and his creations should be pleasing to a wide variety of palates. In one post, he'll describe a great cheeseburger, and in another, he will present Wheat Berries with Dried Cherries, Pecans, and Rosemary. Variety abounds!

Where have I been all November?

     Why, getting married, of course! You are now talking to Mrs. Miller, but you can still call me tishtacular. :)

     And as I've been talking about all autumn, my wedding had a fall theme. Below, I'd like to share a few pictures with you to show how that was accomplished.

Item 1: My Centerpieces

Twenty-two of these were lovingly created by my mother and my aunts.

Item 2: My Favors

Yes, that is a leaf-shaped bottle of maple syrup, purchased from The Maple Guys, a company that was a pleasure to work with. I'd recommend them for all of your maple-syrup-favor needs.

End Result: An Indoor Fall Wonderland

This photo was snapped during the ceremony.

     We really had the best time, and although it went quickly, I truly appreciate the effort and joy that went into making the day so special for us.

     And finally, I found what looks like an awesomely easy dinner recipe: Tortellini Stir-Fry. As I'm trying to keep to my budget this month, I'm going to try not to charge anything else until Monday. I've got $20, my pantry, and my freezer to cook dinners for the next six days. I'm sure the Thanksgiving holiday will help! :)

What's for Dinner?

     Today, I'm asking that same all-important question--what am I going to make for dinner? Abbreviated, WFD. Yesterday, I tried to make chicken soup. My best friend's mother had the best recipe for chicken soup and chicken salad. A month or two ago, I called my mom and asked her how to make it. I wrote it down then, but forgot to save it. Last night, I tried to make it from memory, and it didn't turn out as good. I can identify three things that were different: 1. My first recipe used fresh, organic, boneless and skinless chicken that still had some fat attached. It might have even been thigh rather than breast. Last night, I used frozen, fatless, boneless and skinless chicken breasts. Usually, you can skim the fat off of the top of the soup, but no fat came to the top last night. I would bet that even though you remove most of it, the fat still must impart some flavor. 2. Because there was no fat, my initial boiling of the chicken was shorter. You usually boil until the fat is no longer rising, but I couldn't tell when that would be with fatless chicken. 3. I definitely over-salted. The last bunch of salt I threw in was too much. When we ate the soup with crackers in it, it helped to cut the saltiness, but now I know that if I'm salting to taste, I should probably take some time to taste. Sadly, the chicken salad isn't as good this time, either. Usually, you would make extra chicken in the soup, then take out a bit of it and shred it for chicken salad. The flavor of the soup stays with the chicken and is amazing. My chicken last night was not as soft as it usually is, which means I either under or overcooked it. I'll have to ask my mom to know for sure.

     So tonight, I have a ton of leftover soup in the fridge, and I don't mind leaving the containers for lunching for the rest of the week. I might pull the soup out again tomorrow and bake up some instant biscuits to go with, but for now, I'm trying to make something new tonight. I have a pound of fresh salmon in the fridge, but I'm limited in many other ingredients. So limited, in fact, that I've already submitted a Peapod grocery delivery order. I can't seem to find the time to make it to the store and purchase the big things I need, so it is so convenient that I can arrange for the groceries to come to me instead. It also allows me the time to flip through online recipes and figure out what I need. I'm bad at doing this in the store. But back to my point, I'm a little strapped on ingredients, so I think tonight's menu will be:

Maple Salmon and Broccoli with Lemon Butter Sauce

The broccoli is frozen and everything else is stock ingredients in my pantry, so I think this should work out well. Occasionally, I'm not the best with pantry cooking, but tonight it will do the trick.

     Anyone, if you have good ideas for dinner, please share! What are you having for dinner tonight?