Sandwich Perfection

It happened again.  We did such a crazy dinner last time, that mr wanted something really light and easy now.  He suggested sandwiches again, to go with the picnic theme... and we both agreed that the best idea was:

Who doesn't love a god BLT??  As you can tell from the picture above, any BLT needs to start with the best quality essentials.  You've got your bread (and thanks to you guys, I found whole grain white bread.  YES!), ripe and juicy tomatoes all sliced up, green leaf lettuce (perfect size, crispness and flavor) and your regular cut smoked bacon.  Notice there are three types of bacon on the platter to satisfy any bacon lover - cooked, crisp, and charred.  We've got all types in my family.  A note about bacon:  I've tried the microwave stuff, and it's good.  It's not a bad idea for this meal since you're going for easy here.  BUT you can tell the difference in bacon between the microwaved and the fried stuff, and I figured I'd spend a little extra time for the extra tasty stuff.


There's no news above, is there?  But do you want to know what your secret weapons are in order to make the perfect BLT?

It's true.  First of all, you've got your real, honest to goodness mayo.  Just a little bit.  It's a must.  Then, of course, your seasonings.  (Remember what I said about tomatoes and salt??)  And the final secret ingredient you can't do without?  Cheddar.  I prefer medium.  Yes, I'm aware it's not a BLTC, but we're in Wisco, and cheese is such a staple it's implied.  The "C" is silent.  But the flavor is not.


So, you know how this goes.  I mean, typical sandwich.  Mayo, sprinkle some oregano on the mayo, cheese, tomatoes, add the salt, 

add the bacon, 

add the lettuce.

And mmmmmm...

Ok, to be perfectly honest, this WOULD be perfection if the bread were toasted.  This was an exceptionally lazy dinner day.


For the side, I thought I'd try these Guava and Cream Cheese Empanadas from over at rae gun ramblings.


Trouble was, I couldn't find guava preserves anywhere.  I still wanted to try the idea out, though, so I ended up with Red Currant preserves and Lemon Curd - two that I wouldn't normally buy.

Admittedly, they don't look like much, and I probably could have baked them just a bit longer.  BUT they were oh, so tasty!  And much more dessert like than side dish, but that happens a lot.  This time it was good, though, since dessert was such a dismal failure.  I won't list the recipe, since it's already posted here, and I made no changes except the flavor of preserves.


I was trying to make Magnolia Lace Trumpets, a la Paula Deen.  I've had these up on my pinterest board for a while.  Paula knows how to lure me in with her talk of whipped chocolate and easily molded cookie crisps.  She's such a liar.  Cooking level: moderate???  Moderate???  Try MAD SKILLS PROFESSIONAL, DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME.


The stupid cookie part (which weren't even really like cookies...) would NOT bake up right, let alone mold around a greased handle.  Arg.  I'm not even going to give you the recipe.  Futile.


I did have the chocolate filling all prepared, though, and nothing to do with it.  I scrounged in the fridge and came up with some buttermilk biscuits.  So, I squished those down into muffin tins and baked them that way.  They fluffed up a lot, so I had to dig out the middle a bit.

And then I just spooned the chocolate stuff into them.

They were pretty good.  No Magnolia Lace Trumpet mind you, but good.  There seemed to be some competition in flavor between the sweetness of the filling and the sweetness of the biscuit dough.  If you want to try something like this though, you can get the chocolate filling recipe here.


All in all a pretty good dinner - on the cheap and easy.  You've gotta have that every once in a while.

*Be sure to check just below for all the fun parties I link to!