Full Coverage BLT Sandwich Solutions

Things I love about summer: longer days, warm weather, and BLT sandwiches made with garden fresh tomatoes.

The garden tomatoes aren't rolling in yet, but the sweet corn is, so I'm ready for BLT season!  The ultimate high is biting into a BLT and having the perfect amount of bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.  The worst: getting to the end of the sandwich and only having lettuce and bread left.

Here's how to get every bite of your BLT full of bacon and tomato.  It's so simple--you'll be surprised you didn't think of it yourself!

The full coverage BLT sandwich.

To make your full coverage BLT, you'll need three large strips of butcher bacon, sliced in half to yield six smaller pieces.  Use the thick cut butcher kind--you'll never go back to the standard strips!  Place the three strips side by side.  Then weave the remaining three strips to create a lattice work. 

 Bacon lattice work, ready to be cooked.

To cook the bacon square, I baked in the oven on a foil lined pan for about twenty minutes at 425.  Adjust based on the thickness of your bacon.  Thin bacon will cook much faster.  The thickest of butcher slices may take more time.

While your bacon is baking, slice your tomato, toast the bread, and wash and dry the lettuce.  Assemble your sandwich so all you need is the bacon.  If you really love tomato, cut your tomato into smaller pieces and stick them in place in the mayo.  This will guarantee tomato in every bite.

Tomato lover's BLT: use the mayo to glue tomato pieces in place.  This will ensure tomato in every bite in a way that sliced tomato does not.

The finished product: a full coverage BLT sandwich.

Food.com Recipe Test: Sliced Baked Potatoes

I keep calling these "Pinterest Potatoes" because I keep seeing them pinned.  They're not difficult to make--just baked potatoes with thin slices about three-quarters of the way through.  But they're so good.

I had a few extra Yukon gold potatoes that I wanted to use up, so I decided to take the Pinterest plunge.  The last time I made something from Pinterest, I hated it.  Cheeseburger Soup is never a good idea.

I Googled a quick sliced baked potato recipe and the top one was written by Karen Anne Newton and posted to Food.com.  I followed it relatively closely--slicing the potatoes, drizzling with butter, and baking at 425 degrees.  Here is Karen's recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/sliced-baked-potatoes-286965

The two differences--before I sliced the potatoes, I sprayed them on all sides with non-stick canola oil spray then sprinkled them with salt and pepper on all sides.  This really gives the skin extra flavor.  Next change: I really like crispy potato skin.  So I broiled for the final 10 minutes.  I also omitted the cheese from my potato (still minimizing the amount of dairy I consume, so the butter was enough!)

Fresh out of the oven, the potatoes had that perfectly crispy skin.

The final product--bacon on both, and sour cream and cheese added to my husband's potato.

Insider tips: 
-Definitely sprinkle the skin with salt and pepper beforehand.  I prefer sprinkling it to rolling the potato so it isn't too salty.

-Use an old pan.  The non-stick spray in the bottom of the pan, as well as the salt-pepper blend that falls off the potato tend to burn and blacken.  I keep a few old pans for tasks like this that I know won't be pretty.

-Don't sweat when you slice the potato and there isn't noticeable space between the cuts.  As the potato bakes, it will open up a little bit.

-And definitely broil the potatoes at the end.

This technique just upgraded the boring baked potato to something fun looking and better tasting!

Chicken Sausage Hash Recipe (just five ingredients!)

It's another five ingredient dinner!  If you have kale leftover from the copycat version of the Cheesecake Factory Fresh Kale Salad, here's a great way to use it up.  This is also a really economical dish that's great for lunch leftovers.  The added plus: this is another five ingredient meal!

I was inspired to make this by the Food and Wine magazine Instagram.  I saw this photo:

How easy and tasty does this look?

I've made this three times now, each time a little differently.  The first time, I bought six chicken sausage links from the deli case at Fresh Market.  They were on sale, so they were about $6.  This was the cheapest rendition.  The next time, my husband was headed to the grocery.  I told him we should make this again, so pick up some chicken sausage.  He came back with breakfast links.  Instead of criticizing (and the possibility he'd just not go to the grocery next time I asked), I just worked with it.  The recipe actually turned out fine, but a little "breakfast-y" tasting.  He remarked it wasn't as good as the time before, but I let it slide.  The last time, I was at Kroger and they didn't have sausages in the case like Fresh Market.  I used packaged sausage, I think it was Al Fresco brand.  If you want to have leftovers for lunch, use six to eight deli sausages, or two packs of packaged sausages.

 

The best option is to use deli chicken sausage.  If you can't find any at your grocer, note the difference between the breakfast sausage and the larger apple sausage links.

You're going to love how easy this is.  For four servings, all you're going to need is three strips of bacon, about eight ounces (half a package) of baby carrots, the sausage, a green apple, and as much kale as you'd like to add (at least two leaves!)

Seriously--all you need is five ingredients.  How simple is this?

To get started, determine if your chicken sausage is pre-cooked or not.  If you get it from the deli case or a meat market, it probably isn't.  If it's pre-packaged from the cold cuts section at the grocery, the package will likely say that it's pre-cooked.  

If it isn't, use a skillet and a sautee pan.  If it is, you'll only need the skillet.

If not pre-cooked:

1) Chop your bacon into lardon-sized pieces (rough chop it into bites) and your carrots into small rounds.  Add the bacon to a hot sautee pan.

2) Place the sausages in the skillet and pop in the oven to bake at 350.

3) Once bacon is approaching crispy, add the carrot rounds.  While you're waiting, chop the apple into small pieces about the same size as your lardons.

4) Once the chicken sausage begins to brown, remove the pan from the oven and cut the sausage into rounds.  Return to the oven and switch to broil to speed the browning.  Once the pieces turn golden, add the carrot-bacon mix from the sautee pan.  

5) Once the carrots begin to brown on the edges (about five minutes), add the apple pieces.  While you wait, tear the kale into bite-sized pieces.

6) When the apple pieces are beginning to brown, and the carrots and sausage have deeply brown roasted edges, add the kale by sprinkling it over the top of the contents of the pan.  Spread out the kale so you don't see any of the contents underneath.  As it browns, it will shrink.  

7) Remove from oven once the edges of the kale are getting deeply brown and crispy.  Spoon into bowls and serve.

If pre-cooked;

1) Set oven to bake at 350.  Add bacon lardons to skillet.  Bake for about 10 minutes, check to see if they are golden.  Once golden, add the carrots.  Bake for about five more minutes.

2) Add the chicken sausage, already chopped into rounds.  Turn oven up to broil.

3) Once chicken sausage pieces are golden on edges, add chopped apple.  Broil for three to four minutes.  Chicken should have deeply brown edges.

4) Add the torn pieces of kale, spreading to cover all the contents beneath.  Remove from oven once the edges of the kale are getting deeply brown and crispy.  Spoon into bowls and serve.

Insider tip: have two plastic containers waiting by the stove.  When you take the skillet out of the oven, spoon equal servings into two bowls and the two tupperware.  This way, you've pre-measured two leftover containers and will resist the urge to go back to the skillet to get more to eat!

Easy Bacon Shortcut

I'm all for making my life more simple.  Last weekend, I had a lot to do and no time to stand over a skillet of bacon.  Actually two skillets.  My skillet doesn't fit all the bacon I usually want to cook, so I end up making two batches.  Sometimes that works in my favor since my fiance prefers his really crispy.  I like mine more chewy.  Nevertheless, I made bacon the easy way.  Here's an easy bacon shortcut for the days you don't have time to stand in front of the stove, or you don't want to clean up the grease that inevitably splatters all over your stove and neighboring counter.

Begin with thick cut bacon.  In the midst of all the wintery weather, I didn't have thick cut bacon from the butcher.  I made due with some thick cut grocery store bacon.  It isn't as good, but bacon is never bad!  Looking for great butcher bacon in Indianapolis?  Stop in to Goose the Market.  They have all kinds of bacon, even non-pork bacon, and a "bacon of the month" club you can join.  You can also stop into Fresh Market.  They usually have four to six bacon varieties.

Lightly coat an old baking sheet with non-stick spray.  Use an old baking sheet so that if a thin part of the bacon burns and leaves dark marks on the baking sheet, you aren't sad.  Then arrange the bacon on the baking sheet. 

Bacon ready to bake in the oven.  This time-saving shortcut allows you to cook something else, get ready in the morning, or cut down on grease splatter clean up.

Insider tip: scrunch the bacon a little bit so that it looks like it was pan-fried.  If you lay it perfectly flat, it won't bubble up as much and will look different than pan-fried bacon.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes for extra crispy bacon.  For a chewy bacon, bake at 350 and check at 20 minutes, monitor the bacon closely every two to three minutes thereafter until desired doneness is achieved. 

Twenty-five minutes later: crispy bacon from the oven.  The pan will be greasy--this is why you may want to have an old pan dedicated to messy cooking.

Remove the bacon from the baking sheet to drain immediately or it will continue to cook.  Drain, pat with paper towels, and serve immediately.  If you aren't serving it immediately, you can warm it back up by wrapping the bacon in a paper towel and microwaving briefly.

Just remember to cook some extra since you'll probably eat a few slices before you serve the rest of the bacon!