she cooks…he cleans

Every summer for as long as I remember, my favorite use of home-grown tomatoes was a bacon and tomato sandwich.  I never was too big on the idea of putting lettuce on it, because tomatoes and bacon seemed to be enough!  There was great anticipation for the first sandwich.  Two slices of bread, a slathering of mayonnaise (or even better, Miracle Whip), thick juicy slices of ripe tomatoes, crispy bacon, a grinding of black pepper….the memory itself makes me want to swoon.  As long as the tomatoes lasted, I’d have one delicious, drippy sandwich after another.

Sigh – – this is my first summer of No Grains!  I can do it!  This salad is loaded with bacon and perfectly ripe tomatoes, and I put together a mayonnaise-based dressing with a little feta cheese thrown in for good measure.  I can’t wait for the next one, and the next one….

Ingredients:

• Vine-ripened tomato
• Bacon strips, cut into ~2-inch pieces
• Lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces (I used romaine)
• 2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise (preferably homemade)
• splash of balsamic or apple cider vinegar
• several generous grinds of black pepper
• touch of honey
• feta cheese (optional)

Fry up the bacon pieces in a skillet over medium heat.  Set aside on a paper towel.

Mix the mayonnaise, to taste, with vinegar, pepper, and honey.  If adding feta, mash the cheese into the mayonnaise mixture to break up any large clumps.

Assemble the salad by placing lettuce in bowl, slice the tomato into bite-sized pieces and add to the lettuce.  Top with bacon and mayonnaise dressing.  Eat and Enjoy!

One of the perks (other than the lavish salary…ha!) of being a music reviewer is getting to hear new music before it hits the streets. I’d heard the buzz about Field Songs from William Elliott Whitmore for a while, and boy, was the buzz warranted. Whitmore sings his tales of everyman backed by solo banjo or guitar, but no mere strum/strum folkie here- unless you consider Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger the same. Powerful songs about a nation off track, and how it effects real people. Great stuff!