BLTs on White Bread with Cucumber & Garden Herb Salad

I've said this about myself many times: I am not a food snob. I appreciate all sorts of low-brow foods, including junk and items that don't seem remotely made from a natural source. I love comfort food, international, ethnic and cultural foods, gourmet and fine foods, snacks, tapas, an occasional amuse bouche, bread, cereal, fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts and meat. In other words...I like it all. My parents are middle class, mid-westerners and I have a healthy admiration for casseroles, bread, meat loaf, stew with Parker House rolls and left-overs. I grew up eating bologna and cheese sandwiches on white bread, Campbell's soup and fish sticks when I could get my mom to buy them. But my folks are also sincere foodies. And so we dined on homemade fried chicken, freshly baked challah every Friday, salads with olive oil and lemon juice, pavlovas, home canned peaches and pickles, avocados, BBQ ribs, artichokes, aspic, thick shrimp bisque on my birthday, steaks on the grill, dried fruits, my dad's chocolate cake, lox, cheeses, cured meats, lobster, crab, rice pudding and a huge garden in the back yard. As we got older and my parents had more money, they sought out hole-in-the wall joints, neighborhood bars and 4-star restaurants. As far as my dad was concerned, the further off the map, the better. I mention all of this so that you get to know a bit about my food history. Our parents exposed me and my sister, Leslie, to every taste they could come by. And (for better or worse) I loved every bite! My food history has informed my cooking choices, obviously. And so my aim is to make even the simplest dishes taste good. I figure they should to have some integrity. Even when I eat alone, I plate my food for presentation. Anyway, that brings me back to tonight's dinner: comfort food in all of its glory. A sandwich that is at once warm, creamy, crunchy, cool and juicy: The BLT on fresh white bread. I served it with a cucumber & garden herb salad and ate the fig ice cream while watching a bad movie.

Before I get into the details, I have to make a confession: I used microwaveable bacon. I know, I know...that's cheating and kinda gross. But it's summer and we don't have a/c. The bacon I bought was uncooked, but in a microwavable pouch. Is this wrong? Probably. But since this is a diary I ought not lie and I feel better just writing about it. So after buying the bacon, getting the rest of the ingredients together was easy.

There is this amazing French Bakery in the shops across from where we live. I try to avoid its siren call...it is as good as any high end NYC bakery I've been to (and I loves me some NYC bakeries). I might go as far as to say that their challah is as good as my mother's, their french baguettes as good as Balthazar's.

Why are they in a shopping plaza in Bellevue, WA? I have no clue. Maybe the owner's husband got a job at Microsoft. That's why I'm here. So this morning I bought a hot-from-the-oven loaf of their white bread and had them slice it thickly. I don't like white bread, generally and my own sweet mother's devotion to Wonderbread has always made me cringe. But obviously I have a genetic marker that allows for white bread, at least on occasion. I figure if I can find a sturdy white loaf from a real baker...made simply from yeast, flour, water and salt...then it isn't a mortal sin.

In my refrigerator I had full-fat, organic mayonnaise and sitting on my counter were 2 gorgeous, vine-ripe tomatoes waiting to fulfill their destiny. I ran by the garden and picked a basket full of lettuce and herbs. And thus, dinner tonight was simple, filling and deeply satisfying. Chris said it was "really good."

Here's how I do it:

Classic BLT and Cucumber and Garden Herb Salad

Shopping List

4 thick slices good white bread

12 slices bacon

2 ripe, red tomatoes

4 lettuce leaves

3 Persian cucumbers, chopped

1/2 C thinly sliced red onion

4 celery stalks, chopped

1 C mixed fresh herbs:

parsley

rosemary

basil

thyme

tarragon

oregano

mint

handful of nasturtiums

1 t Dijon mustard

olive oil

1 lime

mayo to taste

fresh cracked s/p to taste

Preparation

Hand tear the herbs and place in bowl with cucumbers and onion. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Add s/p to taste. Mix in mustard and then squeeze lime juice over veg ( I use a fork and get all the juice and pulp). Toss and set aside to marinate.

Cook bacon and drain on paper towels. Slice tomatoes thickly and sprinkle with s/p. Generously spread mayo on both slices of bread. Build your sandwich: bread, 6 slices of bacon in cross-hatch pattern, tomatoes, lettuce and bread. Slice on the diagonal and plate with salad.