Quarantine Cooking: BLT

I read in Wikipedia that the ham sandwich is the most popular sandwich, and while yes, I do love me a Brown Sugar Ham and Swiss Cheese sandwich including all the fixings--in the summer when tomatoes are in season, I have to make at least once a week a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich, which shines in its simplicity. Yesterday I listened to a Fresh Air interview with the late Anthony Bourdain (may his sadness and self-torture end and he finally rest in peace), in which he reminded us that the best way to cook bacon evenly and crisply is in an oven. And if you line the baking sheet with aluminum foil and a baking rack, you 1) won't have to dirty your frying pan and therefore have that much less dish washing to do, 2) won't splatter and end up with a grease film on a lot of your kitchen surfaces and therefore still even less cleaning duty, and 3) won't have to dirty your baking sheet because you just lift off the foil and reserve the bacon grease for frying later (eggs, beans for Mexican meals, etc.) and discard the used foil, again less mess. Below all the ingredients for our Saturday supper, including my pre-dinner cocktail.

Notice that the bacon is in a single layer--air can circulate between the slices as well as underneath to crisp. 

And while I'm at it, a cocktail. Two kitchen tools I'm glad I bought in this pandemic are my metal cocktail measure (1 ounce and 2 ounce pours I assume, or maybe it's 3/4 ounce and 1 ounce pours like my shot glass?) and my citrus peeler for making a lemon twist. I drank my first Sidecar cocktail at the Greens Restaurant in Fort Mason and loved it. I still don't have a cocktail shaker, and that's okay because I want the ice anyway in my cocktail to water down my drink. I don't like to sip too much potency. 

Bacon was done after 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. I'm sorry that I didn't get to work in Tampa this past June because I like to bring back a couple of large jars of Duke's mayonnaise on sale at Publix. Yeah I know I could just order it on Amazon, but I hate that company. I'll find another way to get me my Duke's though I will probably have to order it from another corporation I hate like Walmart's. In the meantime, I slathered generously the Hellman's or Best Foods mayonnaise which happens to be Ina Garten's favorite on both slices of bread to the very edges. I bought my favorite sourdough because it toasts well and holds up to all the juicy tomatoes.

A sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper on the tomatoes atop the mayo (and even more black pepper sprinkled on the mayo) and lots of crisp lettuces and arugula from our garden atop the mayo on the other slice and perfectly crisp bacon in between.

One of my most favorite meals for supper in the summer.