Alternative BLT

The beautiful thing about not being in school and thus a recipient of a summer holiday is that summer begins when you choose. I chose May 2, the date of my departure to Africa. Now that it's summer, I can do things like go to the Farmer's Market, do the Taco Ride and eat tomatoes. I know this tomato was grown in a greenhouse. I know. But I couldn't resist.

My original plan was to make an avocado-chicken dish using this tomato, but when I finally finished gardening at 8 p.m. I was ready to eat, stat. And whenever hunger takes ahold of me like that I make poached eggs and douse them with salt and pepper. This is a variation on the BLT that replaces bacon with eggs, the only thing better would be a BELT. The sandwich is super easy to make, the hardest part is eating it.

Egg-Lettuce-Tomato Sandwich

To poach an egg, heat about 2 cups of water in a skillet. Add to cracked eggs to the water before it is boiling, being careful not to break the yokes. The eggs should be about half submerged in water. Cover the skillet to allow the steam from the simmering water to cook the top of the eggs. I like my eggs over easy. To get perfect consistency, remove the eggs from the heat and the skillet once the bright yellow of the raw egg turns a foggy yellow color. This means that the thin layer of egg white on top of the yolk has been cooked.

To make the sandwich, toast bread and top with lettuce, tomato and poached egg. Finish off with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.

Mom's Deli in St. Louis

I'm sure I'm not the only person to adopt the philosophy that when you're on a vacation from work you're also on a vacation from eating a balanced diet. Calories don't count when you're not sitting in front of a computer all day. Plus, how are you supposed to experience all there is to a destination without trying all its culinary options? Exactly. Now I've been to St. Louis, oh, about a million times. And still there are new tastes to savor. There's the Hill, this cute Italian neighborhood with bakeries, restaurants and independent grocers. Dogtown has a great St. Patty's day parade and (of course) Irish pubs. St. Louis is the birthplace of toasted ravioli. St. Louis-style pizza at Imo's is made with Provel cheese--a combo of swiss, cheddar and provelone that turns out nice and gooey sort of like an upscale Velvetta. And Ted Drew's boasts a thick ice frozen custard.

There's more than just toasted ravioli, pizza and ice cream to the Gateway City. Last week Jenny took me and Maria to Mom's Deli for some samiches, Krista and Amy met us there. The deli is smallish, small enough that they don't have indoor seating. There was a crowd that Friday, even though the only fish option in the Catholic-dominated town was tuna. But finally its nice enough to sit outside, so long as you're in the sun.

I ordered the Mom's Sub, which I can only assume to be the restaurant's signature dish (that was sarcasm). It came with like 10 kinds of meat (OK, just 3), tomato, lettuce, etc. and their homemade Thousand Island Dressing--a sauce that's made of mayonaise, ketchup, Tobasco and finely chopped and usually pickled vegetables. Thousand Island, a variation on Russian dressing, is another typical St. Louis thing. Wikipedia says that it was invented in Chicago (just like every other food), but the Missourians have adopted it. I'll confess I'm not a big fan of mayo or ketchup for their taste and for their nutritional value. My mother instilled these eating habits. But mixed together, yeah, it was good. I love a sandwich with lots of sauce--whether it's ranch or mustard--and Mom's delivered with plenty of 1000 Island.

Maria went for the parmesan chicken sandwich (because she only eats chicken) that I believe was actually topped with Provel cheese instead of parmesan. I made her let me taste it--good. And Jenny had to go with the tuna sub. She decided that since she's not going to church, she would at least adhere to the meatless Fridays during Lent. What a good Catholic. You know how at Subway you can order a six-inch and feel like you've restrained yourself? Well, Mom's only has foot-longs. It's OK, Maria, Jenny and I cleaned them up. Don't worry mom, we had played some tennis beforehand.

Chickpea Salad

I have this problem with wasting food. I overbuy at the grocer and then can't finish the tub of sort-of-expensive ricotta cheese, marscapone or mozarella before they are consumed by a furry, green animal (at least someone's eating it). In fact, I have a tub of cottage cheese and a tub of sour cream in the fridge that I am afraid to even touch. I push them further and further into the hard-to-reach recesses of the fridge. I feel really bad about this. It's such a waste of money and resources. Monday night was probably the worst because I discovered with one whiff that the chicken that I had procrastinated on making into something delicious had taken on an odor that threatened to curdle milk inside its carton. Because of my laziness, I had to throw away five, once good, chicken breasts. Do yourself a favor and wrap chicken separately when you freeze it. So I did what I always do and improvised. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, in the process I discovered a jar of mold-encrusted roasted red peppers back next to a frozen bottle of Coca-Cola. I'm pretty sure I bought that jar of peppers last summer. I'm sorry, this is what happens when you are single. You have to eat leftovers for weeks. You do also get to enjoy cookies for weeks too. Seems like a fair trade. Instead I made a chickpea salad on toast, with Laughing Cow Swiss Cheese (not to be confused with Mad Cow). This cheese is really fantastic. I think my eighth-grade French teacher Mr. Srb introduced it to me. But I rediscovered it via Weight Watchers a couple years ago.

Chickpea Salad: (inspired by/copied from Smitten Kitchen) 1 15-ounces can garbanzo or chickpeas
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
1/4 cup onion (I used green onions, she used purple)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice (use the zest if you've got a whole lemon--I did not, it could go bad)
dash parsley (dried or fresh)
salt and pepper to taste

Toss all this crap in a bowl and mash it up a bit.

I deviated from the perscribed recipe by adding some capers that have been sitting in the fridge at least as long as the ill-fated red peppers had been. But capers are stored/preserved in vinegar, so they won't go bad. I'm not sure this was a good addition to the salad. Also, as you can see in the above photo, I put some roasted tomatoes on the toast in place of the red peppers. Not a good idea. The canned roasted tomatoes are tough and chewy. I remove them and all was well again.