Sunday, August 06, 2006

Dinner Tonight: Blogstalking

This week's Blogstalking task was to complete a photo essay of what you are making for dinner. I thought I was going to have a problem with this one because it has just been too damn hot to cook. Seriously, last week we had sandwiches, hot dogs, leftovers, ate out once - really anything to get out of turning the oven on. Then blessed relief came - yes, it has been in the high 80s (maybe low 90s today), but the humidity has gone away and it has felt so much more comfortable. So, I was going to make my Thai Peanut Noodles with Shredded Chicken... but Sous Chef #1 forgot I asked him to take the chicken breasts out to defrost so I had to come up with something else. I had plans to pick tomatoes at my in-laws' house after my SnB, so I decided dinner tonight would be BLTs.

So, I started out with this:



This box is about 9" wide by 6" tall by 12" long and it is over half full of cherry tomatoes... No, I don't plan for my family to eat all of these. I am bring the bulk of them to work tomorrow to share with my friends. The one I used is the big boy up in the top right hand corner. (Oh, and the riper cherry tomatoes in the bowl against the wall were the ones I picked a few days ago - those are destined to be fresh tomato sauce - just chopped up cherry tomatoes, feta, and green onions - later this week.)

Tomato chosen, I cooked my bacon:



I always cook my bacon in my George Foreman grill, and I cook the entire package at once and refrigerate whatever I don't immediately use so BLTs are an instant option anytime this week.

Then I enlisted Sous Chef #2 to help dry off the just-washed romaine lettuce. She had aspirations of helping with the bacon, but was denied.



Then I chopped up the crudities (um, yeah - fancy word for chopped up vegetables...) and put them aside - we have yellow pepper, red pepper, cucumber, and baby carrots:



Oh! Don't forget the lovely tomato from my in-laws' garden!



Now the secret of my BLTs... what makes them so tasty is my liberal use of seasoned salt and freshly ground black pepper. Nothing terribly exotic, but the seasoned salt and pepper do wonderful things for ripe tomatoes.



And here is Sous Chef #1's sandwich - I don't care for lettuce on mine:



And here is the complete dinner:



And all this work was not good enough for Sous Chef #2. She doesn't care for raw tomatoes (yet strangely enough loves tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, and ketchup), so she had bacon and eggs instead. She didn't get out of eating vegetables, though!



Enjoy!

13 comments:

Libi said...

Sou Chef #2 is adorable. She should be paid more! :)

cpurl17 said...

Sou Chef #2 is so sweet! And the sandos & veggies look yummy.

Batty said...

Oh, yum! DH is allergic to onions and peppers, which puts a real damper on my mediterranean cooking. Just looking at those sandwiches makes me drool!

And may I just say that your sou chef is the cutest. Got to love a girl who helps around the kitchen and likes her bacon.

Trillian42 said...

Yeah, I'm with SC#2 - not a fan of tomatoes as tomatoes, but I'll eat them as anything else.

And was the Thai Noodles with chicken by any chance the recipe from America's Test Kitchen? I looooove that recipe.

Sous Chef #2 is positively darling, by the way. =)

Anonymous said...

Mmm...BLT's, with fresh summer tomatoes! I'm coming to your house for dinner!

turtlegirl76 said...

Oh that does look yummy. Willow is such an adorable helper! Can I rent her? Heh.

Anonymous said...

Now that's my kind of meal!!!! Willow is an adorable helper. I'm with her, I like my tomatoes disguised as other things as well. :) But I will have them on a BLT or hamburger.

Anonymous said...

That is my kind of summer meal. Perfect!

Bezzie said...

Too cute! I love the way kids dissect their meals like that!!

Karen said...

Mmm...BAcon!!

Sous Chef #2 is very cute! :)

Anonymous said...

Those look yummy.
Make me hungry...

Anonymous said...

Geez...I haven't had a BLT in a long time....thanks for reminding me how yummy they are!

Helpers are fun!

Jen said...

The drying-the-lettuce picture is the cutest child I have ever seen! She's ADORABLE! :o)