Are you a good ‘wich? Or a bad ‘wich?

One of the things I love about where I currently live is the fact that I have a little outdoor space in which to garden.  Unfortunately, I travel a lot in the summer, so said garden probably isn’t as productive as it could be if I were here to dote on it constantly.  But I do take a lot of joy in running out there to grab some lettuce for a salad, or snip some fresh basil for my pizza. 

And…I love having tomatoes.

There is nothing more delightful than a home-grown tomato, still warm from the sun when you slice it.  And my balcony isn’t big enough to produce enough tomatoes to ever tire of them before the season is over.  Which means, as the trees are starting to show some color and the nights are getting colder, I’m scrambling to get as many of the little buggers to ripen as possible.

Mostly for the purpose of making one of my favorite sandwiches ever.

Growing up, during tomato season, we had a LOT of bacon and tomato sandwiches.  They were fantastic.  Just very good bacon, garden tomatoes, a little Miracle Whip, done.  My brother now has an extra-sentimental attachment to them, because his first son was born in peak tomato season, and our parents came to stay with them for the first week after he was born to help out.  And my parents’ idea of “helping out” was to basically stay completely out of their way and cook for them while they locked themselves in their bedroom to fawn over their new little creation.  Mom and Dad brought a good supply of tomatoes into the house, and my brother and sister-in-law practically lived on bacon and tomato sandwiches for the first couple of weeks of their son’s life.

Now that I’m growing my own sandwich fixins, I have taken the concept a little further.  And I happen to personally believe that I have now perfected the sandwich. 

Well, perfected for my taste.  And considering that’s who I’m cooking for, that’s really all that matters.  So I’m documenting it here, just in case I can’t remember what went into it when next year’s tomatoes start to roll in.

1.  Some sort of whole-grain english muffin, toasted.

2.  Homemade mayo – mine was a basic recipe, but I used all olive oil and lime juice instead of lemon.  I like mayo with flavor, and tomatoes love olive oil.  Apply to both halves of the muffin.

3.  Truffle oil – the real stuff, made with actual truffles.  A few drops sprinkled on the top half of the muffin.

4.  Homegrown tomatoes – sliced and applied to the bottom half of the muffin.

5.  Bacon.  GOOD bacon.  Sliced thick, and fried crisp.  This goes on top of the tomato.

6.  Arugula – also homegrown.  Yep, this is actually a BAT.  The top, truffled half of the muffin is now applied on top of the arugula.

It’s nutritious…it’s flavorful…it has bacon.  It’s basically the perfect breakfast. 

And I might still get to squeeze 3 or 4 more of them out of my garden!