B & etc...

If you're household is anything like mine, a BLT does not need to include, or be limited to, B, L, and T.  According to food writer Ed Levine (according to Wikipedia) a BLT does not need to include lettuce.  I have seen them at restaurants with crab cakes, and smoked salmon, and eggs.  It would seem, that the only real important ingredient is the B.  It is a B... and etc.

This is literally a  B & etc.  Bacon (L), Egg (L), Tomato (L*) and Cucumber (L*).  Make sure you use a delicious, crusty bread from a bakery (not the grocery store) and real mayonnaise. 

Yum!

In my locavore dreams, the Egg is L*.  I really want some chickens.  And I could technically have them... however based on the zoning laws and whatnot, the coop would have to be directly in the middle of my back yard.

And I have a very small back yard.

Dusty wants a chicken...

Why are there no chickens out there?

Was Gibt es dann fur Mittag Essen?

Okay, I have to start out by saying I love looking at the stats for my blog.  It's especially fun to look up the crazy things that people have searched for on Google and ended up on my site.  I hope they weren't disappointed...

One thing that I find very strange, though, is that I regularly have hits from Germany.  It seems like too many to be a worm... so I wonder if there is someone from Germany reading this.  I did take German in High School, but I don't think I know anyone there.  So, I am hoping that, if they are a real person, they will comment on this and let me know who they are.

Here is what I learned in 6 years of Middle and High School German classes (this is a conversation between two people.  Person 1 is in Red, Person 2 is in Blue).  Please forgive my lack of umlauts and terrible German spelling.

Guten Tag.

Guten Tag.

Wie viel uhr ist es?

Shoen zeit fur mittag essen.

Was gibt es dann fur mittag essen?

Wahrscheinliche Bratwursten.

Roughly translated this goes:

Hello.

Hello.

What time is it?

About time for lunch.

What's for lunch?

Probably bratwursts. 

Tax payers money hard at work.

Yesterday at work, my co-worker Ebony said something that really hit a nerve.  She said, "I think it's great that you do all this cooking.  I would love to eat better, but I just don't have time for all that."

I think that people who don't cook don't really realize how much time is involved.  Yes, some/most of the recipes that make it onto the blog are at least slightly fancy.  But that's not what I eat every day!  I am eating locally every day, and every day for lunch (less breakfast... because I like cereal... but I'll work on that).  The boring/quick stuff doesn't make it on to the blog because I assume people don't need a recipe and can figure it out on their own.  I think I assume wrong, though.  I'm lucky.  I like to cook, and I realize that things go together.  I was brought up around real food.  But if you're not that lucky, you may not realize that eating healthy can take only a few minutes more than a long drive through line.  And it's cheaper.  And you feel better.

So, instead of neglecting those recipes that were born out of me throwing together whatever is in my fridge, which I assume no one wants to hear about, I will save them and publish them together in a bigger post.  I will also start to try to include how long things took.

Today's dinner is one of the easy ones:

BEST sandwiches: (Like a BLT only, as the name would imply, better!)
Makes 2 sandwiches.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

• 4-6 slices bacon (L)
• 2 eggs (L)
• 1 bunch spinach, washed (L)
• 1 large tomato (L)
• 4 slices bread (L)
• Mayo

Fry up bacon in a frying pan until crisp.  Cut tomatoes, and remove spinach leaves from stems.  Toast bread lightly, and add mayo to your taste (I added salt, pepper, and chives).  When the bacon is just done, fry up the eggs to your taste (I like scalding hot bacon, and runny eggs, so this needs to be well timed for me.  If you like your eggs well done, or if you don't mind your bacon a little cooler, this will be an easier task).  I personally like my sandwich to go (from bottom to top) bacon, egg, tomato (seasoned with salt and pepper), and spinach.  But I'm not the sandwich police so make it however you want!

Oh, and my intro wasn't complete nonsense.  Another thing I've been asked is what I eat for lunch:  Probably bratwursts.  Well, more likely sausage... Milwaukee is the home of cheese and sausage, so lunch for me tends to be some sort of sausage, some cheese, some bread, and a hard boiled egg.  Or yesterday's dinner leftovers.  But I don't know how to say leftovers in German.

Mystery German friend, can you tell me?

Croque Madame - WI style!

As poetically stated by my husband, in a mix of awe and terror, as he watched me build this monster sandwich:  "I mean this in a good way... but is this sandwich going to give me a heart attack?"

The answer, if done correctly, is yes...

I do love eggs.  I also love breakfast for dinner.  I also ALSO love cheese.  And I live in Cudahy, WI.  Home of Patrick Cudahy and their fine pork related products.  Which means I can do this one almost 100% locally. 

I would do nothing different.  I know some Croque Madame purists will be very upset at my cheese choice, but it was smokey and just a little sweet and went so well with the ham.  I used buttermilk in the cheese sauce, because that was all I had two cups of.  I felt like it made the sauce separate a little, but it added a very pleasant tangy-ness, and the sauce didn't seem grainy at all when it was eaten, so I would probably do that again.  I wouldn't go out of my way to buy buttermilk, though, because I think regular milk (or cream if you're really going for that heart attack feeling) would work fine.

This recipe is supposed to serve four, and I didn't reduce the cheese sauce, so I had a lot left over.  I think I used ham for four...

Croque Madame - WI Style
Recipe modified from epicurious.com

• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour 
• 2 cups buttermilk 
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 1/3 cups freshly grated cheese.  (I used Carr Valley Apple Smoked Cheddar.  Try it.  It is super good.  Or be boring and just use Gruyere like you're supposed to.)
• 4 slices, thick sliced bread
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp mayo
• 2 sandwiches worth (however thick you want your sandwiches to be) thinly sliced cooked ham
• 2 large eggs

Sauce:

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in flour and cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Whisk in milk and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, 5 minutes. Whisk in salt, pepper, nutmeg, and 1/3 cup cheese until cheese is melted. Remove from heat.

Sandwiches:

Spread 1 1/2 tablespoons sauce evenly over each of 2 slices of bread, then sprinkle evenly with remaining cheese. Mix together mustard and mayo and evenly on remaining 4 bread slices and top with ham, dividing it evenly, then invert onto cheese-topped bread to form sandwiches. 

Preheat broiler.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a 12-inch nonstick, oven proof skillet over moderately low heat, then cook sandwiches, turning over once, until golden, 3 to 4 minutes total. 

Top each sandwich with 1/3 cup sauce, spreading evenly. Broil sandwiches in skillet 4 to 5 inches from heat until sauce is bubbling and golden in spots, 2 to 3 minutes

Meanwhile, heat remaining tablespoon butter in nonstick skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then crack eggs into skillet and season with salt and pepper. Fry eggs, covered, until whites are just set and yolks are still runny, about 3 minutes. Top each sandwich with a fried egg and serve immediately.

I served this with a mixed greens salad (to help my heart feel like it wasn't going to explode) and the last of the non-local ranch dressing.  

Non Local Ingredients:

• flour (but I'm out of that, so I'm on the hunt for local flour)
• salt, pepper, nutmeg
• mustard
• mayo
• ranch dressing