This is one party that just reading about it is a whole lot of fun. No mistake, it would have been better to have been there.
Coincidentally - or maybe not - I had my own variation of the BLT just yesterday for lunch. My recipe is a little simpler than the norm. I leave off the lettuce. I save it for a salad where it belongs.
Annual party celebrates BLT
I've been to plenty of swell parties over the years, but one recent gathering took the cake.
Or, more precisely, it took the light bread.
It was a party dedicated to one of my favorite sandwiches: the troika of bacon, lettuce and tomato served on white bread and known with great affection as the BLT.
For the past eight years, a group of like-minded sandwich lovers have gathered on Dauphin Island to share their love of the BLT. It's an informal gathering of fun-loving folks who can't resist a party or a sandwich.
Hosts Roger Roberts and Bill Garris, both of Leroy, look for any excuse for a social gathering.
The date of the event is somewhat fluid; it moves about to accommodate the guests of honor for the party -- the tomatoes. Both men plant gardens and when the tomatoes are ripe, it's time to eat.
Guests start looking for invites about the Fourth of July or so, because that's usually when the tomatoes reach their peak.
This year, Roberts and Garris cooked up 21 pounds of bacon in a huge cast iron skillet. There were tables laden with lots of other goodies, but clearly the real reason for the season drew the most attention. An endless stream of giant, juicy, red and slightly acidic tomatoes were the perfect centerpiece for this gala.
I've written lovingly about this special sandwich before, but never from the perspective of the tomato.
As usual, it was the chatter at the party that got me to thinking about the tomato and its relationship to the BLT. It was a philosophical discussion on just what exactly goes into a perfectly constructed BLT, and I took the side of the T. Read more