BLT Cookbook: Our Favorite Sandwich by Michele A. Jordan

From the Publisher

Crisp wood-smoked bacon. Thick slices of juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes. Leafy lettuce with a slather of creamy mayonnaise. All brought together on toasted sourdough bread. Who doesn’t love a BLT?

In The BLT Cookbook, Michele Anna Jordan shares her passion and secrets for achieving a seductive harmony of flavors and textures that create the perfect BLT. The sixty mouthwatering recipes range from variations of the classic sandwich to soups, salads, and pastas, all inspired by what Jordan calls the holy trinity of tastes: acid, salt, and smoky, voluptuous pork fat.

Serve up the Grilled BLT Kabobs at your next summer barbecue. Indulge in the tangy Watercress Soup with Currant Tomato Salsa and Bacon on a chilly afternoon. Impress your guests with the elegant Pappardelle, Bacon, and Zucchini with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette.

Has all this talk made you crave the real deal — stacked high with juicy tomatoes, crunchy bacon, and crisp lettuce? The Full-Tilt Boogie BLT will surely satisfy your hunger. In the mood for lighter fare? The Tomato Salad with Bacon Vin-aigrette delivers all the flavor of the BLT in a refined context. The BLT Cookbook also provides details on how to fry bacon, slice tomatoes, and select the perfect leaf of lettuce.

Publishers Weekly

Why write a cookbook on the BLT? The very name of the sandwich reveals how to make it, and the classic combination of bread, bacon, lettuce and tomato needs no alteration or addition to satisfy. However, to Jordan, a California chef, radio host and columnist, the classic sandwich is just the beginning of BLT possibilities. She offers 60 variations in soup, pasta, and even strudel form, such as Bacon, Leek, and Tomato Strudel and Pasta Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Bocconcini (little balls of mozzarella that lend a delicious chewiness to the proceedings). Risking charges of heresy, Jordan even gives the recipe for a vegetarian VLT, which calls for crisp-fried leeks instead of bacon. It's surprisingly tempting. And while this cookbook doesn't contain much else to entice a vegetarian, it does offer much to please anyone who enjoys bacon, tomatoes and lettuce-in every possible incarnation. Also included are recipes for mayonnaise, aoli and other appropriate condiments. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Jordan is the prolific author of more than a dozen other cookbooks, many of them, like this one, single-subject titles, including one on tomatoes. But BLT, she says, was a real labor of love, as its subject rescued her from the woes of morning sickness during two pregnancies. Her title might have been The BLT and Beyond, since, in addition to 18 different recipes for BLTs, there are appetizers, soups, salads, and entr es featuring this favorite combination of bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Fun but probably not a necessary purchase for most libraries, though larger collections (and anywhere Sara Perry's Everything Tastes Better with Bacon has been popular) will want to consider. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

• Read a Sample Chapter

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Chapter One

"Chloe!" fourteen-year-old Riley Carlson exclaimed to her twin sister. "It is so awesome to see you! What's new? How was your day? it's been so long. You have to tell me everything."

Chloe frowned at Riley. "Um, Riley? I just saw you at home. Like an hour ago,"

Riley glanced around the women's rest room of their favorite café, the Newsstand. She peered under the doors of the stalls. The coast was clear -- which was lucky, since the place was usually mobbed on Friday nights.

"Please don't make me go back out there," Riley whispered. "It's not safe."

"Why? What's going on?" Chloe narrowed her eyes at her sister. "Hey! Didn't you have a date tonight with Mr. Popularity?"

Riley nodded quickly. "Yes! And that's the whole problem. He's out there right now. Waiting for me. I've been hiding in here for twenty minutes."

Chloe frowned. "Huh? Back up. I thought you liked him. What was it you said to me last night? 'if I'm out late with Todd, cover for me!'"

Riley winced. "Did I say that? I should have said, 'Help me run for cover!' He may be Mr. Popularity, but up close and personal, he's Mr. Shallow. If I have to talk to him for another minute; I'll die of boredom," Riley said. "I mean it."

"Wow, who would've guessed?" Chloe grinned and added, "Hey, if you die of boredom, then I'll be an only child. Can I have all your CDs and DVDs after you're gone?"

Riley punched Chloe's arm. This was not the time for humor. Didn't her sister realize that she, Riley, was having a dating emergency?

Ever since Riley and Vance had cooled things off, she'd been going out with other people. But she should have gotten to know Todd Granger better first. He was superpopular, but he was so into himself that she couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"I'm serious! I haven't been this bored since Mom and Dad made us watch that documentary about the, history of cotton. Remember that one?" Riley complained.

Chloe nodded. "It was the best nap of my life."

Riley sighed. "All Todd does is talk about stuff I totally don't care about."

"Like what?" Chloe asked her.

Riley rolled her eyes. "Himself! You know, like this girl he dated last week and some other girl he dated the week before that. And he keeps trying to grab my hand, which I am so not into."

Chloe pulled a brush out of her backpack and ran it through her long wavy blond hair. "That is a problem. Look, I feel your pain. But you have to go back out there and face reality. Finish out the date. In thirty minutes tell him you have to go because, um, you have to get up superearly to visit our sick grandmother."

[Riley: In case you were wondering, we don't have a sick grandmother. But Chloe is really good at coming up with stuff like that. It's probably because she was born eight minutes before me. She's got eight minutes more life experience than I do!]

Riley considered her sister's advice. "Thirty minutes? I don't think I can last that long. Do you think three minutes will work?"

"How about fifteen?" Chloe suggested. "Three is way too short. There are rules about dumping a guy on the first date, you know?"

"I have a better idea," Riley said suddenly. "Let's switch outfits. You can go back out there and pretend to be me."

Chloe shook her head. "You've got to be kidding, right?"

"Come on, I'll pay you! I think I have six dollars in my wallet."

"Gosh, I am so tempted, but no, thanks," Chloe said. "Todd might wonder how your hair suddenly got so wavy. And how you grew a little taller. Besides, I'm hanging out with Amanda, Tara, and Quinn. And Lennon is working here later."

Riley noticed that Chloe's voice grew soft and dreamy when she mentioned Lennon's name. Lennon was Chloe's new guy. He was a major hottie, plus he was smart and sweet. And he seemed really crazy about her sister.

Riley also noticed that Chloe was wearing her best "I want to impress my new guy" outfit: red halter and killer denim skirt.

"Oh, all right," Riley said. "I guess I'll go back out there. It's the brave and honorable thing to do."

"Way to go," Chloe said with a grin. "You never know. Things could change. You might end up having an awesome evening."

"Or not," Riley said. "Bye, see you later." She checked, her lip gloss in the mirror and headed out the door.

The Newsstand was packed with kids, many of them from West Malibu High, Riley and Chloe's school. Some of them were surfing the Internet on the café's computers.

Behind the counter, a girl with spiked blue hair was working the espresso machine. The air was filled with the delicious smells of coffee, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Riley found Todd sitting at their table, sipping his decaf mocha. He smiled when he spotted Riley.

"I thought you fell in or something," he teased her.

Riley smiled tightly as she sat down in her chair. "No, no such luck."

"So, like I was saying," Todd said, leaning across the table, "we could check out that beach party later. This girl Randy is throwing it. You know her, right? She's the one who used to go out with Marcus, but then Marcus caught her in a major lip-lock with that Sanchez dude from the football team, so Marcus dumped her and now he's going out with Liza Jennings."

"Wow," Riley said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "I think Liza used to be in my French class. Hey, are you taking a language this year?" she said, changing the subject ...