Dressed-Up BLT Bar

Some meals were just meant to become build-your-own bars. You know, those meals I'm talking about. The recipe only has a few components. And that certain someone likes this dish a little more of a certain something, and if this dish is put together by someone else it "just doesn't taste right." You hear me? Build you own bars are great so everyone gets exactly what they want.

BLTs are the perfect candidate for a build-your-own-style dinner. You've got five basic components to BLTs: bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, bread and mayo. I swear, the BLT is nature's answer to a summer dinner. So let's talk a bit about the BLT bar and subsequent deliciousness I built last week.

5 Ingredients to the Perfect BLT
Bacon - Buy your favorite bacon and instead of shoving it into the microwave or making a mess on your stove, try baking it. It takes a little more time, but I always get perfectly crispy results. And you are able to make a lot more bacon in one shot, which is perfect for this BLT bar.

Lettuce - You can go with any type of lettuce. This week I had romaine on hand so I ran with that.

Tomatoes - Tomatoes are the real star. That's the only reason anyone has BLTs anyway, right? You must get your hands on garden tomatoes.  If I've got garden tomatoes then bang-diggity we are having BLTs! For these dressy BLTs I used the lovely-and-ever-so-flavorful Jacob's Cove Heriloom Tomatoes from my CSA share. Honestly, I've never had better tomatoes...ever.

Bread -  I grew up having Grandma Sycamore's white bread or Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat. We had leftover hoagie rolls from our French Dip Sandwiches a day or so prior so toasted them up and they worked perfectly. I love my toaster oven!

Mayo - I had a a few sprigs of fresh thyme leftover from the French Dip Sandwiches so I thought I'd make an herbed mayo. I added a few tablespoons of the fresh Thyme and a splash of lemon juice and had a wonderful Thyme-Lemon Mayo for my sandwich. This is when I realized I was making dressed-up BLTs. I knew these were going to special.

I hope you'll grab the best tomatoes you can find and start making your Dressed-Up BLT bar today! You won't regret it.

Dressed-Up BLT Bar
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
4 Hoagie Buns
8-10 romaine lettuce leaves
4 md-lg heirloom tomatoes
12 slices of oven-fried bacon
1/2 cup thyme-lemon mayonnaise (ingredients below)

For Thyme-Lemon Mayonnaise
1-2 TB fresh Thyme
2 tsp-2 TB lemon juice
1/2 cup Mayonnaise

Directions:
Preheat oven 400 degrees. Place slices of bacon cookie sheet. Bake bacon for 12-15 minutes in oven, rotating pan halfway through. Meanwhile, slice all heirloom tomatoes about 1/4-1/2 inch thick, place on individual plate. Cut, rinse and dry lettuce leaves, assemble on its own plate. Combine thyme, lemon juice and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Next, slice hoagie buns and toast to your liking. Take bacon out of oven and set on individual plate on top of a few paper towels. Set up your BLT bar and let guests assemble their BLTs as they like. Enjoy!