OK, I know you're all "busy" with this "holiday" thing, but I have one more item to add to your to-do list: pick up the ingredients for this sandwich (there are only three), so that you can make it on Christmas morning.
There are a few things that you have to do in order to transform bread + bacon into The Perfect Bacon Sandwich. They are as follows:
There are two especially great things about this recipe, which is based on one that I spotted in People awhile back (I tore the page out and carried it around in my purse for weeks because it looked so good that I didn't want to forget to make it):
1) It requires about ten minutes of hands-on work and exactly one pot's worth of cleanup, making it great for busy weeknights;
2) It costs about $12 (and easily feeds 4). And that's only if you go for the fancy, organic chicken.
That is my very own rosemary that I grew.
(Don't be too impressed. My basil has drowned.)
The return of the summer has brought with it the return of local farmer's markets, and because we live right next to the Stone Barns Agricultural Center that also means the return of spatchcock chickens. I've written about how amazing these things are before, but basically what they are is chickens with the backbone and sternum removed; the flattish result means that the parts on the inside (the breasts) cook slightly less and the parts on the outside (the legs) cook slightly more, which is exactly how a chicken cooks in a perfect world. It also cooks faster, which is awesome.
You can spatchcock a chicken yourself, but honestly: it seems like a pain, and isn't something I'd bother with; I just buy a couple whenever I come across a place that sells them and consider myself lucky. (This recipe, incidentally, also works for a regular roast chicken; just adjust the cooking time as noted below.)
When I was a little girl I read all the time, and I mean that literally: I read while eating, on the bus to and from school every day, and even while walking down the street (some minor collisions were involved). One summer, I read the entirety of The Mists Of Avalon while seated on the back of my mom's Yamaha on a ride to Canada and back; I can't even imagine what the people who passed us on the highway thought (probably that my parents shouldn't let me read on the back of a motorcycle).
Anyway, I was a big reader. And some of my all-time favorite books during my formative years were - of course - the Judy Blume books (Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself remains my personal favorite). It's always fun to revisit the stories that shaped our childhoods, and in just a few days Tiger Eyes - the story of a young girl attempting to cope with the murder of her father - will be released on film.
In celebration of the release Lawrence Blume, the director of the film and Judy's son (and my friend), sent me this recipe straight from the Blume kitchen to try out for myself.
