romaine

I’m kind’a embarrassed to blog this recipe because everyone is familiar with this salad. But every time I plan to make a 7-Layer Salad I start counting ingredients on my fingers, and am always missing an ingredient (fingers are all still there). Since I just made this salad for our Saturday night group I decided to save my version of the recipe so the next time I can skip the finger counting. This is a salad I like to make for potlucks because it comes together quickly, and is best when it sits overnight and is tossed just before serving. As with most recipes this can be modified based on personal taste, or what’s in your fridge, and there is an endless array of 7 (or more) possible ingredients. I called this salad fancified because I made it in my not-just-for-dessert trifle bowl. I also added pasta which is not a standard ingredient, but works very well in this salad. And who doesn’t like carbs?

Salad Ingredients:

3 cups of cooked short cut pasta

Romaine lettuce chopped or torn

1 red bell pepper diced

1 bag of frozen peas

1 red onion chopped

1 cup of celery chopped

1 pound of ham cubed

10 oz of shredded cheese

Dressing:

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup mayonnaise

2 T granulated sugar

2 T white wine or cider vinegar

Whisk together your dressing ingredients. Cook your pasta according to package instructions, drain, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, and allow to cool to room temperature. In this salad the pasta is the first layer down.

While your pasta is cooking chop/dice your vegetables.

Next layer down is the lettuce.

Followed by diced red onion, celery, and red bell pepper.

Next add your peas, and top with your dressing.

Next add the cubed ham and cover with shredded cheese.

Cover with Saran Wrap and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve. Once the salad is tossed it isn’t nearly as pretty, but it tastes delicious. Enjoy, no matter the vessel it is served in. With or without the carbs.

NOTES: Traditional 7-Layer Salad calls for iceberg lettuce. Iceberg or Romaine hold up best in this salad, and either works. Also, the traditional salad calls for bacon rather than ham. I did recently discover that Hormel pre-cooked bacon works really well here.

You can also change things up by using cauliflower or broccoli, using sweet or spring onions, and the shredded cheese of your choosing.

This is by no means original. Nor does it really require a recipe. But it sure is an awesome sandwich! The New York Times food section recently had a peanut butter banana sandwich as one of their feature dishes and I personally think a BLTE trumps a PBB. But that’s just my opinion. A quaint little brewery we stopped at in Indiana last December had the option of adding an over easy egg to any sandwich on their menu. I had their BLT with an over easy egg. It was great!

We spent today on the home end of a road trip and this was an easy thing to make for dinner.

Ingredients:

Bacon

Beef steak tomato

Romaine lettuce

Eggs

Italian sour dough bread

Mayonnaise

These ingredients are my personal favorites. Obviously you can substitute your personal favorites…turkey bacon, miracle whip, wheat or white bread, Roma tomatoes, ice berg lettuce. There are no rules. It’s a sandwich.

Cook your bacon until it’s nice and crispy. Again, that’s my taste. My mother used to like her bacon just barely warm. Floppy. I set my oven on a low temp and keep the bacon warm while I work the rest of the ingredients.

If you’re making multiple sandwiches go ahead and toast your bread and keep that warm in the oven as well. Slice your tomato. I like thin stackable slices. Wash your lettuce and trim the cores back a bit.

Fry your eggs and just flip them briefly. Over easy does it.

Now that everything is cooked and sliced some assembly is required. Give your toasted bread a nice coat of mayonnaise.

Next add the lettuce. This line up keeps the tomato from making your bread all soggy.

Now you can add the tomato. I sprinkle it with a little coarse sea salt.

Bacon comes next. As many slices as you’d like.

The grand finale. That over easy egg.

Isn’t that just a thing of beauty? If you like a good BLT the E is the icing on the cake. Serve with a couple napkins.

I have to be honest. Maybe this isn’t for everyone. I put this sandwich in front of my 87 year old father tonight. He looked at it for a minute like perhaps I had made a mistake with the placement of that egg. Then he proceeded to deconstructed it. He slid the egg off the top of the sandwich and said, “I’ll just eat mine on the side.” He enjoyed his dinner. And really, that’s all that matters.

The Finnish Dish

Cooking in Michigan with Ruth

Seven Layer Salad with Pasta, Fancified

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Egg Sandwich (BLTE)