sprucin' up an old standby

after lifting weights with the martini and spending 30 minutes on the treadmill i was hungry. lucky for me our special collections librarian hooked me up with a big, beautiful tomato. she said it was a "hot house" (which most are this time of year) but she claimed her mother-in-law brought it from some greenhouse in canada and it was the best "hot house" around.

it did look nice. and it smelled pretty good.

how about a blt?!

first things first - a beer. i'd worked up quite a thirst and brooklyn was there to quench it. today i went with the lager. tasty.



next - the bread. lucky for me i picked up these lil' ciabatta loaves at aldi's for like $1.50. i made chicken salad on sunday night and have been eating it on these mini loaves all week. perfect sammich size. yum!



you bake 'em in a 425 degree oven for like 8 minutes and then they are nice and crusty and yummy.

i also decided i'd roast a few potato wedges. i seasoned them with lawry's season salt and some lemon pepper and then i tossed 'em with some olive oil.



notice that perfect potato alignment? that's called neuroticism.

i cooked my bacon on my stove top cast iron grill and then drained it on paper towels. with nice crispy bacon, a crusty piece of ciabatta and chopped veggies it was time to assemble.

i only like a teeny bit of mayo. whenever i order blt's i always get the mayo on the side. you just need such a small amount - no gross slatherin' here.



next comes the lettuce. usually i'd like a whole leaf but i'd already chopped up my romaine for my lunch salads so chopped it was.



then the bacon.



then to mix things up a bit i added some slices of avocado. mmmm....avocado.



last but not least - the canadian tomato.



and here's my dinner.

who killed laura palmer?! not my bbq chicken!

first - a disclaimer. i noticed it's been a whole month since i posted last. hence the name, ERRATIC epicurean!

for the last year or so a group of friends and i have been getting together to eat (everyone brings something tasty) and watch twin peaks. you are correct in assuming that since it's taken us over a year to watch a mere two seasons of 1990s television that we were a lil' erratic with our get-togethers.

we got together a few weeks ago to finish up and in honor of the sunshine and the season finale i thought i'd get out my lil' bucket grill.

i stopped by difeo's after work to pick up some whole chicken legs and then some good lookin' sausages wooed me. i picked up some hot italian sausage, some boudin sausage, and some turkey sausage (for the shitetarian of course!).

i already had some of my kick ass bbq sauce in the fridge so when i got home i rinsed and dried the chicken with some paper towels. i seasoned the legs liberally with salt and pepper and then roasted them in the oven on a wire rack over a cookie sheet until they were just about done.

why did i roast them in the oven and not just slap 'em on the grill? you'll see. it's a space issue.

while the chicken was roasting i lit the coals. once those were nice and hot and gray i started my sausages.



oops. maybe a lil' too hot for those lil' turkey links!



the turkey sausages were done pretty quickly so i took them off the grill and wrapped them in foil. the larger links took just a bit longer.

mmm. look at those babies. soooooo goooood.



with the sausages cooked and wrapped in foil it was time to start bbq'ing the chicken. i had 6 chicken legs total but due to my space constraints i had to bbq in batches.

i like to brush the chicken with bbq sauce, let 'em sizzle just about 20-30 seconds and then flip and brush and flip and brush and flip and brush until the skin is nice and crispy and and the sauce is caramelized.

here they are when they were just about finished.



YUM! bbq chicken legs are one of my all time favorite foods to grill. i'll be eating this many more times as the weather turns warm.

as for twin peaks...it did not disappoint. what an ending!