No new post in ages! Where has Daisy been?!
This post was inspired by a recent one by the Perfumed Dandy in which he addressed his own hiatus/absence from the blogosphere.
Never fear, dear Readers! Like the Dandy, I am still here 🙂
However, I did have to put some things on the back burner for a bit. You see, after sweatily fretting that I would have no employment this fall, I seem to have found myself in a situation where I have more teaching than I can shake a stick it. And I can shake a stick at a lot of teaching 🙂
I have classes scheduled every night of the week, except for Monday. Instead of being on one campus, I am divided between two this semester. This means that after teaching one class, I have to run and hop on the train to get to my other one at the other school. Most of my classes finish after 8pm and two finish at 10pm. One of those 10pm classes is on a Friday night 😦
As you can imagine, when I get home, the last thing I feel like doing is cooking. One of the perks of living in Manhattan is that I have an embarrassment of places that will deliver just about anything I want, whenever I want, and at a relatively reasonable price. Pizza Napoletana? Tibetan tsampa? Spicy Szechuan lamb with cumin? Georgian khinkali and lobio? Korean tofu stew? Lobster rolls and shoestring fries? Cuban sandwiches? Isreali hummus? Shio ramen? Coconut curry chicken? Souvlaki? Indian dosas with mango chutney? Yes, please!
Best of all? I can order everything online to be delivered ASAP to Ms. Spoiled-New-Yorker on the fourth floor 😉
But how about the weekend, Daisy? You must have time to cook on the weekend!
In theory, yes. In practice? Well, let’s be honest. On the weekends, most of my meals have been liquid alcoholic insubstantial, augmented by the latest nibble at the next it-restaurant.
All of this might sound exciting, but it gets old really fast. After a few weeks, it’s probably the least satisfying way that I can imagine eating. When things get busy, it’s not that I don’t cook at all. It’s rather that my meals become simpler and generally not anything interesting enough to blog about.
This is where the classic BLT comes in. When I get busy, I look for meals that I can put together quickly with stuff that is already in the fridge. In this case, beautiful bacon from my CSA that I cooked ahead of time, a loaf of bread, some nice lettuce, a good tomato (take advantage of them while you still can), and some mayonnaise. If the bacon and tomato are good, the lettuce is crisp, the bread nicely toasted, and the mayo (it must be Hellman’s) is slathered thickly, you really can’t go wrong.
The BLT is such a standby that sometimes I forget about it in my repertoire of meals. When I went up to visit my CSA farm back in July, I was reminded how good they are. I won’t even tell you how many of these I have had since then because a lady never reveals how much bacon she actually eats. I will say that it beats ordering in any day 🙂
coolcookstyle 
DHL that! I want it now, for breakfast.
It’s great for breakfast 🙂 DHL has those insulated containers, right?
They’re supposed to be so fast, you don’t have to worry about insulation 😉
That is incredible! I remember DHL being the only courrier to reliably deliver in Niger. Man, I could have used some DHLed food while I was there!
Good to have you back, and with a bang at that! Nothing makes me happier than a BLT (except possibly an egg over rice), though I must admit that I’d love to be able to pick up the phone and order in once in a while…
Thanks, Siobhan! Egg over rice is pretty darn delicious too. Have you ever stirred in beaten egg, soy, and a little butter into rice when it just finishes cooking in a rice cooker? That is so good too!
BLT – just what I need at 7.40am on a Friday sitting at my desk checking bloggage before it all goes to hell in the office! I like the idea of teaching, or did, until you mentioned 10pm on a Friday – I could teach wine drinking at that time but not much else,
Thank you, trixfred30! Yes, that 10pm class on Friday is brutal. Can you believe that it is completely full?
On another note, I bet you would be the best wine drinking teacher ever 🙂
YOu know I think I would be, I really do.
Sign me up, Professor 🙂
I can totally relate to your weekends.
And I’ll leave it at that… 😉
Sister solidarity 🙂
Delicious sandwich sweetie!
The one I can make easily and I actually make something similar sometimes but only with lettuce and lettuce. Here in Poland we don’t eat bacon sandwiches.
Thank you, dearest Lucas! You don’t eat bacon sandwiches in Poland?! My darling, you must start!
I have never seen or eaten a bacon sandwich in Poland!
No way! I thought every country that ate pork had a bacon sandwich. What a revelation! What kind of sandwiches are most popular in Poland? I am intrigued!
Maybe when the weather gets cooler, we can figure out some kind of Polish food, trans-Atlantic collaboration 🙂
I like the trans-Atlantic collaboration.
I think most popular sandwiches here are with ham, lettuce, yellow cheese and cucumber or tomato.
I personally like sandwitches with boiled eggs or egg-paste and some veggies (cucumber, tomato, lettuce, chive
Me too! Maybe we can swap recipes 🙂 You can send me one and I’ll send you one and we’ll put them up at the same time 🙂
If I had to say that there was one sandwich that epitomized NYC, my mind would start to drift to the pastrami sandwich or the Reuben, but would finally settle on the classic Bacon, Egg, and Cheese on a (Shitty Deli) Roll.
Mmmmm mmmm!
we may think about that.
Let’s 🙂
That looks good. I had a tomato sandwich last night with the only fresh tomato anyone gave me this summer. Either no one’s gardens did well or no one likes me but that one person. It was wonderful. I guess it’s good that you have plenty of work. Better than none at all but that’s a tough schedule. Take care of yourself.
Oh, a tomato straight from someone’s garden is a tremendous gift indeed! I’m pretty picky about tomatoes. Either I want a good one, or I don’t want one at all. A good one is like pure ambrosia, a bad one is like . . . styrofoam. Sounds like you got yourself a good one 🙂
Yes, the schedule is tough but my students all seem great this semester, so it makes teaching a real pleasure. I think the hardest part will be when midterms hit and I have piles and piles of tests of grade . . . In any case, thank you for the kind comment and all your support! You rock, Poodle!
Wow! I can’t believe you got all of those teaching jobs. Pretty awesome! Those students are lucky to have you.
We have BLTs often for dinner. Lately, I’ve been adding coleslaw (with Mac apples) and loving it. Your photos look great and now I want a BLT for breakfast!
I know, right? I can’t believe it either and feel incredibly fortunate. My students all seem terrific this semester. Great attitudes. I guess to choose to take a course that late, you must be pretty motivated!
Coleslaw sounds like a great accompaniment! Yum! And there is nothing wrong with a BLT for breakfast 🙂
I’m happy to hear that your students have good attitudes. Nice students can really make all the difference. I hope this year isn’t as stressful for you. Stevie and Squeaks say “hello” from Maine.
So true! Thanks for the Maine greetings. Hope that you all are doing okay. How is Squeaks?
yum!
Thank you, Niki! It is!
I have missed your smiling, sunny face so much! But I won’t scold you for your long (too long) absence because yay for lots of jobs. (Boo to the insane train hopping from one campus to the other.) As for becoming bored of delivery, I would give a great deal for such a wide, lovely range of options. To go from Tibet to Italy to Cuba to India, lucky devil! That said, your BLT looks delicious. Please FedEx some over pronto! Some of us are starving for good food in the godforsaken wilderness in which we live. 😉 😛 (Laziness does not help. lol)
Aw! I’ve missed you too, dearest Kafka! Yes, it killed me to see all these terrific posts that I didn’t have time to properly get to. But I am glad to have income this fall! As for the getting from one campus to another, it’s really not so bad. If I had more time in-between classes, I could probably walk it.
As for delivery, sometimes I let friends from other parts of the city stay in my apartment if I am away for a weekend. When I come home to a giant pile of take-out and delivery menus, I know they didn’t leave the pad at all 🙂
Maybe I can figure out a way to get something to you in that godforsaken wilderness 🙂 Let me work on it . . . 🙂
Congrats on the teaching jobs! I can understand not wanting to cook when you come home though. The BLT looks delicious 🙂
Merci beaucoup, Carine! Yes, it’s tough to get motivated to cook after you come home late from work, isn’t it? But BLTs are a good way to stay fed 🙂 Thank you again for the kind comments and support!
Glad to read a new post, Daisy 🙂 And glad that you have work after the period of uncertainty.
Glad to put one up, James! I’m glad to have work too! Thanks for the kind message and all the support!
Glad to see you back, Daisy! And great minds… Just yesterday, I was bitching on Facebook (I know, I know, you don’t do Facebook) about the number of restaurant BLTs I had this summer that were just wrong. Several frigging yellow tomatoes. Yuck. The reason for the tomato is to provide acidity. And yellow ones, no matter what their heirloom cred may be, have none. Other wrong things include chewy bread. It’s supposed to be soft. And I had one where they added cheese (I think they thought it cute to do a riff on a Caprese salad). Double yuck. Some things just shouldn’t be fooled around with. 🙂 But you did it just right!
Thank you, Michelle! It feels good to be back!
Egads, those restaurant sound so untasty! And chewy bread? Artisanal bread? Has no place anywhere near a BLT. Cheese too? Good grief. Why not just call it a Club sandwich and spare the poor BLT?
I feel the same ire when I go to a restaurant and see that they have messed with the classic lobster roll.
I missed you so much dear heart! I thought MY schedule is insane; yours sounds like a freakin’ nightmare. The BLT sounds absolutely divine. I have been known to imbibe occasionally. If I used (gasp) turkey bacon, would you still consider it a BLT?
I am glad you’re back. Mwah!
I’ve missed you too, my dearest! Oh, I wouldn’t dream to compare my work to yours. I feel kind of wussy when I hear about friends who go into work in the morning and get home at the same time I do. That being said, teaching this level is kind of like performing two two-hour shows a day. My voice is shot!
And yes, I will accept turkey bacon 🙂 I’ve actually never had turkey bacon . . . Does it really taste like bacon?
Mwah to you too!
I missed you but a LOT of work still beats NO work so I’m kinda glad that you’ve disappeared for that reason.
Have a relaxing weekend! (don’t drown 😉 )
I’ve missed you too! This weekend and next I have a little bit of time to play catch up (I have off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur). It’s very true though that a lot of work beats no work every time.
Hope that your weekend is going well too!
Yay happy you’re back! I feel like everyone went on hiatuses lately (myself included) — by the way I’m moving into a new apartment tomorrow with a proper stove and kitchen so I can’t wait to finally try some of your recipes now instead of just drooling over them!
Thank you, Edna! Yes, I feel like there were a lot of people who took a break for a little bit too. Glad to be back and glad to hear about the new apartment! Can’t wait to see what you cook up. Keep me updated!
The BLT looks scrumptious! And yes, do take advantage of the last of season tomatoes. A plain old tomato sandwich (t’mater) with mayo is mighty good too. Don’t feel guilty about taking a break from your blogging. It is not just the class time but all the prep work and grading that consumes most of your waking hours. Simple is good, and actually more challenging than the fancy pants stuff. Welcome back!
Thank you, Scrougelady! A plain tomato sandwich in season is divine! Thank you so much for the kind comments and all your amazing support. It feels good to be back too. Guess what’s coming up? The Bacon Takedown 🙂 Shhhhh!
Looks great. I feel your pain, I have just moved country and started a new job so cooking is on the back burner a bit. Sadly, Dublin does not have the amazing take out options you have. What I would do for a lobster roll right now!
Come to NYC! We’ll have them! I would ship you one, but I think a visit would be more fun . . . and less fragile 🙂
Heya BaconBiscuit212,
This is may ALL TIME FAVOURITE sandwich, had it yesterday with Avocado on Panini and a seeded mustard and tomato chutney. MMMMMMM
Portia xx
Thank you, dear Portia! BLT’s are one of my all time favorites too. Your version with avocado sounds DIVINE. Yum, yum, yum! Thanks for the terrific idea! Now have to find a recipe for tomato chutney. Do you have a favorite?
No, it came on the BLAT, as we call Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado and Tomato Sandwich Down Under at a local Cafe. It may even have been home made because it was full of chunky onions and had a very bitey peppery zing.
Nice to chat.
Portia xx
That sound fantastic, Portia! I’ve never been to Australia, but one day I will. And I will have that sandwich 🙂
We often have a spare bed, do come stay.
Portia xx
That is such a kind and generous offer, dearest Portia! Thank you! I would love to one day. If you come through New York before I get to Australia, do give me a ring. I would be thrilled to be your personal city guide and subway sherpa 🙂
You got it. I love NYC, though I haven’t set foot there this century. I was hoping to get there this last year but stuff conspired to keep me away, it could be 2014 but most likely 2015.
Thank you.
Portia xx
In 2015 then! How much fun we will have! I think we will need to drag Brie out as well 🙂