Blt

CHICAGO -- Cut up a firm, sweet, home-grown tomato; add a pile of crispy bacon slices, a glob of mayonnaise and a few leaves of crunchy lettuce; slide it all between two slices of fresh toast and you've got an American classic: a BLT.It's enough to make mouths water -- and to power the nearly $16 billion-a-year pork belly market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. A pork belly is basically a slab of bacon that hasn't been sliced, cooked, cured and smoked.That cravings for BLTs can drive the pork belly futures market is "conventional wisdom in this industry," said Jens Knutson, economic researcher with the American Meat Institute in Arlington, Va. "The industry even refers to this time of year as,'The BLT season.

Charmington's is just a short walk from the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus, but it's an even shorter walk for another thriving community of educators. They live in the same building. Charmington's occupies a sunny corner space in Miller's Court, a former manufacturing plant that provides discounted housing for teachers and office space for nonprofit organizations. Although Charmington's menu of sandwiches and wraps isn't very ambitious, either in size or culinary outlook, the food is wholesome, fresh and affordable.

Charmington's is just a short walk from the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus, but it's an even shorter walk for another thriving community of educators. They live in the same building. Charmington's occupies a sunny corner space in Miller's Court, a former manufacturing plant that provides discounted housing for teachers and office space for nonprofit organizations. Although Charmington's menu of sandwiches and wraps isn't very ambitious, either in size or culinary outlook, the food is wholesome, fresh and affordable.

The Village Square Cafe is a modest, bright and spotlessly clean place in Roland Park with few pretensions. It understands that delivering the right experience must begin with the owners and run down the line to servers, cooks and bus boys. It seems a simple enough credo for success, and here, they do it well. The lunch menu is understandably heavy on sandwiches, but there are also pizza, wraps and omelets. The great list of sandwiches ranges from $7.95 for the BLT to $9.95 for the half-pound burger and fries, with the other sandwiches, including a stellar Reuben, priced at $8.95.

BLTs, one of America's favorite sandwiches, have always been a passion for me and my family, and over the years I have experimented with various versions of this classic combination. Not so long ago, I had another brainstorm -- the BLT quesadilla! I spread large flour tortillas with creamy goat cheese mixed with some ground cumin, then the classic trinity followed -- sliced tomatoes drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar, bits of bacon and, finally, some baby spinach leaves. After the tortillas were folded in half, they were quickly grilled on a stovetop grill pan. (A skillet will work if you don't own a grill pan.)

From now until late fall I can expect a sizable number of weekend guests at our house. Once the weather turns warm, our phone begins to ring with friends asking if they can stop by for a night or two. Typically, our friends are driving to the shore, and our home is a good stopping-off point for them.During these brief visits, there are usually several meals involved. And I always make an effort to keep these menus simple so that my husband and I will have time to visit with our friends.This season I have a new dish to add to my stash of "weekend company" recipes.

I could live without lettuce, but it is hard for me to imagine life without bacon and tomatoes. love the basic BLT.However, if you find yourself with a lot of ripe tomatoes and a hot charcoal fire on your hands, you might want to try variations of the classic bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.I decided to try putting grilled fish fillets on a BLT. The recipe called for mahi-mahi, a fish with a great name and wonderful texture. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find in local fish markets.

BEING A LONG-time believer in the theory that your tomatoes ripen as soon as you go on vacation, I visited my garden as soon as I got back in town from a week at the beach.Sure enough, the tomato plants that a week earlier had been chugging along in the slow lane had hit the accelerator while I was gone. Clusters of ripe tomatoes were now hanging out in spots that had once been green and leafy.Surveying the harvest, I spotted two fat ones that looked like the best of the crop. They were big Beefsteaks.

Mayor Lippy has not hired public relations helpYou really have attentive employees. When photographer Carlos Gonzales and staff writer Jackie Powder were instructed by some editor to cover the complete daily activity of a small town, rural mayor, (Small town keeps the mayor busy," June 12) they took you literally.Carlos arrived at my home 7: 15 a.m., Jackie 8: 15 at Town Hall.Many thanks to Carlos for his artistry with the camera, even though he had some difficulty locating my "good" side.

The Village Square Cafe is a modest, bright and spotlessly clean place in Roland Park with few pretensions. It understands that delivering the right experience must begin with the owners and run down the line to servers, cooks and bus boys. It seems a simple enough credo for success, and here, they do it well. The lunch menu is understandably heavy on sandwiches, but there are also pizza, wraps and omelets. The great list of sandwiches ranges from $7.95 for the BLT to $9.95 for the half-pound burger and fries, with the other sandwiches, including a stellar Reuben, priced at $8.95.

Every neighborhood needs something like the Pure Wine Cafe (8210 Main St., 410-480-5037, PureWineCafe.com). Now Ellicott City has one, in the space where Annabell's Fine Wine used to be. Pure Wine is part wine bar and part coffee house, a place to "meet your friends and have some small plates," as co-owner P. J. Strain put it. Since I first wrote about the place at the beginning of the year, the concept has changed somewhat. Instead of a full menu, chef Kevin Brothers, formerly at Great Sage in Clarksville, offers a short selection of dishes that change weekly.

Taneytown Deli & Sandwich Shoppe Garden Restaurant and Lounge 1501 Light St., Baltimore -- 410-685-9408 Hours --4 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays Restaurant's estimate --not long Ready in --4 minutes Too much mayonnaise and greasy bacon made this sandwich, $4.73, a big mess. It leaked through the wax paper and the paper bag. A small bag of Utz potato chips came on the side. Know of a good carryout place? Let us hear about it. Write to sam.sessa@baltsun.com.

BLTs, one of America's favorite sandwiches, have always been a passion for me and my family, and over the years I have experimented with various versions of this classic combination. Not so long ago, I had another brainstorm -- the BLT quesadilla! I spread large flour tortillas with creamy goat cheese mixed with some ground cumin, then the classic trinity followed -- sliced tomatoes drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar, bits of bacon and, finally, some baby spinach leaves. After the tortillas were folded in half, they were quickly grilled on a stovetop grill pan. (A skillet will work if you don't own a grill pan.)

Even the Three Stooges never were as simpatico as bacon, lettuce and tomato, which is why the BLT has to be the simplest and most sublime sandwich ever invented. Some days, though, you want to gild the lily just a little bit, and this recipe for upscale BLTs moves the sandwich from a simple lunch to a more adventurous summer dinner. While any old bacon will do, try to use an artisan-style bacon, such as applewood-smoked bacon. Replace rubbery out-of-season red tomatoes with locally grown heirloom yellow and toss out the iceberg lettuce for a more exotic green arugula, perhaps.

The booming Greene Turtle franchise began in 1976 with a rinky-dink Ocean City bar that served no food except peanuts. Now there are seven Greene Turtles in Maryland, all cavernous sports bars with televisions galore and often video games, live music, foosball or karaoke nights. The latest Turtle is in Towson. Unlike Greene Turtles in Fells Point, Annapolis, Ocean City and Salisbury, this one isn't near the water, but Towson is still a promising location for a place that's popular with the 20ish crowd.

MOST OF THE year, I would say there is no such thing as having too many homegrown tomatoes. But lately I am having my doubts. This is August, the month when gardeners become tomato slaves. In the morning, I hurry to my garden to gather the ripe tomatoes before the birds, the bugs and some unidentified but increasing tall and hungry critters feast on my fruit. The afternoon often finds me caked with garden mud, cleaning and sorting the harvest. I separate the "leakers," tomatoes so ripe their skins have burst, from those with solid, smooth coverings.

Every neighborhood needs something like the Pure Wine Cafe (8210 Main St., 410-480-5037, PureWineCafe.com). Now Ellicott City has one, in the space where Annabell's Fine Wine used to be. Pure Wine is part wine bar and part coffee house, a place to "meet your friends and have some small plates," as co-owner P. J. Strain put it. Since I first wrote about the place at the beginning of the year, the concept has changed somewhat. Instead of a full menu, chef Kevin Brothers, formerly at Great Sage in Clarksville, offers a short selection of dishes that change weekly.

The booming Greene Turtle franchise began in 1976 with a rinky-dink Ocean City bar that served no food except peanuts. Now there are seven Greene Turtles in Maryland, all cavernous sports bars with televisions galore and often video games, live music, foosball or karaoke nights. The latest Turtle is in Towson. Unlike Greene Turtles in Fells Point, Annapolis, Ocean City and Salisbury, this one isn't near the water, but Towson is still a promising location for a place that's popular with the 20ish crowd.

I could live without lettuce, but it is hard for me to imagine life without bacon and tomatoes. love the basic BLT.However, if you find yourself with a lot of ripe tomatoes and a hot charcoal fire on your hands, you might want to try variations of the classic bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.I decided to try putting grilled fish fillets on a BLT. The recipe called for mahi-mahi, a fish with a great name and wonderful texture. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find in local fish markets.

BEING A LONG-time believer in the theory that your tomatoes ripen as soon as you go on vacation, I visited my garden as soon as I got back in town from a week at the beach.Sure enough, the tomato plants that a week earlier had been chugging along in the slow lane had hit the accelerator while I was gone. Clusters of ripe tomatoes were now hanging out in spots that had once been green and leafy.Surveying the harvest, I spotted two fat ones that looked like the best of the crop. They were big Beefsteaks.