KGB Sandwich (with a little ORT)

I've long contemplated paying tribute to Soviet intelligence in the form of a sandwich, and the day has finally arrived!  I'd like to introduce you to the KGB, a decidedly un-Russian combination of kale, guacamole, and bacon layered between two slices of homemade bread.  Oh, and let's not forget the ORT, oven roasted tomatoes, but that kind of throws off the whole USSR theme.  Unless you want to call it a KGBORschT.  Then you have the fun combo of secret police and beet soup.  I might be on to something here...  Creating variations on the BLT is like culinary scrabble, and I just can't get enough.  

Russian jokes aside, this sandwich is AWESOME.  A Wonderfully Enjoyable Sandwich Overtaking My Emotions.  And this is really hard for me to admit, but it's not the bacon that makes this sandwich so good; it's the tomatoes.  They add a completely new dimension to the sandwich that will make you never want to eat a raw tomato slice again.  You really have to try them.  Immediately.  

KGB (with ORT) Sandwich

2 slices bread

2-3 strips bacon*

2T guacamole

A little kale

2-3 oven roasted tomatoes 

*For a vegetarian version you could substitute cheese or tempeh for the bacon.  Or that weird fake bacon stuff if you're into that.  

Here's the lineup.  Pretty hard to resist, right?  

For the guacamole I just mashed up an avocado, a long green pepper of some unknown variety from Matt's mom's garden, a clove of garlic, and a little salt.  The bacon is Amana peppered bacon.  I have three packages of it in my fridge and one in my freezer, so I figured I should put a little dent in the stash.  In case you were wondering, I am aware of how absurd the amount of bacon I have is.  Very, very, very absurd.  And slightly embarrassing.  

Uh.  Mah.  Gah.  (translation: Oh.  My.  God.)

And Kelly, this morning I woke up and thought, "TGINIR."  

Bacon Jam Taste Test

On my weekly check of the mail the other day, I was beyond thrilled to discover that my jar of skillet bacon jam had arrived.  My mailbox is usually filled with grocery store ads and letters telling me it's my very last chance to renew my subscription to Vanity Fair, so you can imagine my excitement when I was greeted with a jar of spreadable bacon.  After a little brainstorming with my brother, I conducted a little breakfast taste test yesterday.  Kyle suggested eating the bacon jam with maple syrup or honey, and I added fruity jam and butter to the mix.  The medium for the taste test was a whole wheat english muffin.  Watermelon and blueberries were served for dessert.  

First, the unveiling of the bacon jam itself...

Bacon jam is made by skillet street food in Seattle.   

According to their website, bacon jam is made with rendered down bacon...

...combined with spices and onions...

...and simmered for about 6 hours.

Then it's pureed, blast chilled, and shipped to little people like me.  

Doesn't it kind of look like barbeque?  I think so.  I think that might have had something to do with my inability to get barbeque out of my mind with every bite, and it wasn't in a wow-I-could-really-chow-down-on-some-ribs-today kind of way.  It was more of a wow-this-kind-of-tastes-like-pulled-pork-and-I-wasn't-expecting-it-when-I-combined-it-with-honey/syrup/jam kind of way.  

A quick aside, you should buy some of this jam.  It's called Traffic Jam, and it's my favorite jam in the world.  I was introduced to it on my first visit to Matt's parents' house, and it's what gets me out of bed every day on return visits.  

If you don't live anywhere near Milbank, South Dakota, you can order some from their website.  I'm generally of the belief that food labels are not an appropriate place for bible passages, but I will gladly make an exception for Traffic Jam.  It's that good.  

I thought long and hard about the order in which the spreads would go on the english muffins.  For ease of spreadability purposes, I concluded that the bacon jam should be the bottom layer for the honey and maple syrup slices, and the jam and butter went on first on the other two slices.

The second layers were then added with the utmost precision.  Clockwise from bottom left: bacon + jam, bacon + honey, bacon + syrup, and bacon + butter.

Bacon jam is, um, interesting when combined with sweet things.  I'm going to do more experimenting in the savory arena and see how that goes.  The makers of bacon jam serve it on a burger, and I'm thinking a grilled cheese with tomato and bacon jam would be pretty good.  My first savory experiment, however, just might be a bagel with a little cream cheese and bacon jam.  When I was growing up my mom would occasionally treat us to bagels with cream cheese and strips of bacon, which is a heavenly creation.  I'd like to have a combination of cream cheese and bacon coursing through my veins in the near future.  Maybe I'll treat myself tomorrow after my long run.  

If I had to pick a winner, it would be bacon jam + honey.  

More bacon jam updates coming soon.  If you have any ideas, let me know!