We interrupt your regularly scheduled Asian noodle post

OK, this was originally going to be post about an Asian noodle dish that I stumbled across in the "Recipes" folder on my computer. There were a few little warning signs here and there, like the fact I had failed to note where the recipe came from, or that the file name was called "Dan Dan Noodles" but the text called the dish "Sichuan Noodles." But I was in the mood for Chinese noodles, so I pressed on and made the dish, taking photos throughout the process so I could share it with y'all. 

And then I sat down and ate it. And it wasn't very good. It wasn't horrible, mind you. Just kind of blah and uninspired. The sort of thing that I would not want my culinary reputation hanging on. And while it wasn't an ordeal to put together, it required a fair number of ingredients that I don't always have on hand. So with a great sigh and much cursing, I decided to scrap it, at least for now. Anyone who wants to share a good recipe for Dan Dan Noodles (which was what I was in the mood for in the first place), please email me or paste it into the comments below. 

But this meant that I didn't have a blog post at the ready—I generally like to share something with you folks every few weeks—and the scorching heat this past week (100+F) has meant that stove and oven usage have been kept to a minimum. What to do? 

Well, make sandwiches and salads, mostly. I've been living off pan bagnat the last few days, and various salads largely assembled on the fly. But since we’ve already tackled pan bagnat, I’m going to show you a very quick little sandwich that makes me quite happy: The smoked salmon BLT.

When I first made this sandwich a while back, I proudly mentioned it to some foodie friends online. A denizen of the Pacific Northwest wrote that my brilliant idea was, in fact, dead common in her neck of the woods and nothing to get too excited over (I suspect she was shaking her head sadly as she typed). However, for those of us living in the godforsaken flyover states, it’s not that common. It also happens to be quite good. And during a heat wave, it’s particularly welcome—you have to turn on the stove long enough to cook a slice or two of bacon, but that’s all that it requires as far as heating is concerned. Actually, that’s a lie—you have to use a toaster for the bread, but neither of those things will make your kitchen feel like a sweat lodge. If your ways are that of a pescetarian, you may eliminate the bacon and just use the salmon. 

I’ve been going on at length, mainly because once you cook a little bacon and toast a couple of slices of your preferred bread, there’s really nothing to this but assembly.

Toast your bread, and spread it with a little mayonnaise.

Add some greenery.

Then a few slices of tomato (yellow, in this case).

Now the bacon.

And top it all with the smoked salmon and a bit of freshly ground black pepper.

Put the lid on the sandwich, and you’re done.

If you think it needs some color, you can throw some brightly-colored, ridiculously overpriced veggie chips on the plate as well. If you're the sort who enjoys dietary rationalizations, you can pretend that the omega-3 fatty acids in the salmon cancel out the saturated fat in the bacon. 

I’ll try to come up with something more substantive next time. Bon appetìt, y’all.