Food challenges fascinate me.  I love shows like Iron Chef where a secret ingredient dictates each course.  I travel with my mother and grandmother to Florida frequently in the spring, and because they love to save money and I love to cook, we rarely eat out.  The day we arrive, I try to convince them to not grocery shop with me--only so I can buy as much food as I want.  I typically try to plan meals ahead and have a list in hand, but I always deviate from it.  The biggest goal, however, is to use whatever we get.  I’d rather not make extra trips to the store and lose valuable beach time, but my mom and grandma would rather not have to throw away any food before we depart.  The last day is always a challenge for me, though I’ll admit that I have sneakily thrown out food that just didn’t work for our last day.  Not this time.  I was using everything.

On the last day of our most recent trip, we had a few items left in the fridge: two giant Ugly tomatoes, a tiny head of Bibb lettuce, four eggs, about a half-pound of cooked bacon, one avocado, eight slices of bread, a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  That’s it.  No condiments or dressings.  No leftover spices.  I smelled a challenge.

I considered making a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette for our last dinner, but there really wasn’t enough lettuce or vinegar for the three of us.  I didn’t want to make breakfast the next morning since we had an early flight, so bacon, eggs, and dry toast was out.  Without chips and a lime, guacamole wouldn’t work.  Hmmm...

Our early-in-the-week plan with the bread, bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes was to make BLTs.  The Florida tomatoes were so fresh, juicy, and delicious in May that we put BLTs at the top of our lunch menu options for the week.  In fact, each spring, when Florida tomatoes are at their prime, we gobble them up like candy.  In salads, with mozzarella and basil, on pizzas, in sauces: the possibilities are certainly endless.  We love to just cut them into wedges, add some salt and pepper, and drizzle a little oil and balsamic on the beauties.  They’re the perfect food.  But, the best summer sandwiches are BLTs.  Tomatoes tend to disappoint in Ohio (other than during the late summer months), so we took advantage of our southern travels and prominently featured the tomato in each lunch that week: three BLTs, one grilled Swiss and tomato sandwich, and two tomato salads.  It’s always a treat to eat garden tomatoes in May.  Waiting until August in Ohio is torture.

As I stared into the fridge, I knew making BLTs again wouldn’t account for the eggs, that avocado, and the, according to my grandmother, “expensive” balsamic and oil.  I knew they’d say I bought too much.  Then I remembered Thomas Keller’s version of a BLT, a BLT Fried Egg-and-Cheese Sandwich, and the ever-popular California BLT—one with avocado—that’s sometimes called a BLAT.  I also remembered how scrumptious a balsamic fried egg is on pizza and figured it could translate well to sandwich form.  

There was no way I was wasting the tomatoes (or the bacon, for that matter), so I decided to combine it all.  

Thus, the invention of TABLE Sandwiches.  

I’m quite sure I didn’t actually invent these, but I have yet to find a decent website that includes the following precise ingredients into a sandwich, and they certainly don’t use the same acronym.  Many include mayo or cheese (aren’t these fattening enough?), and some use herbs instead of lettuce, but none used a balsamic fried egg.  Regardless of preference, before making one, carefully consider the following:

1. Only the best tomatoes will make this sandwich superb.  Use lousy tomatoes, expect lousy sandwiches.
2. The parenthetical descriptions of ingredients are my favorite versions of each item, but they’re only suggestions.  Use what you have/like.
3. Again, use homegrown, red tomatoes that smell like a garden, and the result will be divine.  Go ahead and try these in the winter with some hard, pinkish tomatoes with white cores.  Good luck swallowing the sandwich.  You’ll be eating an ABLE after just one bite.

As for the recipe for this mega-sandwich, there isn’t much to it.  While I’ve included some detail, it’s not really necessary.  Throw everything on some toast and enjoy (and only dream of eating TABLE sandwiches in February).

TABLE Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 1 tomato, super-ripe, juicy, cored, and sliced to desired thickness (Ugly tomatoes are fantastic)
• 1 avocado, pitted and peeled (slightly firm for slices, ripe for a spread)
• 6-8 slices bacon, cooked (slab, peppered bacon works well with these)
• 4 medium green leaf lettuce leaves (Bibb, red leaf, and Romaine are great, too)
• 4 slices bread (a rustic, whole wheat is my favorite)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (a high quality variety makes a huge difference--always)
• dash Kosher salt
• dash black pepper, freshly ground

Preparation

1. Prepare a mise en place by setting out the sliced tomatoes, lettuce pieces, and cooked bacon.
2. Slice the avocado, or make a spread (especially for ripe ones) by mashing it with a dash of cumin, salt, and hot pepper sauce, a little lime juice, and a chopped cilantro sprig.  Add avocado slices/spread to mise en place.
3. Toast the bread.  Add it to the line-up, too.
4. Heat oil in a medium frying pan on medium-high heat.
5. When the oil is hot, add each egg.  Once the edges of the eggs are a little brown, flip them, and add the balsamic, salt, and pepper.  Cook to desired doneness, but leave the yolk slightly runny.
6. Assemble the sandwiches with all ingredients.
7. Cut sandwiches in half and serve immediately.

Yields 2 sandwiches