By Curt McAdams, Bucky's Barbecue & The Cooks Kitchen 

I  hate summer in some ways:

• I can’t run around in a swim suit all summer, just waiting for the lake to open each day at noon so I can swim all day long.
• I have to get up by a certain time to go ‘work for the man’.
• It’s hot, and I have to wear long pants! And socks!

But I also love summer in other ways:

• Since I live in the country, I see how the corn and soybeans are doing.
• No school buses are blocking me every morning on my way to work.
• It’s warm enough in the morning to put the top down on the car.
• Most important, though… I can get really fresh veggies and fruit, right from the farmers.

Corn on the cob is so good when it’s fresh, just cooked enough to melt butter. All I do is add some salt, and apply toothpicks after dinner.

Beans, peaches (imported, but still fresh)… All good stuff. But is anything better in the summer than a tomato you picked right from your own tomato plant?

 I don’t think so. And one of my favorite ways to have tomatoes are on bacon tomato sandwiches (I pass on the lettuce… I just don’t think it adds to the sandwich). Of course, toasted white bread and mayo are musts for this sandwich!

Alton Brown had a bit on bacon on his Good Eats show, where he showed how to bake it instead of frying it. I tried this, and it’s the preferred way of doing bacon on my house now:

Put a cooling rack over a cookie sheet. Add bacon strips, making sure the strips don’t hang over the sides of the cookie sheet.

Place the cookie sheet with bacon in a COLD, yes cold, oven, and turn the oven to 400 degrees F. Once the oven is at 400, turn the cookie sheet around 180 degrees and check the bacon every 3 minutes until it’s at the desired crispiness.

The bacon will come out flatter this way, and it won’t make as much of a mess of the kitchen… And you won’t get splattered with bacon grease!

A variation is to add brown sugar on top of each bacon slice, then bake… And you have bacon candy.

Photo & Sandwich Credit to Curt McAdams of Bucky's Barbecue.  Visit Curt's main website to learn more about personal chef services and cooking classes in Southwest Ohio.