Even though it’s been continuous rain with brief moments of sunshine, our summer temperatures have still been quite hot – mid to upper 80s with humidity above 60 percent. And that means it feels more like 100 degrees . . . and while it’s great for my garden, this kind of weather isn’t great for my hair – frizz and curl is the name of the game these days.
The Professor and I spent the July 4th weekend with our Three Many Cooks friends and had a wonderful time of just ‘being’ – no activities were planned except relax, fall-head-over-heels-in-love with baby Dash, enjoy good food, laugh and connect; it was such a great weekend.
We spent an evening with our niece in Philadelphia on the way, two nights with the Anderson/Keet clan and a day in Mystic, Connecticut with our friends at Jovial before heading home; on our way out of Connecticut, we stopped at Cafe SoL in Niantic and grabbed an iced coffee as well as a wrap – a B.L.A.T. to be exact: Bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato all snuggled into a wrap that really hit the spot on a steamy, hot summer day.
I asked The Professor if a BLT was the quintessential summer meal and for him . . . it is; I wasn’t a fan as a child but I have to admit that I’m rather taken with them as a bona fide grown up. Salty, thick-cut bacon, warm-from-the-sun garden tomatoes and soft butter lettuce – creamy avocado was a lovely addition.
We are brand ambassadors for the folks at Toufayan Bakeries and happily promote their gluten-free products here on Smith Bites; in my humble opinion, they’re the best gluten-free wraps on the market – and I’d be saying that whether we were brand ambassadors or not. Soft, tender, bendable, these wraps perform like their gluten counterpart – meaning they actually ‘wrap’ without splitting apart; and they taste great too.
We used the spinach wrap to make our version of the B.L.A.T. and just like that, we were sitting in a corner booth at Cafe SoL on a hot, summer day – that’s what food is about: memories, traditions, stories and gatherings – it’s the food that connects us all.
Disclosure: I am being compensated for sharing Toufayan products with our readers; however, everything I write here are my own words, my own opinion, and my own experiences.
GLUTEN-FREE BACON, LETTUCE, AVOCADO AND TOMATO WRAP
Makes 2 wraps
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 Toufayan Gluten-free Spinach wraps (or your favorite)
- 6 slices thick-cut bacon
- 2-4 butter lettuce leaves
- 2 small tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch rounds
- 1 half avocado, sliced into 1/4-inch wedges
- mayo or avocado aoli
METHOD:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Cover a rimmed baking sheet in foil; place a wire cooling rack over the baking sheet and lay bacon slices on top of cooling rack
- Bake for 15-minutes or until bacon is crispy; set aside
- Spread wrap with mayo or aoli; assemble starting with the tomato, pinch of salt and pepper, then 3 slices of bacon, followed with 2 lettuce leaves and finish with half of the avocado for each wrap
- Starting from the bottom, roll the wrap upward about 2-inches, then fold each side inward towards the center leaving the top of the wrap open
- Enjoy with a sour pickle wedge and chips – at least that’s the Smith Bites way!