My front-deck tomato garden is finally producing decent-sized ripe large tomatoes, which is tricky growing them at 8000ft up in the mountains. If the weather doesn't kill them, the deer and elk will eat the plants if left accessible. And even on the raised deck the racoon can get to them, but he has been scarce this year. My son goes outside every day to see how many are ripe, and harvest them all, to be greedily coveted, and shared only grudgingly. Home vine-ripened tomatoes are like that.

The other day I got home from work and managed to sneak a large tomato into the kitchen before he got a-hold of it. I sliced it and sampled the sweet salty flavor. it was perfect. Into the oven went a half-dozen slices of bacon on a rack to bake to crispiness. A big head of lettuce was sliced, and some potato bread toasted and buttered. It all came together as the most lovely BLT sandwich -- no mayo, I'm not a mayo person myself.

I sliced the sandwich in half to reduce ingredient slippage during consumption and carried the plate proudly to the dinner table. The first bite was decadent -- every ingredient was fresh and flavorful and perfectly prepared. I then offered a bite to my son (4 1/2 years old) who had never had BLT. He was reluctant, but took a bite and pronounced it pretty good (he's not fond of lettuce right now). But, he redeemed his character by asking if he could just have a piece of bacon by itself.

That's my boy.