Special Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwich by Alex Ghossein

Alex Ghossein is a competitive power lifter from New Rochelle, New York that always has eating on his mind.  He is constantly hungry all the time and always trying to make himself happy by preparing his favorite dishes of food.  He has found the types of food that make him the most happy.  This man is a huge fanatic of a special bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich that he makes himself.  He is going to show you the way of the world and how to create his masterpiece.

Have you ever woken up in the morning and had a craving for something delicious?  I wake up every morning and always am looking to fill my stomach because I am starving.  Waking up for work at 6:30 a.m every morning doesn’t leave me any time to make my delicious dish Monday through Friday.  However, Saturday and Sunday morning I always wake up eager to make my favorite meal.  Some people would not be astonished by what I am about to say, but the food that I love is universally known.  Many people love it like I do.  Waking up at 8:00 a.m after a nice sleep, all I crave is a bacon egg and cheese sandwich.  I never want to get it from the deli, because I make it the way I love.  It can be the most delicious dish in the world if you just prepare it the right way. 

People have been making bacon egg and cheese sandwiches for a long time.  There are all types of different ways of doing, but I have perfected it.  Some people like scrambled eggs with crispy bacon, while other people like eggs sunny side up with soft bacon.  There are so many different combinations of bacon egg and cheese sandwiches out there with all sorts of different breads.  In my general opinion I feel that there is no other breakfast dish out there that can hit the spot like this one, especially when it is done right.  I feel as if I have a commitment to cooking this meal every weekend.  I owe it to myself to make it, and then eat every last bit of it, and whoever who would like to take part in this feast every weekend is more than welcome to do so.  I would love nothing more than to share this secret with everyone. 

In order to make a delicious dish you have to understand what goes into it, the time, the thought, and the flavors.  It is not the same as just throwing things into a pan and turning on the stove.  You have to have knowledge about what you are doing in order to prepare a dish that people will enjoy.  The bacon has to be the perfect, the bread has to be just right, the cheese needs to be melted to perfection, and the eggs of course need to be spot on.  

When any kind of chef seeks out different flavors and recipes to prepare a new dish, they must research what they are doing.  They have to understand what goes well together, what temperatures to prepare the food, and how to make the perfect dish that leaves people wanting more.  That is not only what makes a perfect dish, but those are the fundamentals that can make a good restaurant a phenomenal restaurant.    

After five long days of work at my job in New Jersey I look forward to my nice little treat every weekend morning to appease my taste buds.  I roll out of bed tired but eager to start my bountiful meal.  As I walk downstairs I prepare all the things I need to make a delicious meal.  First, I take the bacon out of the freezer and let it defrost for a while.  It always ends up taking way too long, which is why I always put it in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Then, I just grab the biggest pan I have, and put it on the stove.  I like to use a combination of canola oil and butter to grease the pan.  Being very meticulous about spreading all the butter and oil on every inch of the pan, I begin to get excited.  I slowly place every strip of bacon on the pan, as it sizzles I start to smell such a delicious aroma. 

Now, the bread and butter of the bacon are what you put on it.  The bacon is currently sizzling in the pan soaking in the butter and canola oil.  What I like to do is add a little bit of barbeque sauce and paprika to give the bacon that little extra taste.  My brother likes to put salt on his, but I find that the bacon itself tastes salty enough; therefore you do not need to add it.  My preference is that the bacon feels a little bit softer, but packed with flavor.  I want the bacon to taste like small slices of steak as I bite into the sandwich.  

The bacon must be packed with a taste that gives the sandwich an important kick.  I sit at the counter top flipping piece by piece, spreading all the flavors around, usually getting small burns from the sizzling oil.  Now, this is where you need to watch the bacon carefully.  When the pan gets too hot and the oil begins to splatter, you have to lower the temperature.  It usually doesn’t bother me, but most people would not appreciate being burned by little droplets of hot oil.  I am so into the dish by this point that the hot splatters of oil really do not bother me much. 

After I feel that the bacon has been cooked thoroughly I place all the pieces, one by one, onto a dish.  This dish has a paper towel over it, so that it can soak the grease up.  However, I leave the leftover grease in the pan so I can cook my eggs in it.  Yes, I said it.  I cook the eggs in a mixture of canola oil, butter, paprika, and barbeque sauce.  It tastes delicious to every last bit, and I do it every weekend.  Anybody else would tell me off and say that I didn’t know what I was doing.  Oh, on the contrary, I know exactly what I am doing.  Now, a lot of people like scrambled eggs, but I love them sunny side up.  It is your preference, whatever you like.  I have had both, but I love the tasty yolk part of the egg when it is cooked sunny side up.  Six eggs seem to suffice for two sandwiches.  This might seem like a lot, but I’m a bigger man so this is just what fills me up.  Becoming a master at the one hand egg crack took me years of practice, but I have finally perfected it.  I crack each egg with one hand right on the pan, and then dump it in the sizzling mix.  It’s going take the average egg cracker about a year of cracking before they can easily crack six eggs perfectly with one hand, but when you finally master it, it feels great. 

It’s a bad feeling when one of the eggs spills out, leaving a feeling of sadness throughout my whole body like I have let everyone down.  For those who have mastered egg cracking, once you have fully cracked six perfect eggs, now you have to add your own special seasoning to them.  I am and always will be a huge fan of salt and pepper on eggs.  Some disagree and some agree, again, it all comes down to preference. But, it just wouldn’t be the same if I did not do that.  The eggs do not take too long tocook in the oil.  

Maybe three to five minutes tops, after that, you will probably just be burning them.  You do have to make sure that there is no “goo” around the egg yolk because this could be very unhealthy.  It might actually end in salmonella poisoning if not cooked thoroughly.  If the eggs still have a slight green aura, let them stay on the burner.  All you should see is white and yellow for the yolk. Once you make sure that the eggs are cooked, you just place one piece of American cheese on each egg.   I would not even take them off the pan until they are perfectly cooked, because a runny egg could ruin the whole dish.  Have you ever taken a bite out of egg that looked delicious, but all you taste is a gooey jelly like texture?  Yeah, it is not a good thing, and I am sure you agree, that can absolutely ruin your dish.  It can also diminish your appetite all together.  So do yourself a favor, and cook the eggs as thoroughly as possible.  Just like everything in life, doing too much of something will get you nowhere, and doing too little just isn’t enough.  You have to cook it for the perfect amount of time if you want a delicious tasting egg. 

Now that the eggs and bacon are cooked to perfection, and we’ve place them on our dish, it is time to toast the bread.  I prefer Ezekiel Bread because it is a very good source of protein and whole grain.  I throw it in the toaster for about three to five minutes and watch it meticulously so that it does not burn.  The eggs and bacon taste so delicious that I can hardly wait for the toaster to pop.  When it finally is done, I take butter and jelly and spread it onto the bread.  On one side, I spread butter on, and the other side I spread jelly.  So now, I am staring at a big plate of six eggs, a load of bacon, 2 pieces of Ezekiel bread with butter spread on it, and 2 slices of Ezekiel bread with jelly spread on it.  I am ready to transform this dish into a sandwich.  The rule of thumb is that the jelly is always on the top.  There is something about tasting the jelly on the roof of your mouth that is just very appealing to me, so that slice is always on top.  I lay the buttered pieces of bread flat on the table.  I place 1 egg on each piece, then 3 slices of bacon over it.  Then I place one more egg over the bacon, and then another three slices over the next egg.  After this, I place the last and final egg over the three strips of bacon.  Then I add the rest of the bacon right over the last egg on the sandwich.  I finally put the jelly side of the bread right over the last bits of bacon turning it into a sandwich, in fact two sandwiches and they stand tall.  Each one of my sandwiches is about 4 inches high, and looks absolutely phenomenal.  As soon I squash the top part of the bread on the sandwich, the perfectly cooked eggs explode, and the yolk spills down the side of the sandwich.  I bring the feast to my breakfast table, and dig in. 

The first bite melts in my mouth.  I taste the barbeque sauce from the bacon, the cheese, the jelly, the butter, paprika, and all in the perfect texture.  There is a little bit of everything in every bite, and it could not be blended together any better.  The egg yolk is messy, but fantastic and the contrast of flavors make me want to shove down the two sandwiches in no time at all.  In fact, that is what I do.  It may take me an hour to cook, but it only takes about 5 minutes to devour every last bit of it.  After my last bite, I make sure I taste every last bit of egg yolk, bread crumb, or bacon bit.  The plate appears spotless within minutes, and my stomach is stuffed.  Yet another weekend of delicious eats it has been for me, and I enjoyed every last minute of preparing and eating it.  What a success! Now it’s time to vegetate on the couch and digest.  This meal is always much needed.