Gypsy Bacon

The Foodie Daughter is absolutely certain that bacon deserves its own food group and she has been begging me to make this recipe so her boyfriend can experience this ethnic dish. I had to wait until now to make it as her father has been home most evenings and he doesn't appreciate this true peasants' food. Now, as I have always believed that I was kidnapped from a tribe of gypsies, I happen to love this dish.

The star of this meal is pork jowl meat. The bonus is that this is a very cheap cut of meat.

Sweet paprika is generously rubbed into the cut pieces of the pork jowl meat or jowl bacon.

When cooked, this will add a great deal of flavor to the rye bread.

The jowl meat cooks over medium-high heat.

Every so often, the pieces are taken off the heat and used to "mop" the rye bread on both sides.

Earlier I had cut Romaine lettuce, a yellow bell pepper, red onion and a cucumber*. On a whim we decided to put out sliced mozzarella and baby Swiss cheese.

*Any veggie that can be eaten raw is a good candidate for a gypsy bacon sandwich.

The jowl meat is cooked through.

Now it's time for the diners to assemble their sandwiches. It is so good.

The Foodie boyfriend was suitably impressed. That made the Foodie Daughter very happy.