A Dying Wish

At one point or another, I know you've contemplated it: if you were on death row, what would you request as your last meal before you meet your maker?

According to last meal history, the requests have truly run the gamut. For example, there has been the pious approach (Joan of Arc - holy communion); the classy (Edward Hartman of North Carolina - Greek salad, linguini with white clam sauce, garlic bread, and cheesecake with cherry topping); the petite (Victor Feguer of Iowa - a single olive with the pit still in); the weird and stinky (Harold Lloyd McElmurry of Oklahoma - a pint of chicken livers, cottage cheese, and one raw white onion); the generous (Philip Workman of Tennessee - he declined a special meal for himself, but asked that a large vegetarian pizza be given to a homeless person); and the downright gluttonous (Dennis Wayne Bagwell of Texas - medium rare steak with A1 Steak Sauce, fried chicken breasts and thighs, BBQ ribs, French fries, onion rings, bacon, scrambled eggs with onions, fried potatoes with onions, sliced tomatoes, salad with ranch dressing, two hamburgers, peach pie, milk, coffee, and iced tea with real sugar).

Gross. How in the world did these people keep this stuff down?

While I have no immediate plans to make it to the slammer with a death sentence to boot, I've thought long and hard about my last meal request. It's a tough one. I was always quite certain that my request would at least in part follow what Timothy McVeigh had in mind (2 pints of Ben & Jerry's mint chocolate chip ice cream), but I'm starting to have second thoughts about that after something has recently come to light.

Eat St., a show on Food Network Canada, recently featured a number of food carts around the U.S., including the beloved Big Egg in Portland. (It also featured P-town's Brunch Box and Creme de la Creme, a cart I've been meaning to visit because it's walking distance from my apartment.) I haven't actually watched this episode (or the show...or the network for that matter), but its website has included a recipe from the Big Egg. Oh Canada, bless your heart.

Do clatter a favor, will you? Please give that to the warden to pass along to the kitchen crew of the penitentiary of which I will be instated. Thank you - I will be eternally grateful.

With this delectable Monte Cristo sandwich recipe now in my possession, I think I can die in peace. Preferably not by lethal injection.