*Peanut Butter and WHAT Sandwich???

When I was in third grade at Amherst Academy, Edith, my friend with thick, black ringlets brought the exact same sandwich every single day.  We went to different schools from fourth to the sixth grade, and ended up in the same junior high school.  No surprise to me when she brought a lunch from home, it was still the same sandwich.  I was horrified in elementary school, and I was still horrified when we were in high school.  Edith's favorite sandwich was a peanut butter and...not jelly...not banana...her favorite food was peanut butter and pickle sandwiches!

Over the years, I've become more adventurous in my eating, even trying a dill pickle milkshake when I was a freshman in college at a little drive-inn (Stan's?) on 900 East in Provo, Utah.  (For the record, the first taste was surprisingly yummy, and things went downhill from there pretty quickly.)

An extended family member had been extolling the virtues of peanut butter and pickle sandwiches recently.  For Christmas last year, he had given us a jar of "Storey's Sweet Memories," sweet pickles, locally produced nearby in Kaysville, Utah.  "Sweet Memories" are "distinctively flavored fancy candied party pickles."  He told us we hadn't lived until we had eaten a sandwich made with these pickles.

Yesterday, while pondering my lunch options, I spied the jar of pickles in the fridge.  I knew we were out of peanut butter. What to do?  What to do? And then it hit me.  I had a small packet of peanut butter I had saved from a hotel's continental breakfast bar in my car. Yes, I keep spare peanut butter in my Sonata for just such emergencies. I love trying new foods, no matter how bizarre. (And in case you're wondering how far I've ventured in my bizarre foods, here's the link to my Rocky Mountain Oysters experience.)

Peanut Butter and Pickle Sandwich

The ingredients are pretty straightforward:

Pickles (we used sweet, but I'm pretty sure Edith used dill)

Peanut butter

Bread (your choice of sandwich bread)

Spread peanut butter generously on one slice of bread.  Top with pickles, as few or as many as you desire.  I was so tempted to only cover half of the bread with pickles, in case I didn't like it, so I could salvage the other half by adding bananas or honey. Don't; trust me; you'll want to put pickles on the whole thing.  Top with the other slice of bread.  Drum up some courage, and take a bite.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I took one bite, and thought, "Not bad, but I don't think I will ever crave this."

I can't answer for dill pickles, but with the sweet ones, it was like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, except for the vinegar rising up behind my mouth into my nose, giving an unusual sensory experience to eating a peanut butter sandwich.  That was unusual, but not unwelcome.

There you have it; one of the biggest peanut butter fans in the world gives Peanut Butter Pickle Sandwiches a big THUMBS UP.  

Bon appetit!