Peanut Butter and Bacon Sandwich

It's been about two weeks since I opened my Peanut Butter Sandwich poll. If you recall, the agreement was that Taylor would eat whatever sandwich received the highest number of votes. I bet you've been dying to know the winner.

Well, wait no longer. The winning PB combo is.......

Peanut butter and bacon!

In a close second was peanut butter and cream cheese, followed by peanut butter and jelly, and a rogue fourth place vote for peanut butter and nutella. Still, bacon came out on top, so let's get to it!

Peanut butter and bacon sandwich
Blend 1/2 cup peanut butter with 1/4 cup cooked minced bacon. Makes 3 full-sized sandwiches.

Sounds simple enough! Clearly the biggest task in this exercise would be cooking and mincing the bacon. I've made bacon a handful of times, and it's pretty easy. I put a few slices in the pan, turned up the heat to medium-high, and let the bacon do its thing.

Once the bacon was extra crispy, I patted it dry with a paper towel and chopped it up into tiny little pieces.

Then I folded the minced bacon into the peanut butter, and spread the mixture onto a couple of slices of toast.

And there you have it! A peanut butter and bacon sandwich. I poured a glass of milk and set out my test kitchen creation for Taylor. Sheila was on standby.

Like a good sport, Taylor took a big bite...

 ...carefully considered it....

 

...took a swig of milk...

...and asked me, "why are we doing this again?"

I reminded him that peanuts are good for him and that he should find more creative ways to eat them, specifically citing this blurb from Powerlifting Peanut in the National Peanut Council cookbook:

Look what he gets in a handful of peanuts:
More protein than a serving of beefsteak
More iron that a serving of spinach
More B Complex vitamins than a serving of oatmeal
More niacin than 5 slices of enriched bread
More calories than a big dish of ice cream.

That last one isn't so much a selling point for me, but otherwise, wow, go peanuts! That's impressive!

After a few more bites, I asked Taylor what he thought of the sandwich. His review: "It's dry, crunchy, and I can't really taste the bacon." I took a taste and would probably add "super salty" to that description, but overall, not bad. I think we were both surprised that the recipe called for the bacon to be minced. Taylor pointed out we could have achieved a similar taste and texture (without the cholesterol) if we'd just swapped the bacon for some rice krispies. But where's the fun in that? Bacon.4.Life.

It's Peanut Butter Sandwich Time!

I hope you all enjoyed sharing a snack with Professor Peanut and the gang this week. There's plenty more where that came from! Check out this spread from the Snack Jar Plan:

Presenting: the six most popular peanut butter sandwich ideas!

What I love about this page is the implication that there are other peanut butter sandwich ideas, but these are the six MOST popular ones. What a curated collection, National Peanut Council! Who would have thought to add chili sauce, tomato, or watercress to a peanut butter sandwich. Genius.

I can't decide which sandwich to make, so I thought maybe you could help. Let's do a poll. The winner by a popular vote will be fed to Taylor. And he has to eat it. And like it.

In the comments, please write which of these "popular" peanut butter sandwiches should Kaitlyn make for Taylor to eat?

1) Peanut butter and chili sauce
2) Peanut butter and jelly
3) Peanut butter and watercress
4) Peanut butter and bacon
5) Peanut butter and tomato
6) Peanut butter and cream cheese

Cast your ballot! The poll will close Wednesday morning, August 26th, so vote early and vote often!

The votes are in! Click here to see which peanut butter combination won the poll.

Olive and Nut Sandwich Spread

Thank goodness for sandwiches. Without them, I'd probably have had to learn to cook a lot sooner. But because of sandwiches in their supreme simplicity, I've been able to keep my belly filled with minimum effort or thought. My go-to sandwich filler consists of a few slices of deli turkey, a slice or two of cheddar cheese, a dab of mayonnaise, and a bit of mustard. Or peanut butter and jelly. When in doubt, always go with peanut butter. Put simply, I love sandwiches, so imagine my delight when I came across this page in Wartime Suggestions:

 

Why, yes, I could use some variety in my sandwich spreads! Now, which to try first. My temptation was to go with the familiar--the peanut butter option--and call it a day. But the whole point of this blog is to learn new cooking skills, and that wouldn't be very educational, would it?

So I went with one of the more...unorthodox...combinations. Introducing: Olive and Nut Spread. 

These are the instructions as listed in the booklet: Chop stuffed olives and nuts fine; moisten with cream cheese and mayonnaise.

Hm. Okay. How many olives? What kind of nuts? How much cream cheese? How do you make this?! Remember my discomfort with the "improvising" part of cooking? Yeah, clearly I'm not quite ready for this kind of test. So I took a deep breath, Googled it, and found this recipe with a few more specifics. Whew.

I gathered the ingredients below and got started:

6 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup sliced olives

2 tablespoons of olive juice from the jar

Dash of pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Serve on sandwiches or with crackers.

Simple enough! First, I used my food processor to chop the pecans and stuffed olives.

Gulp. It admittedly looked a little questionable at this point, but I pressed onward. Next I mixed in the mayonnaise, cream cheese, olive juice, and pepper. Once finished, I took a small taste, and you know, it wasn't too bad. I could definitely taste the saltiness of the olives and the crunchiness of the nuts. The ratio of cream cheese and mayonnaise to olives and nuts is a little high, making this recipe resemble more of a dip than a sandwich spread. I couldn't imagine slathering it between two pieces of bread, so I scooped a dollop onto a plate with some Triscuits and attempted to feed it to Taylor as an afternoon snack. 

Not wanting to crush my fledgling chef spirit, Taylor took a bite and said, "Mmmm, let's have more later!" It's since been a few days, and I don't think he has eaten any more of it. 

I even attempted to share my creation with our friends Alex and Kyle this past weekend, and let's just say there was a lot leftover when it was time to go home. I think this is the kind of recipe where you either really love it or you just politely endure it for the sake of your friend's feelings/blog. Even Wartime Suggestions alludes to this phenomenon--take a closer look at the recipe listing:

It's expensive, but you may want to try it once in a while. Will keep nicely for several days.

In other words, "This is a strange combination, we know, but heck, why not mix it up a little? It'll take multiple sittings to get through the batch, but that's what your Frigidaire refrigerator is for. So splurge on those olives, you crazy kids!"

Overall, this recipe isn't a homerun at my house, and I likely won't make it again. But let's just say I am invited to an olive-admirers' convention and they specifically request the Olive and Nut Sandwich Spread. In that unlikely hypothetical scenario, I would reduce the mayonnaise in this recipe and let the cream cheese do the heavy lifting. It might launch this dish into cheese ball territory, but it would certainly help cut some of the tangy aftertaste. Wow, look at me! Maybe I'm learning a little something about cooking after all.