The peanut butter and jelly sandwich with banana slices at Sproutz restaurant. Ask for it with bacon! I'm not sure they'll give it to you, but ask anyway.
I had two favorite sandwiches as a kid: peanut butter and strawberry jam (duh) and, the one my family made fun of me for, Kraft singles, mustard and mayo between two slices of white bread. And all with the crusts trimmed, preferably.
I've since traded the white bread for whole grain, and I usually have turkey with reduced-fat cheese, no-fat mayo and spicy mustard. Love me some peanut butter, but I can't buy any because I'd pretty much eat a jar of Peter Pan like it was a small cup of yogurt.
But I bought a banana with my lunch yesterday from Boston Avenue Grille (got the Boston Signature Salad, which was awesome -- roasted chicken on Romaine and field greens, plus cranberries, apples, toasted walnuts, tomatoes, bacon and Balsamic). I haven't eaten the banana yet, and it's sitting on my desk, staring at me, as bananas often do.
And as I sit here staring back it, I'm suddenly craving a peanut butter and banana sandwich like my Mamaw used to make for me growing up.
Then I got to thinkin' about the banana sandwich Mamaw would make for herself on occasion, but instead of PB she'd use mayo. That's right, freakin' MAYONNAISE. I refused to try it and don't think I can bring myself to do so now, except at point of death. And even then, I might gag a smidge.
Nothing against mayo, I just don't care for it outside of a sandwich, or potato or chicken salad. Maybe the occasional sweet potato fry with wasabi mayo, but not straight (ha) unadulterated (ha-ha) mayo.
But I remember the Piccadilly Cafeteria or maybe the old Morrison's Cafeteria in Alabama, serving Jell-O cubes -- my FAVORITE post-church dessert when I was 3 -- with a bit of mayo on top. Wait, maybe it was a church function, not a cafeteria. But I've seen it. Oh! Just remembered Mamaw putting a dallop of mayo on top of her pear salad.
Is this a weird Mississippi thing? I asked a co-worker from Arkansas if he'd ever heard of it, and he used the word "repulsive."
So has anyone out there had a banana-mayo sandwich? Or some other weird mayo sandwich?
In the mean time, here's the recipe for the "Jason Special" sandwich I made as often as possible when I was in fourth grade until I eventually got burnt out and, consequently, only have a hot dog once every other year.
The Jason Special Sammitch
2 slices bread, white or wheat, crust-on
2 all-beef franks, grilled
(Or nuked, as I wasn't allowed to grill when I was 9 -- or microwave when I was 8 because I almost burnt the house down by nuking Rise Krispies for five minutes in a plastic cup. Oopsie.)2 slices of your favorite cheese
(I always used Kraft singles, of course.)2 tablespoons(ish) mayo
2 tablespoons(ish) spicy mustard
10 sliced hamburger dill pickles
1. Toast bread, careful not to burn it. Unless that's just your thing.
2. Lightly spread mayo on one side of each piece of toast (I suggest the sides facing one another when the sandwich is eventually finished). Then, squeeze mustard in the form of the Transformer's Autobot logo or whatever you want.
3. Take grilled/nuked/warmed wieners, and slice to arrange evenly on top of one piece of bread. Top with cheese, followed by pickles.
4. Smush it. "Smush" in the "press with your hands" sense, not the "Jersey Shore" sense of the word.
5. Eat.
Peace, love and smushed things ... XOXO
