Today, I'm going to challenge you. It's a little challenge but it's a good one and if you trust me, you might just start to open yourself up to what I'm trying to get across here.
Good food is good food, even if you never thought you could put those things together that way before. This was one of those experiences for me when I had it. I found it compellingly ingenious and I hope you'll give it a try.
Thanks to the #HarmonyCafeFV in Appleton for the sandwich idea. I'm not much of a sandwich eater but this one, I think I could live on. It's got two of my favorite snacks in the whole world -- Granny Smith Apples/Peanut Butter.. and Bacon.
That's right, I said Bacon.
You can use regular bacon, maple smoked, thick cut, prosciutto grilled up nice and crispy, pre-cooked, turkey bacon .. if you are really hardcore, I think you could probably use tofu-bacon (though that I haven't tried and can't vouche for)
So, the Cafe calls is a Diversity Sandwich. I just call it delicious.. In fact I try not to tell people what's on it til they've had it.. something about the play of sweet (peanut butter), tart (apples) and salty (bacon) all crunchy and smashed together like that makes my mouth positively water.
Here's how you do it:
Start with toasted, whole grain or multi grain bread -- get the real hippie style bread with seeds and twigs sticking out of it because you don't want a bread to cave on you during this project. You need it to be delicious and full of good things but it has to have the consistency of concrete to hold all that good stuff.
Once it's toasted, add a schmear of peanut butter. As any good bagel eater will tell you, a "schmear" is a unit of measure that is somewhere between 1 and 5 tablespoons -- obviously, use your good judgement on this. I typically use enough to cover the bread and it ends up being about 2TB worth. I prefer smoothe PB but crunchy might also be really yummy.
Wash and slice your crispy granny smith apple into thin, but not transparent slices. Pile it on that peanut butter. I usually end up using about half my apple for this. The rest I slice and eat alongside my sammich if I have room.
Now.. the bacon. Add about two or three slices to the sammich. Check your package and see how many slices are considered a serving and that's what you'll want to use.. but make sure it's good and crisp. You don't want soft bacon on this. Soft bacon will only end up pulling the whole delicious thing apart on your first bite. Crisp, crunchy, delicious bacon. *wonders secretly if there's any left in the fridge right now*
Top the whole thing off with a handful of alfalfa sprouts. You might be tempted to leave these off, if you're altering the recipe at all but I encourage you to leave them on. Or if you're allergic or can't stand them, try using regular bean sprouts. You need something that tastes vaguely herbaceous to kind of wrap it all up in a tidy bow. I've tried it with and without and I much prefer it with.
Now top it with your second slice of hippie wheat bread and EAT THAT SAMMICH! Or try to, at least. I find that I'm about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through one of these monsters and I'm doing the sigh. I started cutting it like a club sandwich so I'd have a neat piece I could wrap up for later.
Trust me on this.. I've been eating my whole life.
