PB & J(ust about anything)

I have always loved peanut butter. My last two years in high school as a vegetarian, I brought a peanut butter sandwich to school every day. (No jelly: I didn't want to bread to get soggy.) Later, when I was broke one summer during college, I experimented with peanut butter and dorito sandwiches. (Good jelly was out of my budget; I needed that money for beer.) When I gave up being a vegetarian, I dabbled with peanut butter and bacon. (Don't knock it til you've tried it.) A few years ago I introduced my friend Bettina to peanut butter and banana sandwiches when we were hiking through the jungles of Costa Rica. (I like to think she's spread the craze around Germany since her return.)

Crunchy, creamy, natural, decidedly not natural -- I love peanut butter in all its forms. (Well, except the low fat variety. I mean, come on.) Clearly I have been supporting the peanut butter manufacturing industry for some time.

On the bikeable feast, I've been working local ingredients into the peanut butter sandwich experiments. Blueberries right off the bush on my way through Concord, NH. Homemade kumquat jam from Jen's mom in Catalina, AZ. Steamed cabbage at Yochi's in Eugene, OR. (Okay, actually I didn't eat that one, but Yochi swears it's delicious.) With honey, with nutella, with the classic raspberry preserves or apricot jam. On sprouted bread, bagels, pita pockets, croissants, even those little melba toasts.

Today, in a moment of misguided fervor, I tried my first peanut butter and avocado sandwich. Um. Yeah. It was lacking in a little something, namely the ability to detach from the roof of my mouth. A water bottle and a half later, I've finished swallowing and decided it's high time to solicit some new ideas. I mean, variety is the spice of life, no?

This is where you come in, readers. I know you're out there -- I've been peeking at the google analytics stats every so often -- and I need your help. I'll be picking up food supplies soon for the next leg of the journey. Your assignment: send in a recipe for your favorite peanut butter [& something] sandwich. Actually, you know what, it doesn't even have to be peanut butter, just a sandwich that's tasty and relatively easy to assemble on the road. In fact, it might be nice to have a PB&J reprieve. When I get to New Orleans in about a week, I'll see what's been submitted and choose a winner, to whose home I will send a little cajun care package....

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