Stephanie Plum's Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I enjoy a series of books by Janet Evanovich that involve a bounty hunter named Stephanie Plum. The books are a lot of fun, with humor, suspense, murder, mayhem and the thought of Ranger without his clothes on….but I digress…

Stephanie eats a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. Peanut butter with different additives. Like bananas, potato chips, olives, jelly and marshmallow goo. Not all at the same time, of course.

I grew up not particularly liking the mixture of peanut butter and jelly. I preferred the two things to go solo on my bread. At Girl Scout camp, we would get two sandwiches in our lunch bags: one was peanut butter and jelly, the other was “meat paste” that the girls referred to as “hamster meat”. I would trade my hamster sandwich for a peanut butter and jelly with anyone who was willing. And there was always someone willing. I would take the two sandwiches apart, putting jelly with jelly and peanut butter with peanut butter. Later on, I discovered the joy of peanut butter and honey. Add some butter to that one and you’ve got a really fantastic sandwich. Combines lunch and dessert all in one neat package. The last couple of day trips Marv and I have made, we’ve taken peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but I premix the PB + J together before spreading it on the bread. I like it better that may. I also add raisins to my sandwich. Once again, lunch and dessert combined.

I was reading a new Stephanie Plum book and it again mentioned all the PB sandwiches she makes and the various ingredients she adds to the PB. I got to thinking about the various pairings. I’ve had PB + J. I’ve had PB + bananas (thanks to the old sitcom, Pete & Gladys). I’ve had PB + black olives (try it before you condemn it). I’d never had the pairings of PB + marshmallow or PB + potato chips. So in the interest of doing a good book report, I tried those combos. I usually prefer my marshmallows surrounded by chocolate and graham crackers, but PB and marshmallow fluff is pretty darn good. Much better than the PB and potato chips. There are only so many chips you can smash into the PB and about all I could taste was the PB. With added crunch. Ho-hum. Then I was reading a bit further in the book and came to the realization that the olives Stephanie put in her sandwich were GREEN! OMG! Totally unappealing! But good reporter that I am, I knew I had to try that. I LOVE green olives with pimento, but as a side goody, not in a sandwich. The idea of an entire sandwich of PB + green olives was not acceptable, so I tried just one olive with a glob of peanut butter. I was surprised. Not bad at all. So I tried another one, just to make sure. It’s still not something I would want to have an entire sandwich of, but I will admit its viability.

So there ya go, Gladys. Something to consider if you’re feeling adventurous at lunchtime…