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Try it!



Today on my commute to work, my favorite radio station was asking listeners the “question of the day”.  I have to admit; the question of the day is one of the reasons why I like this station.  I tuned in to hear.  Today’s question was, “what strange food item did you love growing up that others just didn’t understand.”  My reaction was immediate.  I chuckle as I type this knowing the face of disgust my husband will make when he reads this.  Growing up my parents used to make us peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches.  My Dad loved it. I loved it.  I can’t explain it. It must be the blend of the salty peanut butter and the balance of the sweet pickle combined with the satisfying pickle crunch. Together, it is just perfect.  Seriously, don’t knock it until you try it!

Oddly, however, when I remembered my favorite sandwich, I was immediately taken back to my childhood home on Brooke Drive.  I was in the extremely small kitchen of my childhood home.  I could see the yellow chairs around the metal table and the window over the sink.  Not a moment later, I was transported to my junior high school cafeteria to the ill-fated day that my friends discovered my secret favorite sandwich.  Somehow, I had made it through elementary school without anyone discovering that my peanut butter sandwich combination had nothing to do with jelly.  This particular day, the mean spirited pre-teenage mind couldn’t help but question my food choices.  I don’t remember much more about the confrontation, but I remember deciding it would be the last time I would take my peanut butter pickle sandwich to school.  Instead, I would only enjoy it at home with my family

Much older now, I wish I could tell my younger self not care so much about what others think. Food has a powerful way to evoke emotions and memories.  Taste, smell, and texture are powerful.  For me, peanut butter and sweet pickles will always take me home.  Even if others believe it to be “strange”.


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