A Second Chance for Sandwiches | Sojourners

A Second Chance for Sandwiches

The loaves and fishes in the Bible story of the "feeding of the five thousand" (a major sandwhich-making operation) should spring to mind whenever hungry people congregate.

Why do sandwiches always taste better at someone else’s house? My own inclination when searching for something to fix for lunch is to do "anything but sandwiches"—leftover supper from the night before, a quick pot of macaroni ’n’ cheese, a salad. But whenever I eat one someone else has made, I

realize what a complete and tasty meal a sandwich offers. Obviously, I need to overcome a certain lack of imagination when making these layered gold mines.

Summer is an easy time to create a sandwich marvel. Crisp cucumber rounds, rings of bell pepper, juicy slabs of red tomato, slices of mild onion, romaine lettuce leaves are all in season, and such vegetables almost make the cheese and bread irrelevant. Add jalapeño peppers, a squirt of oil-and-vinegar dressing, salt, pepper, and a few olives, and you will wonder why you ever bother to cook hot food.

If summer vegetable season has not quite arrived, you can perk up a tired turkey breast or ham sandwich with pineapple chunks, or cranberry sauce, or a hot-sweet mustard.

When is the last time you had a fried egg sandwich? Or took the time to make an egg salad sandwich, with its focus on that most ubiquitous of sandwich ingredients—pickles? Again, an egg sandwich of toasted bread, creamy mayonnaise, and sliced ripe tomato may have you swearing never to eat an egg with a fork again. (I have seen a breakfast variety of egg sandwich that features jelly and buttered toast with an egg between, but I still prefer the lunch version best.)

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Sojourners Magazine May-June 1997
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