The Lord of Sandwich is spinning in his grave

This afternoon I made one of my favorite sandwiches for the first time in a long time. It has been a while since my last recipe post so thought I would pass this along for posterity.

This sandwich was originally taught to me by a vegetarian aunt when I was the gullible age of seven. I devoured countless versions of it during my ever-starving teen years, where the ingredients could always be counted on as being available. Since then I've found only one other person who likes them which is Drew, the son of one of my best friends, Mike. I will annotate with Drew's commentary as well as mine, since he and I differ on certain key points. His points are not so much credal heresies but more simply nuances in proper doctrine.

Jim's PBPC Sandwich

[Peanut butter, pickle and cheese]

Ingredients

• 2 slices bread - any will do, but I prefer coarse, strong-flavored bread like pumpernickel for this one. Toasting it is good and if you use normal "sandwich" bread, a must.
• 1 Tbs peanut butter - first doctrinal difference: I prefer crunchy for the texture, Drew likes smooth. Either work.
• 8-12 slices of pickle - second doctrinal difference: While both Drew and I prefer dill pickles for this sandwich, I like slices of a good quality pickle like Claussen, while Drew makes the argument that the sharp flavor of cheap hamburger dill slices is a nice offset to the bland peanut butter. He has a point and I certainly grew up using hamburger chips. You can also try a sweet pickle like bread and butter pickles, but I don't think the taste combination is as good as it is with dill pickles. I have never tried pickled hot pepper rings - those could work nicely, though.
• thinly sliced cheese - I prefer sharp cheddar, but have also used American, Swiss and pepper jack (for the first time just today, in fact). I also think cream cheese could be interesting, as long as you toasted the bread. Note: Don't make the slices too thick or the sandwich will be too chewy and suck all the moisture out of your mouth, leaving you unable to speak coherently for an hour!

Directions

Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread. If you toasted the bread then spread the peanut butter on while the toast is still warm so the peanut butter will partially melt. Then place the pickles on the peanut butter. Note: This order of assembly is important because if you put the cheese on and then the pickles you will again achieve the saliva-sucking effect. The whole point of the pickles in between the peanut butter and cheese is to both give the maximum taste contrast as well as to directly add the moisture from the pickles to the peanut butter to avoid extreme spit drought. Layer on the cheese, then the other piece of bread. Eat. Mmmm, isn't that good? Aren't you glad you're a brave person not afraid of trying things just 'cause they sound weird?

Serves one, which is enough, because if you like it then chances are you will never find another person who does.