Holy cats, I feel like I've stumbled into a support group of secret PB sandwich lovers! … after reading the whole thread I realize my childhood exploration of PB doesn't make me the Weird Child I thought I was.  Or told I was, lol!!  In those early years I was indifferent to most candy sweets and flat out disliked grape jelly, particularly with PB.  My favored PB sandwiches then were (some of which I still eat furtively thanks to hubby's nose-wrinkling):

PB and Grandma's homemade bread 'n butter pickles (with the pickled onions) – utter YUM!

PB and homemade sweet pepper 'n onion relish

PB and dill pickle slices (the crunchier, the better)

PB and thin-sliced red onion and very crispy bacon bits

PB and lots of thin-sliced radish & lettuce

PB and thin drizzle of Bosco chocolate sauce with thin sliced banana

For those of you with a short gag limit on PB oddness, skip the next line:

PB and sharp cheddar cheese slice with a light schmear of mustard/mayo mix

In defense of this broad PB exploration, we had a tight survival budget then and PB was ridiculously cheap as the only lunch choice for several years.  My Grandmother also introduced me to an evening PB spoon snack.  She was also the rare soul who openly encouraged creative sandwich-making when other family members groaned and fled the kitchen.

I'll confess to a somewhat keen unspoken disappointment when our only child at a young age was as crazy-fussy about food choices as her Michigander father but felt a flutter of hope when she flatly refused the traditional PB&J.  As a young adult she has suddenly bloomed into Ms. Food Adventurer.  She's now open to other of my favorite sandwiches:

Thanksgiving turkey (dark & white bits mixed) with homemade pepper 'n onion relish + spicy horseradish mustard on homemade WW bread.  If we have toasted Mozzarella Egg bread, that's a plus!

Egg Salad made with homemade relish, honey mustard, a little olive oil mayo, plus fresh ground pepper layered with lettuce, fresh tomato and avocado slices in season, on un-toasted WW.  Drippy, bit of a soggy mess and wonderful.  Took years to woo hubby to eat this over his very, very plain egg salad preference and he has only recently embraced the avocado (sigh).

Toasted cheese with piles of grated cheeses piled on buttered single WW slices in the fry pan … wait till the cheese melts then flip one slice over the other for a complete sandwich.  Best way to use up different cheeses from the frig.  I have a fondness for jalapeno jack cheese mixed with sharp cheddar.

Wow, what an interesting thread … and so good to know I'm in equally adventurous company!  FWIW, I don't use much mayo (sorry, never liked MW) but have begun to discover the interesting potential in making my own thanks to CITR.  And the horizons of foodom just keeps expanding ….

Two of our favs: Both Chunky chicken salad — one made with olives and tomatoes, the other with celery and pecans.

Prayingpup, I used to call those "Oscar Madison"s, after the guy in the Neil Simon play. 'Cause when I got done eating all that slippery bologna,  mayo and cheese with the chips crumbling every where, I looked as messy as he did.

aprilejoi said:

Okay, I have been peeking in on this thread for quite awhile. I have to ask RuthMarie: pepper and onion relish sounds fabulous! I would love it if you could post the recipe.

     My favorite sandwich? Anything in a tortilla. Miss my gas stove where we would start a low flame and lay the tortilla directly on the burner. flip once, add cheese, avocado, sprouts. (I'm a California girl, everything had sprouts on it!).

     I love tuna with Miracle Whip and lots of celery and relish.

Sure, aprilejoi, I have posted the recipe under Pepper 'n Onion Relish (hasn't popped yet otherwise I'd give a link) … it is not the original recipe from my grandmother as I discovered it wasn't written down anywhere in her book of handwritten recipes (ack!).  However, I scrounged the web about 3 years ago when I first started canning.  Did several batches combining a couple of very similar recipes till the brine flavor triggered my childhood.  Seriously, tasting something from your childhood is the quickest form of time travel I can think of!