Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Club Sandwich


Me. Just after getting out of the garden.  :)
Hi Friends! This is the time of year that reminds me of my childhood spent at the Culpeper Country Club Pool.  Things are a wee bit different these days. It's 6 am here at GreenHearts Farm.  I've been watering the gardens since first light and that means dragging a really long hose from over here and walking it to over there.  I do this for a good three to four hours every morning until the boys get up and then we do the morning hustle.  I'm not the best at time management when it's growing season. But, don't they say that when you truly love something, that the measure of time gets lost while you are in the throws of it?  Yes? Well, I guess I should get a watch but the only watch I want is my Swatch Watch from the 1980's and that watch wasn't much of a time keeper either because it didn't have any numbers on the face.  Just a design and three different arms pointing in all sorts of directions of the compass.

I really loved my Swatch Watch in the summer time because it was water-proof, since I spent the summer in the pool beginning with swim team at 9am Monday through Friday. Day in and day out.  I would use my watch to gauge just how much sun I was getting. Honey-browned skin in contrast to the ivory skin underneath the watch.  It was fascinating to me. 

In the summer, we-three Brooks kids were dropped off at the pool at 9am and picked up around 3 to 5 pm or whenever my Mom could leave work.  If you were hungry you had to order something from the poolside menu. But, if you cleaned yourself off, dried your hair and wore something acceptable, you could go inside and order a Club Sandwich and a Shirley Temple off of the Clubhouse menu, get it to go (since children weren't allowed to eat inside; you had to be accompanied by an adult), and take your lunch outside to sit with the other water-logged children under the awning. 

This didn't happen very often. It took a lot of effort to get out of your wet Speedo, get dressed, then put back on your wet Speedo for the remainder of the day.  Back then, us girls wore one-piece Speedo bathing suits at the pool.  You didn't see any of us in a bikini until we turned sixteen and those were reserved for the beach.  How the heck can you play Sharks and Minnows or Polo in a bikini without showing the world your goodies?  I dunno.  Kids these days. Or I should say, Mom's these days. Mom's put there little girls in a bikini and arm-floaties because they think it's adorable, by the age of three.  It's not practical. I have a bit of advice for parents: keep your girls in a Speedo one piece bathing suit until they turn 18. Builds character.

I'm so sorry for the rant.  I wish I had a daughter.  She'd be made of some tough stuff just like me.

So on those days when you had a lot of Moxy when you went to bed that evening saying, tomorrow, I'm going to do it.  I'm going to walk into that clubhouse and ask those scary teenage waiters that are in black tie for a Club Sandwich to go, I'm gonna act like I own the joint.  I won't chat too much.  I won't look around.  Eyes on the prize.

This is my VEGAN CLUB SANDWICH. I love a double-decker.  I get hungry watering and weeding the garden, running after two boys and caring for my husband. And this beauty is spot-on. :) 

For more recipes like the one below you can get your copy of my new cookbook Hot Southern Mess: Vegan Vittles and Country Cookin' by Jen Lane

Club Sandwich
Ingredients

White or sliced bread

Vegenaise

Iceberg lettuce

 
Sliced avocado

Tomato, sliced

Bangarang

1 package of vegan bacon or vegan bologna

1 package of Turkey Style Tofurkey Deli slices

Large frilly toothpicks

Directions

Toast three slices of bread to make each sandwich.  Cook the veggie bacon according to the package directions.  Begin with your bottom layer of bread and slap on some Vegenaise. Layer on lettuce, two slices of avocado then tomato sprinkled with Bang, vegan bacon, and Tofurky.  Top with a piece of bread that is has been Vegenaised on both sides. Follow up with another round of L, A, T, B and T. Top it off with the last slice of spread and toast.  Place 4 toothpicks in the middle between each corner.  Cut in half with a diagonal slice and then again in the opposite directions to make an X.  Serve the four triangles with a pickle.