Wednesday, August 24, 2011

An Epicurean Delight

Grand Jean displayed his Epicurean skills in the wilderness last week at a campsite deemed "Slippery Rock" camp.  Boreas, the North Wind, had forced us to ground early after the last crossing of Le Grand Portage, and Boreas continued to blow all afternoon.  Grand Jean reached into one of his two giant LRP packs to pull out the ingredients for making a fine sandwich for himself and Big Al. 

I noticed the smell and ambled over.  Drool began to drip from my mouth as the smell of fried Spam wafted over me.  Grand Jean was making a few grilled Spam and cheese sandwiches ... with real butter.  OMG, what a masterpiece!!!

Big Al offered me a small quarter sandwich to taste, and the taste exceeded my already lofty expectations. The sandwich bread was finely grilled with real butter; two slices of Kraft American singles bracketed a Spam single slice [these are available in supermarkets in my hometown in Ohio.]  I ate it slowly, savoring its exquisite flavor ... a 10!  This will go onto my lunchtime menu back at the bunker.

Grilled Spam and Cheese

Two slices of good bread
Butter
One slice of Spam
Two slices of American cheese [or Velveeta cheese]

Fry the spam until a bit crispy.  Put a slice of cheese onto the bottom slice of bread, add the Spam slice and top with the second slice of cheese.  Spread a bit of butter onto the bread on both sides of the sandwich and put into the skillet.  When one side is browned, flip over and brown the other side.  When it's brown, you are done.  Eat and relish its wonderful flavor.

Word of the Day

"Enervate" - verb, transitive [$10]
Enervate means 1. to lessen the vitality or strength of; 2. to reduce the mental or moral vigor.  Enervate is a rough antonym of energize.
Sentence:  Wind enervates canoeists:  it saps the canoe's forward momentum and blows the canoe off course.  Wind is the canoeists' bane.

9 comments:

Spin-em said...

I can't speak for Bud....but Im a lil disappointed in this "recipe"...lol....The only thing that strikes me is that I get the feeling Jean ia a lil tight with the sandwiches....lol

Bud said...

that sandwich sounds awful.............yuck !!!!



'drool'

Bunkerman said...

oh, c'mon .. a fine recipe for the plain people using plain food.

this one goes in the book with my Johnny cakes.

[ok, I was jesting a bit :) ]

Bunkerman said...

that was Big Al giving me the quarter sandwich. They offered more, but I didn't want to be a ...

btw Grand Jean = Big John.

Spin-em said...

one of his two giant LRP packs to pull out the ingredients for making a fine sandwich for himself and Big Al.

reading between the lines

giant LRP packs....there's tons of food....yet


....for himself and Big Al???

a "team" of 4 divided on the first day

we dont need Nostradamus to see this train wreck in the making...lool

Spin-em said...

"the quarter sandwich."

looool

your words sir....your words....there's meaning in everything....lool

I can make you one if you really want me to...

Spin-em said...

just a lil levity men..takin lil nephew on The Electric City Trolley ride..and a couple innings of the Scranton Yanks...good times..good times...lol....enjoy your day Bunks

Bunkerman said...

lol, spin, those were the facts.

I had my pemmican & hardtack & MREs. Al & John had grilled spam & cheese and omelettes made with real eggs, smoked gouda cheese & green peppers and homefries on the side. Their dinners were that dried Mountain House stuff (as the fish did not bite) - dependent on being able to boil water - seemed a bit dependent on technoldogy to me.

Actually there were six of us.

pescado71 said...

Some time ago I was grocery shopping and, on a whim, picked up a can of spam. Until today it sat on the pantry shelf hidden behind other seldom used canned goods. After reading your post today I decided it was time.

I was explaining to my girlfriend the essence of the meal I was about to prepare for us. Unfortunately she read the ingridients and fat content. Believing it was mostly pieces parts anyway and smelled like canned cat food, she decided to save her fat grams for a strip steak and/or some cheesecake. That aside, I fired up the stove and prepared my first grilled spam and cheese sandwiches. As I slid the sandwiches onto a couple paper plates, "Sweet T" wasn't nearly as excited as I was to try the backwoods cullinary genius of Grand Jean and Big Al. Being a man of persuasion however, I did get her to try a bite. She agreed it wasn't horrible, but ultimately ended up with a grilled cheese sandwich sans spam. I suppose our cute - but not too bright - Golden Retriever will enjoy the remains.

Admittedly, this "fine recipe for plain people using plain food" holds a special place in my heart as I was one of the original six on that day in the Canadian woods when Al and John preparred this fine dish hunkered over a small camp stove sheltered behind a makeshift wind tarp.

Nice work Al and John! Thank you Bunkerman for sharing this with the world.