Jam Sandwiches

Tim Hayward is going on about jam sandwiches as a symbol of oppression in today's Guardian.

Funny, I'd just made Danny a cheese and jam sandwich before sitting down to log on and read. Granted, both bread and jam are homemade. I'd do cheese and Marmite for his lunches but the stuff is now absurdly expensive-close to seven dollars for a small jar. It goes quite a way, but that's too expensive.

I know when I was small, a jam sandwich on real, store-bought white bread (not the "dietetic" crap made from wood pulp for extra fibre that my mother favoured) prepared by my grandmother remains one of my better childhood memories. Granny bought marmalade, and she certainly didn't butter the bread first. Blech. There's a local custom in the American Midwest (Wisconsin and Minnesota, mostly) of buttering sandwich bread regardless of what goes on it. I've eaten more American cheese on buttered white bread than I care to admit. I've never understood buttering toast and then using jam, but that's how Danny prefers it.

Which brings me round to a recipe of sorts. Well, this IS a cooking blog.

Cream Cheese And Jam On Black Bread:

Take two slices of pumpernickel bread, spread with cream cheese. Top with strawberry jam. Press together and cut in half (you must cut your sandwich in half, eating a whole sandwich is vulgar) preferably at an angle to form triangles. Wrap tightly in waxed paper (yes, you must use waxed paper). Eat at room temperature, or leave in your locker all morning at school to "ripen" into authenticity.