swiss cheese, avocado, blood orange, and violet flowers on a toasted everything bagel.

Perhaps the best yet.  Of course I'm obviously concerned with how the sandwich looks, so beautiful ingredients are the most likely to make it onto my sandwiches, but I do care about flavor.  I'm not really that much of a foodie.  I'm really flying blind and kind of just stumbling into things, hoping to find something that works.

The flavor of the avocado perfectly complemented the citrus of the blood orange and the tang of the swiss cheese.  The violets have their on distinctive tang, too.  The flowers themselves don't taste so strong, but the stems or leaves have a nice, unique flavor.  I've sort of forgotten how much I like how they taste but nibbling on them as I prepared the sandwich brought back memories.

I started eating violets after reading about them in a Euell Gibbons book my dad had given me.  I spent quite a bit of my childhood wandering through the woods looking for critters and plants, and as I would walk along I picked leaves off the violets and would chew them absentmindedly.  The violets growing in the forest would have long stems and big leaves.  I ate the leaves, but I really liked biting through the stems.  In the center of the stem is an almost rubbery elastic string.  If you pull the leaf until it breaks instead of snipping it free, this stringy bit stretches and usually breaks at a different place that the rest of the stem.  This leaves a little extra hanging either from the nub on the plant or from the stem in your hand.  Sometimes I would pull this out and chew it separately; sometimes I tried to bite so it and the rest of the stem were cut precisely.  Crazy, I know, but such is the mind of an obsessive compulsive adolescent.  And the slightly tangy flavor brings back these wandering meditations and memories of days exploring streams with a dip-net and a gallon bucket.

Today's sandwich was an enthusiastic success.  The look, the taste.  I was wondering if I should put some meat on it, but sitting here typing this I completely full and thankful I hadn't added anything substantial.  I did forget to add the pine nuts that I originally had planned on adding; I wish I hadn't.

The question as always is would you eat this sandwich?  Answer in the comments.

smoked turkey breast, horseradish hummus, red tomatoes, chickweed, and hot & sweet mustard on wheat bread.

This one was a lighter sandwich than the last few that I made.  It was yummy.

More than a few people have asked about chickweed in the comments of other sandwiches I've posted on FB.  It is a pretty little weed that was introduced from Europe.  It grows cheerfully in the winters here, often staying green even under snow.  Our hot summers burn it back.  There are several kinds, but the one in my yard is common chickweed, Stellaria media.  Its flavor is fresh but not very strong.  It tastes green, but without any sharp notes.

Plenty of people consider it a weed, and I suppose it can be, but I like something growing and green during the winter and it is easy to pull up and good to eat, so I don't worry about it in my yard/garden.  If it is somewhere I don't want it, I just make a salad or a sandwich.  :)

The horseradish hummus deserves mention.  When we first saw it at Trader Joe's, I was skeptical.  Ben wanted to try it, so we did.  Then our opinions flip-flopped.  I normally only like horseradish in tiny amounts with raw oysters, but it was perfect in the hummus and I suddenly couldn't get enough of it.  Ben had liked it before but couldn't stand this version.  I do like it just to dip pita in, but I've found it to be a great condiment for sandwiches.

Red and brown tomatoes, sliced-up Korean sesame marinated boneless beef ribs, violet leaves and flowers, and hot & sweet mustard on wheat bread.

This one was delicious!

Athens got a Trader Joe's earlier this year. They are awesome for stocking up on quality basics and there aren't a thousand brands to wade through. I'm once again using their brown tomatoes, this time mixed with some red ones that were still on the stem. The brown ones have great flavor and are a little sweeter than your typical tomato. I could eat tomato sandwiches ever day, but finding decently flavorful tomatoes in the winter is tough. The browns have been consistently good. This is my first time trying the red on-the-stem 'maters from TJ's but they were also delicious. Both are a little more expensive than your typical whatever tomatoes, but having tomatoes worth putting on a sandwich in the winter makes it more than worth it for me.

The meat was also a Trader Joe's purchase. They have nice selection of pre-marinated cuts of meat. This was a Korean style de-boned rib meat. It was sliced super thin and cooked up nicely in no time. Because there are only two of us, I know if I don't cook all the meat in a package at once it is going to end up hidden in the back of the refrigerator until past its prime. This package held a lot more meat than I could have guessed. Being thin, it works great on sandwiches or sliced and topping a salad.

The violets seem like the most improbably addition. I'll discuss them in detail in another post, but in the meantime let me tell you they are delicious. The leaves and the flowers are edible. I'll concede that the leaves actually taste better but there is something nice about edible flowers.

Would you eat this sandwich?