No baloney
Dear all, the post below was (mostly) drafted on December 27, 2014. That’s a long time ago. In fact, that’s bologna. Or baloney. Except, well – read the below about that. I can now see that I was held up in posting this due to a) no photograph of the sandwich in question (unfortunate!) and b) a second recipe I wanted to reference but hadn’t yet written up. In the interests of not holding this even one day longer, since 1379 days is PLENTY, I’m setting it free. It’s a bittersweet post, though, because THE KEY INGREDIENT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. For the record, I still believe in this sandwich. Perhaps one of my dedicated readers, of which I believe there are three, may have happened upon a suitable substitute? I can also hope against hope that someone at Applegate googles things and this will be one more small voice calling for the return of a bologna that changed lives. It really did.
All of that said: O MY PROPHETIC SOUL. To have titled this “No Baloney” seems oddly prescient.
Anyway … I’m back! No baloney.
xo … xocg
This is a strictly no baloney blog. Or perhaps I should say it’s a strictly bologna blog. Baloney is just baloney – that’s nonsense!
I was going to title this ‘Not your mom’s bologna sandwich’ and then I thought if my niece Rose ever reads it, it might no longer be strictly speaking true … since her mom is the one that got us all started on this bologna in the first place.
To begin, the bologna itself: Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna
I’d link you to its product page but oddly, Applegate doesn’t seem to give it one. A quick survey of the internet reveals it can only be obtained at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s – although it seems at one point Wal-Mart carried it. No matter.
Despite the fact that my niece paused during her lunch one day to lovingly place this bologna on her sweet, chubby cheek and say ‘good boy, bologna’ (before she finished ‘him’ off), I was unconvinced. We’ve all had some pretty mediocre bologna experiences, you know?
Anyway, I stand corrected – if ever a bologna deserved to be saluted as ‘good boy’ this is it. On to the sandwich. If you live near Trader Joe’s, this sandwich should be easy to assemble, as it relies heavily on TJ products. If not, you can probably wing it.
Good Boy, Bologna! Sandwich
Applegate Farms Bologna
Sliced Cheese – we like a combo of thin sliced swiss with colby jack
Dill pickles – preferably, the TJ Organic Dill Sandwich Slices. We’ve used bread-and-butter pickles in a pinch, and they were OK, but the bite of the dill really adds something
Salad greens, your choice (for me, it’s spring mix)
Rye bread, lightly toasted
And now a few words about condiments. Most days, we add some Trader Joe’s Garlic Aioli mustard to this sandwich, give it a pat, call it good boy, and have our lunch. But if you want to take it to the next level, also apply a generous amount of deviled egg filling … which I haven’t posted about yet. Sorry.