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sandwiches001Hello, everyone!  Welcome to the Mid-Century Menu, a small torture that I foist on my husband every week in which I find the weirdest mid-century recipe I can from my collection of vintage cookbooks, make it, and then force him to eat it. Poor Hubs.

This week’s recipe is something that I have seen around a lot in my cookbooks, and I have always wanted to try: The Frosted Sandwich Loaf.

Not quite a sandwich, and not quite a cake, this beauty was meant to inspire awe and wonder in your guests as you served them up perfectly “frosted” portions of supper. Or bridge snack, whichever you prefer.

And there was awe when I made it. But it was more like, “Awww…no! No! Really? No!”

The above cookbook is once again courtesy of my grandmother.  What can I say, the lady was always on the cutting edge of food.

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This picture needs no explanation.  I believe the caption says it all. The sandwich. In all it’s glory, indeed.

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Here is the recipe.  Look at the little sandwiches.  They would be cute, if they were actually cake. If.

sandwiches002bOk, so I need to get to this recipe, because it is really complicated.  I could choose from many different fillings for the sandwich, and at right are the ones I chose.  I have to admit, it was because they were the most strange.

Pickle filling? Pickle? Really?  The bacon sounded a little weird, and the egg salad was pretty normal. But pickle was going to be fun.

sandwiches004aNo directions on these, guys.  I just jumped in and mixed.yard-and-sandwich-loaf-080The pickle filling, getting ready to be mixed. And yes, that is a lot of pickles. yard-and-sandwich-loaf-083I tried to half it, since I wasn’t going to be making a huge sandwich, but that didn’t work.  I ended up using half the pickles and all the butter, and still it didn’t quite go together.

sandwiches005aNext, the bacon.  Once again, no directions, just ingredients.

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A ton of bacon.  Yum.

yard-and-sandwich-loaf-086This one actually came together well. It really resembles a filling. Even though it is mostly bacon. sandwiches006a

Last, but not least, the Egg salad.  Which doesn’t resemble any egg salad I have ever made, but like that has ever stopped me. yard-and-sandwich-loaf-089

The ingredients, prepped and ready to go.  I didn’t mix this one up until right before I spread it on the bread.  I don’t know why.  Maybe I was afraid.

yard-and-sandwich-loaf-092The bread split and ready to go.  I didn’t remove the crusts.  I was worried about cream cheese sogginess.

Notice the vintage plate. Hooray!yard-and-sandwich-loaf-096The sandwich being filled.  Also, the egg salad in all its glory.  Really.

yard-and-sandwich-loaf-103Ta-da!  The finished sandwich loaf, frosted with cream cheese and chilled.  I was actually kind of proud of this one. yard-and-sandwich-loaf-104
A cross section of the finished loaf, every spread in its place.

This was an interesting one.  I would have to say that this meal was by far the most work out of any I had made, but it was also by far the best. 

The verdict: Surprisingly Good

The combination of the flavors  in this one ended up being pretty tasty.  I have noticed that a lot of the flavors in mid-century cooking aren’t what I am really used too, in that they can be pretty…unique sometimes.  Not terrible, just different than what I am used to.  This sandwich was definitely unique.  I even liked the taste of the pickle filling, which I thought would be terrible.  The only thing I didn’t care for was the cream cheese frosting, which was a bit thick for me and not really good.  Unless you like eating straight cream cheese. Hubs thought it was good. Different, but good.  He liked the cream cheese frosting, and ate three slices of the “frosted” loaf.

And! We had a guest over for dinner, too.  She is totally a picky eater, and deemed the sandwich good, but also said the flavors were “interesting”.  She only ate one slice, but she totally gets props for trying!

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