Crustless PB & J Sandwiches
I just came back from a wonderful evening with my friends, Roman and Stephanie (and their little one yet to be born in this world). After some shopping for fresh fish (it is, afterall, the time of the Apostles’ Fast), Stephanie home safely from work, and a short dram of McClelland’s Single Malt Islay (way to go, Roman!) with baguettes, brie and a cranberry/orange sauce on the side, a lovely pepper and lime blackened salmon was served with potatoes and a homemade coleslaw (mmm! Stephanie knows how to cook!). Our conversation varied from history of the UGCC, to foolish car accidents (or bumper-shmumpers as we called them back in the day), to stories of siblings growing up and on and on.
It was in the midst of this deep discourse that we uncovered the foundation of crustless PB & J sandwiches. Seems that at the beginning, PB & J sandwiches were always made with bread that had crusts. Every mother would want this for her child as there would be no waste whatsoever. The first crustless PB & J sandwich was not made by a woman, however. It was made by a man – a Byzantine priest, in fact. You see, it was after a morning Divine Liturgy that Pani Dobrodivka had to run some errands and left the care o fthe children to her husband, the parish priest of the local church. The children, after a good playful romp in the fields nearby, came running into the house asking for a snack. Not knowing much about things culinary, the priest finds the loaf of bread and makes the children PB & J sandwiches. However, custom got the better of him and he began immediately after to cut away the crusts as he does every morning at the Divine Liturgy with the prosphora loaf. He of course realized this afterwards, shrugged his shoulders and gave the children their very first crustless PB & J sandwiches. It was an instant hit.
At the Divine Liturgy, the cut off crusts are given as the antidoron to the faithful at the end of the Liturgy. In the kitchen, the cut-away crusts were given to the birds – the antidoron for God’s creatures.
