Raisin Pine Nut Sandwich

I’d like to apologize for my sporadic posting lately. I’m studying for the big, bad GRE and that’s coming up February 7. As a result, I seem to be less interested in cooking or rather less interested in cooking fun, new things. After that thing is done, though, I will hopefully be doing this more because cooking meals and eating food are much more fun activities than analogies and quantitative comparisons. Trust me. Anyway, so here’s a sandwich post because I haven’t made anything interesting in days. But it has a fun story behind it!

Most of my childhood involved Rainbow Foods. My mom worked there for years and on Take Your Daughter to Work Day (when it was still just daughters), that’s where I went, pricing gun in hand. At 14, I started working there and did so until I moved down here to Portland in 2002. I loved that place. One of my very favorite things, besides all the fabulous people, customers, and atmosphere, was the deli. There was always an incredible array of salads, hot dishes and sandwiches for me to choose from on my lunch break. One of my very favorite sandwiches in my final year at Rainbow, was one made with dark, chewy bread, pine nuts, cream cheese and raisins. When I made the dark pumpernickel bread the other day, this was the sandwich I had in mind.

As it turns out, the bread wasn’t quite right for it. I will have to try again with another dark bread. I do think the big problem was, as I mentioned back in my post about the bread, that the cocoa flavor is a bit overpowering. While it was tempered a bit by the cream cheese, it still wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Still, it wasn’t a bad sandwich. I’d eat it again. It just didn’t get me back to those days when I’d grab a sandwich from the cooler at Rainbow and then race out to the university for classes. I’ll keep trying though. And if you’re ever in Juneau, Alaska for whatever reason, go by Rainbow. It’s pretty awesome.

Raisin Pine Nut Sandwich from Rainbow memories:

Handful of pine nuts
Handful of raisins
Plenty of cream cheese (~1/4 c.)
Two slices of dark, chewy bread

Toast the pine nuts briefly in a 400 degree oven. Do this only for a couple of minutes or they will burn.



Cut slices in half. Spread cream cheese over both sides. Sprinkle toasted pine nuts and raisins. Enjoy alone or with veggie spears.