Tuna Sandwich

I was so hungry for a tuna sandwich one day last week that I rummaged through the slide outs in the kitchen where the canned goods are stored. Good! There was a flat can of water packed tuna. I prefer making tuna salad with tuna packed in olive oil since I eat tuna very occasionally, but I was ready for that sandwich.

I opened the can and drained the fish water off by pressing down on the lid before I removed it. With a fork, I emptied the tuna into a refrigerator dish and flaked the tuna.

Next, I added a touch (a tablespoon or two) of mayo. I'm not fussy. Miracle Whip will do when there isn't any Hellman's around. Then some brown mustard (a tablespoon, not much more) and then a couple of tablespoons of Aunt Beth's Mustard Relish which is a recipe that my mother-in-law has passed along to the family. Beth is currently the Mustard Relish queen and she willingly shares jars with me.

A bit of finely chopped onion along with some chunks of yellow pepper added the zest along with several shakes of dried rosemary and garlic. One good long grind of fresh pepper finished the ingredient list and then I tossed the tuna salad again. I rummaged in the cupboard for celery seed which is my secret ingredient. No luck. The cupboard trolls had removed the old celery seed to the trash bin, long ago, I suppose, and so celery seed got added to the grocery list, not the salad.

It was breakfast time and I do draw the line at tuna for breakfast. Out came the aluminum foil and toast. A very light coat of softened butter on both pieces of crunchy oat wheat toast, an application of tuna salad, and the standard butcher wrap style of folding the foil around the sandwich guaranteed a sandwich that would have the tuna infused into the bread by lunchtime.

Into the cooler with ice and my water bottles at the bottom went the sandwich along with some yellow pepper sticks. By noon my cooler meal with its featured sandwich was just the thing for a summer lunch.

My sister Carla and I lived on tuna sandwiches during our Ripon High School days. We'd open a can and make the sandwiches in the morning using a wheat bread that we bought at a bakery in nearby Berlin, Wisconsin. Those sandwiches saved us from cafeteria food. I suppose we took in lots of mercury but I'm also sure that all the Omega 3's from the fish gave us brainpower to get out of high school and into college with good grades and an appreciation for brown bag lunches.

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler