Inspiration in a Can

It's probably hard to believe, but sometimes the life of a blogger isn't as glamorous as you may think.  You're going along fine with one post idea popping into your head after another. You can hardly wait to write the next inspiring post.  Then BAM! You run right into it...THE WALL.  Writer's block extraordinaire!  And that, dear friends, is where I have been for the past couple of weeks, staring down a blank computer screen.  The well of ideas had run dry.

But this afternoon, inspiration hit and you'll never guess where I found it.  My kitchen cupboard.  I know.  Crazy, huh?  But as I opened my cupboard door to find something for lunch, inspiration was staring me in the face in its bright blue can.  How could I have missed it?  There it was.  A can of...

I'm ignoring those gagging sounds that I'm sure some of you are making (my immediate family included) because I LOVE this stuff!  And I'm not ashamed to admit it.  Aside from its delicious, overly salty flavor (even the 25% less sodium variety) Spam is packed full of wonderful childhood memories for me.

When I was growing up, my family was always on a tight budget.  Seven people on a single teacher's salary meant that my mother had to be pretty creative when it came to meals.  And she was real pro when it came to stretching a meal so there was enough for all of us because, trust me, we never had two cans of Spam at one meal!  Maybe it helped that not all of my siblings were as found of this mysterious meat product as I was.

When Mom served Spam for dinner, she would slice it and fry it up. Or if she was feeling really elegant she'd take the whole loaf, score the top of it in a diamond pattern and insert whole cloves at the point of each diamond and bake it, as if it were a cute little ham. Classy and delicious! 

We'd have fried Spam sandwiches or Spam and cheddar cheese sandwiches.  But my all time favorite recipe was, and still is, Spam spread sandwiches.  To make this delightful concoction, my mother would take a can of Spam and put it through her meat grinder along with some dill pickles and hard boiled eggs.  Then this was all mixed up with a generous helping of mayonnaise and spread on the whitest bread you could find.  Yum...makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

So this afternoon, when that brilliant blue can caught my eye, I knew what I had to do.  I put the eggs on to boil, pried that piece of meat from its can and set about making a bowlful of Spam spread.  Unfortunately, I don't have a meat grinder like my mother's, so I have to settle for a chunkier version of her spread.  But the flavor was all there!

Once my sandwich was made, there was one thing I needed to do before I could take a bite. I sent a picture text to my sister, Martha!  Her response?  "I'm jealous." Yup, good taste runs in our family!

So, sometime if you're up for it, why not try out this delicious recipe for yourself.  Just remember three things and you'll be fine.  Don't skimp on the mayo, don't use that healthy wheat bread and don't read the ingredients on the side of the can!