While in Hannibal, we stopped at this old ice cream shop that was a used bookstore and I can’t pass up any bookstore because I collect cookbooks, especially older books and it’s always a special treat when I find any from the Better Home & Garden cookbook collection because they were a big part of my childhood and my mom getting a new one each month and us trying out some of the recipes for family night dinners.
We found three that I didn’t have in my collection and as we looked through each copy, Nick was interested in a picture of a sandwich called ABC which stood for Avocado, Bacon and Crab, so of course for my guy I will create that sandwich. Finding the ingredients was pretty easy, the only thing was tracking down a round loaf of Rye bread. When we found a loaf of round bread at the store it was for pumpernickel rye and the store wouldn’t slice it into three’s for us, so we made do and did it ourselves at home. Next time we are going to a real bakery or try some different bread (he wants to try it again). 
This sandwich was really easy to make, and we really enjoyed putting the sandwich together and the flavors worked really well together. Though I think a few changes are going to be in order like cutting the radish and celery into bigger pieces because the finely chopped version got lost in the other flavors going on, so you couldn’t taste them. Also will try some different crab, maybe go for fresh crab meat or a different canned brand. The one I used was a little too overpowering for my taste.
The funny part about our poor sandwich was that it winded up looking like a monster because the tomatoes I got for the garnish like the photo was a little to big for the size of the bread loaf and when you stuck it on there it looked like giant eyes or something.
Then when I compared my photo to the books photo, you can see were they didn’t use the crab/avocado mixture for their photo and I can understand why because the avocado made it into a mint green mixture, so not a very pretty picture for a cookbook. Thankfully it tasted better than it looked right! 
We both agreed we will make this sandwich again with the mentioned changes, but we found at least three more of these classic recipes we are going to have to try out. If your bold enough to try this vintage recipe from the“Better Homes and Gardens So-Good Meals Cook Book”, please post a pic and let me know what you think.
ABC Sandwich
- ⅓ cup Mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp Sour cream
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 8 slices Bacon, crisp and crumbled
- ¼ cup Finely chopped celery
- ¼ cup Finely chopped radish
- 1 7 ½ ounce Can crab meat, drained, flaked and cartilage removed
- 1 Avocado, peeled and mashed
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 round Loaf of Rye bread or Pumpernickel (like we used)
- Butter
- Lettuce Leaves
- 6 Cherry tomatoes
-
Mix the mayonnaise, sour cream and lemon juice together
-
Pour half the mixture into another bowel and stir in the bacon, celery and radish
-
To the other half of the mixture stir in the crab meat, avocado and salt
-
Cut the loaf of bread into 3 crosswise slices. Spread butter on the cut side and toast under the broiler until toasted
-
On the bottom slice spread the bacon mixture and top wit some lettuce and the middle slice of bread
-
On the middle slice spread the crab mixture and add lettuce
-
Top with the last slice of bread and insert skewers through the tomatoes and into the bread from top to bottom
-
Cut into wedges. Serves 6
Life Food and Me 