Six: Reconciling Utopia (07-14-2022)
An emerging theme of posts on here is the estimation of utopia. Famously, such visionaries as the wild-haired Marx proscribed what a perfect society would be, a conscious organization of labor and capital that produces ideal conditions. Others, like the wild-facial haired Hitler decided on a utopia that would require immense suffering and evil to achieve, a process that negates the perfection of the end product. All attempts to define the structure of a perfect world and society, a utopia, fail in also defining a clear process to achieve that state. Thankfully, a person on the intellectual level required to face this challenge was born not too long ago: me.
I've decided on a process that, apolitical as it is, will result in a perfect society. The following steps do not define what political leaning the resultant utopia will appease, but rather act as a filtering process for political ideology to create a society that is perfect without compromise through a democratic and rational method. This is the chief problem of utopian visionaries of the past- defining the outcome usually means making concessions for a political environment that will create said outcome, always impossible without authoritarianism in support. To avoid any such ambiguity, and still create a final societal organization that is even, fair, just, and fulfills all necessities without exploitation, simply adhere to the guidelines that follow, devised by myself.
An essential step oft ignored is toasting the bread. A light crunch combined with the sweet and smooth fillings makes an enormous difference between feeling as though you are eating a pastry or dessert and feeling as though you are eating a sandwich that is nutritious. Beginning the process by placing two slices of quality bread, ideally sandwich bread as the non-industrially processed stuff is too chewy or will not preserve its softness when toasted due to lower density, in the toaster on a medium to low setting. The lower the setting the better, the goal is to produce a very light toast on the exterior of each slice while keeping a small amount of soft bread matrix in the middle.
While the bread toasts, remove the peanut butter and jam from the fridge. Peanut butters branded as "natural" or "organic" are ideal, look for an ingredients list that includes only peanut butter and salt. Putting the jar in the fridge without stirring will separate out a good deal of the latent peanut oil, and cause it to gelatinize in such a way that it can be easily removed. The heat from the toasted bread will soften the peanut butter, although some patience may be needed while this happens. When the bread is finished, scoop a serving of peanut butter onto on slice and spread a serving of jam on the other. Choice of jam here is open, but avoid using more tart or tangy jams like apricot and opt for a sweeter option like strawberry or grape. Use a high quality jam, one that does not contain corn syrup or colorings, and does contain regular sugar. Farmers' markets and hipster-targetting grocers are good for this, but a homebrew jam is even better, as it can be custom made to contain no additional pectin or sugars.
Combine each slice, serve alone or with a glass of water, and enjoy. Heat from the toasted bread will melt the fillings together some, and drippage will likely occur, although using the sandwich to sweep it up as it does is a neat solution. Adding any fillings that are not jelly, jam, marmalade, or peanut butter (no other nut butters will suffice) will negate the sandwich from being a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. This means no bananas, chips, nutellas, salt, nuts, or anything that is not in the name. Doing anything fancier than toasting the bread, like french toasting (adds egg and milk) or buttering will also remove this sandwich from the nostalgic category of peanut butter & jelly. The goal here is not to have fun or explore the culinary possibilities of sweet fruit and savory creamy nut butter on various bread-prepping methods, but to make the minimal additions to the sandwich construction that will maintain the status of peanut butter & jelly while elevating the sandwich to a state befitting an adult.