When you hear the word, “Graceland,” you either think of Elvis or Paul Simon. Well, after you read this post, you’ll also think of Peoria when you hear the G-word. Confused? Well, just keep reading and it’ll all make sense soon. C’mon everybody.
Okay, here's the story: I found a street in Peoria called Graceland Drive, right off of Glen Avenue. And so I decided the thing to do would be to knock on a stranger's door and see if I could make an Elvis sandwich in their kitchen. I mean, once you discover that there's a Graceland in Peoria, that's really the only thing you can do in my humble opinion. But I thought it might be wise to take a prize package with me to try and help this thing happen. I know there's collectible Elvis items here at Acme Comics, and so our journey begins here.
I had called Acme owner (and MBIP Contributor) Bob Gordon in advance and he selected some Elvis items for me to peruse, beautiful!
Speaking of Bob, here he is with the items we chose for today's prize package. Bob donated the items, how cool is that?
Here's Luke, who works at Acme. He heard us talking about Elvis and revealed something for the MBIP camera...
An Elvis ass patch! Ha ha ha! And no, this wasn't planned, he had no idea about this whole post. I'll take this as a sign that this is going to be a good journey.
Okay, here we are back at MBIP Headquarters. I've bought all the ingredients for our Elvis Sandwich. We've got a half loaf of Baby Bunny Bread, bananas, Jif peanut butter and Land O' Lakes butter. And five cans of Budweiser and one can of Milwaukee's Best from the fridge. I'd say it's time to hit the road and head off to this Promised Land.
And here we are at this fateful crossroads of life: W. Glen and Graceland Drive. Time to find someone and get cooking.
Okay, the first driveway in I see a guy working in his yard, let's see what happens here.
The fellow in the driveway's name is Rick and he was a little confused about what I'm trying to do here, and I have to confess, I am too, I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants as I always do. But surprisingly, he told me he'd go ask his wife if I could make the sandwich in their kitchen and there he goes...
Well, she made like Nancy Reagan and just said no. So it's further on down Graceland Drive we go.
Check out this house, it's for sale by the owner, maybe they'll let us make the sandwich in there in return for a little free online advertising.
I knocked on the door, card in hand, but nobody was home. Then I looked across the street...
And saw a woman talking on a cell phone on this driveway. I explained to her what I wanted to do and she told me to wait here in the driveway, while she went inside, so that's what I'm doing.
And five minutes later, here I am still waiting. I'm wondering if I should just pack up and make the sandwich back home when...
She came back outside and agreed to let me have this Elvis moment in her kitchen. Her name is Tammy and how cool is it that she's letting a total stranger into her kitchen to cook up an Elvis sandwich on Graceland Drive? It's too cool, so let's go inside before she changes her mind!
Okay, we're inside and I've presented Tammy with her Elvis prizes from Acme Comics, now it's time to start cooking up the Elvis Sandwich!
Tammy pointed me towards the stove...
And I got the ingredients and pulled an Elvis face for the MBIP camera.
One key ingredient to this recipe is butter, so I've started a hunk o' hunk of the yellow matter melting in the skillet.
And since this is an Elvis sandwich, I added even more butter to the mix.
Okay, while the butter melts I'm starting to assemble the sandwich as Tammy takes on Contributing Photographer duties for MBIP.
I read that Elvis smashed up the banana instead of slicing it, so that's what I've done.
Into the frying pan it goes with an Elvisian smoosh into the sea of melted butter.
It only took a couple minutes to cook and it's ready to eat, time to plate it up.
Tammy put a sheet of paper towel down to drain the grease off of the sandwich...
And then her phone rang and Tammy told the caller that she had let a total stranger into her house to make an Elvis sandwich and invited her friend to come on over and sample the sandwich with us. As this conversation took place I noticed a magnet on Tammy's refrigerator...
It's a magnet from Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee! You can't make this stuff up, folks, it's too perfect!
While we were waiting for Tammy's friend to show up, Tammy sliced the sandwich into thirds and we both agreed that the sandwich looked and smelled great.
And here's Tammy's friend Lolo sampling the Elvis sandwich...
Tammy eats her third of the sandwich and we all were surprised at how good it tasted. Now if only we had some Dilaudid for dessert, all would be perfect from this Graceland Drive home.
After eating the Elvis sandwich, Tammy told us that she had just gotten back from a trip to Louisville, Kentucky. I lived there for six years as a kid and so Tammy said she'd share some photos of the trip for us to enjoy. Here's Churchill Downs racetrack. I remember that place!
Here's a photo of a genuine horse's ass that Tammy took at Churchill Downs. Wilburrr!
Okay, this acid flashback photo is the perfect time to...
Call it a day and head home for a dose of Tums. Thanks to Tammy and Lolo for a fun Elvis afternoon on Graceland Drive in Peoria, Illinois! Thank ya, very much! See you all tomorrow.
Further reading: Wikipedia, Tennessee and The Food Network.
