A few weeks ago, Hungry Bear and I went to lunch at Ella's, our favorite breakfast place in San Francisco. Usually, I order a burger or a heavy egg scramble for lunch, but this time I went with a mushroom, onion and gruyere sandwich on a buttermilk bun. The sandwich was great and I knew immediately, we were going to make this at home.

We tried to replicate the sandwich a couple of days ago. It was easy to make and only required sautéing onions and mushrooms. Our version of the sandwich included portobello mushrooms, crimini mushrooms, onions and provolone on a focaccia roll. It was supposed to be gruyere, but our Trader Joe's didn't have any... not that provolone is a second class cheese. The sandwich was simply delicious. We served the sandwich with a tomato and English cucumber salad. If we had a ripe avocado, it would have gone into the salad too.

I'm a big fan of peanut butter and honey sandwiches (PB&H). Forget about the jelly, it's better with honey. With peanut butter, I prefer the simple sweetness of honey over fruity jams and jellies.

One of my favorite breakfast items is an open-faced peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich, a PBB&H if you will. It's open-faced because I use a thick cinnamon swirl bread from Trader Joe's. It's a hearty wheat bread with a great cinnamon flavor. For breakfast, I usually toast a piece of bread, spread it with creamy peanut butter, slice a banana and drizzle a little bit of honey on top. Two open-face PBB&H sandwiches are very filling and keep me fueled up during long bike rides.

The funny thing is, I refused to eat peanut butter for almost fifteen years. My disdain for peanut butter started during nursery school. My family and I just immigrated to the States and I was literally fresh off the boat. Well, we took a boat from Saigon to Hong Kong, and flew the rest of the way to a small Pennsylvania town, New Cumberland.

Each day after nursery school let out, I would go to a classmate's home, whose mother baby-sat us until my mom finished work. This is were I was first introduced to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I recall it wasn't too bad initially, but I was used to savory banh mi, pho and rice plates.

I'm a big fan of breakfast sandwiches. My favorite breakfast sammy only takes five minutes to make. The sandwich consists of whole wheat bread, scrambled eggs, pepper jack cheese and avocado.

Last week at the Serramonte Farmers' Market, we picked up a hearty whole wheat bread with sunflower, sesame and poppy seeds. It's called Dakota bread and is made by the Great Harvest Bread Co. franchise in Oakland. The Dakota bread has a great texture from all the seeds and makes a great base for sandwiches. Any type of bread will do, but fresh bread from a local baker makes the breakfast sammy even better.

It doesn't get any better than toasted bread, melted pepper jack cheese, scrambled eggs and a ripe avocado... simply scrumptious. A little sprinkle of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper over the avocado enhances its flavor even more. There's also a great contrast of textures between the crunchy bread, melted cheese, fluffy eggs and creamy avocado. Since I love spicy food, I top my eggs with a few shakes of a good hot sauce. One of my favorite hot sauces is Crystal Extra Hot hot sauce. 

I love this breakfast sandwich because it's super easy to make and a delicious way to start any day.