When we asked readers to share their favorite eclectic, eccentric, unconventional - OK, weird - food combinations, the response was most gratifying - and sometimes a little icky.

What shone bright and clear was humankind's love of the nutty spread.

Some of the beloved combinations that readers shared: Peanut butter with mayonnaise slathered on white bread. Peanut butter with mayonnaise and bacon smooshed together on white bread. PB spread on Swiss cheese, forget the bread. Peanut butter, honey and cereal on wheat bread.

Perhaps most disturbing of all was this response: "Must be on sourdough bread, chunky-style peanut butter, yellow mustard (not the grainy or hot kind), with sliced dill pickles!!!"

While peanut butter clearly is the stuff that binds, other readers chimed in with some unconventional combinations not involving goobers. Have a look. Who knows? Your next "can't live without" food craving may be here.

Toast a frozen waffle, spread it with peanut butter, put on some M&Ms, pour maple syrup over all, and top off with a few Skittles!

- Matt Vacchi, San Diego

My love of ketchup started many years ago, which prompted my daughter, Kandy, to send me a bottle of Heinz with a personalized label for my 80th birthday.

A must-have on popcorn, crackers, veggies and fruits - apples, bananas and avocados. It is a good salad dressing as well as soup when added to hot water. Occasionally on vanilla ice cream.

I buy 7-pound cans and fill three bottles, which last a bit over a month.

- Beverly O'Neill, Vista, Calif.

I have the weirdest dish ever, but it is very good! In the morning for breakfast on weekends, I have a scrambled egg sandwich. But it's no ordinary sandwich.

I start by spreading peanut butter on two pieces of rye or wheat toast. Then I put the scrambled egg on one of the pieces of toast. I add salt, pepper, and either bacon or sausage.

Everybody in my family thinks it is the grossest pairing of food they've ever seen. I don't think they would ever want to try my delectable dish.

- Zack Udin (age 12), San Diego

I love applesauce on top of enchiladas!

I picked this taste habit up when I was very young. My mother served what to me were spicy enchiladas, and for a quick side dish, she served some cold applesauce with them. I combined the two, and a lifelong love began.

There's just something unique about the combination of the cool, sweet applesauce and the spicy enchiladas that is very good to me. My family all think it's weird, but I love it!

- Michael Curtiss, Carlsbad, Calif.

It never seemed weird to me, but I have never met anyone else who has tried this. My mom used to make a bowl of popcorn (no butter), then fill a glass with the popcorn and pour cold milk over it. We ate it with a spoon. It was one of my favorite treats.

- Linda Green, San Diego

You have got to try this - leftover spaghetti, fried to heat it up. Add a generous dollop of Thousand Island dressing on top and it becomes the bomb!

- Michael Emmett, Chula Vista, Calif.

When I was a kid, my mother used to mix full-fat sour cream into leftover cold spaghetti and sprinkle a little garlic salt on it - yum. I wouldn't dare eat all those carbs today.

The other (related) favorite was sour cream mixed into cottage cheese with a generous squeeze of anchovy paste. We were probably the only family that loved anchovies so much it was our comfort food.

- Arlette Smith, San Diego

In my family, the traditional supper for Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas Eve apparently is a strange one: oyster stew and gingerbread. I can't find anyone who has this tradition, but if they try it, they like it.

- Marcy Bandy, San Diego

My grandmother served the best ribbon sandwiches. My mother and I still enjoy making them and thinking of her, but my boys say, "Not so much."

On the first slice of white bread, spread peanut butter and your choice of jelly. I prefer strawberry, as it adds nice color to the sandwich. Place the second piece of white bread on top. Next add egg salad and sharp cheddar cheese, and top off with a third slice of bread. Cut into three long sections to make ribbons. Yum!

- Randy White, Santee, Calif.

I'm sure self-righteous people all over the county will write to extol their opinions on the fact that when I was pregnant with my son I had an uncanny craving for beer and orange sherbet floats. And yes, I indulged when the notion presented itself. I have on occasion still enjoyed the combination, except now I use light beer.

P.S. My son is now a 6-foot 5-inch, 45-plus-year-old perfectly healthy male.

- A. Shaw, San Diego

The banquet manager at the San Diego Zoo taught me this one 25 years ago: one scoop chocolate ice cream topped with one crushed saltine cracker. Yum. Cold, creamy, sweet, crunch, salty. That covers most taste sensations.

- Adrienne Finley, San Diego

Fried baloney sandwiches. The best part about making these was the fat spatter from the baloney flying all over the range top, as well as the big bubble that forms right in the middle of the baloney. I'm craving one now!

This one sounds a little gross, but it's actually OK: scrambled eggs with tuna. (I guess that was the poor man's version of salmon scramble.)

- Leslie Araiza, La Mesa, Calif.

My favorite winter-night dinner is grilled cheese sandwiches dunked in hot chocolate. I am in my 70s and have been eating this ever since my dad introduced me to it many years ago. My grown kids enjoy it, although their husbands and wives turn up their noses. They prefer their sandwiches dipped in tomato soup, which we consider an abomination.

When I'm feeling poorly, a bowl of crumbled saltines, sugar, a blob of butter and warm milk covered for a few minutes with a saucer to soften the crackers always makes me feel better. This was my dad's idea, too.

There are also coffee soup, bread soup and the dregs in a jar of apple butter mixed with cream from the top of the bottle for bread dipping. The Great Depression made for a lot of good eating!

- Rick Phillips, Chula Vista, Calif.

Fried eggs atop spaghetti. Take a serving of spaghetti with meat sauce, fry three to four eggs, over easy or sunny-side up, and place atop the spaghetti and chop up so the yolk gets mixed into the sauce.

I have been serving myself this meal since 1971 (usually when my wife is not around). It came about while I was in the Navy, stationed in Australia, and working the late shift. The galley would serve breakfast for those going on shift and dinner for those coming off. One particular night, I couldn't decide between breakfast and dinner, so I decided on both. My friends thought it was a most disgusting idea, and my wife has supported that same reaction for 29 years.

- Dean Warner, San Diego

Onion rings and hot fudge. Especially at Dennys. The sweet and salty flavor is awesome!

- J.B. Reynolds, La Mesa, Calif.

People think it's weird that when served mashed potatoes, I like to take slices of fresh tomatoes and mash them into the potatoes until I have a lovely pink mixture. It tastes great and has for 60-plus years, but I can never get others to try it. Of course, if the potatoes were in sticks and fried, and the tomatoes turned into ketchup, that's acceptable.

- E.D. Evans, San Diego

I have been eating the following since I was a child (I'm now 78), and everyone in our family loves them:

Pineapple sherbet with chocolate syrup. Strawberry ice cream with Ritz Hi Ho crackers. Cracker pudding (vanilla pudding made from scratch with saltine crackers). Bowl of hot coffee milk with saltines.

- Bili J. Cutler, Carlsbad, Calif.

My maternal grandmother introduced me to root beer floats made with chocolate ice cream when I was a kid. My mother would make them for my brother and me for a treat on hot summer days. My wife and kids won't touch them. Oh, well. Their loss.

- Doug Bogart, Lakeside, Calif.

Jalapeno peanut butter boats! This is definitely one of the most popular appetizers I serve. Just halve and seed pickled jalapeno peppers and rinse them. The peanut butter not only adds a festive flavor, but also tempers the heat so even people who usually don't eat jalapenos enjoy these.

- John Choisser, San Diego

The very best, tasty snack is french fries and ice cream. The salty, crispy, hot french fry is a perfect contrast to the sweet and cold ice cream. The fries make great dippers.

One easy place to try this out is McDonald's: good fries dipped into their hot fudge sundaes. I've loved this since I was a kid, and I now enjoy it with my 7-year-old daughter, Micah. She loves it, too!

- Robin Pennell, San Diego

Try peanut butter instead of syrup on pancakes. Or apple slices in the pancake mix. Everyone makes fun of me, but I put canned corn in the pancake mix. That's good! And once people try it, they keep asking for it.

But the all-time best is, try cutting up hot dogs into little pieces and fry them and put that in the pancake mix. I'm a single father of two kids, and they always want my hot dog pancakes. And instead of syrup, just put butter on top.

- Mike Covert, El Cajon, Calif.

I don't think this is weird, but some of my friends do. I started making this sandwich when I was probably 5 years old. I am 58, and I still enjoy this sandwich. I probably started making it because my mother was a terrible cook and it was a matter of survival. When I joined the Navy, I couldn't believe how good the food was prepared in the ship's galley.

Recipe: Peanut butter, grape jelly, mayonnaise and sweet pickles on toast, and the sandwich must be cut diagonally. Instead of wine, this sandwich should be accompanied by a large glass of Nestle's chocolate milk.

- Tony Albright, La Mesa, Calif.

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