Celebrating PB&J Day

By Diane Forrest

When my son first started surfing around on the Internet, he found this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ekIzGfJkBs

He thought it was wonderful, and watched it over and over.  Its one of those tunes that stick in your head, and now every time I think about Peanut Butter and Jelly…this song starts to play in my head.

There are just some things that naturally got together like bacon and eggs, mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken and dumplings and peanut butter and jelly.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a staple for young kids growing up.  My uncle who recently turned 75 continues to eat a pb and j sandwich for lunch nearly every day.  My father and aunt still kid him about that, and when he moved to San Antonio, he took some Spanish classes to learn how to speak the language, and he found a gift for my dad, a paper napkin holder with the words, crema de mani y jalea, which means peanut butter and jelly.

When I was in school, my brother decided he liked his peanut butter and jelly mixed together and then spread on the bread.  I didn't like it that way, preferred mine with the peanut butter on one side, and the jelly on the other, but I had to suffer with it mixed until he got tired of it, which seemed to last forever!

According to punchbowl.com, the average American consumes 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the age of 18? The combination of sweet jelly and salty peanut butter has been a staple in school lunchboxes for over fifty years.

According to one story, American soldiers invented the peanut butter and jelly sandwich during World War II. They decided to combine their bread, jelly, and peanut butter rations into a fabulous new treat. When the soldiers returned home after the war, peanut butter and jelly sales soared.

Unfortunately, I recently read that a child took a PB & J sandwich to school and it was taken away from him.  Apparently kids are prohibited from bringing foods containing peanut butter because there are some students who have allergies.  Well, at least they can still enjoy this delicious treat at home.

Today is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, so why not remember your younger days and fix a nice PB & J, some chocolate milk, and some Cheetos.  What is your favorite type of peanut butter and jelly?  Let us know in the comment section below.

Enjoying Peanut Butter Fudge

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By Chef Diane

Last week we told you that November is Peanut Butter Lover's Month.  Well today is specifically for Peanut Butter Fudge.  I have lived a sheltered life.  I never had peanut butter fudge until I met my husband.  Before that the only fudge I ever had was my grandmother's famous Christmas fudge that was the best thing I ever tasted.

We have a gift shop in town that makes all type of flavors of fudge, and when my husband and I were looking around one day, he spied all the different types, and chose the peanut butter flavor.  We purchased a block of it, and he shared it with me.  It was very creamy and peanut.

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I have never made this type of fudge; I prefer to just buy it one piece at a time.  But for those of you who like to cook, I found this recipe for you on allrecipes.com.

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE

Original recipe makes 1 - 8x8 inch pan

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Stir in brown sugar and milk.
3. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla.
5. Pour over confectioners' sugar in a large mixing bowl.
6. Beat until smooth; pour into an 8x8 inch dish.
7. Chill until firm and cut into squares.

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This recipe is fast and easy to make, no candy thermometer required, and great for sharing around the holiday.  However, if you want to make the kind of fudge I eat, then visit this site - they ship anywhere!: http://www.darbysfudge.com/fudgeshop.html

Peanut Butter Lover's Month

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By Diane Forrest

A friend of mine loves peanut butter.  So much that he said his wife has bought enough to last til the end of the world.  I have an uncle who fixes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch.  My father will eat a spoonful of peanut butter as an appetite suppressant. My son will give my dog a lick of peanut butter, just to watch him lick his lips.

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Peanut butter is a spread made from ground roasted peanuts, with or without oil.  It has several health benefits such as: provides protection against cardiovascular disease due to high levels of monounsaturated fats and resveratrol; butter prepared with the skin of the peanuts has a greater level of resveratrol and other health-aiding agents. Peanut butter (and peanuts) provides protein, vitamins B3 and E, magnesium, folate, dietary fiber, arginine, and high levels of the antioxidant p-coumaric acid.

Some people are allergic to peanuts, and one reason could be because the mothers refrained from eating them while they were pregnant.   I recently read an article about a child who took a peanut butter sandwich to school, and it was removed from him, because others in his class had allergies to them.  Some schools forbid the delicious food to be allow on school grounds because of allergies.

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November is peanut butter lover's month.  Even if you or your family attends a school that forbids it, you can still enjoy plenty of it at home.  You can fix a sandwich, put it on crackers,, cover some celery with it, or bake some nice warm cookies.

Other uses for peanut butter include:

• A common, simple outdoor bird feeder can be made by coating a pine cone once with peanut butter, then again with birdseed.
• Peanut butter is effective bait for mouse traps.
• Many people derive amusement when feeding peanut butter to their dog. Most dogs appear to like the taste of peanut butter; however the animal does not have the ability to eat it with anything resembling traditional social grace.
• Peanut butter can also help remove gum and tree sap from the skin, hair, or in fabrics and upholsteries.

According to peanutbutterlovers.com, Southern Peanut Growers, representing southeastern peanut farmers, started the celebration as Peanut Butter Lovers Day on November 4, 1990. November 4 marks the anniversary of the first patent for peanut butter, applied for by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg on November 4, 1895. It grew to a month-long celebration in 1995 when peanut butter celebrated its 100th birthday!

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This month, be sure to celebrate peanut butter any way you like.  I went and got a nice fresh jar so I will have plenty on hand for some crackers or baking.  To help you with an idea, here is a site with plenty of recipes and other ideas for peanut butter.  http://peanutbutterlovers.com/category/consumer-recipes/

National Fluffernutter Day

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By Chef Diane

I have never been around marshmallow cream much.  In fact...I have only used it while making Christmas fudge in the last few years.   In several parts of the country, marshmallow cream and peanut butter are as common as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is in my part of the country.  In fact, Massachusetts even tried to proclaim the fluffernutter, a mixture of peanut butter on one slice of bread, and marshmallow cream on the other slice, as their state sandwich.

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According to punchbowl.com.  marshmallow candy can be traced back to ancient Egypt when people first began to harvest the marshmallow plant (Althaea officinalis). During the 19th century, French pharmacists extracted the juice from marshmallow plants and heated it with egg whites and sugar, creating a marshmallow cream.

Then, in 1917, Archibald Query of Somerville, Massachusetts created the special formula for the marshmallow fluff we know and love today.  The first published recipe of the fluffernutter sandwich appeared during World War l by Emma Curtis.

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Every year in Somerville, Massachusetts, where Archibald Query invented Marshmallow Fluff, a festival celebrating this tasty treat is held.  The name of the festival is called What the Fluff?  They eat fluffernutter sandwiches, play music and games and have cooking contests.

If you would like to be more creative with fluffernutter instead of just a routine sandwich, here is an easy recipe for some delicious cookies that are really simple to bake.

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Fluffernutter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 package of Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix, stir as directed.
• 1 jar marshmallow cream
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 12 ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Directions

1. Mix cookies as directed, roll into balls and bake at 350 for 8 minutes
2. Take the back of the spoon and make craters in the cookies, and set the oven to broil
3. Fill the cookies with a spoon full of fluff
4. Return to oven and broil until browned
5. Melt the chocolate chips with the whipping cream over a pot of boiling water until melted.
6. Place melted chocolate in a Ziploc bag and cut off one of the corners.  Then drizzle the chocolate over the cookies and let cool

Click here to watch a video for making these cookies:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTRV8BVcsjM

National Peanut Butter Day

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By Diane Forrest,

When I was a kid I took my lunch to school.  I went to a small school, and they didn't have a cafeteria.   I never had to wonder what was going to be in my lunch, it would be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Then my brother got the idea that he liked it stirred up together, and so that’s how I got mine too.  I didn’t like it that way, and haven't eaten many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches since.  However, my uncle, who will be 73 this year, still has one every day for lunch.  Even Elvis liked peanut butter sandwiches.  Only he put banana on it then fried them in bacon grease.

Peanut butter is a wonderful food. I love opening up a brand new jar and taking the first whiff.  You would think peanut butter has been around for a while, but actually, it has only been in existence since 1884.  Peanuts are native to the Americas, and were first mashed up by the native Aztec Indians.  George Washington Carver is often credited with the invention of peanut butter, but actually, Marcellus Edson from Canada received the first patent in 1884.  In 1903 a doctor in St. Louis, Dr. Straub, invented a peanut butter making machine in able to provide protein to the elderly who had no teeth.

Cookies!!
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Peanut butter is full of protein and vitamins and fiber.  There are many products you can eat that contain peanut butter.  Crackers, cookies, candy, ice cream, pies, cakes, are but a few.  My husband used to order peanut butter milkshakes even, and I wasn't so sure about those.  I always imagined the peanut butter would clog up the straw.

I love homemade peanut butter cookies though, and did some research about why you make the cris cross shapes on the top.  That was mainly done so people could tell what type of cookie it was.

Today is National Peanut Butter Day.  Why not pack your lunch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or fry up a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or even bake a batch of peanut butter cookies.  Anyway you try it, have a peanut buttery day.

PB & Banana
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Elvis Presley's Peanut butter and banana sandwich:

Ingredients

• 2 slices of white bread
• 2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
• 1 small ripe banana mashed
• 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Spread the peanut butter on one slice of bread and the mashed banana on the other. Press the slices gently together. Melt the butter (or to be truly Elvis-like, melt bacon fat!), over low heat in a small frying pan. Place the sandwich in the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. Eat it with a glass of buttermilk. Please note: Elvis tended to eat 12-15 sandwiches a sitting! So belly up!