National Peanut Month

By Terry Orr 

My earliest memory of peanuts in the shell was at a Major League Baseball game in Kansas City oh so many years ago.  Sharing a bag with my Dad and brother along with a soda still puts a smile on my face.  All these years later, I still enjoy, cracking open the shell and eating fresh roasted peanuts.

Every three months or so, I order two 25 pound boxes of peanuts for our outdoor critters each morning. Putting a few on the deck railing - then the remainder tossed in our back yard.  From the kitchen, we (wife, cats and I) can watch the Blue Jays swoop down and pick up a peanut.  Those that spill onto the deck are fair game,  between the squirrels and chipmunks.  

Peanuts are also very good  health-wise as they are a good source of niacin, folate, fiber, vitamin E, magnesium and phosphorus.  They also are naturally free of trans-fat and sodium and contain about 25% protein.

U.S. peanuts fall into four basic types: Runner, Virginia, Spanish and Valencia. Each of these peanuts is distinctive in size and flavor. 

Peanut are not a Nut? Are you kidding?  True...they are a Legumes/bean!  

Archeologists have dated the oldest specimens to about 7,600 years, found in Peru.

Now you know. 

(All images from Google) 

National Peanut Brittle Day

(Google Image) 

By Diane Forrest,

The other day I told you about peanut butter, and how peanuts are from the America’s.  What I didn't tell you was that during the Civil war, the soldiers lived off of peanuts to survive.  Once George Washington Carver began to reveal how many ways peanuts could be used in 1903, their popularity exploded, especially in the American South.

The first recipe for peanut brittle was discovered in books in the 19th century.  Of course this is about the same time recipes for other candy was also placed in recipe books, so I’m pretty certain that this was the time the first recipe book was written.  Peanut Brittle is a flat hard candy made from sugar or molasses, and broken into pieces.

(Google Image) 

Perhaps due to the Southern connection, the history of peanut brittle is tied to Tony Beaver, a lumberjack folk hero. In the story, Tony Beaver creates peanut brittle when he stops a flood using peanuts and molasses. Not only does he save a town, but he also gives them a terrific snack.

Brittle can be made using any type of nut, however since it is National Peanut Brittle Day, I am going to share a Peanut Brittle Recipe with you.  Be sure to use a large pan to cook it in, because once you add the baking soda it will double in size.

Peanut Brittle

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup peanuts
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.
2. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in peanuts. Set candy thermometer in place, and continue cooking. Stir frequently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.
3. Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter and baking soda; pour at once onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14x12 inches; cool. Snap candy into pieces.

(Google Image) 

Peanut Butter Fudge Day

(Google Image) 

By Diane Forrest,

My husband loved peanut butter.  He ate peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter crackers, peanut butter cookies even peanut butter milkshakes!  He loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and he really loved peanut butter fudge.  We have a shop in town that makes all kinds of fudge flavors, but his favorite was peanut butter.  He would get a box full, about a quarter of a pound, and it would be unusual if it would make it through the night. In fact, when I was looking up the history of fudge, the shop in our town, Darby's, was at the top of the list.

It seems that a batch of caramels was somehow messed up, hence the name, fudge, as in Oh Fudge!  In 1886, fudge was sold at a local Baltimore grocery store for 40 cents a pound. This is the first known sale of fudge. A letter, found in the archives of Vassar College, written by Emelyn Battersby Hartridge reveals that Emelyn wrote that her schoolmate's cousin made fudge in 1886 in Baltimore and sold it for 40 cents a pound.

In 1888, Miss Hartridge asked for the fudge recipe, and made 30 pounds of fudge for the Vassar Senior Auction. The recipe was very popular at the school from that point forward. Fudge became a new confection after word spread to other women's colleges of the tasty delight. Later, Smith and Wellesley schools each developed their own recipe for fudge.

To try some of Darby's famous fudge, http://www.darbysfudge.com/fudgebybox.html   , or to make your own, try the recipe below from allrecipes.com and have a great Peanut Butter Fudge day!

Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients

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