Nut-ty Recipes, Comfort Food, Wacky Peanut Butter, and Elvis Presley

Thursday afternoon I had something that I hadn’t eaten in a long time:  A good, old-fashioned, flashback to grade school peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich.  None of that healthy ”adult” thinking of putting it on whole wheat bread - oh no, it was built on white Bunny bread.  I didn’t even mentally calculate the calories of the Peanut Butter as I spread it out, either.  So, yeah, it was a little heavy-handed.  Or knived. Peter Pan, Bunny Bread, Smuckers, and I made a masterpiece.

Since then I’ve been thinking about just how universally loved peanut butter is.  It’s one of everyone’s favorite comfort foods.  I guess it all goes back to the fact that most of us ate peanut butter sandwiches while growing up, so they’re associated with Saturday afternoons, school lunches, and laughs at the kitchen table.

Plus peanut butter’s just plain delicious!

Elvis Presley absolutely loved fried Peanut Butter and Banana sandwiches and had a particular fondness for Peanut Butter on Crackers.  It apparently was his number one comfort food.  We all know how close the “King” was to his mother, I’d be willing to bet that his love of PB went back to her fixing sandwiches for him as a child. 

We can all agree that Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches and Peanut Butter and Banana sandwiches are pretty normal.  But if you want to take a “not so normal” look at peanut butter, I have a website for you:  http://www.peanutbetter.com.  Peanut Better offers the following “Savory” varieties for the peanut butter lover with an adventurous streak:  Onion Parsley, Rosemary Garlic, Hickory Smoked, Tai Ginger and Red Pepper, Spicy Southwestern.

For those with a sweet tooth (you rang?) they have:  Cinnamon Currant, Deep Chocolate, Vanilla Cranberry, Sweet Molasses, and the one of all of them I know I’d like:  Peanut Praline.  I say “I Know I’d like” rather than the one “I’d touch with a ten foot knife” because, hey, you never know.  Generally, I don’t like for my food to have identity crises of any kind.  If it’s corn, I want it to taste like corn - if it’s peanut butter, I want it to only have peanut butter on its mind.  But, I love food, so even if its getting all experiment-y and wacky, I’ll go along for the ride.

At least once.

From a link on Peanut Better.com, I found a site that sells peanuts, apparently it’s where Peanut Better gets their peanuts.  I’ll bet when these peanuts were growing up they never imagined they’d possibly land in a jar of Tai Ginger and Red Pepper Peanut Butter! Spicy? Yes.  Nice-y?  I dunno.

Anyway, the website has some AMAZING Peanut Recipes I know you’ll want to check out.  Recipes like:  Mexican Peanuts, Sugar Coated Peanuts, Peanut Butter Cookies, Peanut Butter Balls, Peanut Banana Shake, Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich, Peanut Butter Popcorn, Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, Choco Butter Combos, and more!

My printer is doing it’s deep breathing exercises, it knows it’s about to get a workout.

Speaking of workouts, I see a lot of peanut yumminess in my near future, so I’d better go walk off some calories to make room for more.  I’ve got it down to an art.