Ode to Peanut Butter

SYRACUSE -- Holy smokes, I won!
On Saturday, I received in the mail a very thrilling prize from The Post Standard: a peanut butter cookbook.
The newspaper often gives away cookbooks (check out the weekly food section), but when I sent in my entry – a little card with my name and address -- I didn’t think I’d actually win. I never win anything.
And what a prize! I really dig peanut butter. If stranded on a desert island with only a lunchbox, the two things I’d like to have are orange Gatorade and peanut butter granola bars.
I dig PB in any form. Crunchy, creamy, natural, uber-processed... My favorite ensemble is a slice of wheat toast spread with PB, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with walnuts. Yum!
There have been several periods in my life where my diet consisted primarily of PB&J sandwiches (and yes, I’m down with Smucker’s Goober Grape). And funny enough, the night before I received the cookbook, I had baked one of my all-time faves: peanut butter kisses (PB cookies topped with a Hershey kiss). My mom used to make heaps of them at Christmastime.
So here’s a little PB trivia for you (courtesy of the cookbook, “Peanut Butter Planet” by Robin Robertson):
* The world’s largest PB&J sandwich weighed about 900 pounds.
* Each American eats nearly 4 pounds of peanut butter per year, for a nationwide total of about 8 million pounds.
* November is “Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month.”
* Peanuts are not nuts – they are legumes, like beans and peas.
* People on the East Coast prefer creamy PB; West Coast folks like it crunchy.
Stay tuned for tasty PB recipes. Double-peanut burgers, crudités with spicy peanut dip, coconut-peanut butter wonton cups with fresh mango… oh, what to whip up first?! (JM)