| It’s National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day—and starting Monday, our Gourmet Giveaway Trivia Quiz focuses on peanut butter. So, all you lovers, tune back in then and you can win a delicious peanut butter prize. We’re a little constrained here about what we can write about peanut butter, because most of the juicy insights are questions in the trivia quiz. So instead, we’ll talk about flavored peanut butter.There isn’t yet a National Flavored Peanut Butter Day, because all of these “designated holidays” are petitioned by large companies or their public relations firms, and flavored PBs are often made by smaller, artisan companies that don’t have the bandwidth for such initiatives. So, we’ll do a little horn-tooting here for them. |
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Try Onion Parsley Peanut Better on a roast beef or turkey sandwich, instead of mustard or mayo. |
| Our first flavored PB epiphany came when we tasted the Peanut Better peanut butters at the Fancy Food Show in the summer of 2004. Imagine seeing a lineup of jars called Onion Parsley Peanut Butter, Rosemary Garlic Peanut Butter, Thai Ginger & Red Pepper Peanut Butter and Spicy Southwestern Peanut Butter. We could almost imagine the latter two, because we’ve made our share of spicy Szechwan noodle dishes. But Onion Parsley? Rosemary Garlic? After one bite, we were astounded, and Peanut Better quickly became a Top Pick Of The Week. (The company also makes Cinnamon Currant, Deep Chocolate Peanut Praline, Sweet Molasses & Vanilla Cranberry and other sweet and savory flavors. And, the line is organic and kosher.)A short while later, in January 2005, we were at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco and discovered P.B. Loco, a company founded by law school graduates in St. Paul, Minnesota. Their Sun-Dried Tomato Peanut Butter knocked our socks off, and two of their numerous sweet PBs—Raspberry White Chocolate and Sumatra Cinnamon & Raisin—remain our all-time favorites (who needs dessert—just dip in a spoon). But back to those exotic savory peanut butters: What do you do with them? They are dynamite on turkey, chicken, ham, roast beef and grilled vegetable sandwiches (pair them with soft cheeses like mozzarella, too). Use them to baste chicken or lamb, mix some into meatloaf, stuffing, bread and muffin batter. Spread them on apples or pears. Make canapés, along with meats, cheeses or vegetables. Dip crudités into them, toss them with steamed vegetables, add them to baked potatoes. Go [pea]nuts! Read more about PB in the Jams, Jellies & Peanut Butters Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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