March has been Peanut Month.
My experiences with peanuts have been:
Tin Roof Sundaes
Trail Mix
Mr. Goodbar
Peanut M&Ms
Jif Peanut Butter
and the ever popular “just throw some peanuts in your mouth” approach.
I kind of want a Tin Roof now.
52 thoughts on “Cherry Saturday, March 28, 2020”
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Jif is a cleaning product here, one of those scouring creamy ones. So that’s weird.
Peanuts for me mean i. satay or ii. I have nothing in the cupboard for the kids’ lunches.
PSA If your kids have recently had school closed, don’t wait until the end of the lockdown to discover they’ve left their lunchbox in their schoolbag. (A mistake you try to only make once).
Maybe that’s why they changed the name to Cif (which no one actually uses; it’s very Humpty-Dumpty).
You don’t have Jif peanut butter?
Wow. I thought that stuff was everywhere. Like Oreos. You do have Oreos?
I take my junk food seriously.
They started selling Oreos here a while back, I think. Along with a few Australian biscuits – there’s a chocolate mint one I liked when I was living there. But I find British brands more tempting; more flavour/less sickly (not that we don’t have a lot that are like that too).
Oh, Arnott’s mint slice! So much better than Tim Tams! (Yes I know that makes me a national traitor, no I don’t care.)
Nope.
We have Sanitarium. And Kraft I think.
The best peanut butter is either Pic’s or Fix and Fogg. Nothing but nuts and salt. Nutella is everywhere I’m sure.
Oreos we have. Those raspberry cream cheese ones are vile. But the double chocolate I can’t buy, or I eat the whole packet. But lots of the lollies/sweets/candy you’ve mentioned in the past is, for lack of a better word, foreign to me.
Cif is still Jiff here.
We just got Nutella a couple of years ago. I still haven’t tried it. Must do that.
You have Raspberry Cream Cheese Oreos? That sounds awful. I have lemon Oreos right now and of course the classic chocolate and vanilla, but in the Thin variation. Love those.
That’s because you live in the boonies. Here in the land of ethnic grocery stores, I’ve been trying to resist the stuff for decades. Before my blood sugar started climbing I ran a taste test on all small label (mostly Eastern European) chocolate hazelnut spreads I could find. I like Nutella best, which is too bad because the others are much cheaper. So now I keep a jar of the real thing hidden away to be doled out in case of emergencies.
The Oreo folks have started selling an annual “guess the flavor” cookie every year. So far I don’t think any of them have made the cut of staying in production. One of them was some sort of sugar cereal plus milk.
My god, that’s awful.
I thought I was adventurous with lemon and mint (both very good).
Trader Joe’s makes a chocolate almond spread that I try to forget exists. Except it’s in the peanut butter aisle, so I am often reminded.
Also, in a heroic bout of self-control, I bought a pint of Talenti salted caramel gelato a few days ago and have not yet eaten it.
The way to try Nutella is with a spoon. Or with bananas on crepes. Or on cinnamon-raisin bagels. I can’t buy Nutella either.
There was a fairly iconic peanut butter ad with a very earworm jingle when I was a kid. I expect that pretty much every kiwi (and possibly aussie?) adult my age could sing ‘I’m an utter peanut butter nutter….’
https://youtu.be/cmbBM4gO4mE
And I’ve had it on my head ALL DAY.
I’m sorry.
There’s a fast casual/takeaway chain here in my area called Five Guys Burgers, which makes hamburgers to order along with boardwalk-style fries. Their stores are tiled in red and white like a diner, and you sit on wooden stools to watch them make your burgers with your choice of about 1000 or so toppings or sauces that can be piled onto them.
While you wait, you can snack on free roasted peanuts from giant boxes, which is kind of genius, because it says 1) generosity 2) never mind the lines or waits, you got peanuts! and 3) we’re going to give you protein, so here’s a protein-y snack garnished with the delicious smell of burgers & potatos frying while you wait for them. It brings life to the notion that a small taste of something wakes up the tastebuds for the actual meal to come.
Since I’m in NJ, I am well aware of Five Guys. Their burgers are the size of your head and their fries are amazing.
I don’t get the Five Guys fuss. Maybe they do something different here than in the US but their fries are just fries. I do love me some Steak ‘n Shake though.
Oh, Steak N Shake. I MISS Steak N Shake.
This falls in line this week with my snack in the middle of the day, a Ritz cracker topped with peanut butter a chopped pecan and a drop of honey. The honey makes it elegant almost like an horderves.
We used to go to a restaurant, Texas something, that served peanuts in shells in place of rolls while waiting. The place was so littered with shells I wondered about the health board coming in shutting it down, but steak and potatoes, oh boy.
Sounds like Texas Roadhouse. Lonestar Steakhouse (now defunct) used to do the same thing. In acknowledgement of the Board of Health, both started providing a second (empty) bucket for the shells. Like Five Guys, the dotter appreciates the peanuts.
We had a place like that in Akron, the Ground Round, and the peanut shells all over the floor was part of their shtick.
It used to reasonably common on the West Coast for bars to serve peanuts in the shell as a bar snack, very well salted peanuts. The idea was the salt would make you thirsty and you would buy more beer. And the shells were thrown on the floor and had to be swept each night.
Of your list, the peanut M&Ms are one of my weaknesses. I am staring at a bag of Atkins Chocolate Peanut Candies, which are those M&Ms made with dark chocolate and no sugar for five times the cost. I prefer almonds.
Sadly I married a dude with a peanut allergy, so my experiences around peanuts for the last several decades are all about being unexpectedly solitary and hungry. I mean, it also means I get to eat Pad Thai! and other delightful things when I am out with others, but it also means no nuts in the house which is kind of a bummer.
Boy, you must really love him.
When we were in school, my frugal mother would make lunches for the kids. We had peanut butter and jelly one day, peanut butter and marshmallow creme a second day. The third day was peanut butter and raisins, followed by peanut butter and bananas. I was extraordinarily tired of peanuts and peanut butter by the time I got out of school, and I don’t eat either if I can help it. (Also I loved lunch meat or tuna day!)
Years ago I had a Mr Peanut watch, it had a yellow plastic strap which of course broke off.
I think I still have it somewhere??
My DH likes Planters peanuts, I think they come from the States??
Hi Ranch Girl 👧 glad you are doing well
I wish I had more peanut butter around here. I only have half a jar and no bread.
Peanut butter (the kind that’s just peanuts and some salt) is one of my major good groups. Along with almond butter. Hide a glob in the middle of your oatmeal, and then it becomes good. Love me some peanuts.
I did taste peanut butter once, years ago, but didn’t take to it. I thought for years that I didn’t like nuts, and of course it wasn’t around when I was a child. Sounds very rich.
I’m fighting something off, probably a cold – but just in case, I’m not going out. It’s also turned cold; once it warms up a bit I’ve got plenty of DIY and gardening to do out the back. Meanwhile, I’m editing (took my weekend on Wednesday and Thursday).
I think it is a matter of what you ate growing up. When I was travelling, an Aussie gave me a taste of the Vegemite from the jar she was carrying in her backpack. I thought it was revolting and could not believe how many people I met who were going into withdrawal for the stuff.
So it is okay with me if we don’t crave the same thing. As long as I can feed my food addictions, I don’t mind if you don’t share them.
Your tolerance is appreciated. You’re right about childhood flavours, although I have grown out of most of them. Or else they’ve changed the recipes: I’m sure Cadbury’s Dairy Milk has got more sickly over the years, especially since they were bought out by the Americans.
Definitely. I don’t know about “sickly,” but we screw up chocolate over here.
A friend of mine has a stuffed Mr. Peanut doll her dad gave her. He’s old, but still jaunty and dapper.
I’d forgotten about tin roof ice cream and sundaes. How could I have forgotten? Just bonkers. Way worse than not being able to remember why I’ve walked into the living room.
I live in Washington State, and we had au pairs while my sons were growing up (both my ex and I were engineers.) This was 1992 – 2003. My sons loved peanut butter and jelly – well, I do too – but it was always entertaining seeing these young people from around the world try peanut butter for the first time. NONE of them understood our American craving for this delicious spread! Most of them tried to be polite about it, but their faces were incredible. Of course, they had me trying some items I’d never tried before, too: Nutella? Never heard of it. Chocolate and nut spread for breakfast on my toast?? Oh my. MUCH better than the potatoes boiled in milk!
My German husband loves peanut butter! He goes through a (small) jar every 4-6 weeks.
But it has to be creamy, not crunchy.
Oh, yes, and for great amusement, give a dog a blob of peanut butter. They love the taste, but it sticks to the roof of their mouth and it takes a bit to lick it off. The facial contortions with intense concentration is just hilarious!
I make a pretty good peanut stew. Come to think of it, my partner would probably love it if I made a batch for our next soup night…peanut butter is his love language.
Happy Saturday, arghers. It’s sunny and breezy, and I am flattened by exhaustion. Good day to wear my jammies, rub dog bellies, and practice gentleness.
You know those nasty little surprises that you discover as you get older? Gravity, oddly sprouting hairs, vision goes to hell, etc. For me, add peanuts to the list. I ate them all my life but now unspeakable things happen when I eat them, even in small quantities. I miss peanut butter more as an ingredient than as a spread. Asian sauces, peanut soup (southern thing–looks like “do I or did I” as it’s going together but it’s fabulous), ice cream stir in, yum. There are things like WOW butter & SunButter that try to be alternatives but they don’t hit the mark.
Sue, can you do almond butter. I’ve found I actually prefer it.
Oh, a tin roof sundae… My first job was at a Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor, and that was my favorite.
I’m not familiar with tin roof ice cream. Is it a special flavour? A brand?
Hot fudge sundae with peanuts…
You can actually buy Tin Roof ice cream, but it started out as a sundae: vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce or hot fudge, and Spanish peanuts, the kind with the red skins. Basically it’s vanilla ice cream, some form of chocolate on top and then some kind of peanuts on top of that. Classic.
I must now eat a spoonful of peanut butter. I don’t have anything better to put it on as I’m out of bread, crackers, celery and carrots. My mother taught me not to eat peanut butter off a knife, so that’s out. She used to say something like Nixy bunny cut her tongue when eating something something from a knife. I’m sure I’ve got this wrong.
Oh APPLES!! I have apples to eat my peanut butter with. Excellent.
I love peanuts. I love them so much I actually can’t have them in my house. Especially dry roasted. Paul has a jar of them I make him keep in the garage so I don’t wolf them all down. I’ve done that, it’s not pretty.
I wish you hadn’t mentioned Tin Roof. Now I crave one. Unfortunately no peanuts on hand. Jif yes. Peanuts added to next shopping list.
Stay sane-ish all.
Someone once gave me Lindt Peanut butter truffles, which were delicious, think they are exclusive to America, because the only other time I found them in UK they were extortionately priced
I can’t let this topic go without mentioning The Virginia Diner. There are several stores in Wakefield, VA that sell Virginia Gourmet Peanuts. I love-love those peanuts. They’re crunchier than the kind you get from Planters and their competitors. In any of those stores you can get varieties of peanuts (and almonds and cashews.) Chocolate covered, Cajun spiced, Jalapeno spiced, salt and vinegar, other stuff I never buy. VA Diner is one of those locally famous places, or it was. It was family owned, but sold in 2019.
Hi Jenny, long, long time fan of your books. Any chance of a new book this year? I reread your books all the time, but a new one is always so welcome 🙂 regards, Beth
That laughter you hear in the background is all the people who have been watching me try to wrestle the current book to the ground (and publication). So not this year, but I’m going to finish this year. Then my agent will try to sell it. If she doesn’t, I’ll self-publish and it will be this year. Who knows.
Also, welcome to Argh!
I mostly have peanuts as part of some mixed nuts, although I keep a jar of dry roasted ones at work for when I get stuck there late and need a protein boost.
I also have a lovely homemade chocolate peanut butter spread from a local farmstand store that I keep forgetting about…
No peanut M&M’s for me, I’m afraid. I’m allergic to the artificial food coloring they use. Haven’t had an M&M in something like 30 years. Luckily, I much prefer high quality chocolate. Or maybe that isn’t lucky.
My family got stuck on peanuts mixed with M&Ms for snacks years ago. I’ve substituted cashews and dark chocolate chips to try to be healthier – LOL