It's Peanut Butter Month!

elzziwT · ‎10-20-2012

Facts and Recipes!

It takes roughly 540 peanuts to fill one 12-ounce jar of peanut butter! Peanuts are a legume not a nut!

There are enough peanuts in one acre to make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter was first introduced in the U.S. by C.H. Sumner at the 1904 St. Louis Universal Exposition, and last but not least, two U.S. peanut farmers have been elected president: Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter.

Twelve surprising uses for peanut butter:

Cleaning

1. Getting Rid of That Fishy Smell. Can’t get rid of that funky fish smell? After you’ve fried fish, put a dollop of peanut butter in the pan — it’ll absorb that lingering odor right up!

2. Cleaning Vinyl & Leather. Work the peanut butter in a circular motion on your leather/vinyl furniture and wipe away with a buffing cloth. As you may have guessed, this method will make your leather/vinyl smell like peanut butter. Mix it with a little perfumed oil to mask the smell.

3. Fixing Scratched DVDs & CDs. Work a little peanut butter onto a scratched disk and wipe away with a dry cloth. Voila!

Sticky Stuff

4. Removing Gum From Hair. Rub peanut butter on the gum, work through with your fingers and wipe remnants away with a cloth.

5. Removing Gum From Carpeting. Similar to removing gum from hair, but without the whiny human: remove as much of the gum as you can, then rub it with peanut butter.

6. Removing Stickers. Rub with peanut butter and wipe away!

7. Removing Glue From Your Hands. If you’re a little sloppy with the super glue and can’t stand that feeling of sticky glue on your hands, simply rub peanut butter on your hands and wipe away with a towel. It works like a charm!

Body & Health

8. Shaving. If you’re ever desperate to shave but ran out of any other appropriate gels or creams, reach for the peanut butter. The oils in peanut butter are really good for the skin!

9. Giving Medicine to Pets & Young Children. Fussy pets and picky kids don’t always like to take their medicine — but both sure do love peanut butter! Coat their meds in peanut butter and they’re gobble them right up. In case you’re wondering, dogs and cats are not allergic to the stuff, it’s actually quite good for them!

Food

9. Butter. Peanut butter is a great baking substitute for the regular stuff — as long as the nutty flavor compliments the dish.

10. Pricier Nut Butters. As tasty as almond & cashew butters are, they’re both quite spendy. Peanut butter is a perfectly acceptable substitute!

11. Crepe Topping. Seriously, does anything sound more delicious than a peanut butter, nutella & banana crepe?! See below for an amazing crepe recipe & more topping ideas!

12. Make peanut brittle!

Peanut brittle recipe:

1 cup Sucanat (read about Sucanat and other natural sweeteners)
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 cup peanuts, or any favorite nut
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.

2. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring Sucanat, agave syrup, salt, and water to a boil. Stir until Sucanat is dissolved. Bring to a boil and add coconut oil and vanilla, stirring constantly until mixture reaches 280F on the candy thermometer.

3. Add peanuts and continue stirring 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.

4. Remove from heat and quickly stir in baking soda. Work quickly and pour at onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, lift and spread peanut mixture into rectangle. Cool and then break candy into pieces.

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Basic Crepe Recipe

Ingredients

2 c. milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
4 tbs unsalted butter, & more for pan/serving
1 1/4 c. flour (all-purpose
1 tbs grapeseed oil (vegetable oil works too)
3 large eggs
1/2 c. beer

Instructions

The night before, make the batter:

1. Heat milk, sugar, salt & butter in a medium saucepan. When the butter is melted, remove from heat and let cool until the mixture is at room temperature.

2. In a medium bowl, place the flour. Make the flour into a well at the center and add eggs and oil onto the well. Beat the batter for about 2-3 minutes, until it’s too stiff to beat anymore & the batter is smooth.

3. Slowly add milk mixture to the flour mixture little by little and beat until batter is smooth.

4. Strain batter with a sieve and whisk beer into it. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day:

1. Heat crepe pan****(see below) over medium. When a drop of water sizzles on the pan, it’s ready to use. Rub pan with a dab of butter (wipe off any extra butter with a paper towel.)

2. In the center of the pan, ladle out about 2 tablespoons of batter. Tilt the pan to cover the bottom with batter that’s as even and thin as possible. Brown crepe lightly for about 1-2 minutes, and flip (gently!) to the other side to brown for another minute or so. Repeat!

3. Add desired toppings (see below) and serve. Enjoy!

**** A regular frying pan worked just fine!

Topping Ideas