Central Track Contributor
Celebrate National Peanut Butter Lover's Day With Fun Facts & Fun Snacks.
Peanut butter gets a lot of holiday love in America: National Peanut Butter Day is on January 24; National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day is on April 2; National Peanut Butter Cookie Day is on June 12; National Peanut Butter Fudge Day is on November 20; and November as a whole gets the honor of being National Peanut Butter Month. And lest we forget: Today, March 1, is National Peanut Butter Lover's Day!
It's a lot to — pardon the pun — swallow, and perhaps more a commentary on the obnoxious abundance of supposed national holidays than anything else. But, hey, it's fun. And, in the case of peanut butter, it's fairly delicious, too. Let's face it: Those with allergies excluded, everyone loves peanut butter.
It's not wholly clear who who we should thank for inventing this delectable delight, though. George Washington Carver is often credited with doing so, but the Aztecs were supposedly on to something similar with a ground peanut butter spread in the 15th century.
The truth is that we don't really care who to thank. We just want it in our bellies — and in nearly any form. Whether it's smooth, crunchy, mixed with jelly, spread on a cracker, spread on a pretzel, snuggled in celery stalks or covered in chocolate, peanut butter is pretty much the best snack for people of all ages.
The facts back it up:
– The average child will eat 1,500 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches before they graduate high school.
– Without peanut butter, there would be no Mr. Ed, as TV producers used the spread to make TV's famous talking horse move his lips.
– Statistics show that women and children tend to prefer creamy, while most men opt for the chunky variety.
– Grand Saline, Texas, holds the title for building the world's largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which weighed in at 1,342 pounds upon completion
Another fun fact: The peanut butter cookie is the most popular peanut butter-based dessert.
To that end, and to celebrate this holiest of days going down today, let's make some of those!
Nutritional info: One cookie yields 166 calories and nine grams of fat.
– 18 oz. package refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough
– 1 package miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (24 cups needed)
– 1 small package Reese's Pieces candy
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Unwrap 24 peanut butter cups and set aside.
3. Form 1 tbsp cookie dough into a ball.
4. Place into miniature muffin tin. One ball per muffin cup.
5. Bake for eight minutes.
6. Immediately upon removal, place one peanut butter cup into each cookie. Press into cookie and let melt a bit.
7. Once the PB cup has melted, place three Reese's Pieces onto chocolate.
8. Let cool in pan.
9. Remove with a thin knife.
10. Eat the crap out of these suckers.
