Posted by Robyn Lee, October 3, 2007 at 10:45 AM
The PB&J Campaign aims to raise awareness about the positive environmental impact one could make by simply eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of a meat-based alternative. For instance, you could save 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, 280 gallons of water, and 12 to 50 square feet of land by choosing a PBJ instead of a hamburger. If you're not a fan of peanut butter and jelly, there are plenty of other tasty environmentally friendly alternatives that can help slow global warming, reduce water waste, and save land.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 2, 2007 at 11:59 PM
Sometimes, when Serious Eats general manager Alaina Browne gets a free moment, she investigates the seemingly bizarre practice of giving foods a national day of their own. A couple of weeks ago, right after we put the National Pig Day content to bed, Alaina announced that April 2 was National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 2, 2007 at 6:45 PM
Photograph from Wikipedia
Flessenlikker = "jar licker" in Dutch. Also known as a flessenschraper ("bottle scraper"). The long handle and flexible rubber spatula at the end do just what you think they would: help you get every last scrap from the bottle—especially long, narrow vessels.
The joke here is that it's a Norwegian invention that has failed in every country but the Netherlands.
The Dutch are smart, though: They probably get at least one more PBJ sandwich out of their respective jars than flessenlikker rejectors.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 2, 2007 at 6:15 PM
Okay, so my friends have to start having babies right NOW, so I can get them this adorable bib with jars of peanut butter and grape jelly in love with each other. $8 from Etsy seller hannabear, printed by CafePress.
(It's so super cute I almost wish it came in adult sizes! Hey, stop looking at me like that—eating lobster is messy!)
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 2, 2007 at 5:44 PM
Proclaim your love of PB&J to one and all, or at least all of the people who get to see your fridge, by putting this die-cut photographic Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Magnet on it.
$2.99 from fridgedoor.com, and no one will ever again doubt where your sandwich allegiance lies.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 2, 2007 at 1:05 PM
If you've ever had trouble buying something for someone who seems to already have everything, I can all but guarantee they won't have Cuisipro's Peanut Butter and Jelly Spreader.
$11 buys you a foot-long tool with color-coded silicon paddles on each end—light brown for the peanut butter and purple for the jelly—to prevent the dreaded bottle cross-contamination and horrible bread tearing that the usage of knives inflicts. Yes, it's dishwasher-safe, and yes, it comes with a 25-year warranty, although really, by the year 2032 our sandwiches should be spreading themselves.
Posted by Alaina Browne, April 2, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Some peanut butter stats:
- It takes roughly 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.
- Peanut butter is consumed in about 89 percent of US households.
- The world's largest peanut butter factory – Jif, in Lexington, Ky. – churns out 250,000 jars of the tasty treat every day.
- The average child will eat 1,500 peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches before he or she graduates high school.
- Women and children prefer creamy, while most men opt for chunky, according to the National Peanut Board.
Posted by Alaina Browne, April 2, 2007 at 9:15 AM
How did the peanut butter and jelly sandwich come to be? Peanut butter as we know it was invented in the second half of the 19th century. It started to gain popularity at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Initially a fancy-pants sandwich, the invention of sliced bread in the 1920s helped prompt its migration to an everyday staple.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 2, 2007 at 8:00 AM
This is my favorite PBJ-related blog post.
With a roadmap for making some fabulous-looking PBJ macarons.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 2, 2007 at 7:00 AM
Here at Serious Eats world headquarters there are Jews like me heading for seders tonight and tomorrow night to celebrate the first two nights of Passover. And what, some of you might rightfully ask, are we doing celebrating National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day on the site today instead of dispensing advice on how to cook brisket or even haroset, the apples and honey dish that is supposed to symbolize the mortar Jews used to build the pyramids in Egypt?
But, as my wife makes her haroset with apples and walnuts in the room next to me, I have decided that peanut butter and jelly would also make a terrific haroset. Peanut butter and jelly has the exact same characteristics as apples and honey. It's sticky, sweet, and thick enough to approximate mortar. I know to some of you it might seem like a stretch, but you have to admit it's more than a little plausible.
And to carry the analogy a little further, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on matzo makes as much sense culinarily and historically as a haroset sandwich on matzoh.
This year, apple, honey, and walnut haroset in New York, next year peanut butter and jelly haroset in Jerusalem.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 2, 2007 at 6:00 AM
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
The peanut butter and jelly sandwich easily deserves a place in the Perfect Food Pantheon, alongside pizza, barbecue, and cheeseburgers. After all, it has everything we want and need in a food: It's creamy, sweet, smooth, or crunchy. It's fruity, satisfying, filling, relatively inexpensive, and pretty good for you to boot.
But when you decide to get the fixin's for a PBJ sandwich, the choices you're confronted by can be vexing, even bewildering. And here at Serious Eats we try to simplify your food life, so we decided to test peanut butters to honor all the PBJs that have sacrificed their lives in order for us to enjoy total PBJ freedom on National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.
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Posted by Lia Bulaong, January 29, 2007 at 12:45 PM
If just thinking about a cinnamon roll makes your mouth water, perhaps you should consider buying yourself this lovely cinnamon roll necklace from Pancake Meow, purveyor of scented miniature dessert jewelry. (Her cupcake and donut necklaces are equally adorable but currently out of stock, as is the waffle necklace I've got on right now.)
