A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that E from Foodaphilia had teamed up with Nick the Peanut Butter Boy and Kristina from The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery to create the first ever Peanut Butter Exhibition. They asked their readers to put on their thinking caps and send in recipes and pictures of the best of their peanut butter baked goods. They had 16 entries and while all the recipes sound delicious, they managed to determine winners for the first, second and third places. However, there are no losers, as how can you lose when you have a pile of peanut butter confections at the end of the day?

The three top recipes are, HolyCrapTheseAreAmazing Cookies by Susan from Susan at Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy, Peanut Butter Cookies Loaded for Bear from Ferdzy at Seasonal Ontario Food and Exotic Spiced Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies from Dee at Choos & Chews. A complete list of recipe names and links (brazenly stolen from Foodaphilia)is after the jump.

Are you a peanut butter lover? Can't get enough of desserts infused with that nutty, creamy flavor? Well then, I have an event for you. E at Foodaphilia has teamed up with The Peanut Butter Boy and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery to bring you The Great Peanut Butter Exhibition.

Everyone is invited to submit their favorite peanut butter recipe. Entries will be judged based on Uniqueness, Peanut Butter Weight, Drool Factor and Preparation Time. The contest is open until April 28th at noon. One entry per person, please. All recipes must be originals, so start your ovens! For the rest of the entry rules and information, head over to Foodaphilia for the details.

Some foods practically tell you when to throw them out - they stink, they are covered in mold, or they change colors. This is not the case with peanut butter.

Peanut butter seldom molds because despite feeling wet and greasy, it is actually extremely dry. Peanut butter separates, but that just means it's time to shake it up.

Your peanut butter can, however, become rancid after 9-12 months of sitting around. Among many other facts, Live Science tells us that rancid peanut butter actually won't hurt you if you eat it. It just tastes bad.

In short, if your peanut butter tastes bad, dump it. Otherwise, you can worry about your strange taste buds but you don't need to worry about getting sick.

We once had a jar of peanut butter for over 5 years. We didn't eat from it, but we coated our dog's medicine with it so that he would eat it. Scruffles didn't have any problem with the taste.

What's the longest you've had a jar of peanut butter?

I grew up with health food store peanut butter. The kind that is essentially just ground peanuts and a little salt, where the oil rises to the top and either has to be stirred in or poured off before you can make a sandwich. I was always envious of my friends who had jars of Skippy or Jif in their cabinets (our peanut butter had to be stored in the fridge so that it didn't go bad). These days I now prefer the peanut butter I grew up with, loving the flavor of the nuts and salt without any added sugar or fats.

The folks over at AOL Food threw themselves on sword of bad food and tasted 35 different jars of peanut butter in order to find the very best of the best. Their winner was Whole Foods 365 Brand Crunchy Peanut Butter. I'm not a huge fan of crunchy peanut butter typically, but hearing that a collection of reliable foodies determined that it was the best of the bunch makes me curious to give it a shot.

Okay folks, what do you think? Did the AOL Food testers get it right? What's your favorite peanut butter?

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I am a football fan.

However, I have to admit that at least one third of my interest in football is not about the game. Sure, I can follow the game, thanks to four years on the high school cheerleading squad (please, spare me all the comments about cheerleaders -- I already hate myself enough about it). I most certainly appreciate the athletics of the sport, and love giving all my love and adoration to Peyton Manning a team, but I think one of the reasons why I love football so much is the lifestyle around football. I'm not talking Friday Night Lights lifestyle (well, maybe I am a little). Like Paula Deen, I love the food and parties and the Super Bowl, for me, is like, Thanksgiving.

Now I know that buckeyes have everything to do with Ohio and pretty much nothing to do with New England, New York, or even Phoenix, where the Super Bowl is taking place, but for me, they are a peanut buttery, chocolate-y representation of football. I didn't post about it much here at the beginning of January, but I went to New Orleans to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes and the LSU Tigers play in the Championship Game for college football. So for now, let's just say that tiny peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate are a great sweet snack to serve your guests during a football party.

Even with all the media surrounding peanut allergies in kids, peanut butter still remains tops when it comes to sandwiches. Newsday put the eternal question to the test with 11 kids and got the answer to "What is the best peanut butter?" They tested 16 brands of peanut butter including store brands like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and also controlled for crunchy and creamy preferences by testing them separately.

So who won out? As much as parents would love to have kids prefer natural peanut butters, national brand Skippy took first place in both creamy and crunchy categories, followed closely by Peter Pan and then Jif. For the full results, and more information about peanut butter in general, check out the Newsday article.

I just had a conversation with a friend about Girl Scout cookies and somehow, the conversation went from the peanut butter sandwiche cookes called Do-Si-Dos to how much he likes peanut butter, and ended with the concluson that peanut butter cures hiccups. I didn't beieve him, but running back to my computer and doing some research, apparently, the gooey stuff does help to cure hiccups! Okay, so it's not scientifically proven, but according to several "how to" sites, swallowing a whole spoonful of peanut butter gets rid of the "hic!"

I haven't tried it (I rarely get hiccups), but the next time you do, definitely give it a try and let us know (of course, not if it's Peter Pan!).

ConAgra has now been dealing with their peanut butter problems, which extend back several years, for a few weeks, doing damage control and dealing with consumer complaints/concerns. Even after all that they've been through, the company has vowed that they will clean up the Georgia factory that produced the salmonella-contaminated spreads and will bring Peter Pan back, safely, to consumers.

But this begs the question of whether or not it is worth the effort on ConAgra's part to do so. The recall of tainted peanut butter stretches back to 2004 - is that long enough to have permanently shaken consumer confidence in the brand?

Peter Pan is the number three selling peanut butter brand in the US, after Skippy and Jif. Over the past four weeks, more than 400 people in 44 states reportedly became sick as a result of eating their peanut butter, although ConAgra itself has recorded over 1.4 million calls about the recall and from consumers who think that they might have become ill after eating it. The recall is estimated to cost $50-$60 million in the first four months of this year alone. Peter Pan brand peanut butter typically does about $150 million in annual sales.

The high fat and calorie content puts many people off of eating too much peanut butter as adults, while those same people, as children, might have gulped the stuff down by the spoonful or eaten sandwich after sandwich without a second thought. Peanut butter, depending on the brand, has about 200 calories and 17 grams of fat per 2 tablespoon serving. By contrast, Better 'n Peanut Butter has 100 calories and 2.5 grams of fat per 2 tablespoon serving. But because it has "peanut butter" in the name and has fewer calories, can it replace the real thing?

Better 'n Peanut Butter is a low fat, all-natural peanut spread. It is made primarily of peanuts (as de-fatted peanut flour and natural peanut butter), tapioca syrup, water, dehydrated cane juice, rice syrup and various thickeners and flavorings. It is thick and spreadable, like regular peanut butter, but has a sight elasticity about it that the "real" stuff would never have. Taste-wise, no one would mistake it for regular peanut butter because it is very sweet. That being said, however, it does have a good consistency and a nice texture. The flavor isn't bad, and it is peanutty, but it just doesn't have that savory stickiness that makes peanut butter so addictive. So, Better 'n Peanut Butter isn't likely to step into peanut butter's shoes any time soon, but it isn't a bad product by any means and is a great option for dieters/weight-watchers who can't have regular peanut butter very often.

It is sold at Trader Joe's and other supermarkets around the US.

Like so many other people, I nearly always have a couple of bananas laying around that are getting overly ripe. Sometimes I just stick them into the freezer for later use, but I often toss them into a loaf of banana bread. Banana bread is fast, easy and works great for both breakfasts and for snacking. The only drawback is that you can get tired of it after making the same loaf recipe several times in a row. It is easy to dress up a loaf by tossing in chocolate chips, nuts or raisins, but it's nice to have some more varied variations available, as well. In this month's Vegetarian Times magazine, I saw a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips that looked quick, easy and tasty. Not surprisingly, it lived up to my expectations. The bread is slightly heavy, but not too dense, and has a good balance of peanut butter and banana flavors. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet and cut back on the amount slightly. The bread is good plain and toasted, for breakfast, with tea or for dessert!

Here's some Sandwich Day content just for the kids. Jif, one of the most popular peanut butter manufacturers in the US, is holding their annual Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich contest. It challenges kids ages 6-12 to come up with an original peanut butter recipe that is creative, nutritionally balanced, attractive and easy to make. As a benchmark, last year's winner was a Peanutty Pretty Pita Purse made by a 7 year old girl named Shannon and included creamy peanut butter, a whole wheat pita, strawberry banana yogurt and fresh strawberries and bananas. The year before, a slightly more grown-up sounding Thai Peanut Butter Chicken Wrap was the winner. Win or lose, it's a fun way to get your child thinking about food and experimenting with appearances and flavors. If you win, however, the grand prize is a $25,000 scholarship fund and four runners-up get $2,500 scholarships.

The deadline for submission, which must be done by a parent or legal guardian, is November 15, 2006.

Back-to-school season means that more kids will be packing sandwiches with them on a daily basis and, more often than not, the sandwich of choice is peanut butter and jelly. Between nut allergies and simply growing bored with the same old sandwich, non-peanut butters are growing in popularity - which also means that they are more widely available than ever before. A few years ago, almond butter was relegated to health food stores, and now it appears on the regular shelf with cashew butter, soy butters and sunflower seed butter, which is completely nut-free for those with allergies.

These non-peanut butters can be substituted for peanut butter in more than just sandwiches. They make excellent cookies and work well in what would ordinarily be peanut flavored sauces and dressings. Most of the butters come in crunchy and smooth versions, as well.

Do you use non-peanut butters? If you can't find any at a store near your, you can try making your own cashew butter, but once you have a good source, you can branch out into other recipes. And don't forget to try them on toast or in pb&j!

Jif has a new product on the market called Jif Peanut Butter To Go. Are you familiar with those individual containers of applesauce? This is almost the exact same thing, but with creamy peanut butter instead of applesauce. The idea behind it is that the 2.25-oz cups can be tucked into lunch boxes, picnic baskets and the backseats of cars to make a convenient dip for veggies, pretzels or anything else that tastes good with peanut butter.

You might want to limit yourself to veggies, with these though, because although peanuts in general are very good for you, they're also high in fat and calories. Each container has 390 calories and 32 grams of fat - that's 50% of the recommended daily maximum! It's a good source of fiber and quite low in carbs, but that is still a hefty snack for such a little package.

Some kids want peanut butter on everything - and it's hard to blame them for loving the salty/sweet nut spread. But when Cyndee Emel's 7-year old son Russell wanted her to spread peanut butter on his hot dog, she refused to prepare the unusual combination. Instead, she turned to her town's online forum and made a half-joking plea for someone to produce peanut butter hot dogs so she wouldn't have to.

Local award-winning meat market owner J. LeRoy Palumbo Jr., of Palumbo's Meats of Du Bois, obliged and created a 25-pound batch with his staff. He admits that the completely expected the combination of beef and pork, spices, water and peanut butter to be horrible when the started out, but for the people trying them, it was love at first bite. The first and second batches sold out in hours and now, several weeks later, Palumbo is talking with peanut butter companies to perhaps market the product at a wider audience and the town (population 8,000) is talking about starting a peanut butter hot dog festival to get themselves on the map.

And Russell? He's thrilled with his hot dogs and a veritable hero among his first-grade classmates.

When you hear the phrase "peanut butter and jelly," chances are you think of a childhood snack or a tasty lunch, tucked away in a brown paper bag. The idea might not inspire the same mouthwatering temptation that it did when you were ten, but perhaps this updated version of the classic pair is enough to. Kuidaore used Thomas Keller's take on peanut butter and jelly as inspiration to put together these phenominal treats: grown up peanut butter cups with yuzu pate de fruit "jellies".

They may not be neatly spread between two slices of bread, but I know that I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose after finding either of these in my lunch.