Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."

When we think of peanuts, we think Virginia, ballgames and a top hat-wearing, cane-holding, monocled mascot. However, peanuts are also a staple in West African cooking and used prominently in many dishes. One such typical meal is a hearty stew made with tomatoes, sweet potatoes and peanuts.

This vegetarian version of the soup relies on the saltiness and creaminess of peanut butter -- the pantry staple and venerated American spread that is an often unsung hero in meals that don't include jelly or two slices of bread.

Presenting a new (and more acceptable) way to eat peanut butter by the spoonful.

Find the Peanut Stew recipe after the jump.

Why buy a jar of processed peanut butter when you can easily make it at home?

Yesterday, the University of Pennsylvania announce that, in light of the threat of salmonella-tainted peanuts, they are all peanut butter and related products from the schools' dining halls, cafes and vending machines. In place of the products, there are signs stating why the staple is missing. School officials aren't saying when peanut butter will return to campus, but they're in conversations with suppliers to determine that date.

Thing is, they've even pulled peanut butter that has shown no sign of being contaminated, stating that:

Because the investigation is ongoing and the list of suspected items from the FDA keeps expanding, we have taken a conservative, proactive stance.

What do you think? Positive and proactive, or inflammatory and fearful?

My mom called me yesterday just to report on the status of her favorite brand of peanut butter. She is devoted to Adams Natural Peanut Butter (she's a fan of the 26 ounce size, as once it's empty, the jar is a really useful size/shape) and eats it on toast for breakfast nearly every day. Thankfully, Adams has been found to uncontaminated (they're running a large announcement on the front page of their website to calm consumers) and so her morning routine is uninterrupted.

However, according to the New York Times, peanut butter sales are down 25% across the board, even in brands that have been shown to be salmonella-free. Over the weekend, Jif placed ads in newspapers throughout the country, stating that their product is safe and offered consumers a $.35 off coupon in the hopes that sales will rebound. Peter Pan Peanut Butter has plans to run a similar announcement next weekend, along with a $.50 off coupon.

How are you feeling about peanut butter consumption these days? Are you taking a break from the lunchtime staple or continuing to eat it (after checking to ensure your favorite brand was safe)?

The good folks at Chattanooga Bakery have seen fit to re-release their previously discontinued peanut butter permutation of the traditional choco-coated cookie, and not a darned second too soon. I'm here to tell ya, this li'l fella is some seriously good -- if nigh on violently sugary -- eating. With a crunchy, fudgy cookie as the foundation, a hearty slathering of extra-sweet peanut butter in lieu of the standard marshmallow and a silky chocolate coating, the confection bears an astonishing texture and flavor resemblance to the perennial Girl Scout vended fave, Tagalongs®, a.k.a. Peanut Butter Patties®. Served frozen, per a suggestion on the box, it's simply a revelation.

The upside is that unlike the GSA confection, Moon Pies can be acquired year-round. The downer for those trapped north of the Mason-Dixon is that they're not especially easy to come across in stores. $17.99, plus $8.95 (give or take) shipping will net you 48 pies, but I'd daresay it's worth the investment at least once. Tell ya what -- if you don't like 'em, next time I see you, I'll spring for your R.C.

Buy Moon Pies online.

Peanut butter has always been a staple food in my life. As a kid, a piece of whole wheat toast, smeared with a dollop of peanut butter and topped with jam was a regular breakfast. I often had a pb and honey sandwich in my lunchbox (my mom was a fan of heaping on the peanut butter, making sandwiches so thick that they made lunch time conversations impossible) and it wasn't uncommon to have an afternoon snack of sliced apple or celery sticks with a tiny dish of peanut butter for dipping.

These days, I always have a jar of peanut butter in the fridge, with a back-up in the cupboard (it is a sad day when I discover that I've forgotten to replace my secondary jar). Like my mother before me, I only buy the natural peanut butter and the one problem with this style of butter is that the oil separates out. I always pour the majority of the oil off and then stir the remaining oil back into the peanut butter. However, this tactic means that the last inch of peanut butter is often dry and nearly impossible to spread, as I never to a great job of getting the oil all the way to the bottom.

One way to handle the separation is to store the unopened jar upside down so that when you open it up, the oil is dispersed a bit better. However, since I do like to pour some of the oil off, that technique doesn't work well for me. However, thanks to CNET's Appliances and Kitchen Gadgets blog, I've learned that there's a gizmo (with the fabulous name Grandpa Witmer's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer) you can buy to help you stir your peanut butter. I know that this isn't tool for everyone, but for those of us who love our natural peanut butter, this one could be a lifesaver. You screw it on to the top of your jar, turn the knob and the stirring wand does the rest. Sign me up!

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.