"peanut butter and jelly sandwich" news and stories

As I mentioned yesterday, we're launching a partnership with YumSugar. Each Thursday, I'll be rounding up some of the best of their offerings from the previous week, for your consumption.

• Have you ever gone out to Chinese food and watched with envy as one of your dinner companions folds their chopsticks wrapper into a function stick rest? Finally, learn how to make one yourself!
• Looking for a way to jazz up a plain old peanut butter and jelly sandwich? How about using waffles in place of the bread!
• We've all heard that eating local is the way to go. However, does it really make a difference in the carbon impact of your food?
• Make a big salad out of bitter lettuces, roasted butternut squash and pomegranate seeds as a celebration of Fall's arrival.
• You may have heard that Hershey's has changed their chocolate formula. Over the weekend, the YumSugar team held a Nestle's Crunch verses Hershey's Krackel smackdown to check out the change in flavor.
• Inquiring minds wants to know. Do you prefer Cup Noodles or Top Ramen?
• For the burgeoning young chefs in your life, you can now get them Celebrity Chef Barbie.

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Not to be confused with National Peanut Butter Day, which was in January, this is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.

I've already asked in that link above how you make your peanut butter and jelly sandwich, so how about we check out some variations on the classic pb & j? Here's a Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly from Disney Family, and here's one for Ignacio's Super Peanut Butter and Jelly, which is made with three slices of bread.

And how about a Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly from Recipezaar?

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!

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The crust of the bread is the best part as far as we are concerned, but for some reason, there are a lot of kids who don't like crust on their bread. Is it the taste, the color or is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich just more fun without a crust? While philosophers ponder the question, you'll probably be cutting the crust of the sandwiches for your kids or for yourself, since there are plenty of adults who like to eat their sandwiches in this slightly nostalgic way.

Put down that knife and check out the Crust Cutter. The stainless steel cutter measures 4"x4" and is designed to remove all crusts with one swift motion. It also folds flat, for easy storage. The only downside is that once you've made it easy to remove the crust from the bread, you might never get Junior to actually give them a try. At least he'll be able to cut the crusts of his own sandwiches. Price: $3.95.

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When I was little and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day to take in my lunch, I hated it when peanut butter would get in to the jar with the jam, or vice versa. I also didn't want to have to wipe off or wash the knife halfway through making my sandwich because it seemed inefficient and, to maximize my sleeping time, I wanted a fast sandwich. As a result, I tried to use the exact amount of peanut butter or jelly, so as to have none left on the knife. At 8 years old, I thought this seemed pretty clever, but  having one of these dual-sided peanut butter and jelly spreaders would have solved my problems completely. The color-coded sides enable you to dip to your heart's content without mixing the contents of the jars. They're $11.99 and, to justify the expense on the silicone kitchen tool, you can use them for anything from buttering toast to spreading frosting on cupcakes.

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