In the first sixty two years of my life, I never tasted .....

[Stinky The Clown]

..... natural peanut butter. The kind with a bunch of cloying-appearing oil on top.

The kind that has only two ingredients: Peanuts and salt.

What was I thinking??????

That stuff is GOOOOOD!!!!!

[hippywife]

1. It's the best!

I either buy that or the house brand organic at Whole Foods. No sugar.

:hi:

[ginnyinWI]

17. Trader Joe's peanut butter is excellent, too! n/t

[hippywife]

18. I'm in the middle of the country

where there are no TJ's.

[ginnyinWI]

22. I have to drive 45 min. to get to mine here in the Milwaukee metro area.

Needless to say I only get there several times a year. Then I stock up! We go there for the cheap wine mostly, and the cats love their canned "Tuna for cats" cat food (really stinky so it must be good!). And there are a few other things, like the peanut butter and the ketchup--no HFCS and is it ever good! I'm hoping they will open more stores in the Midwest. I wouldn't shop there for everything--their produce isn't the best, for example.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. TJ's Tuna for Cats is what I call "kitty crack."

There is no other food offering to my cat that makes him anywhere near as animated.

Trader Joe's staples knock the ball out of the park for flavor, quality, and price. I'm with you on the produce -- I can find fresher elsewhere. There are a few things like mushrooms that I will buy there.

[ginnyinWI]

29. "kitty crack" !! lol--so true. n/t

[Why Syzygy]

30. Target superstores

sell Smucker's organic pure PB.

[Fire1]

32. hippy! No wonder you're making all that stuff from scratch!!

I suppose you'd be doing that anywhere, though, cause you obviously LOVE to cook!! lol!! I read your recipes all of the time and you just make my ass ache!!lol!! EVERYTHING just sounds SOOO GOOD!!! You keep cooking, baking and preserving and I'll keep reading!!

[hippywife]

33. I do love to cook and bake...

it's my creative outlet but I really do it so I don't have to eat chemically created and enhanced processed foods. Once I read The Omnivore's Dilemma and Fast Food Nation, that was it. I also enjoy that my husband tells everyone that nobody eats better than he does.

Thanx for the compliments and welcome to C&B, Fire1. Glad you enjoy the reading. :hi:

[Fire1]

36. Thank you, hippy! Got a question about your Sunday dinner.

Did you marinate that rib eye overnight or just before cooking? I'm going to try it tomorrow (Thurs.) with the asparagus! Imitation is the highest form of flattery, you know! lol!!

[hippywife]

37. I started marinating it that same morning.

That was plenty of time. Enjoy your dinner! :hi:

[Warpy]

2. I made the switch in the late 60s

and it wasn't a very easy one for somebody who really, really liked Skippy.

The difficulty was compounded by a switch to very no nonsense, dense whole grain bread.

Now commercially homogenized peanut butter gags me, even the formerly beloved Skippy.

Once you change over, you really can't go back.

[Vinca]

3. That's all we've eaten for years.

I bought some of the other stuff when I was working on recipes for a Pillsbury Bakeoff entry because you have to use certain brands and thought it was absolutely horrible.

[The empressof all]

4. My favorite treat!

I love the "Real" Peanut butter on toast with a squirt of Agave Syrup and a little unsweetened apple sauce or raisins on top. Sometimes I'll put some chopped apples on it and slide it under the broiler for a few minutes to "brulee" the top.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. Wait until you try

cashew butter - the real stuff.

And macadamia butter, too.

Totally yummy.............................

[Warpy]

7. One company used to make cashew-peanut-date butter

The flavor of the cashew butter was the dominant nut flavor and the chopped dates in it were just heavenly.

I haven't seen it for over a decade. I guess they stopped making it. It cost a fortune, but gawd, it was good stuff.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

10. Oh, doesn't that sound good!

The good stuff always disappears.

Imagine how much it would cost today, but, when you combine cashews and dates (I could even skip the peanuts), you've got an unbeatable combination.....................

[katkat]

35. mix

My local health food store has a whole bunch of different nut butters. I imagine you could just mix cashew and peanut butters together and add chopped dates. Or was it different than that?

[Mind_your_head]

6. I just tried it for the first time myself about a month ago

when I bought some Smucker's natural peanut butter. The family and I enjoyed it very much (although it's rather pricey). That prompted me to look up how to make your own homemade peanut butter and watch this video. It's really very easy to make it yourself it seems. I haven't tried it myself yet (we still have some of the Smuckers left, but I'm definitely gonna try making it myself).

How to make homemade peanut butter:
http://video.about.com/homecooking/Peanut-Butter.htm

[Warpy]

8. Check out your local hipster health food joint

Some of them have grinders in the store so you can make your own peanut butter on the spot.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. That's what we bought

Two ingredients. That's it.

There are other "natural" peanut butters in the soopermarket, but all have more than two ingredients.

[Mind_your_head]

11. You know, you got me thinking here....

you're right. The Smuckers PB only has/lists peanuts & salt as ingredients (i.e., no added oil). The video I posted above says to add oil.

I'm thinking that if you just process the peanuts & salt and then just let it "sit" for awhile....plenty of natural peanut oil will seperate out of the peanuts and then you can mix/process it back in to achieve a more creamy peanut butter without adding any extra oil? :shrug:

[hippywife]

13. I used to make my own

but decided it was easier to just buy it since I couldn't source the peanuts I was buying.

Also, it is pretty necessary to buy peanut oil. Your food processor is not sufficient enough to extract the oils the way industrial equipment is and the oil, even non-organic is quite pricey.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Better late than never. That's all I've been using for years..

And I pour the oil off to use for stirfrying. There's still enough oil left in there to keep the stuff usable.

It's become so popular here that the supermarkets here have housebrand natural PB, and stock natural almond and cashew butters, too. Smucker's started it, then Teddy's came out a little cheaper, now the stores have their own. Nobody I know of out here makes it from scratch, though.

King Kullen has the natural PB at around 2 bucks a jar. When they have Bon Maman preserves on sale I go there with a lot of money in hand to stock up.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Are the house brands also just the two ingredients?

Our Safeway carries maybe half a dozen brands, but only the Smucker's has just peanuts and salt on its ingredient list. All the others have various and sundry other stuff.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Around here I usually get King Kullen's, and that's...

just peanuts and salt. Trader Joe's is, too, but now the nearest one is two hours away. Been a while since the last time I got house brands from the other stores, but I seem to remember A&P/Waldbaum's and Pathmark have it, too.

Aside from Smucker's and Teddy's (which may be just a regional brand) none of the big national brands I've seen have the natural stuff-- they always add sugar and Crisco to stretch it. And keep the price down.

[TreasonousBastard]

38. If you have an A&P store around you...

like Pathmark, Super Fresh, Food Emporium, Food Basics... you might find the house brand Master Choice natural peanut butter. Bought a jar for about a buck less than Smucker's last night. Just peanuts and salt and very tasty.

(Got a jar of their Green Way organic raspberry jam on sale, too-- it's very nice. Very, very nice)

[woofless]

15. We get it from Costco.

Kirkland brand, contents: organic peanuts, sea salt.

Stored upside down on the shelf and voila!

[mtnester]

19. Sun butter

delish

[The empressof all]

20. Sunbutter is Of the Devil!

The first time I bought a jar...I opened it to take a taste. Pretty soon I was at it with the Tablespoon. That first jar lasted all of one day in my house. The second jar lasted maybe a few days but I really suffered with it in the house. Let's just say I spent far too much time thinking about that jar. Thank goodness it's not that easy to find and I tend to stay clear of the Peanut Butter section when I shop.

Jeeze...Why did you have to talk about the Fricken Sunbutter? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Oh man .....

.... I can relate to that sort of mind set.

[The empressof all]

24. They suck you in....

"SunButter® is nutritionally superior to peanut butter with 1/3 less saturated fat, 27% of your vitamin E in one serving, and has a much higher iron & fiber content. All of this extra nutrition is derived from the sunflower seeds which are also a great source of protein."

What they don't tell you is that it's twice as addictive as peanut butter and it won't kill you as fast so you'll be around more to buy more of it. It's an evil racket I tell ya!

Oh jeeze and don't even think about making cookies with them using agave syrup and oatmeal....Low glycemic my ass...(get's even bigger just thinking about it) :hide:

And BTW...The Creamy is really good but go for the Crunchy and carry a BIG spoon.

[Stinky The Clown]

27. We have the big jars of each. Sparkly likes the crunchy and I like the creamy.

But we share.

So its bad.

[HappyCynic]

44. Sunflower seed butter

I once found a jar of sunflower seed butter. It was quite tasty. I've also managed to find some peanut butter that was just peanuts. I don't often have nut butter in the house (probably because I only have bread about half the time) but I definitely prefer the minimal ingredient types.
One thing I did with peanut butter as a kid was to liberally spread some on a slice of bread, then throw it in the toaster oven until the bottom was nicely toasted and the peanut butter on top changed colour. It gave it a nice roasted peanut flavour. (Tip if you try this - wait a few minutes before taking a bite. Molten peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth is painful. I know this from experience.)

[mtnester]

45. It is right at home with the other Devil that gets in my house...Dill Pickle potato chips

:)

[hippywife]

26. We bought a jar of that

and loved it. Bought a second jar and loved it not so much. I guess we just thought the taste was a little tooooo... I dunno. :shrug:

[vademocrat]

23. It's great and here's something that makes it even better -

http://witmerproducts.com/pbutter.html

For those of us with arthritis or busy (or lazy). I bought mine on Amazon and it's so worth it.

Love the smucker's - I've tried making my own but like the consistency and taste of Smucker's better.

[housewolf]

28. I used to have a home peanut butter grinder

Probably 25 years ago, or so. Probaly made by Salton, if I remember right. I loved the freshly-ground peanut butter. Sometimes I'd set it out for parties along with crackers, chocolate wafers and candies, marshmallows, etc. - it was always a big hit. Don't know if anyone still makes them or not.

[Why Syzygy]

31. What was the occasion of

this loss of PB virginity?

[Stinky The Clown]

34. Sparkly brought home a jar of crunchy.

She just got sick of my little Skippy.

No skippy jokes.

[Tab]

39. The only PITA thing is mixing it up, otherwise...

Why would you go back to "Jif" or "Skippy"?

Actually any of those sugar-laden things I just can't eat. I like the "natural" ones, or the purest of the pure, even if you have to stir in the oil (I guess you could drain it, I've never done that). There's good-ole' Teddy's, but other ones now too.

Pure peanuts, and make mine crunchy.

[TreasonousBastard]

40. I always pour off most of the oil and use it for stirfry...

and other times when peanut oil is useful. The remaining stuff is easy enough to spread, and it's fewer fat calories in the PB&J sandwich.

A bottle of peanut oil costs a bundle, and I don't use that much of it, so this works out very well.

[Tab]

41. Not a bad idea

I don't do much stir-fry, but peanut oil is invaluable for french fries or other fried items, and it is pretty pricey, particularly in the quantity you need for fries.

I like it for its high smoke point. Small quantities, not a problem, but larger stuff - gets problematic.

[hippywife]

42. The Whole Foods Organic

is just salt and peanuts. Tastes really good, very spreadable with no oil floating on the top and the price, here at least, is very comparable to the Smuckers Natural at the local grocery chain.

[tigereye]

43. there used to be the greatest PB - Deaf Smith - used to get it at the co-op

in years past.

It was the crunchy kind, though. There is nothing like natural PB. Just wonderful.

[kestrel91316]

46. I just picked up a new jar of CHUNKY Laura Scudder's organic PB.

I dread stirring the oil in, but it's always worth the work.

I won't buy the organic PB with palm oil to stiffen it. I don't like the palm oil monoculture that is ruining rainforests, and have some idea in the back of my head about it not being healthy.

[tandot]

47. Costco sells its Kirkland organic peanut butter in a 2-pack

organic peanuts and salt are the only ingredients. Yummy :)

[we can do it]

48. I Love It! Sorry It Took You So Long

but aren't you glad you did? I am totally disappointed when I get the old greasy kind......

[blaze]

49. No need to stir!!!

At least not with the almond butter I buy.

I recently discovered that I can turn the jar for a day or two... just any time I walk by. Bottom up. Top up. Bottom up. Top up. It still requires a bit of stirring, but nothing like the chore it used to be. Then I pop it in the fridge and it doesn't separate again.

I buy MaraNatha brand and it's almonds only. Yummmm!!!!!