Barney Knew Whats Up

Back in the day Barney knew how to make a mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he even wrote a song about it. I'd like to take this post to to salute the purple dinosaur that gave PB&J a super duper awesome song that I still listen to today. Oh and you can watch a video for this song on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pRXGywEsdo

Enjoy!!!!!

Peanut Butter and Jelly

First you take the peanuts

And you crunch `em,

You crunch `em

First you take the peanuts

And you crunch `em,

You crunch `em

For your peanut, peanut butter

And jelly

Peanut, peanut butter
And jelly

Then you take the grapes

And you squish `em,

You squish `em

Then you take the grapes

And you squish `em,

You squish `em

For your peanut, peanut butter

And jelly

Peanut, peanut butter

And jelly

Then you take the bread

And you spread it,

You spread it

Then you take the bread

And you spread it,

You spread it

For your peanut, peanut butter

And jelly

Peanut, peanut butter

And jelly

Then you take your sandwich

And you eat it,

You eat it

Then you take your sandwich

And you eat it,

You eat it

`Cause its good, peanut butter

And jelly

Good, peanut butter

And jelly

First you take the peanuts

And you crunch `em,

Then you take the grapes

And you squish `em,

Then you take the bread

And you spread it,

Then you take your sandwich

And you eat it

`Cause its good, peanut butter

And jelly

Good, peanut butter

And jelly!

Salmonella ella ella ella

So, this whole salmonella scare is pretty....well...ummm..its pretty scary. Salmonella is becoming the new Paris Hilton. It just keeps on making the headlines and everyone just wishes it would go away. An article in Huliq News has dubbed 2009 as the year of the peanut butter recall. It does a good job in assessing the current p-butter state and I have posted it below.

http://www.huliq.com/3257/76406/peanut-butter-recall-2009-continues-escalate



Peanut Butter Recall 2009 Continues to Escalate

It's this year's e. coli scare, and it's not getting any better, but rather, it's getting worse. It now seems to have a name, the peanut butter recall of 2009.
Not that anything of this scale has happened in the peanut butter business before. It seemed to begin with the Peanut Corp. of America’s recall of 21 lots of peanut butter from their plant in Blakely, GA on January 13, 2009. Since then the company has expanded its recall to all peanut butter manufactured at the plant since July 1, 2008.
To be clear, this peanut butter does not go directly to consumers, rather it is distributed to other companies who include it in their own products. Such is the reason that Kellogg's recalled its own peanut butter products, crackers and cookies made with the peanut paste, on January 15, 2009.
Over the weekend, McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, TN, maker of Little Debbie products issued a voluntary recall of its peanut butter crackers because of possible contamination.
On Monday Kellogg's said the FDA has confirmed that salmonella was found in a single package of its peanut butter crackers.
Also Monday, Midwestern grocer Meijer Inc. said it was recalling two types of crackers and two varieties of ice cream because of the possibility of salmonella contamination. The latest to join peanut butter recall 2009 are Meijer brand Cheese and Peanut Butter and Toasty Peanut Butter sandwich crackers, and Peanut Butter and Jelly and Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.
Other recalls of late: Midwest supermarket chain Hy-Vee Inc. of West Des Moines, IA, Perry’s Ice Cream Co. of Akron, NY, the South Bend Chocolate Co. in Indiana and Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products.
At the same time, some companies, notably Russell Stover Candies Inc., maker of Russell Stover and Whitman’s as well as ConAgra Foods Inc., maker of Peter Pan peanut butter, both said they do not use ingredients from Peanut Corp.
The safest thing, however, if you don't want to be a statistic in the peanut butter recall of 2009: don't eat anything made with peanut butter.

United States of Peanut Butter

Where does peanut butter come from? This is a question that led me to do some detective work on the web, and my findings were a bit nutty. Get it, nutty cause peaNUT butter. Anyways, I learned that runner peanuts are the best peanuts preffered by U.S. farmers for the production of p-butter. These are grown in 3 states; Georgia, Alabama, and Florida and there are over 16,000 peanut farmers in the U.S. alone. Peanuts are not harvested until 120 to 160 days after planting!! Jeez, who knew it was such a long process? The peanuts are then taken to buying stations where they undergo extensive inspection by the Federal-State Inspection Service to determine the value and quality of the load. Then they are sold to the domestic market for about 31¢ a pound. Well, thats peanut butter in a nuttshell! I am so pun-ny today :p

Heavens to Betsy!

With all of this salmonella talk going around I began to become very nervous that I would have to give up my favorite peanut butter snack, REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUPS! I don't know what I would without those little chocolate cups of heaven. However, the Hersheys Company posted an anouncement on its website saying that, "The Hershey Company Does Not Purchase Peanut Butter,Peanuts or Peanut Products from Peanut Corporation of America. All Hershey and Reese's candies are safe to consume." Heavens to Betsty, what a relief!!! Time to go eat some Reeses, chao for now :)

PB and Justin!!

Howdy! My name is Justin and this my first blog post evaaaaa. I am just a normal teen who doubles as a SUPERSTAR, you get the best of both worlds. Lol. I'm just joking the real reason I have become a blogger is for the love of peanut butter. P-butter is a huge part of my life and it can stand under my salmonella ella ella ella ella e e e e any day. Thanks for reading, and you can look forward to much more peanut butter blogging in the future.

Cheers,

Justin