Well, here’s an obvious.  White bread, grape jelly, peanut butter.  An American institution.  And it is just that.

When I first met my husband (a Brit) he was surprised and intrigued and ultimately sold on the PB&J formula.  I explained the variables of crust versus no crust, and smooth versus crunchy.  I have even been known to walk on the wild side by using jalepeno jelly…………it was alarming & surprisingly tasty.

My husband brought his country’s epicurean-delight across the ocean with him when he came to the States—(Colonies)………………….Marmite…………………….I don’t really have anything else to say on that subject.

But there is so much more fun and ingenious uses of that old staple—–peanut butter.

Although I haven’t tried it yet, I’ve heard that it’s good for other things too.  Apparently it’s good for fixing skipping CD’s————I would assume not the crunchy kind of peanut butter would be used for this.  Maybe I’ve got that wrong.

It does remove chewing gum from your hair.  That one I remember………….

I remember my Mom being really incensed.  She would alternate using peanut butter and then ice cubes to remove (rip-out with glee & abandon) the bubble gum in my hair.  (Remember when Bazooka Bubble Gum would stick to your face—–or anything—–when it popped?)  Now even our bubble gum is politically correct………………….

Or was it tar from a wood surface?  Obviously I need to brush up on the more creative-uses of peanut butter.  I do know that peanut hay is really high in protein and helps to keep a dairy goat in milk and keeps the milk tasting sweet.

But, much like our entertainment of sneaking up on distracted armadillos in the rain, here’s another fun little pass-time.  And, it’s a win-win situation.

You see we have seven Wolfhounds as part of our family in our home.  And sometimes, especially on rainy afternoons when they can’t go outside, everyone gets a bit cloying and much like a child—–you have to find entertainment for them.

Enter that wonderful staple of the American diet once again.  Peanut Butter!!!

So here’s what we do to entertain the “children” and us at the same time.

Take a finger-full of peanut butter out of the jar.  Grab a Wolfhound by the chin whiskers.  Swipe the peanut butter on the roof of said-Wolfhound’s mouth (making sure that the peanut butter is smeared thoroughly into the ridges that are up there).  Voila!  Entertainment for you.  A distraction and a snack for them.

You do need to follow-up with the remaining hounds quickly so things don’t head south because of un-peanut-buttered Wolfhounds getting jealous.  *****And yes, I try to remember to change fingers between Wolfhound mouths and the peanut butter jar*****  Or at least that’s what I tell my family.

So try to picture this…………………..a gaggle of Wolfhounds licking, lapping, sucking peanut butter out of the crevices on the roofs of their mouths!  It really is entertaining.  Sometimes I act as the resident-bookie and we bet on who guesses the closest to the number of licks it will take for an individual hound to finish removing all of the peanut butter.

Another variation of the same game, is using an iced-tea spoon to push peanut butter way up inside the holes of those big, bleached cow leg bones  you can buy in a pet store.  This game is not quite as successful though because every hound wants the other hound’s bone (the-grass-is-always-greener-kind of thing) and if you’re not really careful a hound-brawl can ensue.

We used to cover the animal’s medications with  peanut butter so that they would swallow them.  That doesn’t work so much any more.  Now it’s a more manual application.  Again, I grab their chin whiskers as a handle and unceremoniously stuff whatever necessary capsules down their gullets………….not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Peanut butter comes to the rescue too when trying to clean the pancaked, permanent carcasses of Lovebugs off of your windshield (smear some on over the deadness & let it set for ten minutes before hosing it off).  Now for those of you who live somewhere where you have never encountered Lovebugs before………….count your blessings.  They splatter and stick to everything———twice per year!  From what I’ve heard they were the possible result of a bug experiment that ran amok at the University of Florida……………………things like that don’t ever happen, do they?  I’ve heard “they” are experimenting with sterilized mosquitoes now…………………Boggles the mind doesn’t it?…………………………they would need tiny, tiny scalpels for a surgery like that, wouldn’t they?

But I digress……………………….

****************************************

———————-Let us never forget the old-time, favorite and ever-famous Peanut Butter Cookie…………………….it will always & forever be that melt in your mouth deliciousness!