Columnist's saga is crunchy and creamy

The Peanut Butter Saga.

That’s what my girlfriend, Rebecca Ricks, named a recent and ongoing experience at our home.

Those friends of Rebecca on Facebook who saw the post about the saga might wonder about the plethora of peanut butter. After all, the whole thing started when I noticed we had four jars of peanut butter in a household where we each might have a peanut butter sandwich once or twice a year.

And that’s not to mention the fifth jar I found after the saga was well under way or the other jar I found that had passed its expiration date and did not include in the count with the original group.

So what was with all that peanut butter in the first place?

Well, it goes back to our annual camping trips.

Every year, for maybe the past 10 years, Rebecca and I have gone on a camping trip to Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky. For one or two nights, depending on our disposition and time, we camp overnight at the lakes where I get my fishing fix.

Naturally, when preparing for this trip, we pack food that will keep with limited or no refrigeration. And, yes, peanut butter is one of those foods. Having a loaf of bread and some peanut butter makes for a quick lunch.

Now this doesn’t mean we always get through what we pack. Sometimes we pack food that barely gets touched.

That was probably the case with the peanut butter from one of last year’s trips. Then, when Rebecca was at the grocery store stocking up for this year’s trip she couldn’t remember if we had any peanut butter at home and decided to buy more.

It doesn’t help that I like crunchy and she likes smooth, so she almost always buys both types.

But peanut butter has a pretty good shelf life.

After this year’s trip, during which we didn’t even open the newly-bought peanut butter, I found the other two jars of peanut butter that were still good and one that had expired.

After I pitched the expired one, I put the others on the stovetop as a reminder that we needed to go through those, thinking we had lots of sandwiches in our futures. Rebecca suggested she could make some peanut butter cookies.

It was a desperate decision, but I was willing to do my best to help the cause by agreeing to consume said cookies.

So that’s how it began.

A couple batches at the beginning of the week. Then another couple batches this past Saturday morning.

Some found their way to friends. Others went to guests at Rebecca’s shop during Second Saturday in downtown Elizabethtown.

At one point, between those two baking sessions, I was getting dinner started and looking through a cabinet when I found yet another jar of peanut butter. This one had expired a year earlier and had to be pitched.

Rebecca made another batch of peanut butter cookies Sunday night.

They’re almost gone.

She also decided to experiment with a sort of peanut butter pie, mixing the peanut butter with cream cheese and marshmallow cream and putting it in a chocolate pie shell.

Hmmm.

The Peanut Butter Saga continues.

And I’m just the guy to help the cause.

Robert Villanueva can be reached at (270) 505-1743 or rvillanueva@thenewsenerprise.com.