PEANUT BUTTER SOUP

1 c. cruncy [sic] peanut butter

2 1/2 c. milk

1/2 t. salt

In medium size saucepan combine peanut butter and 1/2 cup milk. Simmer over low heat; gradually add remaining milk; stir constantly. Add salt, simmer; stir frequently for 10 min. or til hot. Garnish with any of the following: chopped onion, chopped green pepper, or crumbled bacon. 3 1/2 cups. 

 

My great aunt Velma passed away recently. Among her possessions were many amazing cookbooks of the mid-20th century, including It's Easy to be a Gourmet with Peanuts. 

Now, I love peanut butter as much as the next person (unless, of course, the next person happens to be George Washington Carver).* I have been known to mix it with plain yogurt for breakfast, eat it on carrots, and chomp on it by the spoonful. But even I have my limits.

And my limit is this:

Chickabiddy Deviled Eggs

6 hard cooked eggs 

3 T. mayonnaise

 1/4 c. crunchy peanut butter 

1 1/2 T. minced onion 

12 large stuffed olives

 parsley sprigs 

 French dressing

 salted peanuts  

1 1/2 T. minced parsley

Simmer eggs 20 min.; remove shells and cut in half lengthwise. Remove yolks, mash, and mix thoroughly with mayonnaise, peanut butter, onion and parsley. Fill egg whites. MAKE CHICK'S HEAD: Cut ends from a stuffed olive, leaving 3/8" center section with both bright 'eyes' showing. Spear round side of olive with half a toothpick and run other end of pick into egg filling at egg's rounded end, with olive slice upright. Chick's topknot and bill are pimento bits from end pieces of olive. Tuck in parsley sprig for tail. Serve chicks on a bed of chopped lettuce, with French dressing starred with peanut halves.

What? What even is this? I will not make a chick's head. Further, I will not chop olives into eyes! Moreover, peanut butter and eggs? I will take more convincing, Oklahoma Peanut Commission.

*True story: I have a portrait of George Washington Carver hanging up in my room. It's amazing. He is doing something horticulturally to a flower and he's older and he's just so happy! I go and visit him in the National Portrait Gallery if I'm feeling down. Never fails.

I love the headlines from the Navajo message board I sometimes visit. They are basically always the best. What follows is a sampling.


From Denver Westwood News:

New DIA artwork hasn't inspired any conspiracy theories yet

It's what's aboveground at DIA that's new. The scaffolding that had obscured the former site of "Mountain Mirage" — the piece of public art that was supposed to shoot water in a silhouette of theRocky Mountains but instead dripped down into the train equipment below, earning the piece the nickname "Wilma's Wet Spot," in honor of then-First Lady Wilma Webb, who was heading Denver's arts commission – has been removed, revealing a new piece of public art. One guaranteed not to leak. 

[...]  

And so far, no one has suggested that the new work holds a secret message about the New World Order — as conspiracy theorists have for the Leo Tanguma mural "Children of the World Dream Peace," which is just around the corner.

And DIA can't sweep that rumor under a fake Navajo rug. 

 From the ABQ Journal:

Eerie Sound Haunts Crownpoint

“It starts out as a low, raspy growl and ends up like a big man yelling,” said Natalie Murphy, who heard the sound shortly after midnight on the night after Labor Day as she was visiting her hometown from Denver. “It sounds like something in pain. There’s something human about it, but not quite.” 

“There’s a lot of strange things that go on around here, over and above the usual kids causing trouble,” the employee told the paper. “We’re kind of used to it.”
Navajo Nation Police Sgt. Tommy Rogers of the Crownpoint District said he’d heard enough complaints about the eerie howl that he tried to get to the bottom of it Sunday night, the Times said. 

“I had several officers assigned to stay up all night, listen for the noise and try to find whatever is causing it,” Rogers told the paper. “They didn’t hear anything except dogs.” 

Rogers said he has never heard the sound and is not planning to devote any more time to investigating it, the Times said. 

“As far as we’re concerned, the complaint is unfounded,” Rogers said.