Tuesday, October 11, 2011


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.

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