An Amishman in Indiana once explained (with a distinct air of gravity) that one thing which people who leave the Amish church always miss is the Sunday peanut spread. ~ Erik Wesner, Amish America
My husband and I took a Sunday drive this afternoon, to southern Vermont and the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts and now I’m too tired to write about the bike ride I had planned on doing. Instead, I was visiting other people’s blogs. I read Erik Wesner’s blog posting, “Amish Peanut Butter — Resistance is futile” and I couldn’t resist writing a response. I decided to post it here as well.
Yes, there are variations to the Amish peanut butter. In my home community, we used to mix peanut butter with maple syrup and marshmallow creme. The mix of things that went on bread on Sundays after church was different from what you described. I’ll give you the recipe for what we used to eat after church:
Take a slice of white bread
Spread it with the sweet peanut butter
Lay on a slice of bologna
Lay on a slice of cheese
Fork on a few slices of pickles (your choice — sweet or dill)
Fold the bread to make a half sandwich
Now you eat it.
You’re right, Erik, after sitting in a three-hour church service, one is ready to chew on an old leather shoe, as my mother used to say. The above sandwiches were somewhat better than that. I finally got smart and had a sandwich with butter, not the sweet peanut butter, and then I’d have another slice of bread with the sweet peanut butter spread. Now at least the tastes were separate.
That Amish man is way off the mark. I don’t think I’ve had Amish peanut butter since I left the Amish thirty years ago… it reminds me too much of those sandwiches, which is now enough to make me gag. And besides, if I really wanted to, I could mix myself some Amish peanut butter… There are other things I miss about Amish life, but that is not one of them.
Some people must miss it. One Sunday at our church for the once a month meal together, they decided to re-create a Amish Sunday meal since most of the church (yours truly and family being a major exception) used to be Amish. I can certainly think of food I would enjoy better, esp. than that icky sticky sweet p-nut butter. I prefer my peanut butter without added sugar, thank you.
I like Amish PB once in a great while as a treat, but I wouldn’t make it at home and wouldn’t integrate it into our daily diets. In Lancaster they call it “peanut butter jelly”. Wonder who else has variations on the name?
What a combo! Peanut butter and pickles and bologna and such. I think I could handle a few together but not everything at once.:) Perhaps this is why I’m not Amish? Have a great week!
Blessings,
Karen
Just reading this … well, I was ok with the peanut butter, and adding bologna and cheese raised my eyebrows, but I had to draw the line at pickles … Thanks for sharing this!
You are a wonderful writer, Saloma, and I love your blog. But, I don’t know about this sandwich. I tried to imagine all the flavors going together, but when I got to the pickles I sort of gagged. I think I’ll stick with the sweet peanut butter. :)
This brings to mind what we did years ago. Dat was a beekeeper. Sometimes we had a combination of honey and peanut butter, other times just corn syrup and peanut butter. I was certain it was to stretch peanut butter, as dat would often say when we were smearing our bread, “not so thick.”
In the church here they use Peanut butter, marshmellow creme and corn starch (I THINK…not sure it was a thick oil type thing not sure exactly I can’t remember ther name). I like it every once and a while too. Just too sweet for me. Normally I just put bread and pickles :-) The girls normally put PB, cheese sauce, pickles and sometimes butter. Normally I have bread with pickles :D Yumm! haha. Either way I’m not a huge fan of the homeade PB either.
I have a son who used to put peanut butter on hot dogs. It was pretty good actually. I can see peanut butter with balogna, or maybe with cheese…but not both. And PICKLES??? That just seems horrible. Especially with all the sweet stuff in the peanut butter.
I must confess that I love peanut butter in my beef stew when I make it with a tomato base. Yum.
Have a good day, Saloma. I so enjoy reading your blog.