Getting a little nutty with peanut butter

A quite unscientific survey of elementary school students I know showed that peanut butter still ranks No. 1 in lunchboxes.

That's no surprise to anyone, I'm sure.

According to the American Peanut Council, half of all the peanuts produced - 3.7 trillion pounds in 2007 - were turned into peanut butter. That accounts for some $850 million in retail sales.

At my house we go through a lot of peanut butter - partly because my second grader eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost exclusively for lunch, and partly because I've been finding other uses for the popular spread.

The hypothesis I'm working on goes like this: if Henry loves peanut butter so much with jelly, he'll like it in other combinations. He's proven my theory wrong more times than he's proven it right, but I'm not giving up yet!

Seems I have that experimentation streak in common with Associated Press Food Editor J.M. Hirsch. Also the father of a school-aged son, Hirsch has tweaked the tried-and-true peanut butter and jelly sandwich, coming up with a French toast version - think warm, melty peanut butter and sweet jam in a cinnamon-infused egg bath - and a "truffle" of sorts.

"These (truffles) are seriously delicious, even if the process of making them seems pretty strange," he explains. "All I did was make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on whole-wheat bread, then run them through the food processor until they formed a thick dough. I then rolled tablespoon-sized chunks of it into balls and coated some with crushed peanuts, others with powdered sugar."

He suggests trying alternative coatings like crushed almonds or pistachios or finely chopped dried fruit. The oil in the peanut butter and the moisture in the jam means any powdery coating (such as powdered sugar or cocoa powder) will moisten over time.

Other riffs on peanut butter and jelly include parfaits - blend peanut butter into plain yogurt, layer with fresh fruit and drizzle with thinned fruit jam - and a pie that mixes peanut butter, vanilla pudding and evaporated milk into a cool dessert.

Peanut butter, however, doesn't always need its fruity partner. Peanut butter goes solo in some fantastic, protein-rich snack bars and takes the lead in a thick marinade for pork tenderloin.

"Most of us suffer from a lack of imagination when it comes to doing anything special with peanut butter," write Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough in "The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book" (2005, William Morrow).

Weinstein and Scarbrough take peanut butter into sauces and snacks, cakes and breads, stews and sautes, frosting and frozen drinks, so if you need more inspiration beyond this story, they've got hundreds of ideas.