La versión español está después de la versión inglés.
I GAVE SAN GERALDO A little lesson in cooking yesterday. Frightening, I know. Thursday, he didn’t feel like baking and I was in the mood for a pastry of some sort. So, he bought a packaged chocolate “brownie” at El Corté Ingles. It’s what we would have called a pound cake in the United States. It looks like a loaf of bread. This one was a bit dried out. What a disappointment.
Friday morning after breakfast, San Geraldo asked if I wanted another slice of the dried-out cake and I said, “Sure, I’ll put some butter on it and will microwave it. Better yet, I’ll use peanut butter.” San Geraldo made a face.
I said, “You know, you always claim to hate peanut butter, but the first time we went to Colonial Williamsburg [36 years ago] and we went to the King’s Arms Tavern, our first course was peanut soup. And you loved it. AND it tasted just like peanut butter.”
“Well, peanut soup doesn’t have butter in it.” he declared.
Huh? “Well, neither does peanut butter. It’s made with peanut oil.”
But then I wondered, “Your problem with peanut butter was that you thought it had butter in it? When did you stop liking butter?!?”
After all that, we realized the real reason he says he doesn’t like peanut butter is because his father always “contaminated” the jam jar with his peanut butter knife. That wouldn’t make me dislike peanut butter. It would just piss me off.
.
LE DI A SAN GERALDO una pequeña lección de cocina ayer. Atemorizante, lo sé. El jueves, SG no tenía ganas de hornear y yo estaba de humor para un postre. Entonces, compró un brownie de chocolate empaquetado en El Corté Inglés. Realmente no era un brownie, es lo que habríamos llamado un “pound cake” en los Estados Unidos. Parece una barra de pan. Este estaba un poco seco. Que decepcion.
Entonces, el viernes por la mañana después del desayuno, San Geraldo me preguntó si quería otra porción del pastel seco y le dije: “Claro, le pondré un poco de mantequilla y la pondré en el microondas. Mejor aún, usaré mantequilla de cacahuetes”. San Geraldo hizo una mueca.
Le dije: “Sabes, siempre dices que odias la mantequilla de maní, pero la primera vez que fuimos a Colonial Williamsburg [hace 36 años] y fuimos a King’s Arms Tavern (Taberna de Armas del Rey), nuestro primer plato fue la sopa de cacahuetes. Y te encantó. Y sabía a mantequilla de cacahuetes”.
“Bueno, la sopa de cacahuetes no tiene mantequilla”, él declaró.
¿Qué? “Bueno, tampoco la mantequilla de cacahuetes. Está hecho con aceite de cacahuetes.”
Pero luego me pregunté: “¿Tu problema con la mantequilla de cacahuetes fue que pensaste que tenía mantequilla? ¿Cuándo dejaste de gustarme la mantequilla?”
Después de todo eso, nos dimos cuenta de que la verdadera razón por la que dice que no le gusta la mantequilla de cacahuetes es porque su padre siempre “contaminó” el frasco de mermelada con su cuchillo de mantequilla de cacahuetes. Eso no me haría disgustar la mantequilla de maní. Simplemente me cabrearía.
With Alice, SG’s mother, around 1985 in Colonial Williamsburg. She liked the peanut soup, and she never contaminated the jam.
Con Alice, la madre de SG, alrededor de 1985 en Colonial Williamsburg. A ella le gustó la sopa de cacahuetes, y ella nunca contaminó la mermelada.
I have found that peanut butter is good on almost everything! Dry or not, this ‘brownie’ looks pretty good.
You and your MIL must have liked each other…….you both look comfortable with each other. She looks like a sweetheart.
And ‘Mr.Legs’ isn’t bad either!!
Jim:
The brownie was nothing like a brownie. Just basically dry cake. But the flavor wasn’t bad. Alice and I ADORED each other. I miss her every day.
I love SG!
I mean, why wouldn’t you think there was butter in it?
Bob:
But how is it I knew there wasn’t butter in it? Have we entered an alternate universe?
good peanut butter should be 95% crushed peanuts, 5% cane juice and salt. at least mine is.
been to the king’s arms; peanut soup IS dee-lish!
anne marie:
Cane juice. I had no idea. Although, I love peanut butter, I wasn’t a fan of the peanut soup and I don’t like peanut butter shakes. Maybe we were at the King’s Arms at the same time! What a great experience.
Never been a fan of peanut butter…it’s just O-K, once a year or two. I think the aroma is just too overpowering. I’ll eat peanuts once in while also, but won’t go out of my way for them. So those decadent restaurant/cafe deserts are still on hold?
Frank:
We do need to get over our anxiety about sharing public spaces. It looks like this is going to be a long haul. (And I need some of Mesón Salvador’s cheesecake… at a minimum.)
Most food prejudices have strange and complex roots. Contaminating the jam would be enough to trigger that. We can overcome that one.
David:
SG also loathes coconut. I wonder what the root of that is.
I agree with SG about jam – It is downright uncouth to contaminate jam with butter, peanut butter, or crumbs.
I was desperate for a treat the other day. I microwaved stale rice cakes that I had smeared with crunchy peanut butter and decorated with chocolate chips. The rice cakes came out crispy with a wonderfully gooey mess on top. Not bad.
Wilma:
I also agree. I also hated it when SG would leave HIS crumbs on the butter! That stale rice cake solution sounds like a great idea. I’ll have to try that!
I LOVE peanut butter. I eat it almost daily — when I’m home for lunch, anyway. I bet it was good on that chocolate “brownie”!
Steve:
The peanut butter definitely improved the stale brownie. I have dark-chocolate–topped rice cakes that I really enjoy topped with peanut butter (and sometimes jam).
Jam contamination should be a capital offence.
Debra:
I absolutely agree!
peanut butter and jelly, I agree should not mix one with the other when spreading, best to use separate spoons. Oh well, such life traumas, who knew.
larrymuffin:
I use a butter knife for the peanut butter and a spoon for the jelly/jam/marmalade. No contamination when I’m cooking.
Make a toasted cheese sandwich only with peanut butter. Buttered and toasted very tasty.
parsnip
Parsnip:
An old friend of mine suggested that when I was at university. I didn’t like it. I should try it again. Maybe my tastes haves changed. I was also told to try peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. Nope, hated that.