November is National Adoption Month and Peanut Butter Lovers' Month

So I am going to start a new thing (a way for me to keep at the blog EVERY DAY!!!)
Since today is October 31st, I will do that November is National Adoption Month and Peanut Butter Lovers Month.

National Adoption Month
Adoption is something that is very close to my heart for a couple of different reasons. First of all, my grandmother, Sibyl Henrietta Scott Heyen was adopted by the Scott family in August of 1926. I have done a couple of blogs on my searching for her family, but still haven't gotten very far with it.
Here is basically what I have. Her (supposed) parents are William Henry Jackson and Blanche Gertrude Shirley, they married August 1920 in Hennipin County, Mn, and then apparently William was abusive towards Blanche. Also we think Blanche may have had TB. Both children (Henrietta and her brother Robert) were born at the Glen Lake Sanitarium in Glen Lake, MN. Henrietta was born Henrietta Blanche Jackson on June 23, 1921, and Robert was born Robert Humphrey Jackson on July 22, 1922.
They were then given up in January of 1925 at the Owatonna School for Dependent Children, and then in 1926 adopted together into the Scott family. I have no clue of where their parents went or what happened to them after that, tho I have a few possible clues.
The second reason that adoption is so close to me, is that I can't have children, never could. My husband even left me after five years, because I couldn't. His loss. I have *adopted* (in the heart) a few children, that will always be close to my heart, and mean so much to me. Please IF POSSIBLE, adopt, it can mean so much to a child.

Peanut Butter Lovers Month
My favorite food in the whole wide world!!
There is SO much that can be done with peanut butter, but lets look at its history first.
First lets get rid of the myth that George Washington Carver invented peanut butter. Okay, now that we have that out of the way, lets go back in time a little over 2000 years, to around 950 BC. At that time the Incas were using the peanuts, and smooshing them into a paste like substance. The peanuts began to travel around, and eventually ended up in the New World in the Virginias and NC around the early 1800's. The first commercial crops were being planted by the 1830's and 1840's.
According to the Corn Products Company, Dr. Ambrose Straub of St. Louis patented a peanut butter-making machine in 1903 and some unknown doctor invented peanut butter in 1890. Is this for certain true? *shrug* who really knows?
Now we have all heard about this little company called Kelloggs. They do some cereals, granola bars, etc. Well Dr John Harvey Kellogg in 1895 put in for a patent for something called Process of Preparing Nut Meal, so he was on the peanut butter track. He served the patients at his Battle Creek Sanitarium peanut butter.
In 1896, one of his assistants began selling his own version of a grinder, and then Joseph Lambert's wife Almeeta Lambert published a book in 1899 called "The Complete Guide to Nut Cookery".
Joseph L. Rosenfield invented a churning process that made smooth peanut butter smooth. In 1928, Rosenfield licensed his invention to the Pond Company, the makers of Peter Pan peanut butter. In 1932, Rosenfield began making his own brand of peanut butter called Skippy which included a crunchy style peanut butter.
Now moving back to George Washington Carver. Although he didn't invent peanut butter, he helped create a number of recipes and other uses for peanuts.
Now for a few of my favorite recipes (yum!)
1. Good ole fashioned peanut butter sandwich. (and don't forget the jelly!)
2. Fluffernutter......if you do not know what this concoction is, you have missed out! Take marshmallow cream, spread on bread, then spread on peanut butter, voila!
3. Peanut butter cookies, YUM!!
4. Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, need I say more?
4. Peanut butter pie, yes, there IS such a thing, and its a fine love delicacy!
5. Thai noodles.........OMG just sooo good.
I could go on and on about recipes, there are just too many interesting and wonderful ideas out there!

Unusual uses for peanut butter
and I( promise to keep this clean!
1. If your lawnmower blades are getting a little tight and rusty – smear on some of the spread and voila – perfect lubrication.
2. If you own a cat or a dog, you will know how hard it can be to get them to take their medication – especially when it is in pill form. Fortunately cats and dogs love peanut butter – so next time you have to give them some medication, mix it up with a spoonful and feed it to them. No more struggling with the animal as you hold its mouth open and try to force feed it a bitter pill. And I know this is true. My foster brother had a dog that HATED baths, but he would take a jar of peanut butter, smear it all over the rim of the tub, throw the dog in, and while the dog was going to town on the peanut butter, would shower the dog down, dog never knew what hit him, lol.
3. Most recipes that use butter can be cooked with peanut butter instead. In cookies and cakes this can make a wonderful and subtle taste difference. Next time you are making fudge brownies, try using peanut butter instead – it will be like eating a huge Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. You can also stir peanut butter into a sauce instead of butter to give it a nutty finish. Again I agree with this one, including oil. Few years ago had a roommate, and she was craving brownies, but we had no oil, but we had peanut butter, so I subbed the peanut butter, and she thought I was a genius, lol.
4. Mice are not particularly fond of cheese – so it is strange that it is the first food people go for when they are baiting their mousetraps. What most people don’t know is that mice prefer peanut butter – how this has been proven I do not know, but the fact that peanut butter is so much cheaper than cheese, makes this tip a very handy and frugal one. So next time you need to bait a mouse trap, don’t bother loading it with camembert or 5 year aged cheddar, stick on some trusty peanut butter. I want to cry on this one, why waste that yummy stuff on those icky ucky beings???
5. Despite the major advances in science in recent years, no one seems to have managed to invent a label that can be removed easily without leaving any glue behind. Fortunately, we have peanut butter. Rub some of the tasty spread on the label glue and rub with a cloth – it works brilliantly.
6. If you have ever fried fish, you will know that it leaves behind a rather unpleasant fishy smell in the house. To help eradicate the smell, take a tablespoon of peanut butter after you have finished frying the fish, drop it in the frying pan and fry it off for a minute or two. The smell of peanut butter is the house is much more enjoyable than stale fish and oil. I have never tried this, but I wonder if it would work in a burned pan? Couldn't hurt to try.
7. Peanut butter is an excellent cleaner for leather furniture. Just rub a small amount on and work it in in a circular motion. Remove with a buffing cloth and there you have it! The caveat to this tip is peanut-butter smelling furniture. To avoid that you might want to mix a little perfume oil in it – but not too much. Also, if you do add the perfume, make sure you don’t mix up your jars or you will end up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that tastes like mouth wash. And if you dont get the peanut butter smell off enough, your dog who LOVES rawhide, might just turn your leather couch, into a mauled dead thing.
8. While it doesn’t happen quite so often to us adults, children often end up with gum in their hair. This would normally be followed up by a lot of tugging and pulling with a comb to remove it, and the eventual chopping of the locks. But what most people don’t realize, is that peanut butter is a perfect “gum remover” – not only will it remove gum from hair, but it will remove it from carpet and any other object that is tainted with the chewy stuff. Just rub some peanut butter into the gum and you can wipe the whole mess off with a cloth. I have always heard about this one, but not for positive on it, course never needed to find out either, lol.
9. Believe it or not, peanut butter makes a great shaving gel. Just apply it like you would apply the gel, and shave as normal. It works just as well and anyone that has bought a container of shaving gel will know, it is a hell of a lot cheaper. The end result is a very smooth shave and, as a bonus, the oils in the peanut butter are very good for your skin, so you don’t need to spend even more money on moisturizer for your legs or face.
10. Mix it with egg whites and ammonia to use it to get out stains.
11. Plug holes in your paneling walls. Can also use the white pasty toothpaste.
12. Curing hiccups.
There honestly are so many uses, I would have to have a second and third blog for them all!

I hope you enjoy this new blog adventure of mine, I know I will.
Tomorrow: November 1
President 1st Occupies the White House
National Weather Service Established
Hockey Mask Invented
National Deep Fried Clams Day