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March 2, 2007

Anonymous The McAlester News-Capital Fri Mar 02, 2007, 10:39 AM CST

McAlester must have been one of those areas where ConAgra delivered all the jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter that had the product code of “2111” on their lids.

At least it seems that way. Everyone I’ve talked to has had at least one of the jars that could have possibly been contaminated by salmonella from ConAgra’s plant in Sylvester, Ga.

Mine was a brand new jar — never opened. What’s strange is I usually don’t buy Peter Pan. Usually, I get Jif because that’s what my mother always bought when I was a kid. But this time, I was a frugal consumer and bought Peter Pan because it was 20 cents cheaper.

I didn’t really save any money though because that jar of peanut butter that had never been opened went in the trash.

Now, the problem is, I want peanut butter and I don’t have any. And it’s not just me.

Last Sunday, I was at our local supercenter and peanut butter was on my grocery list. I rounded the corner to the aisle where peanut butter is normally found and discovered a small crowd looking at the empty shelves.

Horrors! No peanut butter! Well, there were two small jars of organic peanut butter and a couple of jars of creamy Jif. That small crowd obviously wasn’t in the mood for organic foods. But I should have been happy because there was some Jif. However, did I mention I prefer chunky peanut butter? Creamy just doesn’t do it for me.

And I’m not alone in that preference. Another lady looking at the shelves said she has to have crunchy peanut butter. It’s just not the same, she said, if there’s no crunch.

We agreed we might just have to get a jar of peanuts and stir them in the creamy mixture. But that wouldn’t be right. Also, members of the crowd pointed out there were only two brands of peanut butter that were pulled from the shelves. “There should be other brands,” one man declared. He’s right.

By this time, my mind has decided it will have a peanut butter craving. We all know how my cravings are. They start out small and grow and grow and grow until I satisfy them.

Well, little did I know how hard this craving would be to satisfy. I made special trips to four different stores in my search. I’m not one of those folks who enjoy the shopping experience anyway and having to make special trips irritates me. I kept finding creamy Jif, creamy generic peanut butter and even more organic peanut butter. No, that’s not what I wanted. Grrrr!

I finally had some success at the fifth store. I say some success because I found crunchy peanut butter, but it wasn’t Jif. It was Skippy. I like Skippy. I normally don’t buy Skippy because it’s a little more expensive but by this time, I needed a peanut butter fix. I grabbed the jar before anyone else could get it, paid the cashier and headed home. I didn’t even get a cracker or piece of bread before I opened the jar.

I just grabbed a spoon and dug in. It took about three spoonsful but I was finally satiated.

I hope no one else has this particular craving because I can’t share my jar with you. I double dipped. Sorry, it couldn’t be helped.

Contact Teresa Atkerson at family@mcalesternews.com

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