PB & Jammin' Sandwich Mysteriously Not Findable on the Web

PB&J and slight variations of the abbreviation are conventions to mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a food item going back over 100 years, according to "11 things you didn't know about peanut butter & jelly".

What's mysterious to me is that I've been unable to unearth "PB & Jammin' Sandwich" online for recipe title or for the recipe ingredients. Including quotation marks in my search doesn't significantly increase prospective hits. Furthermore, the online prospective recipes that I did view don't call for the hardcopy recipe ingredients of peanut butter, jelly, bread, and Libby's pumpkin. (The "PB & Jammin' Sandwich" hardcopy recipe was in a coupon pack a few weeks ago and also in a supermarket freebie magazine more recently.) Yet, only by adding "pumpkin" to the search field do the search results improve somewhat.

The three following sandwich recipes list bread, peanut butter, pumpkin, and bananas for ingredients, but no jelly.

• "Thank You Very Much" Pumpkin Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Pumpkin Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Kid Friendly Recipes Pumpkin and Peanut Butter Sandwich (This recipe also adds cinnamon.)

Adding "jelly".to my Google search does not yield useful hits. Nor does adding "HEB" or "Libby's". Searching through recipes pages for Libby's and also HEB's do not yield any recipe pages for the peanut butter and jelly with pumpkin sandwich. What gives? Why is this hardcopy recipe not findable on the web?

The hardcopy recipe pages for both coupon pack and HEB magazine call for peanut butter, Libby's pumpkin, jelly, and bread. The preparation is the same—mix half each of peanut butter and pumpkin, then spread the mixture and jelly onto bread slices.

How appealing could such a sandwich be? Would you prepare and eat one? Prepare it for family? Contrasting the promo blurbs for the recipes, would people warm up to subbing half the peanut butter in a PB&J sandwich with pumpkin, whether canned or not?

Blurb from coupon pack recipe:

When you add LIBBY's 100% Pure Pumpkin to PB&J, you get a sandwich that's delicious, nutritious and filling. The kids won't even taste the difference, and you'll feel good knowing that they're getting protein with nearly half the fat.

Blurb from HEB freebie magazine:

Serve a better PB&J. This delicious and nutritious lunchtime makeover delivers essentials like protein and fruit. And for something a little different, try the pumpkin-peanut butter spread on celery or tortillas.

In the first blurb—"The kids won't even taste the difference", the statement indicates to me that if the "kids" know that the peanut butter is not ALL peanut butter, they might not bite. The second blurb touts deliciousness, nutrition, protein, and fruit. This statement looks to be an appeal targeted to grownups.

Now channel the kid: How appealing does this sandwich sound? Pumpkin AND peanut butter with jelly? Besides the odd combination, which I have not found online, the preparation is at least a smidge more complicated than just scooping and spreading peanut butter. A preparer actually needs to measure and mix these two ingredients before spreading, using additional kitchen implements!

For those who really want to mix their peanut butter with pumpkin, visit "8 Ways to Get Your Pumpkin-Peanut Butter Fix". If you insist on trying the PB&J and pumpkin sandwich recipe, click either or both recipes that I've mentioned (from coupon pack, from HEB magazine).

Bon appetit!

Pokin' Ripped Jeans

Have you bought new holey pants for yourself? For someone else? If so, what's your rationale? Eh, one time last year in a donut shop, a woman (not in teens) walked in wearing a pair of holey-knee jeans. I almost wondered if I should slip her a few bucks so she could put them towards buying an unworn pair. Apparently, the trend of ripped jeans has been around for awhile. From "The History of Ripped Jeans", a key sentence:

"What was once a poor man's pant, now sells for anywhere between $50 - $300 and up, sometimes."

"Denim Trends 2015: Ripped Jeans For Women" shows 17 images of holey jeans on female forms from waist to hem. Furthermore, the article has links to go to additional sites. Ow, my eyes! It's hard for me to believe that holey jeans are considered mainstream fashion.

I'm not buying into the ripped jeans trend myself. I actually threw away a pair of old jeans last year. Now I wonder if I should have auctioned them off—the knees weren't holey, but the waist, inseam, and hems were frayed or threadbare. Ebay has a page that is thick with ripped jeans. "Ripped jeans, also called distressed jeans or boyfriend jeans, are actually more fashionable and popular for men and women than jeans that are brand new."

The last few years of mall walks and seeing holey jeans at Abercrombie and Fitch had made me muse that shoppers could get more serviceable jeans at Goodwill or Salvation Army—and probably pay lots less. The tipping point that inspired me to seriously consider writing about ripped jeans was recently seeing an Express Jeans video ad on the Beauty and the Beast TV series.

During a mall walk within a few days, I noted additional storefronts besides A&F that displayed ripped jeans. The idea of writing about the jeans percolated more. A followup mall walk, armed with camera, provided more opportunity to collect pix. Whew! Can hardly believe I snapped so many, which the pixstrip reflects!

As part of info and image gathering, I browsed through the previous Sunday's back to school sales print ads. I spotted a pair of ripped jeans ad for Kohl's. Can't find the ad online, but I did see a link to an Urban Outfitters website. Holey moley—"PRPS Goods & Co. Demon Slim Rip Repaired Jean $350"!

Stores that seemed to be staying off the ripped jeans bandwagon, at least in storefront windows and print ads were JCPenney, Macy's, Sears, Target, and The Gap. Hmmm, the journey from pre-wash to pre-rip could be a small hop. YouTube actually has videos (lots!) for DIY ripped jeans.