My parents went on a lovely road trip.  Without me.  I know, sounds mean, huh.

They also have gone many other places without me, including Hawaii.  But I’m not mad.  Ok, I was in a bit of distress when they went to Hawaii without me, but it was their anniversary after all.  I always get some sort of souvenir when they come home, because they are nice like that.

Sometimes it’s a key chain or a t-shirt.  This time I they really picked a winner.  They brought me back honeycomb (the ultimate treat) and homemade peanut butter.

This might not sound special but it really is.  My mom loathes peanut butter unless it’s a cookie ingredient and so growing up, I never really had it.  My brother doesn’t really eat it either.  My dad doesn’t make his own food very often, so he could care less what he eats as long as he doesn’t have to cook it.  The first time I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was in 9th grade.  NINTH GRADE!  Madness.

Anyway, they had headed down to Dubuque, Iowa.  They found a little store called The Calico Bean Market that had all this cool stuff.*  I wish I could go into details, but as I mentioned earlier, I’ve never been there so I can’t really tell you more.  From the looks of the website, they have a ton of other amazing handmade treats.  You can even order online.

All I can tell you, is this peanut butter is the best peanut butter I have ever had.  It’s not the ‘natural’ peanut butter that you get in the grocery stores where you have to mix it up and it is all dry and weird.  It was light, airy and just the perfect amount of crunchy.  My mom even liked it, well – in the smallest bite I’ve ever seen a full-grown human take.

…and hats off to my mom for not subjecting her kids to something she didn’t like.  If I ever have kids, they will never have to taste a pea in their life.  Those things are nasty.  They are not tiny green candies, Mom.  Never have been and never will be.

Waffles are the obvious vehicle of peanut butter.