peanut butter and jelly

Happy National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day! In honor of the holiday, I'm sharing a contemporary update on what happens to be one of my favorite nostalgic foods.

I've said before that some of the best sandwiches evoke memories, and this recipe goes back when I was maybe 7 or 8, and my mom fixed me some waffles before realizing we were out of syrup. She improvised to make this sandwich, and "peanut butter and jelly waffles" soon became one of my favorite meals. Like the nonwaffly version, this PB&J is very easy to make and can inspire countless variations: almond instead of peanut butter, different flavors of waffles or even waffles from scratch, honey in place of jelly, Elvis-style with bananas, and on and on.

This time I used Eggo cinnamon waffles, which I highly recommend. The only requirement for this breakfast or lunch sandwich — and what sets it apart from a traditional PB&J — is using hot, toasted waffles, which melt the peanut butter in just the right warm and comfy way. To see my recipe, keep reading.

While there are kitchen gadgets that are totally helpful and necessary — the food processor, a mixer — sometimes it seems like there are more random kitchen gadgets than essential ones. There are so many useless tools that we have an entire feature devoted to them. Not to mention the Yum Market on TeamSugar is jam-packed with kitchen contraptions.

For example, look at this peanut butter and jelly spreader. This handy, double-sided gadget —bookmarked by amh678 — smoothly scoops and spreads peanut butter and jelly. Sure it's fun, but isn't it just a glorified butter knife? What do you guys think of these random kitchen gadgets? Useful or useless?

For more interesting kitchen gadgets, scroll through the widget below!