Peanuts. They contribute to the most delicious snacks. Growing up, my mother made peanut butter candy and it had a tendency to disappear in almost one day. Six years ago, in a spout of nostalgia, I thought to myself, “I’m going to make peanut butter candy for my kids!” Well, it seemed like a good idea until my one-year old went into anaphylactic shock and we ended up in the ER. Surprise. Your kid is allergic to peanuts.
It’s been a long, dry spell these last six years with zero peanuts of any kind in the house. No peanut butter, no Butterfingers, no peanut butter cups, no lunch-lady peanut butter bars… you get the picture. We don’t even play around with Kit-Kats or Twix-bars because they’re made in a factory where other nut candy is made. It’s not just candy either — the other day my husband bought canola oil to make some pancakes and guess what? It was made in a factory that process peanut oil. Yes, some lucky neighbor is about to be gifted a brand new bottle of canola oil this week.
However, we have discovered the unique and happy substitute. Wow Butter. It’s not peanut butter, it’s actually made out of soy, but it is pretty darn close to being just like peanut butter. It’s so close that lately we’ve begun to wonder if Wow Butter could be used to make “peanut” butter candy? Well, what else are you going to do during a pandemic in the summer time? That’s right. We made fake peanut butter candy. And do you know what? It wasn’t horrible. In fact, it was yummy. It was so yummy that I’m going to include the recipe at the bottom of this post.
Why am I writing about peanut butter on a writing blog dedicated to scribbling mamas? Well, for one — what mother doesn’t think about peanut butter, (allergies or no allergies)? And two — substitutes work in writing stories as well as the kitchen.
When I first heard the phrase, “Write what you know”, my heart sank. All I saw was this little box that I lived in; a box that contained a mundane existence with zero adventure. If that was all I could write about, I was definitely in trouble. But the thing is, you don’t need peanuts when you have soy beans. Translation: the fear I felt in the hospital the night my daughter’s throat closed up and her entire body broke out in rashes is the same fear I use to describe my heroine facing down a dragon. I can do this because fear is fear. The ingredients may change, but the essence is the same thing. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then people are going to believe it is a duck. Even if it’s soy beans.
So to write what you know is simply to take your own emotional reactions to the world around you and plug them into your character’s world. The recipe is fluid and the possibilities are endless.
To reiterate: Soy beans are not Peanuts. Neither is living in suburbia the same thing as living on the Battleship Galactica. Don’t worry about the ingredients. Worry about the sensation on the literary tongue. Write what you know about being sick. Write what you know about falling in love. Write what you know about grief. That’s what “Write What You Know” means.
Recipe For Peanut Butter Candy (Modification Included)
1 cup of Peanut Butter or Wow Butter
1 cup of light corn syrup (I used a little more when using Wow Butter to get the consistency right.)
1 ¼ cup of powdered milk
1 ¼ cup of powdered sugar
Directions: Mix everything together, starting with a spoon and then kneading with your hands. You’re looking for a taffy-like consistency. Roll into long snake-like ropes and cut into bite-sized pieces. I coat the candy with additional powdered sugar to keep it from getting sticky.
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