Instructions: And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches . . . on squishy white bread.

So when someone at FOODday (Portland Oregonian Tuesday Living section)

brought up the subject, all of us had to weigh in with how we like - or dont like - the quintessential kid favorite.

If youd been a fly on the wall, heres what you would have heard:

I grew up on snails, tripe, tongue, octopus, squid and rabbit, but my familys peanut butter inclinations were pedestrian at best. At our house,

"crunchy" was exotic.

Our choices: PB & J on Wonder Bread or PB & J with butter on toasted Wonder Bread.

Period.

One day, as a 12-year-old, I witnessed my aunt make herself a PB sandwich on white, with Miracle Whip and dill pickles. My shock and prepubescent disgust rendered me almost speechless.

But, while nibbling scrambled eggs at my girlfriends house, I watched her down PB & J with bacon on two slabs of white toast.

My mouth watered.

It suddenly struck me there was much more to life than what I knew, and discovery was going to be a fun ride.

Chris Christensen:
Peanut butter is a primal need. I know this in my bones. At age 18, I left the U.S. to spend my freshman year studying and traveling in Europe. Yes, the baguettes were the best ever. The cheese and pastries, spectacular. The Barcardi rum, very cheap.

But I grew to miss many things about the States, not the least of which was peanut butter.

I longed to open a brand new jar and slowly drag a spoon through a drift of soft, golden butter. I dreamed of licking a heaping tablespoonful like a Popsicle, then rolling my tongue around it and letting it slip down my throat.

Bread is superfluous, even a distraction.

During spring break, I traveled to Spain with my roommates. It had been eight months since I had set foot on U.S. soil, and I was yearning for a taste of home. One day, as we paced the streets of Madrid, I happened to glance in a small grocery shop. There in the window sat a lone jar of crema de cacahuates. I recognized it immediately as peanut butter. I declared as much in a very loud voice: "Look - peanut butter!"

An American traveler overheard and groaned in a disdainful tone, as if to say, "How pathetic. How common. How American."

I ignored him and dashed inside to buy the jar.

Two days later, it was nothing but a sweet, sticky memory.

While growing up, I hated peanut butter. It wasnt sweet enough for my tastes, and it was way too thick, like eating school paste. Besides, it just wasnt offered in my house. Ive never asked my mom why.

Somewhere along the way from there to here, I changed my mind.

I really like the peanut-butter-and-grape-jelly that comes already mixed. I like only grape jelly with my peanut butter.

When I was a broke and starving journalism intern right after college, I found that a spoonful of peanut butter dipped into a bag of chocolate chips cheered me right up. Besides, it was a cheap snack that went a long way.

And, yes, theres always a jar in my house now.

Fran Arrieta-Walden:
I never even tasted peanut butter until I was 30-something!

When my daughter was a toddler, I did my good-mother thing and bought my first jar because peanut butter sandwiches were the rage in her age category.

One day, I took a tiny taste. Not bad, but not good enough to entice me to eat it on a sandwich - yet.

When I finally discovered natural peanut butter, I was hooked . . . if you can call it that. Once a year, I buy a small jar, which lasts a whole year.

Really.

Every now and then, I enjoy a toasted open-face sandwich of peanut butter and sliced bananas.

Ive also learned to like peanut butter in savory sauces that dont taste like peanut butter. But, please, no peanut butter cookies or such . . . thats asking too much of my taste buds!

Merle Alexander :
Peanut butter sandwiches were rare in my house while I was growing up. My mother didnt think peanut butter was nourishing enough to encourage as a food regular.

For an occasional treat, we could have peanut butter spread on bananas or graham crackers. But given a choice, I probably wouldnt have eaten peanut butter sandwiches anyway. For several years, I thought Campbells Scotch Broth Soup made a perfect breakfast AND school lunch, every single day.

My mother did cook a lot with peanut butter, including the old standby, peanut butter cookies, and my absolute favorite, peanut butter fudge.

All five of us kids were born in Ohio, so we enjoyed Buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate, so named because of the way they look; see recipe on

Amy Martinez Starke:
White squishy bread slathered with smooth peanut butter, Miracle Whip and crisp iceberg lettuce.

Mmmmm good.

The sandwich - neatly packed in a Barbie lunch container - along with a crunchy dill pickle tightly wrapped in foil was the highlight of my Friday school lunch. Growing up in Catholic schools, we abstained from meat on Fridays.

As we formed one straight line and marched down the brown-speckled linoleum stairs to the cafeteria on those days, we could smell fish sticks or tuna casserole. Options were not available.

My peanut butter sandwich seemed like heaven . . . at least to a second-grader who didnt like fish.

The (12-ounce) jar of Skippy peanut butter was a staple in the kitchen cupboard. The jar was dipped into far more often to make peanut butter cookies than the "Friday sandwich."

Its still a staple in my house today - smooth and crunchy.

Cheri Swoboda:
My first recollection of peanut butter sandwiches is eating them with pickles as a young child in the 40s.

Each June when school was out, my friends and I headed for the berry fields to make money - or socialize with my friends mostly.

My mother packed my lunch. Im sure I didnt have it every day, but often it was a peanut butter sandwich with slices of her homemade dill or sweet pickles and lots of butter. Most of the time it was on homemade bread, but the real treat was the store-bought white Wonder Bread.

Im not sure if it was a food-safety issue for her, but those sandwiches may have saved me from upset stomachs as they sat in the hot sun all morning. In those days, we didnt take our lunches in coolers or packed with ice.

I still consider a peanut butter sandwich on white bread with crisp, sliced dill pickles comfort food.

Sharon Maasdam:
Im embarrassed to admit I didnt like peanut butter as a child. I was the family misfit when it came to creating lunches for ourselves. While everyone else was constructing PBJ sandwiches, Id rummage for something else. Anything else.

Cold meatloaf - now theres a sandwich!

I genuinely liked less kid-friendly foods, such as sauerkraut, lima or kidney beans, green beans, peas - even canned spinach in the days before fresh - causing me to feel slightly guilty that I didnt like this quintessential kid food.

At the school cafeteria on Fridays, Id pray those little old ladies in hair nets had made tuna fish sandwiches - something we never had at home.

These days, Ive come to like peanut butter - the extra-chunky stuff on apple wedges or celery sticks, or in cookies and brownies.

But puleeeze dont spread it like asphalt onto marshmallowy-light bread and smear it with jelly and insist its swell stuff.

Unless its for you.

I love peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Been that way since I first started carrying my Roy Rogers/Dale Evans lunch box.

Then, my mom decided to get fancy.

Im not sure where she came up with the idea. Probably was a frenzied search for a meatless sandwich for Lenten lunches. But one day, there it was on the plate - grilled peanut butter and cheddar cheese.

My sisters loved it, but I couldnt even take a taste. I couldnt imagine how hot peanut butter and melted cheddar cheese could make it past my throat.

then on, PB & CC was a Friday treat - for the rest of the family.

Then, not long ago, with my own kids looking for something different to eat with tomato soup, I decided Id try grilled PB & CC. It was a "heres what my mom fixed when I was a kid" moment.

Incredible. They loved it, too. Hmmm. I finally got up the courage to taste one. Not bad, I guess. But Id still rather have a good ol PB & J sandwich in my lunch, thank you.

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