Using pumpernickel bread to make a sandwich seems to make lunch a little more exquisite.  That cold cut between two dark slices of bread almost looks as though the plate had been slid across a deli counter rather than assembled after rummaging around in the refrigerator for lunch meat not yet expired.  

Although originating in Germany, New York has made pumpernickel its own—especially in Jewish delicatessens—and here the bread is also referred to as “dark rye.”  As such, pumpernickel bread may have several health benefits resulting from whole grain rye flour including bowel regularity, lower cholesterol, reduced risk for diabetes, and blood sugar control from its high fiber content.

Who doesn’t LOVE peanut butter?  For all you PB enthusiasts out there, check out Author @ the Library at Mid-Manhattan on January 3.  Jon Kramper, author of “The Man in the Shadows: Fred Coe and the Golden Age of Television” and “Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley” will discuss “Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food.”

With the possible exception of apple pie, no American food is more iconic than peanut butter. The author will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about peanut butter but couldn’t ask about because it was stuck to the roof of your mouth.

This illustrated lecture is a popular account of one of America’s most beloved foods (consumed by more than seventy-five percent of the population).  The entertaining history of peanut butter’s development and integration into the American diet is filled with anecdotes and facts culled from unusual and engaging sources.  While the book is a mix of interviews, research, travels in the peanut-growing regions of the South, personal histories and recipes, the author focuses on the manufacture of the food from the 1890s to the present, and covers its cultural, nutritional, and even molecular evolution.

Images from nypl.org