Homemade Peanut Butter

Today was such an exciting day! Not only do we have fantastic weather again, but it was also the first delivery of the season for The Produce Box. This week provided a nice preview of what can be expected to be a very bountiful year. I chose the Harvest Box this week which included one English cucumber, sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread, one big tomato, carrots, strawberries (add-on) and 2 quarts of raw, unshelled peanuts.

What in the world was I supposed to do with that many peanuts? Everything else can be gobbled up in a matter of no time, but the peanuts - I was going to have to think for a minute. I suddenly remembered that last year I purchased a Produce Box add-on of Mackey's Ferry Creamy Peanut Butter, which is quite possibly the most delicious peanut butter I've ever had (I tasted it at the NC State Fair last year for the first time). Since it contains very few ingredients, I wanted to see if I could make something similar. I did a little googling to figure out what to do.

Turns out that raw, unshelled peanuts are useless unless you boil or roast them. Since peanut butter is best made with roasted peanuts, I oven roasted them on a cookie sheet at 350° F for about 20 minutes, turning them with a big spoon every 5 minutes. The house smelled like peanut butter cookies afterwards!

Step 1: Oven roast at 350° F for about 20 min on a
cookie sheet, turning at regular intervals.

Next I had to wait because they were too hot to touch. The second step was definitely the most tedious and took well over an hour: shelling and skinning the peanuts.

Step 2: Shell and peel

Then came the fun part! Actually making the peanut butter. To do this, I put all the shiny, skinless, roasted peanuts in my food processor.

Step 3: Skinless, roasted peanuts in the food processor

Next I laid out the ingredients I needed. I never really measure so had to go by taste and appearance to get it just right.

The ingredients: the peanuts, peanut oil, molasses,
coconut oil, ground sea salt, brown sugar

The ingredients are really simple (my measurements are approximate because I didn't measure):

1) Skinless, roasted peanuts (It takes more time to oven-roasting, shell and skin the peanuts yourself, but it is definitely worth it)
2) 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil
3) Roughly a heaping tablespoon of organic, virgin coconut oil (I got mine at Trader Joe's). The coconut aroma from the coconut oil adds the perfect undertone
4) Molasses - approx. 1-2 tablespoons
5) 1-2 teaspoons of freshly ground sea salt
6) Just around 1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Put everything in the food processor and blend at the highest speed until very creamy. Add any of the above ingredients to adjust consistency or flavor.

The result:

Super yummy, creamy homemade peanut butter. Store in the refrigerator to preserve freshness - it will also firm up a bit more because the coconut oil solidifies at colder temperatures, making it easier to spread.

Enjoy!

Produce Box: 26 May 2011

This week's Produce Box came this morning with lots of yummy goodies to enjoy over the next few days:

- Tomatoes
- Yellow squash
- A cucumber
- Blueberries
- Pointed cabbage (Spitzkohl)
- Sweet potatoes
- Spring onions

I already have some ideas of what to do with this week's bounty. Maybe some squash fritters and gluten-free blueberry cobbler! We'll see :-)

This week's Produce Box November 10, 2010

Just a brief post with pics of yesterday's Produce Box. It's been so busy around here lately, it's hard to find time to blog - even those 15 minutes I'd hoped to find each day somehow keep escaping me. This week's box contained: Bok Choy, sweet potatoes, an eggplant, RASPBERRIES!!!, garlic (hidden under the radishes), red bell peppers, radishes, and a sample of candied pecans. I already used the bell peppers last night making stuffed peppers with leftover eggplant filling I froze from the last time I made the recipe a couple of weeks ago (recipe to follow soon). BTW: The raspberries are absolutely delicious!

Today's Produce Box! November 3, 2010

Since getting back from Denver, it seems as though my life has been in a whirlwind! I have a to-do list a mile long that takes into account pretty much everything that I learned last week. Add to that the real work that was waiting for me, and I've been going non-stop since Monday morning. Today I should have a couple hours of time for me, which really just means time to work on some of the items on my to-do list, most importantly getting my translation specific resume ready to send out to potential new clients. I've started decluttering so that I have some things to put in a yard sale this weekend - the declurring and organization in itself could almost be a full-time job for a few days.

Since I've been so busy, it's a good thing I don't have to go to the grocery store to get fresh produce. My refrigerator was almost empty since I didn't get a box last week. Thankfully replenishment arrived today and one item in particular makes me want to sing "What do you do with a Daikon Radish?" to the tune of "What do you do with a drunken sailor?" I'm going to have to search for some ideas, but if you have any, let me know. That said, this week's box included a huge Daikon radish, apples, yellow squash, cabbage, zucchini, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. I made a couple of recipes before going to Denver that I still need to post, and I'm sure I'll be making some yummy things with the contents of this week's box.

Time to work on that resume! So much to do!

Sunday 9-12

The timer is ticking and I'm starting my first 15 minutes. I've just had a wonderful breakfast consisting of homemade gluten-free blueberry cinnamon vanilla pancakes, fresh local cantaloupe and am sipping down my chai latte (with almond milk and stevia) from my over-sized Berlin Starbucks mug. Food will probably be a main part of this blog since it is something I love - especially when it comes to fresh, local produce. I get a produce box from local farmers delivered to my door every week (theproducebox.com) and try to come up with new things to make from the seasonal items. This past week I tried Afghan okra and potatoes served with brown rice, which turned out quite well. The next project is to tackle the mounds of butternut squash I have been collecting, which will probably turn into an Afghan pumpkin dish, maybe another curried butternut squash soup (with coconut milk) and a butternut squash stir fry (also featuring coconut milk). I should also probably say that I keep a mostly gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free vegetarian diet for health reasons, but still eat fish and eggs. I can post some recipes if people are curious as to what such a person might eat. I actually eat a wide variety of things and love ethnic foods, especially Ethiopian, Afghan, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Tibetan, etc.

So the idea of this blog is to write for 15 minutes a day on anything that comes to my mind - preferably in one sitting. Of course I could happen to have multiple posts a day, but I should be able to find at least 15 minutes a day.

I've had a lot of ideas lately that I need to get down somewhere. One idea has to do with dating and how sick of it I am. It's a horrible process of elimination in which I do so much eliminating I doubt there will be anyone left over worth keeping by the time I'm done. The problem lies in extremely high standards, requirements of a prospective partner and the fact that most of the guys who could potentially fit the bill are already taken or not interested. So I guess I'll just keep eliminating.

Essentially I want someone who is at least bilingual (preferably German-English), a non-smoker and not an excessive drinker, no tattoos or piercings, preferably not older than 36, never been married (and should also have never lived with a girlfriend) and has no children, intelligent but also has a great sense of humor, not atheist or agnostic, should be taller than me (I'm nearly 5'3" - 5'2" and 3/4 to be exact), preferably have a full - but clean cut - head of hair (shaved heads are fine, but I'm not really attracted to thinning hair and certain patterns of male baldness), no beard or mustache (I find facial hair repulsive), should be physically fit and active (no beer belly or excessive body fat), should preferably eat similarly to me since if I ever have children I would want to keep a vegetarian, dairy-free household and would need a partner who would be on board with that... Sadly I don't think this person actually exists and if they do they certainly don't live anywhere near me. I know I'm picky, but I'd rather get what I want than settle for less.

My first 15 minutes are up now.