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Monday, January 31, 2011

At My House

We've been enjoying....

:: Produce from the garden.  Lettuces, beans, blueberries, cucumbers, tomatoes....Here's Aya eating the first apple off the tree we planted for her when she was born.  (The are 26 more on the little sapling, so we'll all get a chance to sample them in a few weeks time.) ::

:: First forays into preserving and jam making. ::

:: Experimenting with infusions. This one is raw apple cider vinegar with basil -- supposedly a 
natural immune booster.  I've been making "quick pickles" using this as marinade for 
raw veggies like cucumber and beans.  Perfect as a pre-dinner snack. ::

:: Refueling after long weekend runs. ::


And finally....homemade peanut butter.  I found the recipe here, on one of my favorite foodie blogs.  I swear up and down, this peanut butter is the best you'll ever eat.  Instructions are as follows: dump a bunch of quality (roasted, salted) peanuts in your food processor, add a glug of oil (I just use canola) and whizz until it reaches your desired level of chunkiness (2-3 minutes.)  Refrigerate.  I gave jars of this out for Christmas this year; I wish I could have told people I labored away, stomping on peanuts or grinding them with a mortar and pestle -- but truly, it couldn't have been easier.  Our locally-made (albeit very good) peanut butter is up to nearly $20.00 a kilo.  Making our pb at home (and how much more local could you get?) costs about a third of that -- $7.00/kg.  My only problem with this recipe is that if we're in stock, I seem to qualify multiple spoonfuls of the stuff as a meal.  Must work on willpower.

Next up:  homemade crackers.  I'll let you know how it goes.

x Jen


2 comments:

imba said...

It all looks so YUM! I bought expensive peanut butter recently (with no additives) and it was good - it hadn't occured to me to make it! Will have to give it a try - thanks for sharing the link. I remember my Mum making lemon honey and something rather like vegemite when I was little...

Seedling said...

Thanks, Catherine! I hadn't thought of it either before finding the too-easy recipe. But truly, I think I'll never go back. Cheaper, nearly instant, and absolutely delicious - - I want to convert everyone I know!

Making a yeast spread like Vegemite would be really interesting -- and probably not too hard. Hm, will have to look into it...