How to make peanut butter.

Your life is about to change in a radical way.

Let's make peanut butter together.

 Start with . . . peanuts. (They must be roasted.)

I bought salted peanuts, because I wanted salty peanut butter.  But after it was made, I realized that "salted" peanuts have lots of other things in them besides salt - like MSG.  I am not a fan of MSG, so . . . I will be sure to check the label more carefully next time, or just get roasted peanuts without salt, and add my own salt.

So here we go!

Maybe you'd better take notes, this is a highly technical process.

Put the peanuts in a blender (or food processor).

 Start blending.

Keep blending.

Keep blending.  They just get more and more creamy.

 Hallelujah.

Look how creamy and beautiful that is.

I prefer "natural" (with MSG-laden salt!  ha!) pb over regular pb any day.  And natural peanut butter usually costs and arm and a leg, so I rarely buy it because it's tough to find on the cheap.  But now I can make it for the cost of a 16 oz. container of roasted peanuts.  And the heavens opened up and sang.

And why limit yourself to peanuts?  Just think - almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds . . . mmm.  You could put cocoa in it and make chocolate peanut butter . . . whoa. 



Now I either have to get smaller jars, or make twice as much next time.
I may or may not have eaten this with a spoon after this picture was taken.

In the kitchen: Cheddar-tomato dumplings

Today we're making Cheddar-tomato dumplings. Heavy on the Cheddar. I love this meal because it is easy, frugal, and filling. Fabulous! (Sorry the spacing is so weird in this post! Blogger is just not behaving for me tonight) While I was cooking, Elin was emptying the dishwasher.

First, mix together flour, shortening, baking powder and salt. You can either use a food processor to combine everything, a pastry blender, knives, or mix it with your fingers. I was too lazy to pull out our little food processor, I had broken the pastry blender a couple years ago, knives take too long, so that left my fingers to do the work. Stir in the cheese and set aside.

Next, put some olive oil in a large skillet. Add a handful of chopped onion and cook until transparent. I keep a bag of frozen chopped onion in the freezer. Whenever I need onion, I can just pull out what I need and I don't need to spend time chopping.

Add flour, salt, sugar, and pepper and stir well to make a thick roux.

Next, pull two cans of diced tomatoes out of the pantry. Our tomatoes are happy tomatoes.

Place happy tomatoes in the skillet and stir to combine with the roux.

Next, add copious amounts of basil. If this was summer, I would absolutely be using fresh. But dried is what I have to work with right now.

Stir basil into the tomatoes, cook over medium heat for a couple minutes, and then cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, you can finish the dumpling batter. Add the milk and stir quickly, using as few strokes as possible.

It is okay that it's lumpy. If you stir it too much, it will become dense and heavy and nobody will like your dumplings.

Uncover the simmering tomatoes and put heaping spoonfuls of batter right on top of them.

Cover and let that simmer for 20 minutes.

It's like magic. The batter morphed into light, fluffy, cheesy dumplings.

Sprinkle some extra cheese over dumplings and cover again; continue to simmer for about 90 seconds or until the cheese is melted.

Viggo gives this meal a thumbs-up! We ate this with peas tonight; usually I serve it with bacon or sausage. Nate was at a meeting tonight, so I served this sans meat because it was just the kids and I. We ate almost all of them.

Cheddar-tomato dumplings

For dumpling batter:

1 C. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 T. shortening

1/2 C. shredded Cheddar cheese

1/2 C. milk

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and shortening. Add shredded Cheddar cheese. Set aside.

For tomato mixture:

2 T. chopped onion

2 T. oil (olive or vegetable)

2 T. flour

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes or 1 28-oz can

1 T. dried basil or a handful of fresh, chopped basil

In a large skillet, saute onion until tender. Add tomatoes. Add flour, sugar, salt and pepper; bring to a boil over medium heat. Add basil. Cook and stir for a minute or two, then cover and simmer for five minutes. Meanwhile, add milk to the dumpling batter and stir until only just combined.

Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto simmering tomato sauce. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese; simmer until melted; only a minute or two. Enjoy!

Desperation pasta salad

It's been awhile since I've put any recipes up, and I'm sorry about that.

Honestly, cooking and baking this summer was nearly non-existent and then after we moved it took awhile to get things moving in the kitchen again.

But now we're up and at 'em.


A few weeks ago Nate kindly pointed out that if I packed him another meat and cheese sandwich for lunch, there was a good possibility he wouldn't survive through another lunch hour. I tried to add variety from time to time, but since he never complained, well . . .

So it was time for some immediate menu changes. I didn't want poor Nate to suffer through another painfully boring meat and cheese sandwich. And he hasn't. I am happy to report Nate has been meat-and-cheese-sandwich-free for at least 3 weeks now.

Everybody around here loves pasta salad, so last night I thought I'd make something from our cupboards. I dug around and found craisins, some chicken that needed to be eaten, a can of corn, poppyseed dressing, pasta, cheese, sunflower seeds . . . I really thought some salted cashews would be amazing in this salad, but I am very sad to say we didn't have any. If you are looking for something meat-free, cashews would be an excellent substitute for the chicken.

Desperation Pasta Salad

(amounts are approximate; I just add enough in until it looks right)

2 1/2 to 3 C rotini (I used the quick-cooking kind)

1/2 C or so of craisins

1 to 1 1/2 C cooked chicken, chopped

1 can sweet corn, drained

Roasted and salted sunflower seeds

Shredded or cubed mozzarella cheese - or gouda! Wouldn't that be delish!

Roasted and salted cashews . . . if you have them

Poppyseed dressing

Cook the pasta; drain and rinse in cold water until cool. Put in a good-sized bowl. Toss in everything else and stir; add enough dressing to your liking. The girls had third helpings of this at lunch today :)

In the kitchen with Viggo & Svea: peanut butter goodies

We made little yummy bites of goodness this afternoon.

We rolled and decorated little bite-sized pieces of a delish mixture made of peanut butter, honey, dry instant nonfat milk and flour.

Last weekend when we were bumming around Lancaster, Viggo and I found some homemade peanut butter at a market and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it: make this stuff.

Caution: this is super-addictive.

And look what Elin can do now.

We used mini chocolate chips, sprinkles and coconut to decorate.

Viggo made little "tacos" out of his dough.

No baking needed! You just eat 'em.

Peanut Butter Goodies

Equal amounts of:

all-natural peanut butter

honey

dry instant nonfat milk (I used 3/4 C of each)

And some flour to reduce the stickiness. Probably 1/4 C or so.

Blend this together in your mixer, and refrigerate for an hour or so to firm it up. Roll into shapes, and decorate as you please! Eat immediately (or refrigerate).

And a bonus movie of Elin :)

In the Kitchen: Toasted Wheat Germ

I confess I haven't bought toasted wheat germ off the shelf at the grocery store for . . . probably at least five years. In a moment of extreme frugalism years ago, I decided I would never again pay $4 for a smallish-sized jar of toasted wheat germ. I order raw wheat germ in bulk from here, and pay a fraction of the price that I would pay at any store. But it's not toasted, so I just use it in its raw form in recipes, which admittedly sometimes turn out a little chewy.

But no more!

I was in the middle of making granola bars today, and the recipe called for good ol' toasted wheat germ. In a moment of inspiration I thought, what if I toast the wheat germ myself?

Duh.

I popped a tray of wheat germ into the toaster oven, set it to toast, stirred a bit in between, and four minutes later I had myself a pile of nice, crisp, toasted wheat germ.

So now you know. Do what you want with this trivial bit of information that has just revolutionized my baking world.

St. Patty's Day

Today was a big day in our household. We wore green. We drank green milk. And we celebrated Nate being 1/16th Irish and the children 1/32 Irish. Or something like that. I was the only 100% Swede around, but I will happily celebrate anybody who chased snakes away from anywhere.

Last night Viggo asked me if leprechauns were real. Well I said, "Of course not, honey - they're just fun to pretend about."

Well guess who came home from school today and saw leprechaun footprints around school.

And guess who's friend at school, John, actually saw a real live leprechaun.

Leprechauns do exist!

What do I know?


We ate Rainbow Cupcakes. Typically this type of food flies in the face of our normal healthy fare. I can't say they're healthy . . . or natural . . . or that they can even be classified as nutrition. But I saw this recipe idea in a magazine in a waiting room and knew I had to try it because it just looked like it was so much fun. It also supplies your body with a decade's amount of food dye. I closed my eyes momentarily in shock when I saw the amount of food coloring the recipe calls for. But then I thought, well, the kids will love it.

Viggo had fun squeezing the bags of cake batter to see what color the dye would make it!

It was quick to mix up the dough in ziplocs. Hint: the recipe does not tell you this. I read this tip in someone's review of this recipe, and measured out the batter per her instructions in 5.5 oz. amounts directly into the ziplocs. I measured it on my little digital kitchen scale, which is easily one of the most handiest things I own.

After the batter was mixed well inside the bag, I clipped a tiny corner off and squirted it in the muffin pan and silicone muffin cups.

Purple batter first. Viggo said, "Mom, I think the batter looks too thick on the bottom." He was right. I ran out quickly. What do I know about making rainbow cupcakes anyway?

Then blue, then green. I was more conservative and got through all 18 with a nice, even distribution of colored batter. Viggo was so proud of me.

Viggo and I hid a walnut in one. This is for Nate to take to work tomorrow; he's bringing the leftover cupcakes in for a treat. Whoever gets the cupcake with the walnut wins - a pot of gold! Viggo is supplying the pot of gold; he's going to create one.

Then yellow.

Then orange, then red. I did not smooth out the batter like the directions specify. In several reviews people mentioned this took forever; even up to 2 hours. I didn't have 2 hours to spare, so I just squirted it in rings around the outside edges and let it run together at will. Obviously the person who came up with this recipe had a lot of time on their hands.

While baking, Svea and Viggo went outside to trike and bike.

I came home from IL/MN the other weekend to find that Viggo mastered biking without training wheels! And guess what he tells me: "Mom, Dad showed me how to do a wheelie!"

Also while outside, Viggo was looking at the ground and suddenly cried out, "I found a four-leaf clover!"

He saw leprechaun footprints and found a four-leaf clover. He was living the St. Patty's dream today.

And here's our cupcake, all frosted and ready to be eaten. These are so fun!

Svea was really wowed by all the colors.

Elin was just having a good time eating her squash and rice.

Guess what? Svea has built-in binoculars. Nate does too, but for some reason I could never capture him wearing his.

We hope you had a happy St. Pat's!