Homemade Peanut Butter

For Christmas last year, SP bought me a wonderful book called Make the Bread,  Buy the Butter .  It is written by Jennifer Reese the author of the blog The Tipsy Baker. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in cooking from scratch. As she describes on her blog.  
"About the Book
Should you bake your bagels or buy them? Is it really a good idea to keep chickens in your backyard for eggs? Is there any point in making your own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when you can buy them individually wrapped and frozen? When you can buy everything you eat already made, from bottled salad dressing to canned gravy, what does it make sense to cook for yourself?"

Our staple and the first recipe in  the book? Peanut butter. There is no turning back.  Simple and 80% the price of Jif!
1 pound unsalted roasted peanuts
2 tablespoons peanut oil
salt

Combine in food processor and grind until a creamy paste. Add more oil as needed to thin.
We don't store ours in the fridge since we consume it so rapidly. It doesn't separate or harden. I love it. Thank you Tipsy Baker!

Now go out and buy the book!

Peanut Butter Soup

This is today's mystery soup. It is an old family recipe, handed down to my mother from her mother, who wrote, "Really very good! If the children like peanut butter, they'd love this!

Ingredients
1 teaspoon minced onion
1 Tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 Tablespoons flour
3 cups scalded milk
salt and pepper to taste
Hi-Ho wrote in: Sherry and parsley to garnish

Directions
1. Begin by heating/scalding milk.
2. Cook onion in butter and peanut butter for five minutes.
3. Add flour and stir until smooth.
4. Add milk slowly, and cook for 20 minutes. (it says in double boiler but I omit)
5. Season to taste.
6. Process with immersion blender if desired.
Enjoy!

Spiced Chicken Burgers with Peanut Sauce

I found this recipe in a Parenting magazine at the Pediatrician's office today. I was there because the kids are sick and this meal looks quick easy and yummy. Hopefully H2 will like it as she's the most delicate palate in the house - but she special requests peanut butter and peanut butter sandwiches everyday, so hopefully the sauce wins her over!

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground chicken
• 2 tsp. red curry powder
• 1 tbsp. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. lime juice
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 dozen mini-pita rounds
• 1 cucumber

Directions

1. Preheat broiler. Combine ground chicken, red curry powder, fresh ginger, and salt, mixing well. Form into 12 balls and flatten to 1/3-inch-thick patties. Broil 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until cooked through and lightly browned.
2. Combine peanut butter, honey, lime juice, soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons water in a glass bowl; microwave on high for 30 seconds, then whisk until smooth. Split a dozen mini-pita rounds. Place chicken patties inside pita rounds, and top with a dollop of peanut sauce and 2 cucumber slices.

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

I am on the next to last section of my recipe box, so please welcome, with a round of applause, the cookies! :D

Ingredients
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup sugar
36 milk chocolate kisses (Hershey's)

Process
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the first 3 ingredients.
3. Shape into 3/4 inch balls.
4. Place on un-greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate kiss in the center of each cookie.
7. Remove to wire racks and cool.

Yield = 3 dozen.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients
4 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
1 cups milk
1 cup flour
1.5 cups peanut butter, Skippy works best.
7.5 ounce jar of marshmallow Fluff
Process

1. Cook sugar butter and milk on med high heat for 15 minutes or until rolling boil.
   
2. Time for EXACTLY 7 MINUTES.
3. Take off stove and immediately add flour, peanut butter, and marshmallow fluff.
4. Blend until melted using wire whisk to help eliminate bumps.
5. Put into buttered 13x9"pan and let harden

Peanut Butter Soup

As I said, soup was and still is a huge tradition in my family. This recipe goes back at least 4 generations. The problem I have is that in this generation, my eldest child hates soup. At the very mention of soup he cringes and screws up his face as if it were some despised potion used to turn him into a spider. The best part is, he loves this soup! Imagine that! But then again, my grandmother wrote in the composition book, "Really very good. If the children like Peanut Butter, they'd love this!"

Enjoy - with love from all the women in my lineage!

Peanut Butter Soup
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon minced onion
1 Tablespoon butter
3 Tablespoons peanut butter
2 Tablespoons flour
3 Cups scalded milk
salt and pepper
and in my mothers own handwriting is written, Sherry and parsley or coriander to garnish. The only problem is she didn't write the Sherry into the directions. But my guess is you cook the onion in it with the butter.

Process:

• In a soup/stock pot, cook onion in butter.
  
• Add peanut butter and cook 5 minutes.
  
• Add flour and stir until smooth
• Add milk slowly, cook 20 minutes in a double boiler.
  
• Season to taste
• Ladle into bowls and garnish with parsley or coriander.
  

Now some of you might wonder about scalded milk. Others may wonder about a double boiler (which I finally have now that Dad sold the house and dismantled Mom's immaculate kitchen).
Let me start with the scalded milk. Never fear - Google is here and I got me some Wikipedia!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalded_milk

And now onto what to do if you do not have a double boiler. The simplest remedy is to ignore that part of the directions - just continue cooking it in what ever stock or soup pot you were using to being with. But if you are "epicurious" like we are, you would want to know why it calls for a double boiler and how to make do when you lack such a kitchen tool.

This is what a double boiler looks like:



For info about what a double boiler is:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-double-boiler.htm
And let me quote from that site about how to improvise:

"If a recipe calls for a double boiler, there is rarely an alternative method. Cooks without an official double boiler can improvise one with two sauce pans or a large pot of boiling water and a Pyrex bowl. Most double boiler models have a single lid, but many sauce recipes require constant stirring. If a cook is using an improvised double boiler, he or she needs to be careful around the steam. The two elements should be kept separated -- if the inner pan touches the bottom of the outer pan, the result could be a counterproductive direct heat."

I can not stress the importance of caution. Please, when improvising, be careful of steam and or imbalance. My makeshift double boiler was not a perfect fit once and things cascaded on me. Be careful please!!!

Enjoy with love from my Mothers mother!