Mixed nut butter

As anyone you read last night's entry will know, I found some mixed raw nuts on clearance at Target last night. I prefer to buy my nuts raw and unsalted so this seemed like a good deal.

The mix includes hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pistachios and almonds so I thought I could make a mixed nut butter.

I started with one cup nuts. Didn't roast them or soak them or anything. Just dumped them in the food processor. Added a generous dollop of local raw honey, about 2-3 tablespoons full, and about 1/4 cup warm coconut oil.

After the initial 5-7 minutes of grinding and scraping, I feared I wouldn't hit the creamy texture my family has been requesting. So I thought it would be a good idea to add about three tablespoons water.

Then I had nut soup.

I added another 1/4 cup and ground another 5-7 minutes until my patience ran out.

So it's chunky nut butter. Tastes fine, but not as perfectly scrumptious as the almond cashew butter last time. But I intentionally wanted something simpler and with less ingredients.

We'll see how it tastes when the family gets home.

Dairy Free Banana Bread

I needed something to accompany my sweet potato soup and somehow I thought of banana bread. I adapted this recipe from the Betty Crocker 40th anniversary cookbook.

- 1 cup sugar (mine was more like a 1/2 cup, I ran out)
- 1/2 cup margarine (I used 1/4 cup of Earth Balance)
- 2 eggs (mine are fresh off the farm)
- 4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- that raisin syrup I had in the back of the freezer for ages

Place oven rack in lowest position. Grease bottom of small cake pan with walnut oil. Preheat oven to 350. Mix margarine and sugar. Add eggs and stir. Add bananas, milk and vanilla. Mix. Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts. Stir.

Put 3/4 of batter in pan and spread evenly. Add raisin syrup and half the nuts. Add the remaining nuts to the remaining batter and top the "cake." bake an hour? Or will it go quicker? Because it's shallower than a loaf.

I cooked it about 40 minutes. It is the best banana bread/cake I ever made!!!

Sweet Potato Crunch/Casserole hybrid

So, yesterday I thought I would serve some sort of sweet potato with the chicken. The cordless can opener battery died a few turns into the can and the manual can opener just would not latch. (Husband even tried.)

Now that the Gizmo is recharged I got the can open. And I made a use-up-leftovers kind of baked sweet potato dish.

For the potato base:
- 1 can sweet potatoes, drained
- 2 handfuls brown sugar
- About one-half cup farm fresh milk
- 1 egg
- 1 handful raisins

Over top, mix and spread:
- 1/4 cup walnuts (all I had)
- about 1/4 cup leftover pie crumbs
- about 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

Coat with three tablespoons melted butter.

Arrange in Pyrex bread loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes

Blueberry Banana Nut Muffins

The starting point:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_nut_muffins/

Because baking is only fun if you break the rules and do your own thing:

• 2 large ripe bananas
• 1.5 sticks butter, melted
• 1 cup and a little more unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• 2.5 tablespoons coffee
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 pinches iodized sea salt
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 cup regular flour
  
• (I should have added some oats but forgot)
• 2 cups walnuts
• about 1.5 cups fresh blueberries

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

2 Mix in the sugar, egg, applesauce, coffee and vanilla.

3 Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

4 Add the flour, mix until it is just incorporated. Fold in the walnuts and blueberries.

5 Pour mixture into a prepared muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin. I made about 26 muffins.

My first chicken salad!!!

After surveying my friends and my cookbooks, I have decided to try my hand at chicken salad.

My friends all recommended curry. And various fruits. And since my favorite chicken salad on earth is that of my high school English teacher and involves grapes... and my second favorite is the Apple Walnut Chicken Salad at Java's Brewin at New and Broad Street in Bethlehem...

A random little cookbook from my mother, Salads and Dressings Varied and Delicious by G&R Publishing, 1993, lists the following for chicken salad:

Chicken Salad

from Salads and Dressings Varied and Delicious

2 cups cooked chicken, diced coarse

1 cup celery diced

3/4 cup peeled cucumbers

1 TBS finely cut green onion

Dash salt

1 cup salad dressing

Angel's Chicken Salad with Fruit

1 3/4 cup chicken

1 cup chopped apple

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped grapes

1/2 cup nut topping

1 tsp. it's a dilly

3/4 cup Nayonnaise/ soy mayonnaise