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as I drank my glorious diluted coffee yesterday morning, I heard some odd noises. Living in an older home, there are definitely odd noises, but I like to get to the bottom of them if possible. Ahhh, then I understood with a bit of further research.
Things were going “nuts”
As in, acorn season. Last year we had a SEA of acorns out front (covering the steps as well. TOTALLY safe…) This year we have not had many. At least none that attacked me like last year while innocently doing crosswords out front.. chicken little anyone? So, with a bit of further research I found that acorn production varies year to year. And, apparently, every 7 years or so is a “mast” year where there are many more acorns in order to insure survival. cool huh? Humans don’t typically consume them outside of a few cultures, but when soaked to remove tannins they can be eaten. Now you’ve had your school for the day! you are welcome.
So the sounds effects for this rainy morning were provided by wind/autumn/naughty squirrels!
…
Later in the evening, at dinner over at a friend of man-go-round’s I was having some delicious mushroom stroganoff with cashews in it (will have to make it like that myself sometime! great recipe!) and I thought about the acorns again.
(side note: cashews are in my top 3 for nuts. food of the gods.)
Even later in the evening, I was eating some peanut butter and pita, and was thinking about nuts for the third time of the day. Sorry mom, sorry stomach- I was naughty and ate peanut butter. I considered I might end up with heartburn. I KNEW I would feel it in my tum-tum in the morning. But gosh darnit, peanut butter is DELICIOUS!!!!! and NUTRITIOUS! so I choose to live on the edge.
Often, I do not live on the edge. I will take this opportunity to review the various types of nut butters I have tried in avoidance of the ever-mischievous PB.
Almond Butter– the most obvs. of the alternate nut butters. Store bought is pricey, but Trader Joe’s with flax seeds is super tasty. Buuuut (I wasn’t lying when I admitted I like big “buut”s) it is also incredibly easy to make on your own!
Thanks to my BAMF (look it up mom, I’m censoring myself here…) food processor, I can churn out home-made almond butter stat.
Here is the process (hehe, pun intended)/recipe
-Any random amount of almonds. If raw, toast them on the stove first to bring out oils. I have also used the sugary sweetened ones that come in the big bags, and the skinned roasted ones, but the most economical is raw or toasted bulk almonds.
-extra oil if desired
-mix-ins! I have tried:
salt
sugar
splenda/cinnamon
pumpkin pie spice
chocolate chips
chocolate pudding mix (super super good)
sesame seeds
dates (this was a single serving PB in my new mini-processor)
and probably more I have forgotten.
Hooray for cheap nut butters!
You can do this with any nut. I have also made walnut butter , sunbutter, and cashew butter with same process, with delicious results.
I HAVE ALSO TRIED TO MAKE SOY NUT BUTTER AND IT WAS THE MOST REPUGNANT THING I’VE EVER (partially) INGESTED! I continued to try to eat bites of it for about 4 days to try not to be wasteful, but ended up spitting it right in the garbage 95% of the time. Finally I regretfully tossed the rest.
That’s my nutty story, and I’m sticking to it.
Stay tuned for the results of upcoming pistachio butter, hazelnut butter (also in the trifecta of nuts along withbrazil nuts) and perhaps a pepita butter or pecan butter.
or maybe, if the harvest didn’t all blow away in the crazy storm…
ACORN BUTTER!
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| Blechh! |
