All Natural OR Processed Peanut Butter

Yes, I am aware that this post comes at a bad time given the peanut paste and filling issue going on in the U.S.. As of today, the FDA says that peanut butter in jars from grocery stores is safe to eat.


In my last post of 2008, I shared photos of our Peanut Butter and Jellies that Dave and I made for New Year's Eve dessert. It clearly stated that we should use all natural peanut butter and not processed peanut butter because of all the additives.

We were shocked at the difference in texture and taste. Having grown up eating Jif, Skippy or other commercial brands of peanut butter, I just assumed all peanut butter was pretty much the same. I even started buying reduced fat peanut butter because I did not think the taste and texture was all that different from the regular. I remember seeing an organic, probably all natural, peanut butter in college where the oil separated from the peanut spread and I was told you had to stir it each time you used it to bring it back together. It didn't sound or look appealing. This was not the experience we had on New Year's Eve.


The Krema peanut butter had a smoother texture similar to that of whipped butter (not margarine) and tasted of only peanuts. It was like eating fresh fruit compared to frozen fruit as I think you sometimes lose a little flavor when using the frozen version (don't get me wrong, we have fresh and frozen fruits and veggies). You tasted peanut and not sugar or sweetness. It wasn't as sticky as the commercial brand peanut butters either. I will admit, it had a little oil on the top that easily mixed into the peanut butter - not nearly as much oil as I saw years ago on that organic peanut butter.

Overall, big thumbs up for the all natural peanut butter. If you look on the label, you will see one ingredient - peanuts. They say that through roasting and baking (I think), they can create a healthier* peanut butter.
*Healthier because you don't have all the additives in the all natural version.

If you like to bake, I highly recommend using all natural peanut butter. I always wonder why my peanut butter cookies or icing just doesn't have the right peanut butter flavor and I'm pretty sure after making the peanut butter chocolate truffles it is because I was using commercial/processed peanut butter with too many extra additives. Don't chefs say it's best to cook with all natural ingredients anyway?

While I grew up on Jif and still keep it in my pantry, I no longer look at it the same. When tasting the two peanut butters side-by-side, Jif is definitely sweeter and less peanutty. It sticks to the inside of your mouth more than the all natural version.

After we tasted both peanut butters, we decided to compare ingredient labels. After reading the ingredient label, I now know why it tastes sweeter than the all natural peanut butter. The second ingredient is corn syrup solids and the fourth ingredient is sugar. There are some ingredients I can't pronounce and have no idea what they are or do to food. I'm sure some are to help preserve the peanut butter to give it a longer shelf life. Seeing the difference in labels certainly surprised us as we didn't expect such a big difference.

Sidenotes: The all natural version cost about $0.10, maybe $0.15, more than the Jif. Sorry Jif!

This wasn't meant to be a 'preachy' post, just the opportunity for me to share an eye-opening experience in comparing an all natural product to a processed product. Plus, like I said, I think the all natural peanut butter will make cookies, cakes, icing, etc. taste better. It will be our secret!!

Peanut Butter & Jelly - Not What You're Thinking...

WoW!

We received The French Laundry Cookbook from Thomas Keller's most famed restaurant (in my opinion) for Christmas and decided to try a dessert recipe for New Year's eve. The main course recipes intimidate us a little at this point, so we thought we would start of easy. His recipe did not disappoint and will be one we use again in the future. We give this dessert two very enthusiastic thumbs up!!!

New Year's Eve Peanut Butter and Jellies

We selected a dessert of Peanut Butter and Jellies or in layman's terms - chocolate truffles and high end gummies/jello. I feel bad referring to the jellies as gummies/jello because they are SO MUCH better than gummies or jello since they are made from real, fresh ingredients instead of polybiphospatecarbonate... (you get the point).

The peanut butter truffles and grape jellies we made turned out fantastic. It is recommended to serve the truffles immediately after pulling from the refrigerator, but if you let the truffles warm up a little, the peanut butter inside becomes extra creamy and soft and just melts in your mouth - very good and very rich. I'm convinced that this creaminess in part is attributed to using natural peanut butter.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

The concord grape jellies have a texture not unlike jello, but much stronger. The jellies are coated with granulated sugar at the end, which is the perfect finishing touch and does not make them overly sweet. Keller is right when he says to use unsweetened juice in this recipe, otherwise your jellies would probably give someone sugar shock.

Concord Grape Jellies

Jellies in the pan - setting

Simple presentation - not nearly as pretty as what we saw in The French Laundry cookbook.

More Feasting...

For dinner, Dave and I went simple - steak and eggs. Even Kaitlyn got to enjoy this feast. Dave made homemade fries from red skin potatoes and added a touch of season salt at the end. We used sliced filet mignon for the meat and he made me a fried egg while his egg was over easy. All in all, a delicious way to end 2008.

Steak and 'fried' egg

Steak and 'over easy' egg

And They'd Feast, Feast, Feast, Feast!

Wow! Our whirlwind holiday tour concluded this Sunday after two and a half weeks of visitors. Even though we did not travel this year, our families were kind enough to come to us to celebrate Christmas. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed cooking with each other in the kitchen. Below are some photos of all the fun meals we made and ate. Cheers!

Cookie Decorating for Kids
Kaitlyn and our neighbor decorated holiday cookies - so cute!

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Check out this beautiful cutting board that Go Blue Dad received for Christmas...

Spaghetti and Meatballs
Homemade sauce by G'pa Clinton and homemade meatballs by Dad and G'pa Clinton

Stuffed Pork Loin with fresh Green Beans and Biscuits
The pork loin was stuff with dried cherries, raisins, dried apricots, sauteed onion, sauteed apples, bread and nuts. We used the pan drippings to make gravy.
This meal was so good, we made it twice.


Homemade Donuts
The recipe came from The Joy of Cooking under Sour Cream Donuts.

Christmas Eve Tradition: Corned Beef and Latkes
Our families changed for the better in 2003 and the tradition of corned beef on Christmas Eve was born. We have had it every year since then and it is good! Depending on the person, you eat the corned beef with latkes (potato pancakes) or rye bread. We simmer it all day using G'Pa Clinton's special seasoning. It falls apart at dinner time.

Hope you enjoy the photos. As you can see, cooking brings our families together. I apologize for formatting errors - I'm having trouble with blogspot.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Spirit

If you enjoy holiday music, check out his instrumental version of "O Holy Night" performed by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and other New Orleans musicians back in 2006 on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

It's a free download: http://www.tromboneshorty.com/studio60.html

Chili - Great meal on a cold day!

Having lived in several places throughout the U.S. - southwest, Midwest, mid-Atlantic, northeast, etc., I found out that chili means different things to people in each area. This wikipedia article is interesting (and yes, I know wikipedia isn't necessarily an accurate resource, but this is just for fun): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne.

In the southwest, some colleagues and I had a discussion about the types of chili we grew up eating. I didn't realize at that point that 'chili' could be green - from green chili peppers. Contrary to my belief, green chili peppers can be tasty and hot if you eat the real thing and not the canned version found in the grocery store.

While I have not tried the New Mexico green chili, I have sampled Texas Chili (no beans, just meat), Cincinnati chili (Cinnamon spice is the key ingredient), white bean chicken chili, and my family's chili with ground beef,beans, onions, green pepper, etc. Yes, we like a chunky chili that is served as a stew and maybe topped with cheese, sour cream, oyster crackers and/or green onions.

So, since the weather has cooled off, I made my family's version chili and we served it over spaghetti noodles to mix it up a little bit.

Go Blue Mom's Chili Recipe
1.25 lbs ground beef (90% lean)
1 big can Bush's chili beans with liquid (flavored pinto beans)
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes with liquid
1 15 oz. can Rotel tomatoes with green chili's with liquid
1 -2 sweet onion(s)
1 green pepper
1 T celery seed (I forgot to buy the celery, but you could use it)
3 cloves garlic
1 packet McCormick chili seasoning
6 laps Worcestershire sauce
3 dashes hot sauce
20 grinds ground black pepper
kosher salt
1 T olive oil
1 t honey (add as needed)
1 T lemon juice (optional: add a little lemon zest)
1 T ground cumin (add as needed after this)
1 T chili powder (add as needed after this)

Heat a skillet and brown the ground beef. Drain the beef and set aside.

Roughly chop the onion, green pepper, and celery (if using). Mince the garlic. In the chili pot, saute the green peppers and celery seed (or real celery if substituting) for five minutes in olive oil before adding the onion. Saute peppers and onion for 3 more minutes. Add the minced garlic and saute for a minute or minute and a half.

Add the ground beef, crushed tomatoes, Rotel, and beans and bring to a simmer. Stir chili and add the Worcestershire sauce, pepper, honey, lemon juice, McCormick's chili seasoning, hot sauce, cumin, chili powder, and salt (if needed). Turn the burner to low and let simmer for 30 minutes to six hours.

Serve in bowls as a stew, serve over noodles, or serve over rice. Potential toppings: red onion, green onion, cheddar cheese, sour cream, or oyster crackers.

Enjoy!!

CrockPot Cooking Continued...

Coq Au Vin

5 slices bacon - diced (we used 4)

2/3 c. green onion, sliced

6 chicken breasts (we used 3 chicken breasts)

1 onion, chopped

1/4 lb. whole mushrooms

8 small new potatoes

1 clove garlic, sliced (we used 3 cloves)

kosher salt

pepper

1/2 t. dried thyme (we used 1 t.)

1/2 c. chicken broth

1/2 c. burgundy (Pinot Noir) wine

The Coq Au Vin turned out better than the French Beef Burgundy and was an overall success. I added two carrots as well since we had them in the fridge. This is a great cold weather, comfort food type of meal. I didn't think the bacon added anything to the dish, so next time I will try without it just for comparison. It could be the brand of bacon that I bought didn't have much flavor.

Yes, I know, the presentation needs work, but it tasted good, nonetheless.

Hello CrockPot Cooking!

The challenge for Dave and I this week is for each of us to make a meal using the crockpot.

The last time we used a crockpot was in 2003 to make meatballs - pretty simple. Then our crockpot broke and we haven't used one since. We were given one as a gift and now that the weather is cold - it's time to break it out and give it a whirl!
Dave decided to make a French Beef Burgundy using a recipe from the Rival cookbook that came with the crockpot.

French Beef Burgundy

1/4 c. flour

1/2 t. salt (kosher)

1/2 t. pepper (we used more b/c we like pepper)

2 lbs. boneless beef chuck cut into 1" cubes

2 T. olive oil

1 onion

8 button mushrooms, sliced

1/2 c. fresh Italian parsley

3 cloves garlic (plus an extra for good measure)

2 bay leaves (we used 4 leaves)

1 c. burgundy wine (Pinot Noir)

1/2 c. beef broth (we used low sodium broth)

dried thyme (we added)

I can not list the instructions b/c of copyright issues, but some comments on this recipe...

I would substitute baby portabella mushrooms for the button mushrooms to give a meatier taste and a little more substance to the sauce. Adding potatoes to this dish would make a complete one pot meal or you could serve it over white or brown steamed rice.

Despite slow cooking for four hours, I might add some flour and butter at the end to thicken the sauce. We discussed using a Cabernet instead of a Pinot for a more robust sauce, but then it wouldn't be French Beef Burgundy. :-)

Coming soon... Coq Au Vin