Peanut Butter

I really wish my camera worked so I could add pictures of our peanuts, but alas, it doesn't.

When we were in Thailand several weeks ago, my friend Jennifer made homemade peanut butter. I helped. And since I did the last part, I got the most credit. I know people are just trying to encourage me to be more cookish, but I know Jennifer is the real hero.

So making peanut butter is not too hard. You roast your peanuts in a big wok and add some honey to it. Get those raskly peanuts all warm and toasty. Then you put some in a blender and add oil and blend it. That was my job. You can add more honey or sugar if you want. And presto, you have peanut butter. And it was really good. Our friend from Ethiopia was staying there too and she made a nice bread on the top of the stove. It went great with the peanut butter. And Dan (husband of Jen) bought some homemade mango jelly which also was delicious. So we all contributed to the peanut butter in our own special way.

Steve thought it would be a good idea for us to make our own peanut butter once we got home. So he and a friend went out and bought a big bag of peanuts. The only difference is that they were in the shell. The bag sat there for a few days until I got around to cracking the peanuts. It didn't take long before I realized that this was a stupid idea. It would take me hours to crack all those peanuts. And then our blender is used for making spicy chutney (salsa) and you just can't get that taste out completely. So our peanut butter, if I ever cracked all the peanuts, would be spicy and gross. So we just went out and bought a jar of peanut butter and we still have a bag of peanuts. Now we are handing out handfuls to the beggars on the street.