Pulverizing Peanuts!!!

 Look at those deliciously pulverized peanuts!!! If that description sounds violent, it's because it was. Have you ever learned about the ancient wine-making process, where people stomped on grapes all day  till the roads looked like rivers of blood? Well… this process is entirely different… but those peanuts still went through a lot.

First, they were ripped out of the comfort of their little pods.

Then, their bare backs were roasted at 350 degrees for 3-5 minutes before being poured into… the blender. (Dun dun dunnn). Our sources told us that a food processor works best, but that a blender could work, too. Good thing my Grammy gave us this power horse! It got a little hot, but after a couple minutes the peanuts were powder… But not peanut butter.. Apparently, a little oil will help get the creaming started, so we added a couple teaspoons of canola. That did the trick! Soon, we added the other ingredients- 1-1/2 teaspoons of molasses and 1 teaspoon of salt.

And got this! It's strangely lighter in color than normal peanut butter, which makes me wonder what exactly they do to it! (Don't worry, we will still buy it from the store too- the price isn't much different from the normal kind at all. BUT it is probably 5x cheaper than the "natural" variety, and tastes so much more like peanut than sugar and other flavors. :)

 After tasting his raspberry jam and peanut butter sandwich, Casey (I quote) 

"was scared at how good it was."

That was interesting… and easy!

Today's project took only a few minutes of prep and a couple hours of waiting, and produced this vat of white, yummy goodness! It's yogurt :)

Again, Casey looked up all the details (this is what happens when I'm doing homework all the time and he's bored!)

Here's how we did it:
-Heated milk (about a quart) in a saucepan till it reached 185 degrees F.
-Meanwhile, let a half cup of yogurt sit outside the fridge to get warm.
-As soon as the milk hit 185, we removed it from the stove to cool to 110 degrees.
-As soon as the milk hit 110, we mixed in the yogurt (as well as a little vanilla pudding mix- extra for flavor, and for sugar for those bacteria to eat!)
-Then we poured the concoction in this jar, screwed the lid on tight, and put the whole jar in a crockpot set to the Warm setting.
-Then we filled the rest of the crockpot with warm water to create a warm, cozy bath for the yogurt.
-We checked the crockpot water intermittently (which for Casey meant every 10 minutes!) to make sure it was staying 110-120 degrees.
-At 5 hours, we took it out, and it was thick, curdle-y Yogurt!!

To get rid of the curdles we mixed it up well, then let it sit in the fridge to thicken.

Later when we tried it, it was a little watery (this is why people add dry milk powder to it!), so we poured it through a cheesecloth, aka T-shirt. ;)

We mixed some strawberry jam/sauce into it for extra flavor and it was delicious!

I liked the consistency and flavor better than store-bought, but that could just be me. It was milder tasting (less tangy) than the store-bought, but if we let it incubate longer, it would probably have been tangier. We will definitely be experimenting with this (Casey says another batch is due this week!) since it's so easy, and also cheap… and let's be honest, we're a little obsessed with frugality. ;)

First Syrup of the Season (and of our lives, ever!)

I was told by a friend that spring seems to come more quickly when you have maple syrup to boil down! Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but it sure adds festivity to the coming of spring (which is already a wonderful thing)!

We got some spiles (the metal spouts you plug into trees) for Christmas this year, and then Casey researched the ins and outs of the process, as he is so good at doing. I swear he does more research and reading now than when he was in school! ;)

Anyways, here is the first boil-down session, which we did right in our kitchen. This was about 3 gallons of sap (that was all we got from the two trees through most of March- it was a cold winter!)

Here you see Casey's idea to prepare pancakes ahead for the morning. :)

And this here was our final product. You can see by the reference point of the apple that we only got about half a pint from the 3 gallons! But most of the pay-off was the fun and experience for the future.

And it is pretty exciting to put your own syrup on pancakes. It tastes like the real thing- and it is!

P.S. the first batch of syrup ended up being too thick, and crystallized into sugar, which was just as delicious. The second time around we made 3x as much, and it was just right.