Gambrill and I recently split the cost of a food processor. Yesterday we made our second batch of peanut butter. It is very easy and costs about half as cheap to make as to buy it here in the stores (in Karaganda that is). It is simply peanuts, sugar, salt and oil....ground up until it looks like this (above). It tastes good. We still have to work out some of the kinks. For instance, you can taste the crunch of the sugar crystals. But I don't mind that- it tastes like peanut butter. I ate 5 sandwiches yesterday! haha.
We made two batches yesterday. One didn't turn out as good in my opinion. Natasha, Gambrill's host mom, doesn't like the taste of sunflower oil and wanted to experiment with butter instead. We also had the idea of substituting honey for the sugar, to avoid the crunch of the crystals. But this batch didn't do as well. Even with the butter melted it didn't get "buttery" like it should. We still had to add oil to thin it and it still turned into more of a paste or spread, than a butter. It still tasted good, but it wasn't like peanut butter.
Two thumbs up on the home-made peanut butter. The only real hassle is that we have to skin all the peanuts, but we've timed it out that you can skin about 2 cups of peanuts in the time it takes to watch a movie- so it isn't too bad.
I'm drying out some basil now too. It should be done drying today. Once my basil grows back, we'll attempt to make pesto in the food processor. Of course, hot sauce and other's will happen too when the peppers get in. Right now I've got 5 peppers on my plants.
Who says life in the middle of nowhere has to be without its little pleasures?
