For The Love and PB & J!

Remember that awesome bit on Sesame Street as a kid when they go to a peanut butter factory? I loved it when they showed that. Maybe that's where my appreciation for peanut butter comes from. Or maybe it's from when my mom would make me open face peanut butter sandwiches with stars and smiley faces drawn into them. Any way you spread it, I am infatuated with peanut butter and it's endless possibilities. I am thankful almost everyday I do not have a peanut allergy, as I do not how one could live like that.



World's happiest kid ever? I think so. (Taken from Foodbeast.com)


Earlier this week I over heard a couple women in my office discussing how the price of peanut butter was about to almost double. Imagine my horror. I hadn't heard anything about it so I decided to look it up and make sure this wasn't just office hype. After checking with a few credible news sources, I can confirm that your PB and J may become a luxury item.

Since last year the price of unprocessed peanuts has went from $450 a ton to $1,150 a ton. That's over a 200% price increase. The reason the price of peanuts has sky-rocketed so much is because of a poor peanut harvest due to the heat and drought conditions summer.

Soon that cost will be passed on to us. Popular brands such as Jif , Peter Pan, and (my personal childhood favorite) Skippy have already announced price hikes between 24 and 40% starting in the beginning of November. The price hike is already having an effect on shelled peanuts, as one pound of shelled peanuts is up 50 cents from last year.

Consider yourselves properly forewarned. Now go forth my peanut butter loving minions and stock up.

Chipotle Two Bean Chili

Months ago I was inspired to buy a small slow cooker while shopping for a bridal registry. My mind was filled with all the wonderful things I could create with it. The luxury of just throwing all my ingredients in, turning that puppy on low, and let it simmer while I did who knows what.


Image taken from keraladelight.com

By "months ago," I mean about a year and a half ago. All those "wonderful things" turned out to be one brisket. That is until a few nights ago. Being in school and completing a full-time internship leaves little time to be in the kitchen. What better time than now to break that bad boy out?

For this demonstration in slow cooking cookery I made chili. Instead of going to the internet for a recipe or buying a prepackaged chili seasoning mix I decided to wing it, which was a first in chili preparation for me. The night before I threw my ingredients into the stoneware piece and then put it in the fridge overnight.

When I got up the next morning I added water, put the stoneware in the heating base, and turned it to low. Later that day I was talking with a co-worker about my experiment. Long story short, he was pretty convinced that my creation was scorched to the bottom of stoneware and my apartment was going to be smokier than a sweat lodge. That is, if I still had an apartment. Knowing my cooking skills and uncanny ability to have something catch fire, or at the very least set off a smoke detector, I high-tailed it home.

There were no fire trucks, that was a good sign. My neighbors were no where to be seen, which was normal, so that made it a plus. Upon entering my apartment I was greeted by the aroma of chili pepper spices. Very good sign. In the slow cooker my chili was brimming with water, which was merrily bubbling up the sides. Nothing was dried out nor smoking nor scorched. The cooking of the chili was deemed a success.

Then it came time to try the chili and it was by no means is a wimpy chili. I had exercised selective memory to spice when I added the chipotle peppers and adobo sauce, which meant sour cream and a glass of milk went a long way. For a tamer chili, I suggest cutting the adobo sauce with tomato paste or completely substituting the chipotle peppers and adobo sauce with tomato paste.

Chipotle Two Bean Chili
*This recipe is meant for a 1.5 quart slow cooker. Adjust ingredients as necessary.

What You Need:

4 Roma Tomatoes, diced
1/2 Medium Raw White Onion, chopped
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 Medium Celery Stalk, chopped
1 Can of Mushrooms, Pieces and Stems
1.5 c. of Canned Black Beans
1.5 c. of Canned Dark Red Kidney Beans
1 c. Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
1 T. Chipotle Seasoning
1/2 T. Smoked Paprika
1/2 c. Water


What To Do:
Spray the inside of the stoneware dish with cooking spray. Drain the mushrooms. Drain and rinse the black and kidney beans. Layer all the ingredients in the dish except for the water. Before putting the stoneware dish in the heating element, add the water. Set the heating element to low and cook for 5 hours. Try to stir it at least once while cooking. The chili can stay on longer than 5 hours if need be.

Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1 cup
Calories: 162 calories
Fat: 1.6 grams
Carbohydrates: 32.4 grams
Protein: 8.2 grams

Who Needs a Pumpkin?

Every year about this time I talk up myself on how this will be the year I carve a pumpkin. And every year I conveniently let the time pass and "forget" about it. Mainly because, I'll be honest, carving pumpkins can be a real pain. When you're a kid, mom or dad is ever so helpful by taking off the top for you. Then you are given the joy of ripping out the cold, slippery insides of the it. After approximately 2 hours your entire upper torso is sticky and there are pumpkin guts just about everywhere other than the newspaper you laid out. Then with those gooey hands you're given a little, blunt "safety" knife and told to carve a pumpkin. You can barely get the knife out after your first plunge without the handle breaking off. Sounds like an awesome way to spend a Saturday night, right? The icing on the cake were when the nimrods down the way would be ever so kind to put your pathetic, one-eyed crooked-mouth pumpkin out of it's misery by smashing it. Personally, this pumpkin is a little more my style.


This surely instilled fear in many pumpkins.

I honestly can't recall the last time I carved a pumpkin. I think I was in middle-school, maybe. Or did I paint one instead? Either way, it became way easier just to buy a pumpkin and put it on the front porch. Then if someone did smash it, I could at least hope that they would be speckled with pumpkin guts instead of me.

Dimitri Tsykalov has the right idea. He backed away from the whole idea that carving was only for pumpkins... or wood or clay. Instead he uses other veggies, and even fruit, as his medium. This article about him is from the DailyMail . Being that Halloween is the next major holiday, I suggest you take a look at it. It will probably put your pumpkin to shame, but maybe you'll feel inspired to carve something else.