I Made Natural Peanut Butter!

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Yes, I did! Just like the pioneers! (And the pilgrims, I’m sure.)

So easy, so fast, and you can fully control the taste using salt, oil type, and the peanuts you choose to use.

I used: 1 bag of Unsalted Roasted Peanuts / 3-4 tbsp Oil (I chose veg) / 1/4 tea salt. I threw it all into my high-speed blender and let it go.

My pretty blender. I nicknamed her She Hulk. For the obvious reason.

My pretty blender. I nicknamed her She Hulk. For the obvious reason.

My first attempt with a conservative two tablespoons of veg oil produced a lovely chunky mix, but it was barely spread consistency so I added another tablespoon. That got me a lovely lumpy consistency but I wanted to see what would happen if I added another half tablespoon more of oil and let ‘er rip a full minute.

This! This what I got. I’m am very happy. This is how I love my natural peanut butter. This is the spread I love to use at home. I have long ditched the sugary Kraft stuff my husband refuses to give up. He rarely eats PB & J, but when he does, he gets cranky when there isn’t any in the pantry. I married a child. 🙂

Anyhooch, give this a go if you’re into natural peanut butter like I am, and you also hate the big sticker price of it in grocery stores and bulk food stores. The wild pricing of any commercial peanut butter products is teetering on being a criminal situation. :-\

Sicilian Sheet Tray Pizza

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I like making pizza at home. We like a nice crispy crust, and one way to guarantee getting one every time outside of having a professional pizza oven is to use a sheet tray and regular olive oil. It’s how the Sicilians nonnas do it.

One your large sheet tray, pour out about 2 tbsp of olive oil. You can use your fingers to layer the whole tray in the oil, or you can use a brush. Don’t forget to brush oil up along the sides so the pizza doesn’t stick to it. Watch this clip to see how it’s done.

Drop your room temp ball of pizza dough on the sheet and use your oiled fingers to start pressing and stretching the dough outwards all over the surface. When you think the bottom has enough oil on it, flip the whole dough over to oil the second side. Keep stretching the dough out to the corners from the middle and the dough edge.

When the dough starts contracting back into the middle, stop. Let the dough rest 30 mins. After that first rest, repeat the stretching into the corners. Again, when it starts contracting, stop. Rest it another 30 mins. This may need one or two more stretch & rests before you can start topping the pizza.

I bake mine at 450*F for as long as it takes for me to smell it cooking in the oven and for the cheese to melt in the middle. Pull it out, rest it 10-15 mins, and then use your longest burger flipping spatula to lift the crust off of the sheet to a cutting board. And this should what you see when you sneak a peek at the crust.

Enjoy!

 

Mac & Pizza Casserole

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Sometimes I get tired of pizza because I’m not in the mood to chew a baked crust. And sometimes I also want Mac & Cheese at the same time as pizza. Enter the casserole version!

I mixed up my normal pizza topper ingredients I like (pepperoni chopped up, any veg I have kicking around, loads of grated mozza + marble cheddar plus a bit of parm cheeses), a bunch of cooked elbow pasta, the white mac & cheese sauce I always make (or close enough), and any spices I want (I stuck with the classic Italian blend).

This got baked covered at 375* for about 30 mins to get it hot enough to melt the cheese properly.

Pizza Pizziola

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This is a spin on the Subway Pizziola we used to make back in the day. I love the idea of chicken and pepperoni in the same sandwich, so it seems like it would translate nicely to an actual pizza version. And I was right. This might be the husband’s new favourite.

I’ve made these mini pizzas on naan bread both in the oven and in the air fryer. Both come out roughly the same with not much difference, so bake it in what you have. It’s definitely faster in the air fryer, though.

Here is how I did it: I laid the sauce down on the naan and topped it with a bit of veggies, and then the pepperoni slices. I placed the pulled chicken all over then then topped that will a few dabs of sauce before laying the whole top surface with mozzarella.

After I bake the pies, and I get the colour on the cheese I’m after, I pull them out and top them with Italian Blend spices and cracks of Red Hot Chili Pepper Flakes to finish it.

Fast & Dirty Tartar Sauce

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This is a very scaled down version of the tartar sauce my late mother-in-law used to make every morning when she worked at a big chain restaurant 50 years ago. I make this any time we have fish of any kind where it would be appropriate.

Small Batch Tartar Sauce:
1/4 C: Mayo / Sour Cream
1 Dill Pickle, fine chopped (or 1 tea relish)
1 tea Creamy Horseradish
1/2 tea: Lemon Juice, fresh / Lemon Zest, for colour (opt) / Dried Oregano
S&P, to taste

Give it a good stir and use it immediately, or chill it to marry the flavours further. Store in the fridge for up to three weeks covered. Yield: 4 regular portions, or two big portions.

Low-Carb Pasta Alternative

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Ok, so I found this recipe link for a Low-Carb Pasta Alternative buried in my old Pinterest boards. In a board I haven’t looked at in about six or more years. Otherwise, I would have suggested this long ago.

Use that bagged slaw we use for stir-fries. It’s quite versatile. Anyway, if you’re missing pasta in sauce, this might be up your alley, E.

Air Fryer Smash Sliders

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A few weeks back, I made some cute mini smash burgers at home that, although tasty enough, were a huge pain the butt to make on the stovetop. They had too much clean up time attached after the onions invariably burned while the thin meat patties resting over them steam cooked, and the cheese on top of them finally melted and the bun warmed up. Ugh.

I vowed never to make them that way again. They make a cute pub grub meal, but honestly, I wasn’t into making them the Alton Brown way again. What he does, he does well. But, I’m not Alton. I’m me. And me is really good at figuring out ways to streamline production and assembly methods at work, and at home. Work smarter, not harder!

So with that, I turned to my air fryer. In the back of my head, I was only going to cook down the onions in it (so they didn’t burn) while I pan fried the patties on one side before flipping them and adding the cheese on the second side as the meat finished up.

I ended up poo-pooing the idea of using the stovetop all together when I remembered how fast cooking onions in the air fryer is at 350*F for about 10-12 mins. I could just wait ten minutes and add the patties after removing the onions. From there, 4 mins on the first side, flip, add cheese and cook another 4 minutes while I prepped the buns.

I chose a small dinner roll pack because the grocery store stopped getting the slider buns I was going to buy during the pandemic. I assume the bread maker axed this from their streamlined product line for supply chain issues. Oh, well. The dinner buns were the perfect size in the end.

I laid the onions on a platter in small nests so I could drop a cheesy patty on each when they came out of the air fryer. I placed the tops on each patty so they melded together. On the bottoms, I laid down some somewhat spicy burger/dip sauce I had in the fridge.

We then scraped up each pile off the platter and laid them down onto each bottom, and viola! Done. I really like how these turned out, and how fast they came together. And it was about as much clean up as cooking bacon strips in the air fryer. And none of it irritated me like doing these smash sliders on the stovetop did.

I’m calling this one as a win! Will do smash sliders this way from now on. Recommend.

Easy Breakfast Egg Quesadilla

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I found this idea in a Tik-Tok video several months ago, and I have been rocking it pretty steady since. I don’t seem to get tired of it much. Somedays I make a breakfast bowl of ramen instead, but that’s on my days off when I have more time to clean out the fridge for ramen inclusions.

The idea is fairly straightforward and easy. One egg, beaten with seasonings of your choice (S&P/RHCP flakes/Onion Powder is a good combo), poured into to a hot pan with a bit of oil. Tilt the pan so it runs thin over most of the bottom of the pan. As the bottom sets to white, top the uncooked egg top with a tortilla or naan bread. Push it down a bit so the egg sticks to it.

Wait about 30-45 seconds, and then pinch the bread as you pick it up with the attached egg. Flip it over. Here’s where it get interesting.

Depending on what I have in my fridge, I will lay down some cheese grate or a broken up slice of cheese over one side. I top that with something like thin sliced deli meat or leftover chicken I chop fine.

Fold the tortilla or naan over and move the half moon into the middle of the pan. Push down so the meat melts into the cheese. After 30 seconds, kill the heat and flip the quesadilla to finish cooking for another 15 seconds.

Move it over to plate and cut it into 3 or 4 triangle portions. I typically squirt some Ranch or other dip sauce the size of two quarters on the plate for dipping. This fills me up for a few hours due to the three protein sources. I don’t need to go crazy with the portions either.

Enjoy.

Air Fryer Bacon

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This was a gamble given how expensive thick cut bacon is, and since it’s the only bacon I will buy (snob alert!), I cut two or three in half, and lined the basket with them. I added some cracked pepper and grinds of red chili pepper flakes. I didn’t need to use any spray here. The fat rendering out of the pork did all of the heavy lifting for me.

The first side was cooked at 400* for about 4 mins before being flipped to finish cooking for another 3-4 mins. It cooked up perfectly. With minimal curl, to boot. I hate curly bacon (and hair).

Of course the first batch was immediately consumed in a BLT sanny. Yum!

Home Reno – Pantry Storage

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Ok, here we are. This is the big project we did. Big in terms of scale, size, and cost. But worth every penny. This project was inspired in part by the wall of storage you’ve enjoyed since your parents bought that house 30-ish years ago. I’ve been in awe of that much space ever since. It’s been tucked away in my head ever since.

This is my take on it. A full 9′ of storage cabinetry stuffed with pull-out drawers and shelves to spare. We even carved out some space for two appliances: the microwave and the drink fridge. The husband busted his ass planning this all out, buying all of the parts and materials, and assembling it all for me while I was – you guessed it – at work.

My main job was to figure out where the drawers and shelves would reside, and what went in them. After all that, I had to put all of my kitchen crap in these cabinets in a neat, orderly way that is easy to find and not too junky looking. For the most part, things are where they will live forever, but sometimes I will figure out something needs to be moved and just do that on the fly.

This is a small sampling of the crap I had to find a home for. I got rid of a lot of stuff before this picture was taken, too! 😀 So, as you can see, I needed proper storage in this dinky house. This house couldn’t handle my kitchen needs. I have no idea how my neighbours live with their lack of storage, but this is what we did to solve this very vexing and annoying problem.

One other issue we’ve always struggled with is, where do we store our brooms and vacuum? The brooms ended up on a wall in the garage, but the vacuum always kicked about. I hated that, but there was next to zero closet storage on the main floor. Thanks to a weird jog in the wall for the hvac stuff, we had a small nook left over that ended up being the perfect size for our baby Dyson. (We have since replaced it with another thin upright vacuum type that also fits in this nook perfectly.)

And finally, I have to talk about how life-changing pull-out drawers have been for me, a woman with tiny T-Rex arms. We paid a LOT for each of these drawers, but I wouldn’t trade them for all the tea in the Boston harbour. They have made this project complete. I can’t imagine trying to live with these cabinets but with just a bunch of shelves. For real, these were invented for people like me. I cannot recommend them highly enough! 🙂