Peanut, Peanut Butter, AND RECALL!

recalled peanut butter

I totally bought – and ate – peanut butter affected by a recall.

I rarely buy the reduced fat; I usually buy something fattier and more natural.  This time, I thought it would be something good and healthy to do for myself.

I was wrong.

Five Good Things

1.) In conjunction with my four-day-weekend project, I am going on vacation at the end of the week.

2.) Because I am a grown up, there was no reason for me not to have a dinner entirely of cheese…so I did.  Osteoporosis prevention, etc.

3.) On Sunday, I went to one of my favorite brunch places in tundra.  I gobbled up their pork belly, poached eggs, polenta, and an english muffin with a lovely bellini.  I love me the brunch.

4.) Gas where I work is twenty cents cheaper PER GALLON than the gas where I live.

5.) It’s less than six months until I move away from the tundra!

Baconalia Review: Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies with Great Lakes Porter

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies with Great Lakes Porter

Bacon and chocolate chip cookies with a nice, rich porter. ..sounds like dessert to my face!  I’m currently in the midst of planning a bacon party that (at this point) will focus entirely on baked goods.  For whatever reason, I’m actually trying the recipes ahead of time this round.  Perhaps I am growing up and becoming more responsible or perhaps I just really like to bake and post cookies to friends.  Regardless of the present and the future, these cookies were the first cookies of my bacon cookie past.  These cookies predate my whole “Baconalia” concept and I got the recipe from a friend, rather than from the internet.  Seriously.   The first time I made these cookies I was completely unaware of the internet’s boundless infatuation with bacon.

Five Good Things

1.) My produce market randomly had a fantastic selection of prime produce yesterday.  Mango, blueberries, peaches, asparagus, and CORN ON THE COB all will be devoured by me this week – in addition to the usual spinach, apples, and grapefruits.  I am pumped. 

2.) The antithesis of produce and my guilty pleasure, Stouffer’s mac ‘n cheese, is on sale at Walgreens this week.  I clipped a coupon for that too.  For some reason (my Scottish background?) I feel LESS bad about eating (delicious) crap when I buy it on sale.

3.) More on this later, but I had a major haircut and do not feel frustrated with the change.  I feel like I have a lot less hair.

4.) Fraggle Rock is on On Demand.  Heck yeah, I’ll dance my cares away.

5.) My new book club starts soon.

Five Good Things

1.) After a couple of consecutive weeks of failing to post a 5GT on Monday, I’m back on track.

2.) I went puddle stomping at work today. 

3.) There were puddles (for stomping) because the snow is melting, which is great both because it is getting warmer and also because it is easier to get down my street with smaller banks down its side.

4.) Free beer (class) tomorrow! 

5.) I bought amazing asparagus; I am going to eat it alllllllll up.  (And then, well, you know.)

Bread Baking: A Tip

With the aid of the internet, I taught myself how to make homemade bread tonight.  The only trick involved convincing my dough to rise, as it turns out that “green”* decisions about heat are not conducive to dough rising.  Apparently yeast isn’t a big fan of 63.  We compromised: I stuck a towel in the dryer and wrapped my bowl up in it, and then placed the bundled bowl near a space heater.  It rose beautifully and baked up deliciously.  

*cheap

Crock Pot Bread Pudding – Round Two

NKOTB

A couple of weeks ago, I made a sweet bread pudding in my mid-sized crockpot.  One of my friends (Suzy) was aghast that I didn’t include raisins.  I tried to explain to her that I did not include them because I don’t much like raisins in my baked goods* and I do like chocolate in my baked goods and, well, since I was the one making the baked good, I GOT MY WAY.

Some people just have very little sense.  Those same people also don’t always want to hear it.

Crock Pot Bread Pudding, Recipe and Ramble

These are leftovers, because I forgot to snap a picture during the original eating

The following is part recipe and part confession.  The recipe part is super easy and yields delicious bread pudding.  The confession aspect is more complicated…see, it turns out I am a total nana.  Technically, I’m only nana-like, but if I started a promiscuous line or lived back in, say, Tudor England, I’m technically old enough to be an actual nana.  Like, the sort of nana with grandchildren – the real sort.  In actuality, I have two houseplants (one dead) and neither child nor grandchild.  Scattered throughout this process were moments akin to what a grandmother might do, for which I (cringingly) awarded myself “nana points.”

I’m not exactly sure what compelled me to make bread pudding, but the need was strong.  I’m not even a huge fan of bread pudding and I lack any emotional attachment to it.  Growing up, we rarely had it as my mother classified it as soggy, old bread.  That is a true statement, except you then cook – or crock – the soggy, old bread.  Conveniently, I had a little over one-third of a baguette left over from earlier in the week.  Completely stale, bread pudding or bread crumbs were probably the only practical purposes for it.  If you are keeping track, that’s two nana points: one for bread pudding and one for salvaging old bread.

Baconalia II Review: Turkey Bacon with Lindeman’s Framboise Lambic

Turkey Bacon with Lindemans Framboise Lambic

One of my long-standing beliefs is that people who claim “turkey bacon is just as good as pork bacon” probably don’t eat much pork bacon.  (Henceforth, pork bacon will be referred to merely as bacon.  Because it is.)  I paired turkey bacon with Lindeman’s Framboise Lambic, a Belgian fruit beer.  Thanksgiving inspired this pairing, hence why I’m posting it now.  I know cranberries are the traditional Thanksgiving fruit, but I think this is a better beer and using the terminology “inspired” allows me a fair bit of leeway for play and fun – both vital to a successful Baconalia.

Hot Chocolate

Yum.  I a convert of making my own hot chocolate.  My friend SB recently blogged about how “it’s basically as easy/quick, yet much tastier” to make one’s own hot chocolate.  I’ll agree with her on the second point, but not the first.  However, while it is significantly more involved and time consuming to make cocoa from scratch, it’s still super easy and super fast…and super worth it.

As per my usual, I didn’t actually measure anything.  Thus, I can’t comment on her exact recipe.  I CAN (and will!) say that it is a great guide.  I really liked the kick from the cinnamon; it was NOT too much.   Try it.  You’ll love us both.  Recipe is here . 

This would probably work well in a crockpot, for a larger group or thirsty/cold friends.  I would probably melt the chocolate in a saucepan, for faster results.  It would require an extra pan, but I think that is worth it to avoid melting chocolate in a crock.

Warning: This is super rich and makes Swiss Miss look/taste/smell like dirty water.

Warning #2: NO RUM FOR KIDS.