The Peanut Butter Battle

My good friend and fellow blogger, Angela -- the charming hostess of Foodie Road Show -- commented on my recent rant about greasy, goopy natural peanut butters by telling me that her town of Boulder, Colorado, actually produces a very fine product: Justin's.

They make 4 varieties of almond butter (chocolate, honey, maple and classic), 3 varieties of peanut butter (chocolate, honey and classic), and chocolate hazelnut butter ... oh, my! I had mentioned in my rant that the only natural peanut butter that I consider to be edible is Koeze's, made in Michigan's own Grand Rapids. It was good to know -- and from a most trusted source -- that there might be other options.

Well ... that had all the makings of a peanut butter battle, didn't it??? I emailed Angela and proposed our own little mini Foodie Exchange: a jar of Koeze's for a jar of Justin's, to which she happily agreed. This was less for the sake of competition and more for the sake of being a couple of happy gourmandes who would try almost anything once, so why not try something as luscious as a new brand of peanut butter???

Jeremy was so excited when our box from Angela came that he called me at work; I could hardly wait to get home to try it. Of course, it arrived on a day when I got out of work late, rushed around, then had to leave for the evening. But in addition to a large jar of the chocolate hazelnut butter, Angela had also sent totable packets of honey, maple and chocolate peanut butters which I brought to Tom's. He is a devoted worshiper of peanut butter, so he was thrilled to receive tastes of these treats.

We immediately opened the chocolate peanut butter, which was unbelievably rich and creamy and chocolatey; it had hints of Nutella which, as we all know, is one of the most perfect foods in the universe. Tom thought it would be wonderful drizzled over apples, with classic peanut butter tossed into that mix as well. Personally, I thought it was a thing of supreme beauty just eaten off a fingertip.

Then Jeremy told me that the mom of one of his good friends is having a surgical procedure done today, so I plan to make a dinner to send over to the house. And, of course, cookies are supreme comfort food in times of stress, right??? So why not make a batch to send along with the meal? And, given that I had a new ingredient to play with, why not incorporate it into the batter?

So I took my basic peanut butter cookie recipe, but used only half the traditional peanut butter; the other half was Justin's chocolate hazelnut spread. I threw in some chocolate chips simply because they can do no wrong, especially in a chocolate cookie. Et, voila!

I still love my Koeze's peanut butter dearly, and would never forsake it. But I do have to admit that Justin's is an amazing product! Frankly, it's so good that I wrote to Angela and said that Tom and I might just fall out of love with each other and in love with the chocolate peanut butter. Well, not quite! But ....

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup Koeze's smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and brown sugar. Mix in egg, peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut butter, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Stir in flour and chocolate chips.

Form 1" balls of dough and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are just set. Let cool on a rack.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Train Trip Treats

I love peanut butter and jelly! No matter how old I am, these two entities will always, always have a special place in my heart ... and in Tom's, too. No wonder we're such a cute couple, with our devotion to each other and to our peanut butter and jelly! It was the perfect choice for a totable lunch to eat as we rode the train to Chicago. These sandwiches aren't terribly pretty, but that's not what matters.

First, there is the tantalizing aroma of the peanut butter, luring you in. It's smooth, creamy, delectable. Frankly, who even needs the bread??? Just dip in an apple or a spoon -- even just a finger will do! -- and you've got a perfect vehicle to simply lick pure peanut butter without anything intruding upon the experience.

But then, of course, there is the jelly -- it isn't a necessity, as peanut butter is quite seductive all on its own; and yet, spread liberally it certainly enhances the experience, doesn't it? Jelly can help to ease a bit of the dryness.

I had made some jam myself a few weeks ago, with concord grapes; Tom and I found them at the store one day, and he told me that in one of the many places he lived while growing up (his family moved from rented house to rented house quite frequently), there had been grapes growing in the yard. Coupled with our beloved Koeze's peanut butter, made right here in Michigan, and spread on some good whole wheat bread ... the sandwiches were simple, yet wonderfully satisfying.

Of course, being a good eater, sandwiches were not sufficient for a 5-hour trip before the Thai dinner Tom had his heart set on sharing with me at one of his favorite restaurants -- Big Bowl. So we also brought along chips (de rigueur for Tom) -- some exceptionally crunchy ones flavored with rosemary. Almonds for a quick snack ... exceptional Honeycrisp apples which are just coming into their glory ... juicy oranges ... and Tom's cup of coffee (addict that he is!) to get through the afternoon. Nothing grand, just good ol'-fashioned wholesome treats. But don't worry -- we didn't eat everything in sight! Some of this was saved for the trip home, too.

I even found some time to make chocolate chip cookies to enjoy along the way. Just like with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, there's nothing fancy here -- just delicious cookies made more nutritious with whole wheat flour. If you're going to ride through the countryside to get to the big city, it's hard to beat a traditional favorite cookie!

Stay tuned through the week for posts about all the other goodies we enjoyed -- from Thai to breakfast sandwiches to indescribably amazing coffee to free chocolate samples to cinnamon pound cake ... sigh ... :)


Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 eggs
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1-1/4 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, brown and butter; mix well. Add vanilla and cinnamon, then stir in eggs. Add flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Scoop dough by generous teaspoons, and place onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until done around the edges and golden, but not browned. Remove to a rack and cool completely.

Thursday Thirteen -- 13 Food Items That Irk Me

This little diatribe has been brewing for awhile. So, why not share my testy thoughts with my readers, and see who's a kindred spirit??? I haven't managed to write a coherent essay without ranting and sounding as though I've lost all sanity and rational thought, so this is the best I can offer.

Okay, here goes -- 13 Food Items That Irk Me to Varying Degrees (in no particular order, with the exception of the grand prize winner at #1):

13. Pre-cut zucchini and summer squash. I will readily pay extra for pre-cut winter squashes -- they're hard as rocks, they wobble like Weebles, and it's truly a miracle attributable to some future saint who's waiting to be canonized that I haven't hacked off part of a finger when I've tried to cut them myself. But the warm weather varieties??? Oh, come on! They're soft, they're thin-skinned, and it takes a whole whoppin' 30 seconds or so to slice one. Do we really need this much convenience??? Oy ....

12. Food that is spicy for the sake of being painful and attracting attention, rather than for the sake of being flavorful.

11. Burgers with 87 different things on them. I want a burger with a patty, lettuce, onion, tomato and ketchup ... pickles can be placed on top, but I'll just pick them off and eat them separately. I might toss on some Swiss and some mayonnaise; or perhaps I might stuff the patty with blue cheese once in awhile. I make a fabulous burger -- that was Jeremy's idea, to his credit! -- with crumbled bacon and grated Swiss cheese mixed into the ground beef. But I don't want ketchup and mustard and mayonnaise and barbecue sauce and chimichurri and wasabi, topped with chili and sprinkles and walnuts, with a 54-ingredient "special sauce" slathered on the bun that's been baked with its own 19-ingredient topping and a birthday cake thrown into the mix for festivity and visual appeal. I just want a burger!!!

10. Is it really too much trouble to boil water these days???

9. Tofu ... bleah! No matter how it's marinated, how long it soaks for, or what method is used for cooking it -- even if the silken variety is pureed into chocolate pudding -- it is not food. I do not like it, Sam I Am! I will use soy milk and/or flour for baking, I encourage the eating of edamame (even though I'm not too keen on them), and I know that there are extraordinary health benefits to eating soy. But tofu is not edible. Period.

8. Trader Joe's instant oatmeal. Not to make this a "Let's beat up on Trader Joe's" post -- I love most of their goodies. (God knows I've eaten enough of 'em!) But the stuff doesn't really become oatmeal; it's just oats sitting in colored/scented creamy liquid. No matter how much or how little water I use or how much I stir, they don't become a happy unified entity. So I just buy 47 other things when I go there, rather than the oatmeal, and eat them for breakfast instead!

7. Kim Chee. When I was in grad school (2 whole semesters that I despised, but I was still there!), one of my neighbors regularly made it in his room. Oh, my God, the stench!!! I have actually never tried it, I admit, because I simply can't get past the horrific memory of that cooking process.

6. Smuckers Uncrustables. If ya can't spread some peanut butter and some jelly on a coupla slices of bread for your kid, then there's really something wrong in your life. Truly.

5. Natural peanut butters, with the significant and notable exception of Koeze's -- which just happens to be made in Grand Rapids, Michigan! -- which is an exceptional product in every possible way. The others are flavorless, first of all. And then there's the layer of grease that you're supposed to stir in to the peanut mass that has hardened at the bottom of the jar. Except that there's no room in the jar for stirring, and when you try to insert a knife into the jar the grease oozes down the sides and onto your knuckles. And it never really smoothes out into peanut butter, which is truly one of the great foods in the universe, but rather remains a grease-laden blob of brown goo ... ick.

4. Carob. No matter how you try to disguise it or how many times you tell me it's a good substitute for chocolate, it's not. Uh uh.

3. Gefilte fish, which looks like little mini brains which could be used for a science fair display. I've often thought I'd like to try making my own -- taking something lovely, perhaps, like salmon to mince with the matzah meal and some seasoning (Tom's favorite, dill, maybe???). But the grey globs found in jars at the grocery store??? Let's have a collective "Ewwww!!!"

2. Frosting that tastes like chemicals instead of like butter and sugar. And cakes with too little frosting. Frosting is the most important part of a cake or a cupcake! It needs to be made with the proper ingredients, and there need to be copious quantities of it.

And ...

drum roll ...

1. Batter Blaster organic spray-on pancake batter. Oh, for God's sake!!! Do I care that it's organic? Nope. It's still pancake batter in a canister, to be sprayed on like hair mousse. Is it really that hard for people to stir flour, baking powder, an egg and some milk together and -- horrors! -- use a scoop to pour it onto the skillet or griddle themselves??? Sheesh! If you're so incapacitated that you can't stand up while mixing your own pancake batter, then you should be sitting back on a chaise while someone brings you chicken soup and hot tea and performs Last Rites over you. And if your life is so chaotic and frazzled that you require this kind of convenience product in order to save time, then you need to re-prioritize and cut back on work hours or extracurricular activities or something else. Every time I see this, the rant starts forming in my brain ... "Slowly I turned ...."

Okay, taking a deep breath now ...!

My, Oh, My -- 9 Slices of Pie!!!

How often, anymore, does one get to gaze upon the beauty of 70 different homemade pies displayed upon a dining table that's been draped with a lace tablecloth?

You might find that many factory-produced specimens at Costco or Sam's Club; but homemade?? Handmade??? Our grandmothers might remember a time when such a display was common ... but these days, we tend to order other kinds of pies -- pizzas -- for social gatherings instead.

And that, truly, is a shame.

So thank goodness for Slow Food Huron Valley, Growing Hope, and the Homegrown Festival for sponsoring a fabulous event last Saturday night: Pie Lovers Unite!

"The Pie Lovers Unite! extravaganza honors pie-making traditions in Michigan by inviting people to bake, bring, share, and taste pies from around the area.

Pie Lovers Unite! demonstrates that a community is only as good as its homemade pie - and that we have a great community."

I had attended last year's festivities and enjoyed myself immensely; so when I received the invitation for this year ... well, how could I refuse?

Jeremy wasn't interested in attending, but Tom thought it was an intriguing notion. The price of admission was either $8 or a homemade pie. I didn't even go through my usual decision making brain paralysis, but readily decided to bring my now-famous Peanut Butter Pie.

I made sure to use Koeze's all-natural peanut butter, made in Grand Rapids on the west side of the state, which is such an exceptional product that it is difficult to adequately describe it.

First of all, the flavor is everything you want in peanut butter -- freshly roasted peanuts shine through, with just enough salt for enhancement. But even better is the texture, which is very thick and rich with miniscule pieces of peanut throughout ... not chunky, but not smooth either. And it is blessedly lacking the usual oiliness of natural, non-hydrogenated peanut butters. Lesser products are greasy and slimy and almost pourable ... bleah. Koeze's, however, is the standard by which all other peanut butters should be judged.

I also made sure to use another local product: peanut butter granola, a divine concoction made by the Ypsilanti Food Co-Op. (FYI: That's pronounced [IP-sih-LAN-tee], for those who aren't from 'round here ... it's Ypsi [IP-see], for short.) Instead of sprinkling chopped peanuts or toffee chips over the chocolate drizzle, this seemed the perfect option. It is divine with maple-flavored yogurt, too -- it smells like crumbled peanut butter cookies!

So, anyway ... pie in hand, Tom and I headed off to Ypsi and an evening of festivity.

I happily saw my friend Jen, one of the coordinators and hostesses for the evening. And it was also good to see a woman named Suzy who works for our local Jewish newspaper, whom I hadn't seen in ages. She introduced me to her friend Jim, who had made both a Beef & Guinness pie and a beautiful Blueberry Streusel pie. Suzy, unfortunately, was recovering from a bout with poison ivy, so Jim had made two pies for their admission and she promised to make a fabulous fruit pie next year.

Tom and I watched as more and more pies were entered into the competition, and the table filled with all sorts of varieties: rhubarb, cherry, raspberry, meringue, spinach, cheese, chocolate ... if you can think of a type of pie, I'm sure it was represented that night.

And then the evening's amusements began. We had been treated to the talents of a pie-anist playing the upright as we all gathered. There was a pie-ku competition, and here is the one I entered:

Pie served with whipped cream?
Maybe pie served with ice cream?
I know -- I'll have both!

Alas, the card I'd written my pie-ku on wasn't drawn from the basket to win a prize. But it was fun to recite it nonetheless ... :)

There was a pie walk with rounds for varying age groups, which took place as the judges sat in a front corner of the display room tasting and testing away. And then -- yay!!! -- it was time for everyone to sample the offerings. With 70 pies having been cut into at least 8 slices each, there was half a pie's worth of slices available for each attendee. So there was ample opportunity to try a wide variety.

And so, try we did -- we were up to the challenge! Between us, Tom and I managed to get 9 different slices (and he very sweetly took a slice of my Peanut Butter Pie, too, since he likes it so much).

Now for the rundown on all of these options, since I know you're all panting at the prospect:

Clockwise, starting at the top:

The summer vegetable pie looked lovely, with nearly transparent slices of cucumber and radish, sprinkled with hints of dill, placed over a creamy white base. However, the base turned out to be sour cream with no other discernible flavor; and eating mouthfuls of sour cream with bits of pie crust was not particularly enticing.

The vegan chocolate pie was calling to Tom, a former vegetarian and vegan; I had visions of tofu and was none too thrilled by it. But for my sweetie's sake, I got the second-to-last piece (it pays sometimes to be from NYC and to know how to work a crowd!). And I must be a big enough person to admit that it was remarkably good! I would love to know the ingredients, because there was no "off" tofu taste; it was smooth and creamy, and there was just a slight hint of peppermint. *I* -- the Queen of the Tofu Loathers -- would actually make this, even if I learned that some soy stuff was a part of the mix.

Jim's blueberry pie was a thing of beauty throughout! I absolutely loved it!

The coconut cream pie was rich and smooth and lovely -- I liked it very much ... :)

The spinach pie was cold (an unfortunate hazard of an event such as this, with no ability to keep things warm) and soggy. Had it been served hot from the oven, had the spinach been squeezed more before baking or had the pie been baked more thoroughly, it might have been wonderful.


Also clockwise, starting at the top:

My peanut butter pie. I am proud to say that when we got to the table, there were only 2 pieces of it left -- if it wasn't the first to go, it was very close to it. As Tom and I selected our options, I watched as my empty pie plate was taken away. People's Choice Award, perhaps??? I hope those who managed to get slices of it enjoyed it.

Our slice of the chocolate meringue pie didn't have much meringue, which is unfortunate -- I love meringue. But it was very rich and very good nonetheless.

The blueberry cream pie was kinda sour, with a lemony-ish cream that didn't really enhance the blueberries. I'd had much higher hopes for this one.

The French rhubarb pie was a bit sour ... to be expected with rhubarb, but it could have used some orange or some strawberries or some cinnamon to soften the blow.

And then, after the indulgence, it was time for the prizes. Jim's Beef & Guinness Pie won for best savory entry -- yay!!! I didn't get to try it, but it did look like a hearty, rustic thing of beauty.

The Vegan Chocolate Pie won my category -- Sweet, Not Fruit -- and I can honestly say that I'm not offended. It was surprisingly good!

A Raspberry Meringue variety won Best Fruit Pie.

There were several Honorable Mentions that I don't remember, and categories for Best Pie Crust (featuring a beloved Grandma recipe, made by a 20-something young man -- who'da thunk???) and Best Use of Local Ingredients (which was won by a kale and polenta pie, I think). There was even a Kids' Pie category as well; as Kim Bayer, one of the organizers, stated (paraphrased, since I didn't write it down word-for-word) -- "It's important to teach your children how to bake pie, since they'll be the ones bringing you pie in the nursing home!"

And then there was a newly devised category created by the judges on the spur of the moment, for Best Name: "How're Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Farm Now That They've Seen Paree?" This was in honor of a pie whose baker admitted her entry was a failed attempt at making something from a Julia Child recipe. But the title won the day!

So, we came, we saw, we ate ... and ate and ate! I didn't win a prize, but Tom and I had a fabulous time anyway celebrating food and fellowship ... a perfect Saturday night ... :)



Oh, I'm so flattered! Look at the lovely compliment this post received from Andrea at Pumpkin Tart:

I want to give a special mention to my favorite blog post of the month. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every word (though I may be biased based on subject material).

I'm so thrilled! Please return the love by checking out her recipe for Chocolate Tapioca Pie, a comfort food extraordinaire ... :)