Saturday, July 12, 2014

Look What I Made!

Pistachio Butter!

I've been reading about making your own almond butter and the light dawned!  I could (and did) make nut butters from any nut I want.  My local market sells all sorts of nuts at a reasonable price.  Pistachio is the first try.  And it's quite successful, if I do say so.

The photo below is pistachio butter on toast, shown on my bosc pear test tile.

What surprised me was how easy it was!  Threw the nuts in my Cuisinart, ground until they started clumping; added grapeseed oil to and a little salt to get the nut butter consistency.  I ground to a coarse texture to match my favorite (very expensive) almond butter.  Probably any good oil could be used.  I like grapeseed oil because it has a neutral flavor that lets the nut flavor shine.

Next up macadiamias and perhaps pepitas.....who knows where this will go?


 We bought the head of organic lettuce at our local farm stand.  It's fourteen inches across and smells as well as tastes great.  They sell their lettuce with roots stored in water, so that is what I am doing!


We've been putting in some perennial flowers this year, but have decided to hold off on vegs until we can get a good space established.  Last year's garden is going over to herbs.

Sunny days are here again, enjoy!

As always, thanks for stopping by...........*s*

20 comments:

  1. darn my comment was lost, I just eat nuts plain; have never had nut butter. That is one beautiful head of lettuce, our market doesn't have any lettuce this time of year I guess it's too hot and it just bolts.

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    1. Great idea and looks tasty. That lettuce is as pretty as a bouquet of flowers.

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    2. Hi Linda....I've had trouble with comments disappearing lately. Have they been 'improving' blogspot?
      We have lettuce in the markets. I bought this one from our local farmer; it cost more than twice as much as market lettuce, but the head is huge and the tastiest I have ever eaten. I don't know how they do it but they manage to grow lettuce for the better part of the summer. I'm storing this the way it was sold, with the roots in water. It's been two days and counting

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    3. Hi Meredith...If I were doing a fancy party I would use this lettuce as a centerpiece. Nut butters are really easy. I think it's a secret companies would rather keep secret!

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  2. wait a minute I've had peanut butter and almond butter, lol

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    1. Hi Linda....Well, I did wonder about peanut butter and almond butter!

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  3. Dearest Suzi,
    Guess you even can use the healthy Coconut Oil for making your almond or whatever nut-butter. I too will try to do that as it also saves quite some money in doing so.
    Your lettuce head looks very healthy. My Dad grew each spring some 40,000 butterhead lettuce inside the greenhouses and I've packed many of them and also cut them. Bending down early moring at 4:00 AM with nearly frozen fingers... They went to auction by 8:00 AM and I did this before going to high school.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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    1. Hi Mariette....The savings are enormous and it tastes so much better than store bought. I have to watch for coconut in foods as I have one of my few food allergies to it.
      The image of all that lettuce is wonderful, but I know how hard farming is, before school yet! I guess things were done because they had to be and we didn't think much about it!
      Enjoy the week ahead!

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    2. Exactly; and we got raised with Disciplin; yes disciplin with a capital D! So sorry about your coconut food allergy... It is such a healthy thing and I am using Coconut sugar due its low glycemic index instead of refined white sugar. We all need to heed ourselves in somer or several ways.
      Happy new week coming up. They come at us way too fast but what can we do?!

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    3. As I have been recently diagnosed with diabetes, I am even sadder about not being able to eat coconut. I am looking and reading about low glycemic index sugars. Agave seems to work well. My dietician strongly discourages artificial sweeteners, except stevia.
      Summer is going way too fast.........enjoy!

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    4. But what can you not eat coconut? I am diabetic type II since being diagnosed in 2007 and I use at present the Coconut Sugar instead of the refined sugar. I never ever used artificial sweeteners. But the biggest thing is to look out for not using refined flour and sugar. Whole wheat pastas or and for all baking is far better. Quinoa is even better than pasta. If preparing pasta, make sure it is not over cooked as such it will become a more easily digestible starch for our body... only cooked al dente as that makes a big difference too.
      It is not easy to watch for low sugar and especially low glycemic index foods! But you are not alone!
      Big hug; calory free thanks goodness!

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  4. Back in the 90's when I was teaching at a community childcare center, the center received commodity foods from the government. For a couple of years we got GIANT cans of almond butter! We replaced it for peanut butter in everything- almond butter and jelly sandwiches, almond butter cookies. It was like we died and went to heaven. I imagine the almond crop had been huge that year so the govt. purchased the excess almonds to keep the prices higher for the farms. It was a sad day when we opened the last can.

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    1. Hi Michele....My clients were getting almond butter from the government too. At the time it seemed like such a luxury, but i also remember almonds being really cheap!

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  5. Hi Suzi,

    What a great idea - I like the thought of making your own as you know that there are no added sugars or salts, which so often go into some of these products. Thanks for sharing and will try this. Also how lovely the organic lettuce is.
    Enjoy your summer and the week
    hugs
    Carolyn

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    1. Hi Carolyn...I think once you make your own nut butters you will never go back to commercial brands. As you say it's nice to know what we are eating!
      I hope you get some sun this week!

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  6. Now you've got me thinking...maybe some pecan butter.

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    1. Hi Lori....Pecan and Macadamia nuts are next on my list!

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