Homemade Peanut Butter

"This American staple can really eat up your budget. Surprisingly, peanut butter is not only cheaper to make at home, but healthier too." ~ All Things Homemade

I have journeyed down the road of "All Things Homemade" and you can read my introductory post here. I am excited to finally bring you the results of my attempt at Homemade Peanut Butter and have rated it on a scale from 1-5, according to five different categories: Difficulty, Taste, Texture, Benefits, and Price.

The Recipe: (I cut the recipe in half so I didn't have to use so many peanuts!)
4 cups shelled Dry Roasted Peanuts

1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. Safflower Oil (or any other mild vegetable oil)
Sugar or Honey (Optional - for a sweeter peanut butter)

1. Pour oil in a blender or food processor and slowly mix in peanuts until creamy. (This may take a while depending on whether you want creamy or chunky peanut butter.)

2. Keep mixing......you may need to shove things around to help it along.

3. After the peanut butter is completely blended, it should look something like this:(By the way, the recipe was supposed to yield 1 1/2 cups for the full amount and I ended up with 1 cup by halving it. Typo maybe?)

4. Pour the peanut butter into a mason jar, or any other jar you might have on hand, and make sure to label it and write out the expiration date. The peanut butter should last about 30 days, but you must keep it in the refrigerator because it does not have any preservatives that extend shelf life.

My thoughts on the whole process:

Difficulty Level: 1
Making your own peanut butter is not hard at all. There are only two ingredients and only a few steps to follow.

Taste: 3
The taste is a little different than your normal grocery store peanut butters. You really experience the peanut flavor coming through because you are not tasting all the preservatives and hydrogenated oils that are usually found in peanut butter. Not a bad taste......just different.

Texture: 3
Homemade peanut butter ends up being a little gritty because you can never process ALL the peanuts.

Benefits: 5
It is a shock to see all the different types of ingredients listed on the back of a peanut butter jar: Roasted Peanuts, sugar, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils (rapeseed and soybean) mono diglycerides, and salt. A couple of them we probably do not know what they do, but we consume them anyway.

All peanut butters contain fiber and are a rich source of protein, which are both very beneficial to your body. But if you get rid of some unnecessary ingredients and go with an organic or natural peanut butter (or homemade!), you will give a big boost to these benefits.

Price: 3
The book "All Things Homemade" claims that this pantry staple is much cheaper than grocery store brands. I disagree. After calculating all the costs of my ingredients, homemade peanut butter costs $.07 more an ounce. That may not seem like much, but if you make an 18oz. jar of peanut butter, that is $1.26 more than the 18oz. Jif brand at our local Weis.

Jif 18oz. = $2.19 or $.12 per oz.
Skippy 40 oz = $4.99 or $.12 per oz.
Weis brand 18oz. = $1.79 or $.10 per oz.

Homemade:
2 cups peanuts (9oz.) = $1.40
Safflower Oil = $.08
Total = $1.48 for 1 cup or $.19 per oz.

Conclusion: If you are focused on health benefits, and health benefits only, then homemade peanut butter is the way to go. But if you are like me, and price is extremely important to you, then you might as well keep grabbing jars off the shelf. You will save time and money, and you won't compromise on the taste.

I do suggest you try making your own peanut butter at least once in your life. It is a fun experience and there is a satisfaction to be had when you eat something you made completely from scratch.

Marriage in Crisis

"It's those high Holy Rollers who are the worst offenders."

My heart broke as I overheard this conversation play out at work among my co-workers. A discussion of the Tiger Woods scandal and his "indiscretions" with a multitude of women quickly turned into talking about cheaters in general. It was communicated how almost everybody cheats, especially those who claim to know Christ. I was offended, but then I thought, "Why should I be?.........It's true."

George Barna, president and founder of Barna Research Group has completed a study comparing divorce rates among Christians and non-Christians. His findings conclude that divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Athiests and Agnostics experience. He says, "We rarely find substantial differences between the moral behavior of Christians and non-Christians."

What a startling conclusion. We are obviously not living distinct lives and impacting our community for the good.

Real world examples, such as Jon and Kate Gosselin, also shed an unattractive light on Christians. With the media constantly bringing attention to their unsuccessful marriage, the public has even more ammunition against these role models of Christianity.

How can we change this perception?

By walking the talk. By personally taking responsibility for our actions and being the best living example of Christ we can be. The world will always point fingers at us and call us hypocrites because we are never going to be perfect. All we can do is take the focus off ourselves and point the lost towards Christ.

Marriages are hard. There are continuous threats that can come between spouses and ruin marriages if we are not prepared. All it takes is one small seed of adulterous thoughts, deceitfulness, pornography, or even anger before we find a full-blown problem in our midst. I find myself struggling every day to keep myself from disappointing God in my marriage. It takes a lot of prayer, accountability, and Scripture reminders for me to even attempt at success.

I grieve that there are rare differences between Christian marriages and non-Christian ones, but I also remind myself that my marriage is ultimately the only one that I am responsible for, and I can do my part to prevent becoming a statistic.

Robinson, B.A. "U.S. Divorce Rates for Various Faith Groups, Age Groups, and Geographic Areas."Religious Tolerance. 20 July 2009. 8 Dec. 2009 .

A Christmas Wedding

This December was my first attempt at a complete Buttercream Wedding Cake. Buttercream is very hard to smooth and for a perfectionist like me, almost impossible. :) But I did what I could and I don't think the cake turned out too bad.

The Bride decided she wanted all three flavors she had tried at our tasting:
1. Marble Cake with a Whipped Chocolate Ganache Filling
2. Devils Food Cake with a mild Cream Cheese Filling
3. Golden Butter Cake with a Vanilla Buttercream Filling


I added some scroll work for an elegant touch and Sweetheart Roses completed the design of the cake.


The Bride and Groom absolutely loved their wedding cake, which made all my hard work worth it!

Overall, a definite cake success!

This Old House

Joseph and I have officially moved! We still are not in the new house yet, but all our belongings are being stored there.

As I closed the door to our place one final time, I could not help thinking that I was also closing a chapter of our marriage. This was where Joseph and I spent our first two years of marriage and I thought it would be fun to recall a few fond memories......

• When we first moved in, we did not have a dryer yet. Since it was October and too cold to hang clothes outside, they were hung and draped all over our apartment instead!
• We lived with very little water pressure until we finally spoke up and said something to our landlords (which was a year and a half later!). It is really difficult to wash dishes when you only have a small trickle coming out of the faucet.
• We have had three bat episodes: 1. Found alive in my washer after I had done a load of clothes. 2. Dive bombing us in the living room, scaring the daylights out of our bunny. 3. Flying circles in our bedroom while we were sleeping one night.
  
• We were constantly paranoid about our neighbors staring at us all the time when we were outside. Have they never seen a snow blower before?
• We both have never really felt safe when we lost our back door skeleton key and bought another one for $2 at Home Depot.
• It took forever to figure out why my baked goods kept burning in the oven. (It was 100 degrees hotter than the dial actually read!)
• This was the house where no one ever knocked on our door for Halloween. :(
  
• and lastly, our house was the official home for Game Nights!
  

The house will be missed, but I am excited for what lies ahead in our new one!

All Things Homemade

I recently bought a book titled, "Homemade: How-to Make Hundreds of Everyday Products Fast, Fresh, and More Naturally". I was very intrigued since I am all about the self-sufficiency idea. I enjoy baking my own bread (when I have time) and experimenting with making my own products instead of relying on expensive grocery store items, which can also be loaded with preservatives and toxic chemicals. I have even considered owning a Mini Jersey cow someday to make our own milk and cheese........Joseph is not too fond of that one. :)

So, back to this exciting book. It is filled with recipes for preparing and stocking up on pantry staples as well as ideas to concoct your own beauty items, medicinal remedies, and all natural cleaning products. To say I am thrilled to test these out is an understatement. I am so eager to begin experimenting and I am taking my blog readers along for the ride. We are going to test and see if making products from scratch truly is more economical and beneficial for your body.

Here are some future posts to whet your appetite:
- Homemade peanut butter: Is it cheaper and more nutritious?
- Aromatherapy baths: Will they help you sleep any better?
- Shaving-Cut Lotion: Is it effective at stopping and healing razor nicks?
- Anti-Cramp Tea: Will this really reduce your monthly discomfort?
- Nontoxic Toilet Bowl Cleaner: Do they clean just as well as expensive brands?

Look for updates concerning this ongoing project!

Why is Friday the 13th So Unlucky?

Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune. If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow. A child born on a Friday is doomed to misfortune.

Ever wonder where the Friday the 13th superstition originated? My interest was piqued today as multitudes of customers would come to my window, ask what the date was so they could fill out their deposit slip, and then gasp at the fact that today was Friday the 13th. To most of them, this ancient superstition is a joke, but to the other 21 million Americans, who suffer from Paraskevidekatriaphobia (people who have an irrational and morbid fear about Friday the 13th), the threat of misfortune is real.

The number 13 seems to be considered unlucky for many ancient cultures. The supersitition began from a Norse myth telling of 12 gods dining at Valhallah, their heaven. A 13th uninvited guest, Loki, arrived, persuading the god of darkness to slay the god of happiness. This supposedly started the unluckiness of number 13. In fact, people take this so much to heart that 80% of high rises lack a 13th floor. The city of San Francisco does not have a 13th Avenue. Rather, Funston Ave is located between 12th and 14th Avenue. Many airports skip the 13th gate and instead call it Gate 12B.

The origin of "Friday" began with the goddess, Frigg, also known as the goddess of marriage. Later, she was confused with Freya, the goddess of love, who also became identified with Friday. When the Norseman and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Freya was supposedly banished to the mountains as a witch. Friday then became known as the "witches sabboth" because this was the day when 12 witches plus the Devil met - 13 spirits in all.

These are the main theories for the origin of Friday the 13th, but no one knows for sure. We can assume that because 13 was such an unlucky number for most, and Friday was an unlucky day, that any Friday the 13th would inevitably become the unluckiest day of all.

Here are some historical Friday the 13th occurances:

• October 13, 1307 - King Phillip IV of France tortured multitudes of monks on counts of blasphemy, heresy, and homosexuality.
• July 13, 1951 - The "Great Flood" of Kansas resulted in over three-quarters of a billion dollars worth in damage and destroyed 2 million acres of land.
• March 13, 1964 - The "Good Friday" earthquake became North America's largest earthquake in history and killed 131 people.
• March 13, 1992 - An earthquake in Turkey killed 2,000 people and left 50,000 homeless.
• October 13, 2006 - A major snowstorm occurred in Buffalo, NY that left 380,000 homes and businesses without power. Three people also died.

Many believe that these collections of dates prove that fateful events will happen on this day, but with so many horrific things happening in the world every day, this belief seems hard to prove.

For others who claim that unlucky things do happen to them on Friday the 13ths, I believe this can be explained through a heightened sense of anxiety which could create more falls or accidents. If you believe in something long enough, you will probably find reasons to make it true.

And lastly, for those who do not take superstitions seriously, then why not throw a Friday the 13th party? Feel free to smash a few mirrors, set up a couple ladders to walk under, and invite some of your black feline friends over. :)

Emery, David. "Why Friday the 13th is Unlucky." About.com. 22 January 2009. 13 November 2009 .

Spiderweb Cupcakes

I made these cute spiderweb cupcakes for a Halloween party and I was so happy at the way they turned out! They look like they are difficult to make, but they are actually pretty simple.

1. Bake your cupcakes and ice them in whatever flavors you want.
2. Print out a Spiderweb Template. (This is the one I used)
3. Cut parchment paper to the size of your cookie sheet.
4. Melt 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips with 1 tbsp. shortening in the microwave. Make sure you do this in 30 sec. to 60 sec. intervals, stirring between each interval.
5. Use a decorating bag with a no. 2 tip and pour the chocolate into the bag.
6. Place the Spiderweb Template under the parchment paper and trace the spiderweb shapes onto the parchment.
7. Chill for 10 or more min. in the refrigerator.
8. After chocolate spiderwebs have hardened, carefully peel them off the paper with a spatula and place them on top of the cupcakes. Press down lightly into the icing. (Be careful not to press too hard or they will break!)
9. If chocolate starts to warm, place the spiderwebs back into the fridge to harden again.

These spooky cupcakes will definitely add some festivity to your table spread. Happy baking for Halloween 2010!