A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track





So I found this cool book at the library the other day called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese. It's a kind of a cook book/diary combo. The author goes through a list of items that most people will buy pre-made at the store and try to replicate it at home. Then she'll compare the time, quality, effort, and price of both food versions and will tell you if it's worth it.

Her point is that over the years, more and more dishes that used to be homemade are now considered 'ingredients' that you buy at the store without question. Who would try to make ketchup? And more importantly, everyone has a subjective line with what they consider necessary to make vs. acceptable to buy.

A few of my personal examples on my personal sliding-scale:
- Toast. We can all agree on that one. Let's make it at home.
- Pie crust. Gotta make it, even though most people would buy it. I don't care that it's messy and time-consuming. I would just feel like a lesser person if I bought it.
- Mayonnaise. Cool and fun to make but still a staple item to buy.
- Butter. That is hard-core. Never gonna try to make it, have no desire to.

Anyway, her book and concepts start with peanut butter. It's cheap and easy to make, but now everyone in America buys either Skippy, Peter Pan, or Jif. It should be only peanuts, salt, and maybe oil, but it has turned into a whole industry.

You got pre-packaged PB&J sandwiches (with crusts already removed), pre-mixed PB&J squirt bottles (no need for a knife), smooth or crunchy peanut butter, peanut butter dip, etc.

So if you feel like sticking it to the man, here is the recipe for peanut butter:

1. Put unsalted roasted peanuts in blender.
2. Push button.
3. Remove peanut butter from blender.

One little note of advice. Don't keep pushing the button (Step 2 of the recipe) non-stop until your peanut butter is silky smooth or you'll fry your blender. Not that I did that or anything, I'm just warning you novices.

Jam Session

“Over the bridge and over the dam, looking for berries, berries for jam”

Jam sounds complicated and fancy to make but in reality it is really very easy.

Don’t buy fruit right from the grocery store though. Especially if you want to make berry jam, which would be too expensive. Buy it fresh but on sale, frozen, or buy it bulk. Or even better, get it straight off the tree or bush. Which I didn’t do here, I got a crate of strawberries from my co-op.

Just chop up your fruit in small pieces, the smaller the easier and the faster it will cook. Unless, that is, you like chunky jam. Some fruit keep their consistency better than others. For example, strawberries will stay firm whereas blueberries or peaches will mush up more.

Also stay with the basics, I wouldn't go for kiwi jam on your first try. I wouldn’t mix fruit either, except for berries. Some people are more creative than I am and incorporate flowers (lavender), spices (cinnamon), or even interesting ingredients (dandelion jam, yes it’s good!).

Weigh the fruit and put it in a large pot. Recipes usually call for the same amount of sugar as fruit. I try and put less and for this batch am doing about 30% sugar and 70% fruit. It doesn’t have to be an exact science.


Word of warning, as you pour the sugar in the pot with the fruit it will look like an insanely huge amount of sugar and you will think -for sure that Sarah chick is out of her mind, that can’t be right. But it is.


So in terms of quantities, I am doing two small batches. It’s easier and faster to cook. So about 3 lbs of strawberries and 1.5 lbs of sugar for each batch. When you put it in jars, a good rule of thumb is one pound of fruit will make one medium-sized jar of jam.


By the way, since I was all for honey earlier and refined sugar is probably not the best thing, you can make jellies and jams using honey too. Actually it would be a pretty good combo with peaches for example. However, you have to take into account changes in density, flavor, and more importantly acidity. I’ve never tried it myself but here is a good link to explore. http://www.pickyourown.org/SusbtitutingHoneyForSugar.htm

So just mix in the sugar with the fruit until it boils, and then simmer your concoction for a little over one hour for 3 lbs of fruit. Just make sure you stay close and stir it often or it will cake at the bottom and burn.

The mixture might look a little watery at first but as it simmers it will thicken. Also, don’t worry about the foam that develops, it will just mix itself into the jam.

By the way, there is always the fear of sterilizing and canning food the wrong way and getting food poisoning. Which is something you must be careful about if you are canning veggies, tomato sauce, etc. But for jam, all you need to do it rinse out and scrub your jars thoroughly and rinse them in very hot water, then let them sit to dry. Try to use smaller jars, it is easier to use and it won’t get as sticky.

Once you pour the jam in the jars, make sure you wipe the edges of the glass before you screw on the lid so no jam gets stuck or dries in the cracks. Let it cool; store in a cool, dry place, and enjoy!

The jam will be fine for several years. Sometimes you can get a small film of mold or white stuff at the top of the jam when you open it, it looks funky but just scrape it off and the rest is completely fine.


Then the fun part is to make cute labels so you can feel a sense of pride and kick-assness because damn it you did indeed make jam.

Why is homemade jam eco-logic?

1. You recycle your glass jars. Especially for us, since there is no glass recycling in our town (more on that later!)

2. You chose your ingredients. So you know exactly what is in it (organic, local, etc).

3. It’s healthier. In this case there is a lot less sugar.

4. It’s cheaper than store-bought. Here is the breakdown:

Strawberries, I bought 8 lbs $11.50 and used 6 lbs, so about $8.60

Unrefined sugar Cane sugar $1.79. Total: six jars for roughly $10.50 dollars.

5. It’s educational. My 4 year old son “helped” me, I like that he is interested in food, wants to learn about how food is made, and where his PB&J comes from!

Love Thy Honey

Alright, if Winnie-the-Pooh has not convinced you yet, honey is awesome and this is why:

- It is an all natural, raw food!

- Honey can provide a local source of sugar instead of using either sugar beets, processed corn syrup, or far-away cane sugar.

- Honey comes in a variety of nuances based on the types of plants/flowers available to those lil’ bees. You can also get creamed butter, flavored honey (i.e. maple, vanilla), honey combs, propolis, and crystallized honey.

- Honey is easier to digest than sugar and contains more energy.

- Honey is a huge source of calcium, Vitamin C, and iron, whereas sugar has close to nothing. It is also full of antioxidants to improve your immune system.

- Honey itself can be used as an anti-septic, antibacterial agent, is good for healing skin wounds, reduces inflammation, helps if you have a sore throat, and smells good!
-Bee pollen contains Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, helps with reproductive health, allergies, and boosts your immune system. The sap that bees use to help the structure of their hive is called propolis. It has many medicinal uses, including helping to fight cavities and to relieve burns.

The list of benefits is really endless.

Bee pollen, just eat it raw!

- Oh and one more thing, honey literally NEVER goes bad. It is purported that when archaeologists uncovered several Egyptian tombs, they found 3,000 year old honey that was still perfectly good.

*Make sure you buy the local, unprocessed honey products so they don’t lose their goodness through over-processing.

The only downside is if you are allergic to bees!

So when you can, cook with honey instead of sugar.
Just use half the amount of honey than sugar. Here is an easy and delicious honey-based recipe:

Winnie the Pooh’s Cheesecake

In a blender mix together

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup honey

1 cup cream cheese (neuf chatel, or mascarpone cheese works too)

1 cup sour cream

Put all the ingredients in a buttered Crockpot and cook on low for about 1-1.5 hrs depending on your Crockpot. Voila!

I should add that this recipe is from my friend Coralee Thompson who has some great ideas for yummy desserts!
Check out "Healthy Brains, Healthy Children: How Parents Can Raise Their Children in a Smarter, Healthier and More Natural Way" [Dr. Philip Maffetone (Author), Dr. Coralee Thompson (Contributor)]