Sweet Potato and Peanut Butter Stew

I was late to the peanut butter party. I didn't start eating it in any real way until I was in my 30s. Of course I had peanut butter cups and Reese's Pieces. I'm not a heathen. But I don't recollect purchasing a jar of peanut butter until I was creeping up on 40. PB&J or PB&Fluff were not staples in my childhood lunchbox. I always leaned savory rather than sweet and my sandwich of choice was deli meat - ham or baloney - and cheese with mustard.  (Don't judge me, it was the 70s and 80s. Ask any Gen Xer. They ate baloney and still have a jingle about it committed to memory.) Always, there was a baggie of potato chips as an accompaniment.

When I did start to eat PB&J, it was more as a practical, portable sustenance to bring on a hike or to a bike race vs something I craved or felt excited about eating. Without any deliberation or experimentation, I identified as Smooth right out of the gate. It was unconscious, like I was just born that way. I did get nut butter curious by mixing it up with almond butter or the occasional jar of sun butter, but always smooth, never crunchy. 

As time went on, I began to truly enjoy peanut butter. In my oatmeal. On apples. Smeared on toast. But I struggled with finding just the right peanut butter that wasn't too runny with oil floating on the top or too dry from putting it in the fridge to deal with the oil. I tried different brands and settled on a local brand, Teddie, as the closest I could get to a consistency I could live with. Of course I was trying to keep it natural and low sugar, so something like Jif was not in the running.

Last winter as my peanut butter evolution continued,  I learned an important peanut butter pro tip. Tip the jar upside down for a few days before you open it. This allows the oil to blend into the butter, rather than separate and the result is a luxuriously creamy can't get enough of the sublime perfection right out of the jar with a spoon. Another result is the 5+ pounds I put on last winter as my peanut butter intake increased by about 700%. I can't point my finger fully in the direction of the tipped jar peanut butter, but it was no doubt a major factor.

Then, just last week at book club, the host made a soup recipe by Mark Bittman that contained crunchy peanut butter. It was such a nice eating experience, I went out as soon as I could to buy my first jar of crunchy peanut butter and made the stew myself. Since I had the crunchy on hand, I tried it in my oatmeal the next morning. Lovely! I recently also switched from rolled oats to steel cut oats. Having the bite of the steel cut oats along with the grit of the ground nuts and the crunch of the local diced Macouns transitioned my morning dining experience from a just trying to get some nutrition baby food like bowl of mush to a vessel of flavor and texture that elevates the start of my day.

Maybe the lesson here is you can teach an older dog new tricks, or we are fortunate to have so many options available to explore, or it's good to not get too set in our ways. All I know is I'm now BiButter and I'll need to have at least 2 variations tipped upside down in my cabinet at all times. 

Here's the link to the Mark Bittman recipe. I made it in under an hour which makes it a good winter weeknight choice. I was dubious about the large cuts of sweet potato and onion, but it all works out ok! Below is my version where I omit the garlic. Sengalese Peanut Soup

Sengalese Peanut Soup

3/4 cup shelled roasted peanuts, chopped or crushed

2 tablespoons oil (peanut, avocado or garlic infused olive)

1 medium onion halved and sliced thin

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

1 pinch cayenne

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

6 cups of water with 2 No Chicken bouillon cubes

2 medium sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and and cut into 1/4 inch slices

8-10 plum tomatoes, fresh or canned, cored diced and seeds removed

1 small bunch tuscan kale or collard greens, chopped

1/4 cup chunky peanut butter

1. Heat oil in medium sized sauce pan or dutch oven and then sauté onions and ginger for 3-5 minutes.

2. Add 1/2 cup of the roasted peanuts, sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté for a few minutes.

3. Add water, bouillon cubes, and sweet potatoes, bring to a boil. Then turn down heat and simmer for 10 minutes until sweet potatoes are just softening.

4. Add tomatoes, greens, and peanut butter. Blend and cover for 10 more minutes.

5. Serve and garnish with remaining roasted peanuts. 

The Negroni Cocktail

I'm trying to remember my first Negroni experience, but can't call to mind my initial impressions. To the best of my memory, I backed into the Negroni after having fallen head over heels for the Boulevardier thanks to David Lebovitz's "Drinking French". The Boulevardier is sometimes described as a French Negroni. While many cocktails are seasonal affairs for me - gin and tonics, Last Words and Paper Planes are strictly for al fresco drinking on a patio. In contrast, Old Fashioneds, Manhattans or a Vieux Carre are most enjoyed sitting next to a fire, like a cozy knitted blanket keeping your insides warm while the wind blows or the snow falls outside.  The Negroni I've found is an all season favorite for me. It has that warming affect in deep winter, the damp days of spring or crisp autumn nights. In summer, its bright vermillion color complements the golden hour and the complex blend of flavors require you to sip slowly, matching the pace of the sun dropping towards the horizon.

The Negroni is not a crowd pleaser like I find the Paper Plane to be. So when I discover someone enjoys a Negroni as much as I do, I feel an instant connection. There is something to bonding over a more complicated flavor profile. You feel like your drinking partner really gets you. 

I still have more experimenting to do and there are many riffs on the cockktail that I plan to try. From what I know so far, I find the most important part of preparing this cocktail to be the stirring in the mixing glass. This cannot be rushed. Think of it as an enjoyable moment to pause and fully relax into the motion so that tranquil vibe can be transferred into the glass and passed onto the recipient. I tend to stir for at least one minute, two is better. Then pour it over one round ice cube. This takes the bitterness down a notch and increases the enjoyment factor, 

As for proper glassware, I think this is where you can add some personality to align with your mood. If you're feeling easy-breezy go with a larger fancy coupe glass. More contemplative? A heavy-bottomed old fashioned glass will be more grounding. Not sure? A stemless martini glass is the middle of the road. 

Negroni

1 to 1 1/4 oz London Dry Gin (classic is 1 oz, I sometimes go a little more)

1 oz Campari

1 oz Carpano Antica or other sweet vermouth

1 piece  of orange peel or  slice of blood orange for garnish

1. Fill a stirring glass 2/3 full with ice.

2. Add all liquid ingredients. Stir slowly for 1-2 minutes.

3. Strain over one large ice cube (if preferred) and add garnish. 

Gin and Juice

If I had to summarize June 2023 with one image, it would be a grey cloud. Very uncharacteristic for my birthday month that is usually filled with lovely dry sunny days, perfect for drinking gin. This weather pattern even followed me out to Portland, Oregon where it had been in the 80s and sunny for weeks, and let's just say while it was certainly not terrible, the shorts and cute sleeveless dress I packed in my suitcase never emerged. The grey and damp has continued into July, but now with extreme humidity. You really just have to roll with it, try to do the thing you planned to do, maybe with some adjustments and take advantage of any sunny dry patches. 

I've picked this time to make a return to mountain biking which is adding a layer of complication as I try to overcome my fear of falling and incurring another serious injury. It's a constant internal struggle of wanting to push my boundaries so I can improve while also trying to be smart and not too risky. This can be a tough balance to achieve, especially with my fear taking a prominent role in the constant decision making that happens during a trail ride. The slippery roots and rocks are making this even more complex for me since anything slick has become an instant trigger. I can only hope I'm going to feel like a champ once I'm on my new much improved mountain bike in drier conditions. 

I've also persevered in drinking gin cocktails, even on days when the weather feels more bourbon. One that I had in Portland at a cute bar called Bellwether was a sort of play on a Last Word using a locally made green herbal liqueur. I brought a bottle of the Accompani Flora Green home and made that cocktail, but didn't like it as much the second time around. It had a sour feel to it with all the citrus and sweet. I will mess with the amounts and maybe post it soon. In the meantime I needed to use up the fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, so made a Gin and Juice from a NYT recipe and will definitely make this again. I loved the balance of the bitter and sweet. Definitely good for a humid summer evening, whether clear or cloudy.

Gin and Juice

2 oz London Dry Gin (I used Broker's)

1 oz. fresh lime juice

1 1/2 oz fresh grapefruit juice

1/2 oz simple syrup

grapefruit wedge for garnish

1. Put all ingredients (other than garnish) in a mixing glass or shaker with ice. Mix well.

2. Pour into couple glass and attach grapefruit wedge to rim.

Mumbai Manhattan

While at a work event this week, someone asked what my "hype song" is. I didn't have one at the ready. It really depends what brand of hype I'm going for. If I want to perk up before an early morning work from home meeting, a few dance moves to "Into the Groove" is good for that. If I want to get energized for a workout, it's a myriad of 80s and 90s rock songs including U2, The Clash, Rage Against the Machine, Boston, INXS, Beastie Boys, etc. That list is long. Typically before doing something for work where I need to be "on", I go in the opposite direction and want to get centered rather than hyped up. As an example, during my drive to this week's work event, I listened to John Denver's "Poems Prayers and Promises". Like many of his songs it has a nature theme and the imagery they invoke help me to feel more relaxed.

This is similar to my morning meditation style when I do one. I wish I could say I diligently did this every day. While I think a quiet walk out in my local woods would be even more beneficial, I am less likely to make the time to do that on an office day in the winter, so I have to bring my mind into nature in a different way. My most common approach is to hold the Onyx (Grace) and Afghan Blue Calcite (Freedom) stones my friend, Lisa, gave to me and to read a Mary Oliver poem. I have a few go-to's for this because I like to try to memorize the poem as much as possible since this helps me get focused. One is Wild Geese:

You do not have to be good. 

You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles in the desert repenting. 

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. 

Tell me about despair, yours, and I'll tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese high in the clean blue air are heading home again. 

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, 

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting, announcing your place in the family of things.

In the past I've sort of joked about going to GT (goat therapy) in addition to PT when I was recovering from an injury. It's really not a joke. The goats have helped me through a lot in pandemic times. This poem captures the essence of what I think is going on. No matter what you're dealing with emotionally or physically, the natural world around you just keeps moving on, doing its thing. The goats still want their breakfast by 8:00, get antsy for their midday walk in the pasture, need to be milked, feed their young, give birth, ruminate, sleep, butt heads with one another, etc. This is an explanation in its simplest form. There's a deeper aspect of it that I can't yet articulate, but will continue to ponder. Consider this a teaser for all my devoted readers (haha, this is just for me to hold myself accountable since it's been rolling around my mind for a while).

If nature doesn't work to calm my nerves after a particularly intense work week, there's always cocktails! This one was passed onto me by my co-worker, Sue. We have similar taste in libations. I arrived to my office one day to find a bottle of cardamom bitters on my desk and this has been a wintry favorite ever since. Here is the link to the original recipe Sue provided:

Mumbai Manhattan recipe

Mumbai Manhattan

2 oz rye whiskey (I like Rittenhouse)

1/2 oz amaro montenegro

1/2 oz ginger liqueur (like Domaine de Canton)

2 dashes cardamom bitters

1 bourbon soaked luxardo cherry

1. Put all ingredients except for the cherry into a mixing glass. Add ice and stir well.

2. Drain into coupe or Old Fashioned style glass. Garnish with cherry. 

Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup

 I miss mixed tapes. Listening to them. Making them. Gifting them. Receiving them. I loved the experience of putting a tape into the cassette player in my car on a road trip, the pavement and songs unfolding before me. I would never read the list written on the cardboard insert first, if one was provided. I wanted to be surprised by the songs chosen for me and pay attention to how one song segued into another. I would think a lot about the order of each one when I made them and know my friends did too. Truth be told, making a mixed cd was a much easier process and I could put one of those together in a fraction of the time, sliding songs around rather than pressing "play" and "record" together at just the right spot, a few seconds after the last song ended. Now, it's even easier with Spotify with most every song in the world available as options to add. It's a less satisfying experience somehow and doesn't feel as meaningful a gift to send to someone.

I have made and received some playlists on Spotify and while creating one for a friend yesterday, I discovered a new feature I like and hope to use more. Tricia was returning home to the Pacific Northwest after a whirlwind weekend back east and was going to be driving her daughter back to college, both of them being short on sleep. It's a two hour drive and I thought having some good road tripping tunes would make the drive more pleasant. I quickly assembled about 20 songs and as I was sharing it saw there is an option to invite someone to collaborate on the playlist with you. By today she had already added a bunch more songs that worked really well with the vibe I had going. I listened to it while cooking this evening and smiled every time I heard a song she had chosen. I think this could become a way that we stay in touch, continuing to add songs to this list and making new ones. 

It made for a lovely end to a Fall weekend. I made this soup for a second time and a friend stopped by for dinner and a game of Scrabble while we listened to the joint effort "mixed tape". 

This soup can be made on the stove top or in a crock pot/Instant pot. The original recipe is here.  I plan to try some fresh herbs instead of a dried spice blend next time. 

Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup

6 cups water

2 veg broth boullion cubes (or use 6 cups of veg broth of your choice

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced 

2 stalks celery, diced

2 medium carrots, sliced

1 large sweet potato, not peeled, diced

8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 tablespoons Old Bay spice blend (or something similar)

1 cup wild rice

1 14 oz can coconut milk (unsweetened)

2 cups chopped kale

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in large stock pan over medium heat. Add onions and a pinch of salt. Sautee for about 5 minutes, then add garlic. After a minute add celery, carrots, sweet potato, and mushrooms. Stir to coat them in oil and then sauté for a couple more minutes. 

2. Add broth, seasoning, rice and some salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 40 minutes until rice is cooked. 

3. Add coconut milk and kale. Let simmer for about 10 minutes more to let kale cooked down. Add salt and pepper. 

White Rice in the Instant Pot

 Each time I have moved I've had to go through the arduous process of getting rice just right on the inherited stove. The last place I lived had a horrible, ancient, tiny electric stove surrounded by minimal counter space which made for many an unpleasant cooking experience. So, I was overjoyed to then move into my house with a much more updated gas range. It's not perfect, but much better than most of the stoves I've had in the past. It's good for most things, but despite trying all four burners and utilizing different pots, I can't seem to get rice to come out consistently good. Since my Instant Pot doesn't get used frequently (see past posts) I decided to give that a go, hoping to find it a special purpose. I've tried several recipes I've found on line and this one seems to be pretty close to the texture I'm looking for. You cannot skip the step of rinsing the rice and you can't do it half-heartedly. I used to rinse rice in the same fashion that I washed my hands pre-pandemic - quickly and not like I really meant it. Now I rinse for several minutes until the water goes from white to more clear. And, yes, I also now wash my hands for the recommended 20 seconds. 

Here's the original recipe:

Amy + Jacky recipe

Instant Pot White Rice

1 cup rice (or more - use exactly 1:1 ratio water to rice)

1 cup water

1/4 tspn salt

1. Put rice in a sieve and rinse under cold water for several minutes until water starts to run clear. Shake out excess water.

2. Put rice water and salt in Instant Pot. Put on cover and turn seal/vent knob to "seal"

3. Turn onto to pressure cooker, custom and set to 3 minutes. 

4. Once the pressure cook part is done and the machine beeps, let it sit and the timer run to 10 minutes. Switch seal/vent knob to "vent" to let out any additional steam. Take off cover.

5. Turn Instant Pot off so it stops cooking. Fluff rice with a fork and transfer it to a serving bowl.

Brown rice: Same process, but 15 minutes pressure cook, let it sit for 5 minutes and then open the vent to release the steam. I find taking it out of the pot right away and putting it in a serving bowl is best so it does dry out.

Sautéed Asparagus with Yogurt Sauce

 April is, without contest, my least favorite weather month. Yes, April is the gateway to warmth and summer. Trees and flowers are practically exploding with life, adding color to an otherwise brown and bleak landscape. Bunnies are hopping about getting ready to bring their offspring into the world and chipmunks are scurrying about. Birds are singing out their enjoyment. I know about 325 people with April birthdays to celebrate. It's time once again to eat asparagus. I enjoy all of this. It's the in-between temperatures, indecisive skies and defeating winds that get me down. A teaser of a 65 degree sun-filled sky day is followed by several 40 degree, rainy, windy ones. As I mentioned, though, there is asparagus, so let's just focus on that. 

I've made this recipe twice already this month and planning to make it again while asparagus is still in season locally. As I prepared it, I was so pleased by my own efficiency in trimming the bottoms by snapping them off instead of cutting them. Then, I just watched this video and learned how wasteful that is. 

Cooks Illustrated Asparagus Video

This is worth watching. It's informative and also quite funny. You can find out what kind of person you are regarding asparagus smell. I am an MS. After watching this I am eager to try the braising method and peeling the stalks. The truth is, I'll probably still snap the bottoms since I think it's faster. At least my wasted parts are going into the compost so I can feel a bit better about it. 

Here's the link to the original recipe I used for this dish. I've never added the egg. I think it's a good idea, and I'd enjoy the flavor, but haven't found it necessary based on what it was accompanying. 

SK Asparagus w/yogurt sauce

I hope this makes your April more tolerable. :) (I fully realize I'm in the minority with my 4th month annoyances.)

Asparagus 

1-2 bunches of trimmed asparagus

1 tblspn olive oil

salt and pepper

lemon juice

1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds (less is ok)

Sauce

1 cup  plain Greek yogurt

2 tblspns lemon juice

1 tspn paprika

1 small clove minced garlic or big drizzle of garlic infused olive oil

1/4 tspn salt

1. Toast almonds in the toaster oven until lightly browned. Set aside.

2. Whisk together all sauce ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Spread 1/2 cup onto the surface of a serving platter. 

3. In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Place the spears in the pan, laying half in one direction, and half in the opposite direction so they fit nicely. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes depending on thickness (5 minutes if they are fatter). 

4. Uncover, turn the heat to high and season with salt and pepper. 

5. Sauté, turning with thongs until they are all browned on 1-2 sides, 5-7 minutes. Turn of heat and squeeze lemon juice on top. 

6. Place on yogurt smeared platter. If you want, drizzle with olive oil and more lemon juice. Then with a spoon drizzle more of the yogurt dressing. Serve and enjoy!