Cooking Floyd: Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Creams

Ok, so it's not really cooking.  But that's cool because not only does this taste great, kidlets can make it nearly on their own with just a bit of supervision. All that's involved is a microwave.

Cooking Floyd: Nuts to You

Michael loves peanut butter.  I mean he luhuhuhuvs it!  When he opens a new jar he unscrews the lid, reverently peels back the seal, brings the jar to his nose, inhales deeply, and then exhales with an Aaaahhhh!  I watch this all with amusement, waiting for him to tell me where those peanuts came from, the terroir of the field, and if the nuts contain a hint of fruit or spice.  He is truly a sommelier of peanut butter.  Me, not so much.

I lived most of my life in central Pennsylvania near a farm called Walnut Acres.  Walnut Acres has been growing and producing organic foods since way before it was cool.  When I first started shopping there as a teenager I didn't know this.  I just knew they made really yummy peanut butter.  And not just peanut butter but different varieties of nut butter.  Almond Butter.  Cashew Butter.  Raw Peanut Butter.  Roasted Peanut Butter.  Honey Peanut Butter.  And my personal favorite, Honey Sesame Seed Peanut Butter.  I introduced these to Michael and he was ecstatic.  Forget crackers, or bread, or celery sticks, just give him a spoon and he could do real damage to a new jar.

Since we moved away from PA we haven't been able to purchase a nut butter that matched up to our memories of Walnut Acres butters.  I've been curious about making nut butters in the food processor so I finally gave it a try.  Of course I didn't start out with peanuts.  I started with almonds.  Smoked almonds bought from the store to be exact.  I didn't want to waste our hard earned collected and shelled nuts if the experiment went awry.  So armed with coupons I headed to the store to buy Emerald nuts which were on sale BOGO.  I bought roasted walnuts, smoked almonds, and cocoa roasted almonds.

I was totally surprised how easy it was!