The Basics

I think I've finally perfected my almond butter. To suit my tastes at least. I know, it's weird that I have tastes about almonds, I've never really liked nuts. But lucky for me, the reason I never really liked nuts was definitely texture (except for walnuts, which have a taste I don't particularly like) and by making nut butters or using finely ground nut flours that pretty much takes care of lindsay-un-friendly texture issues. So, here is my recipe for creamy almond butter that tastes a lot like peanut butter. It does have a somewhat dry after taste, which can be fixed by adding a little olive oil, but I prefer to leave it plain since I mostly cook with it and some times the oil can separate when mixing with other things.

1. Buy 1 lb whole shelled, un-skinned almonds (I get them for $4.50-$5.50 lb at Whole Foods).
2. Start boiling a large pot of water. Enough liquid to cover all the almonds.
   
3. In a large bowl, place about 1.5 cups of ice in cool water. Enough liquid to cover all the almonds.
   
4. Put a colander in the sink and get ready to be quick about things.
5. When the water in the pot starts boiling, pour your 1 lb un-skinned almonds in the pot. Let boil for 45 seconds.
6. Drain hot water from almonds in the colander and immediately put almonds in cold water bowl.
7. Stir briefly. And drain in colander again.
8. Pat almonds dry with a towel. You should notice the skins will be quite lose now.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
10. Slip skins off the almonds. Careful, sometimes they really fly! Pat dry with towel again.
11. Bake skinned almonds at 350 for 15 minutes. This roasting process is what really makes them taste like peanuts after griding. Towards the end, they start to make popping noises like pop corn.
    
12. Pull almonds from the oven and immediately place into blender or food processor.
13. Blend until creamy!! Should take 10 to 15 minutes. In most cases you will need to push down the side build up a lot to make sure it's blending well. And feel free to give your machine a break if it threatens to overheat. Mine does fine (7-cup Cuisinart) with no breaks.

If you want to make almond flour, bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes (instead of 15 min). This warms them up and helps dry them out but doesn't give them that roasted flavor. And don't blend until creamy, just blend until you get a very fine almond powder. This is almond flour.

The first time I made garlic powder I figured it was super easy. I mean, how hard can it be, dry it in the dehydrator and chop, right? Well, I made one pretty big mistake. I didn't cut the garlic into slices fine enough before putting them in the dehydrator (get it... big mistake... anyway, moving on). But the second time I tried it I read up about it on The Organic Sister. This time I cut my garlic into super fine slices with the help of my Pampered Chef garlic slicer. Dehydrated for about 5 or 6 hours and then blended in the Cuisinart. Turned out great. I'm very happy to have garlic powder again because I can more easily do meat dry rubs and make my own spice combinations, like taco seasoning and chili powder.

Oh boy, gravy is so amazing. That whole chicken I made only left 1/2 a cup of drippings in the bottom of the pan. I added 1 Tablespoon of homemade mayo to it and cooked it for about 1 or 2 minutes in a sauce pan. It's pretty salty so I might add some yogurt in next time. But it was REALLY good. I've used it to smother over my veggies to make them more interesting, and tomorrow I may just do an open face turkey sandwich.

The most obvious thing to do with the chicken undesirables was to make a chicken broth out of it. I added some celery, onions, lemon juice, basil, and threw the garlic I cooked the chicken with in there. So far my best soup yet. I highly recommend this method if you are looking to make your own chicken broth.

When the chicken broth is done boiling (in about 4 quarts water for about 6-8 hours) I almost always strain everything out and put the broth in the fridge. It's good for when I'm having a yucky day and need something light and nutritious, and also good for using broth in recipes.

I bought some whole almonds and blanched them then ground them up in a blender. There is a recipe in the book the blender came with for a few different type of nut butters, so I figured it could handle it. This was definitely the max this blender could do. I had to do it on pulse (as the book suggested) and I had to keep pushing it down. I only did 1 lb of almonds, which was just enough to sit below the pushy downy tool (technical term) and just high enough to get stuck on the edges. So It took me a good 3 hours to get something like almond meal. Never made it to butter. Next time I'll try it with more almonds so that I can push it down properly. (sorry the picture is really blurry, though none of them are great). On the other hand, this gave me the opportunity to measure the quantity output of 1 lb of almonds. Turns out it's 1/2 as expensive for me to make my own almond butter, finding that out made this a good test run. And I think I can still use the almond meal when baking. Might even be better.