The Peanut Butter Paradigm

My food processor came today. Thanks, Amazon!

First on the agenda? Peanut butter.

I bought a 3 pound bag of salted peanuts. My first mistake. The peanut butter is way too salty, but I can deal with that.

My second mistake was buying un-shucked peanuts. Shucking half the bag took an hour and now my fingers are dry and sore.

In to the processor went the peanuts. As well as some canola oil and honey. You don't have to use honey, but I prefer my peanut butter to be a little less au naturale.

After processing for 20 seconds I add the oil and honey. If it's too gritty, process for more time, if it's not spreadable enough, add more oil.

And there you are. Organic peanut butter you can make yourself for about $2 per 8oz jar.

Goes great on toasted blueberry bagels.

Another great thing about making the peanut butter today was 1. I got to do something I've never done before and I'll learn from my mistakes mentioned above and 2. Micah now knows you can make your own peanut butter with peanuts and oil. He finds it fascinating. I don't think we'll ever go back to store bought.

Squid Eyes and Fruit Pops

Fooled you a bit with the title.

The new rag rug I made with recycled t-shirts is finished. It looks like a squid's eye...

Available now on Etsy.

Seems my kitty really likes it. Sorry kitty! I'll make you a new one.

In other news, my son has been saving his allowance for a new wooden train toy. Today was hard, however as the ice cream truck came around blasting the jingle from hell. He was torn. Spend $2 on an ice cream or save it for a toy. While he was deciding the ice cream truck drove off and he crumpled into a heap. So sad.

So after he calmed down I asked him if he wanted to help me make some fruit pops. We cut up one orange, took a handful of frozen strawberries out of the freezer and blended them in the blender. Into the ice pop trays they went. One hour later we were enjoying our homemade (and healthy) fruit pops.

Dinosaur Appliques!

Last year I got these great dinosaur appliques.

I couldn't quite decide what to do with them, so when I finished my latest rag rug adding a dino applique to the baby blue fabric just seemed... right.

My son really loves it.

But alas! Twas not to be. This rug is going on Etsy.

I love rag rugging. It's a great form of upcycling.

And the backs are just as pretty as the front!

You can see this listed on Etsy here.

My sister has asked me for a companion cube pot holder made from crochet fabric... Stay tuned.