Kujichagulia: Honoring Potlikker to Reclaim Traditional Foodways and Ourselves
My friend Sanura of My Life Runs on Food has launched a new food blog inspired by Kwanzaa.
Check out the post I wrote about collard greens and potlikker:
Kujichagulia: Honoring Potlikker to Reclaim Traditional Foodways and Ourselves.
Recipe: Nut Butter Cookies
Put a bowl of cashews or almonds in front of me and you’d better not blink. But for some reason, the butters made of these nuts are too much for me and they sit in the pantry for months. There’s something about the way the taste changes when they’re ground that is too rich for my palate.
This past weekend I hung out with J and his kid at the grandparents’. One of the things best things about going over there is the kitchen. When J and his 9-year-old are ignoring me and doing things that 9-year-olds like better than hanging out with their father’s girlfriend, I use the time to bake.
Lately, it’s been all about cookies.
A few months ago J made an amazing pecan cookie from a recipe in his mom’s old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook; the one in the binder. It inspired me to revisit my own cookie making past.
A personal chef friend of mine has decided to transition to a Paleo diet, a kind of grain-free Real Food diet, if you will. I told her I’d support her by experimenting with not eating bread and products with flour. I’ve limited my bread intake to 2-3 times a week with interesting results, but I will be holding on to my weekly pancake ritual.
With a forgotten jar of almond butter I’d purchased for my dad (he too found the taste to be too much for his palate) and a gift of crunchy peanut butter from Once Again Coop, searched online for a flourless peanut butter cookie recipe and came across this one.
Using this recipe, I substituted brown sugar for white sugar. Forming the cookies were a bit tricky; while this recipe calls for an egg, the chocolate chips did not hold well. I had to force the chips into the balls of dough.
It was even worse for the crunchy peanut butter – both the chips and the chopped peanuts were trying to free themselves from their destiny.
I made three batches of the cookies, almond butter, peanut butter, and almond & peanut butter. The almond butter ones were so good that I was mad I hadn’t made them smaller.
The last batch was just supposed to be just almond butter but I didn’t have enough for the recipe and I also wanted to see if adding an extra egg would hold the chips in. Instead, I ended up with a much wetter batter than I wanted, so I had to add in the remaining peanut butter.
The recipe says to bake for 12 to 14 minutes, but I only baked them for 12. I got a very chewy but slightly crispy cookie. The batch with 2 eggs is a bit chewier and puffier than the first two batches.
This recipe is a great one bowl recipe that takes little time.
I could make this every weekend.
Good thing my oven is broken.
My 80/20 Food Rule.
I love food. If you invite me to a party, there had better be food. If there’s no food, there’s a good chance I’ll leave and go find something to eat. And maybe, if I still like you, I’ll come back for your party. Or worse, I’ll order takeout and have it delivered. Be warned.
When I’m in my city, I eat the best quality my budget will allow. And occasionally, I’ll eat something that will cause my friends whiplash if they catch me in action. When I’m out of town and I have limited options, I’m not going to starve myself. It’s not rational.
And that’s where my 80/20 comes in.
Eighty percent of the time, I’m eating green, clean, and local. The other twenty percent? All bets are off. Give me the greasy diner food where EVERYTHING is cooked on the same grill that only gets cleaned once a day. The end of the day. Give me the REAL NY slice. Give me my mama’s home cooking.
Chances are, you’re not going to always be able to eat what you want to, when you want to. Beating yourself up about making a “bad” food choice makes for an unhealthy relationship with food, and the power of negative thought is far worse than that bag of cheese puffs.
So, think about how you can come up with your own food rule.
Start where you are, keeping your budget, lifestyle, and what you have access to in mind. When you can do better, eat better. If you can’t, make the best decision given your choices and keep it moving.
Life is too short to be so fundamentalist about food.
