To Five Years - Happy Blogiversary

Lately, I've been feeling old - edging up to thirty, ushering in a new set of fresh starry-eyed post-graduate students, coping with chronic hip pain, oh and you know, celebrating My Munchable Musing's fifth year of existence. It was resurrected from a previous blog in order to fill an intellectual niche during post-graduation underemployment. As you can imagine, a lot has happened and changed in those intervening five years, and the blog has evolved accordingly. I don't think that 23-year-old me, living with the parents, would have seen myself living across the Atlantic, though perhaps would also not have been surprised about the other international wanderings.

View of a 'castle' on the Ghanaian coast, which
acted as port of departure in the slave trade.

The most recent wandering took me to Ghana for the summer. You may have read the other couple of posts on the topic, but I have not told you about the groundnuts. People in Europe don't do peanut butter ... and they definitely don't harbour this almost irrational desire to eat a peanut butter sandwich when you need a comfort food. But Africa is different. Ok, so maybe they don't consume PB&J in quantity, but the groundnut (AKA peanut) is a common ingredient in soups and stews. Another transplant from the Americas onto the continent, groundnut has become an important source of protein and nutrients across the developing world (where most consumption takes place).

What is more fascinting is the connection between current American consumption of all things peanut and our tumultuous historical connection to West Africa. After introduced to the region by the Portugese, peanuts were used to sustain African slaves on the arduous journey to the Americas. It stuck, and is conspicuous in the culinary tradition that developed among Southern African American communities. Over time (and with the help of George Washington Carver in the early 20th century), the little legume made its way into the mainstream of American cuisine and diet.

But let's bring it back to Great Britain, which is what I actually did. On my last day in Ghana, I was sent packing with two jars of freshly ground peanut butter. Somehow, my precious cargo made it through the intervening two weeks of intense European travels (complete with buses, trains, and a ferry), to arrive safely in Oxford. The joy of real peanut butter (as opposed to what is passed as such here) was insurmountable, but I felt like some fusion with my surroundings was necessary. And thus, the Groundnut Jammer was born. If you are unfamiliar with Jammy Dodgers (as I was until recently), you probably did not grow up in the UK. This sweet snack is composed of raspberry jam sandwiched between two shortbread biscuits. Simple, yes, but a veritable institution, like Oreos in the US (though the latter predates by about 50 years). With a bit of my Ghanaian peanut butter and some British jam, these turned out quite well, and served as an excellent way to celebrate another blogiversary!

Groundnut Jammers (~12 sandwiches)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter (use natural for best results)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt (only if unsalted peanut butter)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

~1/2 cup raspberry jam (or filling of your choice)

1. Whisk together oil, sugar, and peanut butter (and maybe vanilla) until smooth and uniform.

2. Sift in flour, salt, and baking soda, combining until the dough no longer has dry bits, but is not sticky (may add more flour or a little bit of almond milk to adjust the moisture content).

3. On wax paper or a floured surface, roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Using a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass, cut out circular forms about 3-4 inches in diameter. Using another cutter or the rim of a spice jar, remove 1-inch diameter circles from half of the biscuit forms. Reroll and repeat until all dough is used. 

4. Place cookies on a lined baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes (until edges brown) in a 180C/360F oven. Remove and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

5. Match up the circles and donuts. Place 2 tsps of jam on the circular biscuit and then cover with the donut. You're done; enjoy!

Fifty Second Friday: Sandwiched

I was recently reminiscing about all of the old junk food that characterized the 1990's. Yes, you read correctly, because as any child, I looked forward to the brightly colored and sugar-laden treats my mother would on occasion pack in my lunch. The mere mention of Squeezeit fruit drinks (with those twist off caps), Lunchables cheese pizzas, and Dunkaroos bring back memories of elementary school lunches. TV shows, video games, and pop songs also are fun to add to the mix, but really food is most strongly connected to memories...perhaps because it is something that is more deeply connected to our senses. 

Positive associations or otherwise, it's amazing how strongly sometimes these memories and feelings can be tied to foods of our past. As a child, it was almost like a right of passage, a badge of status, to have a bag of gushers or a hostess snack pack in your lunch. And it is never the baby carrots, or the apple slices, or even the yogurt (unless it was the neon-swirled Trix variety) cup that stands out. It's amazing to me how these priorities have become so distorted that products not even resembling 'food' feature number one on consumers' priority lists.

Now all of that said, I had this craving a couple of days ago for little cookies with a layer of creamy frosting spread on top. But unlike during my childhood, the thought of a dunkaroo was more than slightly repulsive. Instead, I whipped up a batch of slightly sweet peanut butter crackers (gluten-free) and some chocolatey white bean spread. Together, they went together quite nicely to make around 5 or 6 sandwiches.

CocoNutter Butter Sandwiches

 

PB Crackers

2 tbs smooth peanut butter

1 tbs oil (canola, safflower, grapeseed, etc.)

1 tbs agave nectar

1/4 cup buckwheat flour

1/4 cup almond meal

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1. Combine peanut butter, oil, and agave in a medium mixing bowl with a fork until smooth. 

2. Add in additional ingredients, using more flour until the dough sticks together. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Roll out the dough so it's about 1/4 inch thick. 

3. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately cut into rectangles or squares. Allow to cool completely.

Chocobean Cream

1 cup white beans

1 tbs creamy peanut butter

2 tsp coconut oil

2 tbs almond milk (unsweetened chocolate is best)

3 tbs cocoa powder

1-2 packets stevia (depending on how sweet you want it)

2 tbs agave

1. In a food processor, combine peanut butter, coconut oil, milk, agave, and white beans until smooth. Add in cocoa and stevia until it's well-incorporated. If too thick, add another tablespoon of almond milk.

2. Spread a layer on one of the cooled crackers. Top with a second cracker. Enjoy!

Find more fun goodies at this week's Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Wellness Weekends.

Best of MMM: Ignorance is Bliss

It's always a good idea to end the week on cookies. And in this case, it's a good idea to end the week not thinking about the impacts of those cookies. Sometimes you just need a day off.
---
...and knowledge is power. I suppose both of these can simultaneously be true, but I think that is not the case for food. While it may seem better to remain blissfully ignorant, enjoying tasty (ok, that's relative) and cheap food, it comes at the cost of a healthy body and environment. But at the same time, it is often overwhelming to confront the growing pool of information and think twice (or thrice...) about every piece of food that enters your mouth. As one who constantly reads about news and events related to food and agriculture as part of my job and at home, I tend to let these issues dominate my thoughts. Let me give you a peak into today's musings and the food item that led to them tonight.

I am confused. On the one hand, the food movement in this country seems centred around local and season products. Slow Food USA has blossomed in the past few years, emphasizing freshness, flavor, community, and traditions. The number of farmers markets in the United States more than doubled in the past ten years!

But getting your produce from the local market is not the be-all and end-all. First off, food miles (or the distance your food travels) is not the largest consumer of energy in your food (USDA found household preparation and processing to be the culprits). Second, farmers market produce does not necessarily equate to low pesticide or fertilizer use. However, it does offer the opportunity to ask the farmer these burning questions in person, and form a closer and more trusting relationship with the producer of your food.

Many farms are taking the organic or alternate production methods route. Organic certification sets specific standards for non-chemical fertilizer and pesticides, as well as no genetically modified organisms. Biodynamic agriculture and agroecology are two other approaches that attempt to work within the natural ecosystem function to produce food.

Finally, we happen to operate within a global food system. That means we can easily obtain coffee, cane sugar, chocolate, spices, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, etc. from anywhere in the world. With such power comes responsibility. Ecolabels are one way of helping consumers make more informed decisions about the social and environmental status of certain products. I've written a lot about fair trade lately, so I will refer you to those posts for more deets. In almost all cases - farmers markets, organics, fair trade, etc. - a slight (or not-so-slight) price premium may be realized in order to internalize the external cost of environmental degradation and social inequities.

But it's a complicated food world to navigate, despite Michael Pollan's Food Rules. And there are times when your wallet looks little haggard, the bank account a little slim, and you just don't want to know where that coconut came from. So, I present to you the cookies made in preparation for a hike, from ingredients for which I know nothing of the origin except the grocer. Now I don't often toot my own horn, but I have to say that this were quite exceptionally tasty little morsels.

Ignorance is Bliss Cookies

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tbs molasses

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbs ground flaxseed

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2/3 - 1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 - 2/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds

1. Mix all liquid ingredients together. Add in dry ingredients until just incorporated. Then mix in seeds, fruit, and chocolate.

2. Spoon out mixture onto a lined or greased cookie sheet. Should make close to four dozen medium cookies. Bake at 350F for 14-16 minutes. Allow to cool before consuming!

UPDATE! These hardy cookies served as fuel for the hike my friends and I did in Shenandoah National Park. The seeds, oats, peanut butter, and whole wheat flour gave them nice flavor and a little more substance. Check these and more healthier recipes out at Slightly Indulgent Tuesday!

Thirsty Thursday: Some Comfort Please

Do you ever just feeling like coming home, curling up in a comfortable chair, and drinking hot chocolate? Yeah, never, right? So despite the ridiculously sunny weather, relatively warm temperatures, and pretty low-stress work day, all I wanted when I got home this evening was a warm cuppa cocoa. Putting a bit of a twist on a solid classic winter beverage, I combined two of my favorite flavors into one comforting cup (plus earned an extra dose of protein).

PB Cup Cocoa

1 cup almond milk, unsweetened

1 tbs smooth, natural peanut butter

1 1/2 tbs cocoa powder

10-15 drops stevia (or one packet powdered)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Combine all ingredients except milk in a mug until they come together.

2. Add milk and mix until the peanut butter concoction starts to dissolve. Microwave for one minute. Stir again with a spoon until you feel the peanut butter well incorporated. Microwave for another minute. This would work over a stove-top, but I was much too impatient.

3. Stir again and then serve. Would be lovely with a dollop of coconut whipped cream! 

Making its debut on Wellness Weekend and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays!

Food News: Nutty News

To begin with, happy first post (and second day) of Vegan Month of Food. As I noted last Friday, each day will follow a theme for the month of October...that is unless I shirk my duties as a blogger and don't post anything...

Today, we highlight a bit of news from the food sphere. As a vegan, I definitely eat  my fair share of nut butter. It's filling, versatile, and a pretty good source of protein. It is also no stranger to salmonella outbreaks. High fat foods provide more favorable environments for the bacteria. And unlike many of our food-borne illness news flashes, salmonella in peanut butter is not a field-level phenomenon (like E. coli in spinach), but must occur after the roasting phase that kills bacteria. According to a Scientific American article from a few years back, the 2009 salmonella contamination can be traced back to infiltration of water polluted with animal fecal matter.

Well, a week ago, Trader Joe's issued a recall on its Valencia peanut butter. Since then, the manufacturer Sunland has recalled a handful of its distributed peanut and almond butters that were potentially harboring the bacteria. I could go ahead and blame the industrialization of the food industry for all these outbreaks, but the truth is that health standards have become more stringent, and with more oversight as the industry has become more mechanized in the past hundred years. However, what the NPR's The Salt points out is that the consolidation of processing augments the impacts and reach of the contamination so much more. Instead of a small plant recalling their limited distribution, these mammoth facilities provide peanut butter to major brands across the country.

Some call for more standards, more regulation. I wonder if we wouldn't be better served moving in the opposite direction of our current trajectory, decentralizing and going back to a (perhaps less efficient) smaller-scale distributed production model. Just food for thought.

What's Cooking? Winter Blues

Spring may only be a month away, and the weather may be unusually warm, but some times the winter blues still catch you unawares. Perhaps it is a gray day, or perhaps you've hit a little blip in life. We've all been there, where it seems like nothing in the world is tilting in your favor. But oftentimes something will make the day seem cheerier.

Well, I've found my magic bullet. This peanut buttery bar cookie is actually fantastic. Why am I surprised? Well, the secret ingredient had me battling a healthy dose of skepticism...but now I am a convert (and slightly happier...an Italian farmhouse and a bowl of figs would probably do it).

Beanie Butter Blondie
1 1/2 cups garbanzos, cooked
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tbs oil (I used peanut, but canola or melted coconut would also work)
1/4 cup turbinado sugar (or other less refined variety)
15 drops vanilla liquid stevia
2 tbs almond milk (if needed)
2/3 cup barley flour, oats, or millet meal (for gluten-free)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Puree garbanzo beans, peanut butter, oil, sugar, stevia, and milk until smooth. Add in flour, baking powder, soda, and salt, pulsing until combines. Should be like brownie batter. Mix in chocolate chips.
2. Pout batter into a small, greased brownie pan. Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes until just starting to brown around the edges and middle is set. You want it to still be a bit soft and gooey.
3. Serve warm. Consume. Repeat.

My belated contribution to this Wellness Weekends and an early addition to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays! And a new one - Allergy-Free Wednesdays...

Stay tuned this week, as I try to make heads or tails of farmers market produce, and explore an interesting partnership in the egg industry.

Ignorance is Bliss

...and knowledge is power. I suppose both of these can simultaneously be true, but I think that is not the case for food. While it may seem better to remain blissfully ignorant, enjoying tasty (ok, that's relative) and cheap food, it comes at the cost of a healthy body and environment. But at the same time, it is often overwhelming to confront the growing pool of information and think twice (or thrice...) about every piece of food that enters your mouth. As one who constantly reads about news and events related to food and agriculture as part of my job and at home, I tend to let these issues dominate my thoughts. Let me give you a peak into today's musings and the food item that led to them tonight.

I am confused. On the one hand, the food movement in this country seems centred around local and season products. Slow Food USA has blossomed in the past few years, emphasizing freshness, flavor, community, and traditions. The number of farmers markets in the United States more than doubled in the past ten years!

But getting your produce from the local market is not the be-all and end-all. First off, food miles (or the distance your food travels) is not the largest consumer of energy in your food (USDA found household preparation and processing to be the culprits). Second, farmers market produce does not necessarily equate to low pesticide or fertilizer use. However, it does offer the opportunity to ask the farmer these burning questions in person, and form a closer and more trusting relationship with the producer of your food.

Many farms are taking the organic or alternate production methods route. Organic certification sets specific standards for non-chemical fertilizer and pesticides, as well as no genetically modified organisms. Biodynamic agriculture and agroecology are two other approaches that attempt to work within the natural ecosystem function to produce food.

Finally, we happen to operate within a global food system. That means we can easily obtain coffee, cane sugar, chocolate, spices, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, etc. from anywhere in the world. With such power comes responsibility. Ecolabels are one way of helping consumers make more informed decisions about the social and environmental status of certain products. I've written a lot about fair trade lately, so I will refer you to those posts for more deets. In almost all cases - farmers markets, organics, fair trade, etc. - a slight (or not-so-slight) price premium may be realized in order to internalize the external cost of environmental degradation and social inequities.

But it's a complicated food world to navigate, despite Michael Pollan's Food Rules. And there are times when your wallet looks little haggard, the bank account a little slim, and you just don't want to know where that coconut came from. So, I present to you the cookies made in preparation for a hike, from ingredients for which I know nothing of the origin except the grocer. Now I don't often toot my own horn, but I have to say that this were quite exceptionally tasty little morsels.

Ignorance is Bliss Cookies

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tbs molasses

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbs ground flaxseed

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2/3 - 1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 - 2/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds

1. Mix all liquid ingredients together. Add in dry ingredients until just incorporated. Then mix in seeds, fruit, and chocolate.

2. Spoon out mixture onto a lined or greased cookie sheet. Should make close to four dozen medium cookies. Bake at 350F for 14-16 minutes. Allow to cool before consuming!

UPDATE! These hardy cookies served as fuel for the hike my friends and I did in Shenandoah National Park. The seeds, oats, peanut butter, and whole wheat flour gave them nice flavor and a little more substance. Check these and more healthier recipes out at Slightly Indulgent Tuesday!

Dressed to Impress

I don't generally care for food fads. The frozen yogurt craze of a few years ago didn't faze me; I had already ended my relationship with TCBY before the hype even began. Cupcakes, while beautiful, never really appealed to me (I was always more of a brownie person, myself). But I think I may have found one that suits my tastes. Waste is one of the most grievous sins in my book, whether that is in the form of energy (beyond one's bodily power), time, food, or whatever. Well, a person happens to have a half dozen cupcakes meant for a potluck that she didn't attend, and doesn't plan on consuming all the baked goodness, what else is there to do but compost the lot? Ok, you could make a trifle, but the newest baked good craze may offer an even more impressive-looking solution.

Cake pops. Yes, the mini cake-on-a-stick coated in something wonderfully sugary made it onto the food blog scene a little over three years ago now (thank you Bakerella). They provide the perfect outlet for extra or stale cake, really only require frosty or something else gooey and sugary, and keep fairly well as they are coated in a chocolate exterior. But kids, you haven't made it to the big league until some bigwig like Starbucks takes you under its wing. For cake pops, their time in the spotlight has finally come. (but I wouldn't recommend the commercial version with a laundry list of ingredients over a simple homemade batch).

How did my first attempt at this fun bit-sized treats go? My coworkers seemed thoroughly impressed and enjoyed them immensely. If ever I want a showy dessert that's not too difficult (and very transportable), these may be my new go-to.

Choco-PB Cake Pop

1 boring whole wheat cake, crumbled

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup chocolate chips or 4 oz dark chocolate

crushed peanuts to garnish

1. Heat soymilk and sugar over medium-high heat until sugar starts to caramelize. It should start to boil, bubble, and rise in the pan. (you can also use 1 cup sweetened condensed milk if not vegan and in a pinch for time). Turn off heat and then add immediate to your peanut butter. Combine thoroughly.

2. Now you can mix that peanut buttery goodness with your cake crumbs until the goo has been evenly distributed. Let cool in fridge. Then for little balls about 1 inch in diameter. Stick on wax paper on a baking sheet and put back in the fridge.

3. Melt chocolate in a double broiler (will keep it melty the entire time you are dipping) or in the microwave. I had trouble coating already skewered cake balls, so you can always dip them first like you would truffles and then put the lollipop stick in. Sprinkle with nuts.

4. Place back in the refrigerator for about an hour until completely hardened, and then store in the fridge until consumed!

For more vegan cake poppage, check out Vegan Culinary Crusade, Veronica's Cornucopia, and Diet, Desserts, and Dogs. Also, while I'm not sure how slightly indulgent this recipe is, it's going up on the Slightly Indulgent Tuesday page at Simply Sugar & Gluten Free!

Are there any food fads that you fancy? Any that you refuse to take part in?

Rachel’s Rainbow: The Attack of the Macarons

“So she packed her favorite lunch – a peanut butter sandwich and chocolate chip cookies. Then she set out on her search for her own rainbow.” - Rachel's Rainbow

May’s Mactweets Mac Attack Challenge was to create a French macaron inspired by a favorite childhood book, character, passage, etc. “Rachel’s Rainbow” was probably one of the first books I ever had (it was published a year after my birth), and it occupies a very special place in my heart.

Rachel walks through the woods in search of a rainbow, collecting the odd apple or leaf in the process. Only she finds in the end that she has the real rainbow she collected right there in her basket. Yes, it’s the typical hokey children’s literature, but it also speaks to a profound appreciation for nature and the gifts of the Earth. I think we often go searching for things and forget to take count of what we already have, and note the wonders that surround us in everyday life. This scrawny, 23-page book uses the eyes of a child to show the reader the beauty and dynamism of the natural world.

In honor of that rainbow each of us searches for – and the peanut butter sandwich and cookies each of us longs to eat – I made a rainbow of macaron peanut butter sandwich cookies. Only the red veered off a little from a standard macaron recipe, in that I used ground dehydrated strawberries for some of the color and to make a PB & J (because I don’t like plain PB sandwiches too much). Also note that my purple is actually brown (and chocolate), as I forgot one of the colors on my rainbow spectrum. My sister also commented that the peanut butter filling is particularly un-photogenic - though I don't know what you can do about that!

Notes and Other Macaron Adventures:

Cashew Macarons with Coconut Cream and Lime Curd Fillings. Left: Curry Powder; Plain; Garam Masala.

After some trial and error over the past few months, I think I have landed a recipe that works for my climate and my oven. Syrup and Tang’s proportions suit a damp climate well, because of the high dry ingredient proportions. Eat4Fun’s chocolate macaron recipe also turned out marvelously. Not So Humble Pie has a new Macaron 101, and Tartelette seems to have an endless supply of macaron variations. I also realized that 300-315F is the proper temperature for my oven, but ovens vary and you should experiment with your own.

Strawberry Lemonade

Minty Dark Chocolate