Late-Blooming Peanut Butter Sandwich Love

In the last year, I've come to enjoy nut butter more than I ever did as a kid. I thought peanut butter & banana sandwiches were weird then. In college, I enjoyed the Nutella & banana combination, but I was always just as pleased without the banana.

Now, I can go through a jar of peanut butter in two weeks.

I think there's some correlation with the amount of time I've been spending outdoors, rock climbing and car camping. And because one of my friends has been arriving at our web series film shoots with a snack of peanut butter and celery. Peanut butter is easy. It feels healthy. In addition to its sweet and snacky uses, it can also be used for savory dishes like gado-gado.

My favorite variation on the PB&J lately is this:

Plump blueberries up close.

Eastern Sierra in the background.

Something I've always found irksome about the PB&J is how the jelly or jam or banana tends to make the sandwich slide apart. During my last camping trip, I inadvertently resolved this issue for myself: I didn't have any jam, but I wanted a fruity element, so I threw on some of the dried blueberries I'd brought for my oatmeal. The slivered almonds were unnecessary ('twas an experiment). I would have used a slightly thicker layer of peanut butter if this hadn't been the very last that I could scrape out of the jar.

Advantages of using dried blueberries instead of jam or jelly in a peanut butter sandwich:

1. The chewiness of the dried fruit gave me more to sink my teeth into, which made the 'wich more satisfying.
2. Dried fruit is lighter than a jar of jam and can also be used in oatmeal or as a snack in itself. Scooping up a handful of jam when you need a sugar boost is not very convenient.
3. No need to worry about getting peanut butter in your jam or vice-versa.
4. The sandwich does not slip apart. 
5. Nothing got drippy. 

I imagine this would be just as good with most other dried berries, but I'll probably stick to these dried wild blueberries from Trader Joe's. A dash of cinnamon is always a good idea. 

Skyline to the Sea Menu

Photo by Caroline Le.

I recently went on a backpacking trip along the last 12 miles of the Skyline to the Sea Trail, starting at Big Basin Redwoods State Park and ending at Waddell Beach. When I learned that I would have to create my own meals, I panicked for a second, intimidated by the prospect, and proclaimed that I would probably live on dried fruit, nuts, and oat bars. My friend then offered to double up on her own menu and showed it to me. And I realized I was being silly-- I just had to plan out two breakfasts, three lunches, and two dinners. Not a big deal at all!

Considerations of preparation, weight, and space had to be made, but all it took was to think about it for a little while.

What I brought:

Breakfast (all days):
oatmeal with cinnamon, raisins, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds
yerba mate tea

Lunch (all days):
baby Gala apple
English Cheddar with caramelized onions
whole wheat naan

Dinner 1:
Trader Joe's boil-in-the-bag Saag Paneer (in the canned good section)
whole wheat naan
chamomile tea

Dinner 2:
Trader Joe's boil-in-the-bag Channa Masala (?)
whole wheat naan
chamomile tea

Snacks & Goodies:
5 oz dried apricots
3 dark chocolate oat bars
1 Ritter Sport dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts

Can you tell I did all my shopping at Trader Joe's?

Notes:

- Packed way too much oatmeal and ended up consuming at least 2 portions each day. Oops. Measure 1/2 cup servings out next time. Packed oats with raisins, cranberries, and cinnamon already mixed in, a small amount of almonds in a foil packet. Brought 4 yerba mate tea bags. Considered bringing instant coffee, but decided the mate would be better/less fuss. Ate the oatmeal out of the pot both days.

- Whole wheat naan was a great idea: hearty, could handle potential squishing, went well with both cheese and Indian fare. Stayed soft even at room temperature, and was even better when I let it steam on the Jetboil lid.

- The English Cheddar with caramelized onions gave my simple ploughman's lunch an appetite-sating savoriness. Since temps were only in the upper 60s to mid-70s each day, I didn't have to worry about the big chunk of cheese going bad without refrigeration. Baby gala apples were just the right size.

- Boil-in-bag Indian Fare: I took them out of the boxes and wrote abbreviated instructions on the bags themselves. Hope Sharpie chemicals didn't leech too much into the water. Instructions say to let sit in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, but I put the bags in the water (which other folks were boiling for their Mountain House meals) from the beginning, and by the time the water boiled, the food was plenty hot. The downside is that you end up carrying that liquid weight around until you eat it.

Each packet was a very healthy size serving for me. I was pretty impressed with the flavor and spice level. Those with more sensitive stomachs will want to pass on this for camping food, though. Unless you don't mind potentially hanging out in (sometimes gawd-awful) pit latrines or hovering over catholes for a long time.

- Dark chocolate is always a good idea. Always.

I've had a tendency to overpack food, and I wanted to make sure this time was different. When I finished the last of my food during our lunch stop on the 9.5-mile hike back, I felt sweet, sweet pride.

Five Things Learned in 2011

1. Salsa verde and chile verde are amazingly easy to make. And extremely delicious. Peeling the papery skin off of tomatillos to reveal their sticky, smooth, green skins is so satisfying. Just throw them in a pan with some pricked jalapenos, stick them under a broiler until their skins are dark brown, then throw them in a blender with some onions, garlic, chile, and salt. It's magic. Tomatillo salsa! Then brown some chunks of pork shoulder, pour off the excess fat, and add tomatillo salso to just barely cover it (add water or broth if necessary), and simmer for a couple of hours, or until tender. This is how I ate mine:

Corn tortillas, chopped red onion, chopped red cabbage, queso fresco, and Cholula (not yet applied).

2. I can make my own half-and-half. Why this did not occur to me before confounds me. I mix milk and cream in a little jam jar so that I can shake it up before adding it to my morning coffee. My home-kitchen version of homogenization? The advantage of making half-n-half instead of buying it is that I always have both cream and milk on hand. The disadvantage is that I always worry about one or the other spoiling. But since I make my own chocolate syrup, I can just guzzle hot chocolate with whipped cream in case of an emergency...

3. Toast steel cut oats in a dry pan first to make them cook a little faster and taste a lot better. Well, it tastes better if you like your oatmeal with a nuttier flavor. I sometimes soak steel cut oats in a jar overnight if I need to cook them quickly in the morning, and I found that if I don't toast them first, the finished product is too oozy and almost slimy. I just gently toast the oats (in a little butter if I'm feeling sassy) in the pan until I can smell the toasty-oaty aroma, then add water and simmer for twenty or so minutes. The other day I forgot about the pot on the stove. The edges were burnt and dry, but the 1/3 of a cup left in the middle was salvaged with some jam, almond butter, and cinnamon.

4. Dried sour cherries and dried tart cherries are very, very different. I bought sour cherries from Whole Foods and they were delicious; sticky, sour-sweet, and plump. The next time I went, there were only "tart" cherries. I snuck a taste and it didn't taste exactly right, but I got some anyway. When I got home and tried to eat a few more the next night, they were almost bitter, a bit dry, and miles from the lovely sour cherries that I'd had a week earlier. I was so disappointed in them that I actually went and returned them. Now I will wait until I see dried sour cherries in the bulk section. And I'll taste more than one. Shhhh.

5. Homemade cookies make people happy, even if they're mediocre. At least, I thought that most of my attempts were mediocre at best, but my friends and officemates seemed to enjoy them. I tried out apple cinnamon oatmeal bars, cherry chocolate chip almond oatmeal, and oatmeal chocolate chip almond. None of them had the crisp edges and chewy centers that I want in a cookie, so I guess I have to keep trying. Baking is the area in which I am least confident because I'm not very disciplined with my measurements-- except with brownies. They are forgiving. They do not intimidate me in the slightest. Brownies and I have an understanding that cookies and I have not yet reached. Maybe in 2012.

Overnight Fluffy Pancake Batter

Yeast. 

The pancake to the left was made as a pre-work breakfast. Pancakes aren't generally a for-one meal to make-- why go through the trouble of mixing up a batch of batter from scratch when you're only feeding yourself?

Because pancakes, cooked in butter, spread with more butter, and sweetened with a dollop of jam are wonderful. And wonderful is a good thing to have before going to work in the morning.

Yes, I did have to crack some eggs, pour some milk, melt some butter, measure out flour, but not in the morning. I made this batter the night before and by using yeast instead of baking powder, it was perfectly ready to be cooked the next morning. Wonderful. Easy. 

Also, I hadn't had much success getting fluffy pancakes using baking powder. I'm sure it was due, at least in part, to some lacking in my technique or the quality of the baking powder I used, but this batter, even with my haphazard technique of adding an amount of yeast that "looks about right," creates a pancake with a more than adequate fluff-factor. 

The best part is that it keeps well, so there may be multiple wonderful mornings, depending on how much batter you make and how large you make your cakes.  

To be honest, I often treated myself to post-work "wonderful" as well. 

10 Uses for Condensed Milk

It's no secret that I love condensed milk. I will find any excuse to ingest it on any given day (and do, daily).

Ten ways to incorporate condensed milk into your daily intake:

1. Vietnamese-style coffee, preferably using Cafe du Monde ground coffee with Chicory

2. Drizzled over "Shredded Bite-size Wheats" cereal

3. Mixed into morning tea instead of milk & honey

4. Drizzled over torn baguette (note the drizzling pattern)

5. Drizzled over fruit and shaved ice (generally found at boba/pearl tea establishments like Guppy's)

6. Macaroni & cheese (I haven't tried this one yet but it sounds magical!)

7. Dulce de leche (Simmer an unopened can for 3 hours) on toast

8. My Pauper's pumpkin soup

9. Condensed milk fudge

10. Consume directly from spoon. There's no shame in it, really. I do it all the time.

Ironically, there is no condensed milk in my apartment right now because I polished off the last of it yesterday. Time to go to the bodega downstairs.

Tip: PB & J Plus C

One of the realities of living on a tight budget is the simultaneous joy and sense of hopelessness that comes from sustaining oneself on the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

A PB & J on its own is generally satisfying, but it's nice to take a hint from the "gourmet peanut butter" people like P.B. Loco and make things just a little bit more interesting:

• Add a dash of cinnamon (or cayenne if you're feeling more adventurous).
• Toast the bread on only one side: this adds some integrity to it, making it easier to spread on the PB, and it also creates more texture and flavor

Transportable, easily assembled, and cheap--armed with one of these during a trek through the city, I'm able to stave off the urge to spend money on a snack.