Foodie Friday

Hey-o!  Here’s some good eats for you to try out this weekend.

Get a big bag of raw, non-roasted almonds from Costco.  When you’re running low on your almond butter, measure out 2 cups of almonds and spread them out onto a cookie sheet.  Dry-roast them for 5-10 minutes.  (Be careful with this, you just want them to be slightly roasted but not dark.  Take them out when your kitchen starts to smell like almonds.)  Let them rest a minute, then put them in a blender or food processor, making sure it’s ventilated since your almonds should be warm.  (I use my BlendTec.)  It’s a little time-consuming, but you simply tap, tap, tap the blender and scrape it down the corners and bottom every 30 seconds or so.  After about five minutes of pulsing, it will turn into slightly juicy almond meal, then you can do longer spurts of actually running the blender and scraping it down less often.  You do this until it’s starting to get runny and then do it a little longer just to ensure it stays that way.  Put it in a container and keep it in your fridge!  I like to add a pinch of sea salt those last few minutes of pulsing.  I’ve also made a dark chocolate version, but I’m going to toy with the recipe a bit more before I post that.

Next, another cake from Cake by Courtney.  I made this chocolate peanut butter cake for a baby shower a week ago.  It’s AMAZING!  (I just ate the last bit a week later and it’s still very, very moist.)  I also added a layer of chocolate ganache between each level, just to take it to the next level.  That was great too, but fair warning, doing so makes it harder to cut without the cake kind of fallen apart since the peanut butter frosting you also layer it with is quite light.  (Light in texture, not in calories; just to be clear!) Make it!

Finally, these SemiFreddi’s morning buns.  I buy them in a 4-pack at Costco and freeze them.  The night before we are going to have them, I take them out to defrost by the morning.  Put them on a tray that has been sprayed, and warm them in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes.  When they come out, they taste as fresh as the day they were born.  We have later church now, so Sunday mornings are now about a special breakfast.  This one is the easiest one in our rotation.

Bon appetit!