Super Sleuthing Peanut Cheese

March 10, 2010

Happy Hump Day!

This week is dragging on for me. That always happens when you’re looking forward to something on the weekend!

In honor of my upcoming foreign travel, I opened up a new jar of PB that my parents had brought back for me from the Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

With my super sleuthing skills, I discovered that Calve is a Dutch brand. St. Maarten/St. Martin is half Dutch and half French but I had also seen this brand on Aruba, which is all Dutch.

After trying it, I thought it’d be a good idea to know what is in it. I went to World Lingo – a free online translator – and typed in a whole bunch of stuff that was on the jar. I’m a little skeptical with this translator though. The front of the jar apparently says:

“PEANUT CHEESE, Smooth to on the floor.”

I’m gunna use my own Christina Translator and say it means “Smooth from top to bottom.”

I translated a whole bunch of other stuff but I think you really need to read Dutch to translate stuff like this. According to World Lingo, Calve peanut butter’s little slogan says:

“CALVE PEANUT CHEESE, There worries about more than you think.”

Hm. I hope I don’t have to worry when eating this stuff. The Dutch have some good peanut butter :)

For breakfast I made a “strawberry shortcake” by mixing 1/2 cup of heart smart bisquick with 2/3 of a tbsp of agave nectar and about 3 tbsp of almond milk.

I rolled the mix into two balls and put them in the toaster until cooked. When done, I took out one of the balls and cut it in half. I topped each half with mashed banana and then some Calve pb on top with flax.

Walah – the Banana PB (or PC?) Shortcake is born.

Today I’m spending the day helping my Aunt out at her bakery. She is known for the “feel good” cookie and I believe a lot of cookie making will be happening so it should be a feelin’ good kinda day, depending of course, on how many cookies I actually eat.

Have a great day!

Question: What’s your favorite thing to order at a bakery? Mine would have to be cupcakes!

Tags: , ,
Posted in: Breakfast, Food, Recipe – 3 Comments

Not Jiffy

March 9, 2010

Good morning, afternoon, or evening… depending when you’re reading this :)

I went and saw Alice last night. Why I expected a lot of talk in riddles and rhymes, I was left much disappointed. This new Alice in Wonderland is nothing like the real story. No Mad Hatter – he was more of a sad one – no colorful scenery, and the caterpillar sounded like he was from NYC rather than Wonderland. And since when are there dragons in Wonderland? This isn’t Harry Potter. Did anyone else see it? I’m dying to see what others think!

Before the movie but after work, I made lunch out of the only available ingredients in my house. This turned out to be an open faced Boca burger sandwich. I put a Tomato Basil Parmesan Boca burger on top a piece of whole wheat bread and covered it with pasta sauce.

After the movie I came home and needed a quick dinner so I went to my OG quick meal – couscous. I made a box of olive oil and garlic Near East couscous and stir fried up some asparagus to throw on top.

As I type I’m waiting for some homemade maple corn muffins to cool. I made them from a recipe ripped out of Vegetarian Times. It’s already posted on Recipezaar so I figure it’s okay to post it here.

Maple Cornbread Muffins

From the Feb 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times

  • 1 cup plain soy milk (I used almond)
  • 1/4 cup vegan margarine, melted (I used butter)
  • 2 Tbs. maple syrup
  • 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbs. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. Whisk together milk, margarine, maple syrup, and vinegar in bowl. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in separate bowl. Stir wet mixture into dry and fold in corn kernels.
  3. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups and bake for 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan and serve warm.

I picked the biggest one for myself since it’s going to be my breakfast.

I like them since they have that gritty texture I was so used to with Jiffy corn muffins. Until I found out that boxed mix contains lard (yuck!). I think next time I’ll use less actual corn kernels.

Now I gotta get ready for work, followed by a hair cut :) “See” you tomorrow!

P.S. Sorry Cass! I promise my next recipe will be corn free!

Posted in: Breakfast, Dinner, Food, Lunch, Recipe – 5 Comments

The Unusual

March 8, 2010

Buongiorno :) Hope you all had a great weekend!!

I did a lot of the usual: weekend breakfasts with the parents…

Banana-walnut pancakes with maple syrup

Eggland’s Best egg with pepperjack cheese on whole wheat sesame roll

And then did some of the unusual: went out to eat, twice! I rarely go out to eat since I’m too cheap to spend 30 dollars on a meal that I could make just as good myself. But, you know, sometimes it’s worth it.

Since Mark accompanied me to the doctor Friday (which is a first in the 7 years we’ve been together, he’s too much of an impatient person for doctors offices!) I treated him to lunch. The only restaurant nearby was Friendly’s. Lets just say it brought back memories. I probably hadn’t been to one since I was 12!

I ordered cheese quesadillas, one of the few veggie options.

And then we of course split a sundae. You can’t go to Friendly’s and not get a sundae! We had caramel ice cream topped with hot fudge and heath crumbles.

Now on a side note, thanks for all your well wishes for my interview! In the end, I decided the commute was too far for the salary. I don’t want to drive an hour and 20 minutes every day! At least if I work in NYC I can read on the train. So, my job search continues..

Due to my little job depression that day, my Dad finally took me out for my birthday dinner that he owed me on Saturday night (you can see where I get my restaurant cheapness from, my birthday was in September!). We went to Plum house, a restaurant in my town I’ve been dying to try after hearing rave reviews.

Unfortunately it had the worst lighting EVER and I didn’t get any pictures. I ordered the tuna steak as my entree and we had shrimp dumplings and scallops for the appetizer. It was pretty good, but the service was horrible. We didn’t have our water refilled the entire meal, even after asking. I did end up running into half of my extended family there though, even though they’re from a few towns over. It’s a small world!

I’ll just sub my tuna steak with a picture of salmon I had for dinner last night. Look how gourmet Mark’s Mom tries to prepare my meals because she knows I take pictures. She’s so cute!

Now off to work. My lower back has been killing me since Saturday morning. I can’t think of anything I’ve done to hurt it and thought I just slept wrong but it still hurts days later! Hopefully it eases up today. I need full body function for vacation next week. I think we may try skiing while we’re there :) I haven’t skiied in like 8 years so you’ll have to wish me some luck. I’m hoping it’s like riding a bicycle and I’ll immediately pick it back up.

Question: Have you ever tried to do something, like skiing, after a long hiatus? Was it as easy as you remembered?

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in: Breakfast, Dinner, Food, Lunch – 8 Comments
« Older posts