On a side note: thanks for all the sign-ups for my newsletter- I’m overwhelmed by your reponse – first issue out soon!

Peanut butter was pretty difficult to find when I first moved to Italy; even in Rome where there are a few “international food stores” (like Castroni), portions were small, expensive, and often brands I didn’t recognize.

Now it’s easier to find peanut butter, and even some bigger / normal grocery stores will carry a jar. I find that Skippy peanut butter is most common; I think that’s because the brand, while an American brand, is very popular in the Philippines and so it gets imported for them. But there are ingredients on the label I don’t recognize, so I don’t buy it.

I often stick jars of all-natural peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, or almond butter in my luggage when I come back to Italy from a trip to the US or UK. But as my trip schedule can be unpredictable, more recently I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own.

My cupboard is full of nuts and seeds – they make great toppings for yogurt, oatmeal, and salads; they make a great go-to snack while traveling or just in the afternoon. I started stocking up on raw, unsalted nuts when I realized some of my (used-to-be-favorite) nut brands include flavor enhancers like yeast extract to flavor them (read about why I think flavor enhancers should be avoided in my How to Make Chicken Stock & avoid MSG post). If you buy nuts, make sure the label says, NUTS and nothing else. A little salt is ok, but you might even enjoy it more if you salt them yourself – at least you can control the amount that way.

Raw, unsalted nuts mean I have a great raw material to cook with, to make into something else, and for normal snacking. Now when I snack on almonds, I don’t eat the whole bag. :)

So when my beloved almond butter was running low and there was no stocking-up trip on the near horizon, I decided to just do it myself. It’s so easy, it’s almost ridiculous to write up a recipe. The most important thing you need is patience – they will turn into butter! Try it yourself and let me know any variations you take on the recipe.

Homemade Almond Butter

Note: I think almonds with the skin on make the best butter, but it’s up to you. 

Unsalted almonds (if already toasted, skip step 1)
A food processor
Pinch salt, if desired

1. Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C. Spread the almonds in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roast for 10-15 minutes. Check halfway through and give them a shake / mix them up so they are toasted on both sides. Make sure they don’t burn, so keep an eye on them! Let the almonds cool for 30-60 minutes, until they are cool to the touch.
2. In your food processor, put the almonds in, set it to a medium or high setting, and let it do its magic! It will take time (even 10-15 minutes of continuous blending) so if you need to stop it every so often to let it cool down or to scrape the sides of the processor, do so. The almonds will go from powdery dry chunks to chunky clumps, and finally you’ll start to see a sheen as the oil in them starts breaking down. Depending on how chunky or smooth you want your almond butter (I like mine extra chunky) you’ll want to be extra patient.
   Here’s mine closer to the end – this is when I added just a bit of salt and tasted it after blending:

And when it was ready, I poured it into a jar that was almost empty and put it in the fridge! I suggest putting it in the fridge unless you’re planning to consume it quickly (within a week). I’ve had mine for about 2 months now and it’s still good; many sites suggest 3 months is max. You can also freeze almond butter, but I never have; so if you have let others know in the comments!

Will you try to make your own almond butter? Do you prefer another nut instead? 

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• No oil, sugar, or butter Microwave Chocolate Happy Birthday Cake
• I have a newsletter – won’t you sign up?
• Recipes

These particular fried artichoke chips, or in Spanish chips de alcachofas fritas, (even more fun, in Catalan: xips de carxofes fregides) we devoured (and then savored when we ordered them a second time) when I was in Barcelona a few weeks ago at La Boqueria Market. More on that soon.

That’s what I’m craving. What about you?

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Second Impressions of Barcelona, Spain
• Temple Bar Food Market in Dublin, Ireland
• Meeting Italian Men in my Local Street Market

Recently I’ve had the opportunity to do this several times for friends visiting me (and at least one more time, next week when my best friend comes to visit me in Italy for the first time) and I like this reminder that not only is the grass greener on the other side of the fence, but I should be reminding myself on a daily, not bi-monthly/yearly basis, about the beautiful place I live in.

I’m known to do crazy things like go to Venice for a few hours and I convinced a visiting friend this would be a good idea. We lucked out, too, with a beautifully sunny October day, and it was freeing to just “hit the highlights” of Venice, which of course included food and gelato.

I met up with Nan from Living Venice, a friend and expat I have been in contact with for years but had never met. I’m always amazed at how many friends I have like this – friends I could ask for advice from or help yet it might be hard for us to pick each other out in a crowd. As I made plans to meet with Nan for some cicchetti, Venetian little bites/snacks (above), I told my visiting friend, “we’ll meet my friend who lives here for lunch” and immediately after “it’s the first time I’m meeting her.”

It’s such a powerful feeling to connect with so many people through something as simple as a website.

I’ve found myself feeling quite nostaglic this morning, about this blog, whose entries have been public for more than 6 years (last month) but there are another 2+ years of entries which are now private and start from the day I stepped off the plane from the US on this big adventure living abroad.

Some of those entries are the most raw and honest writing I’ve ever done, and I hope that I can start to get back to that feeling of writing freedom somehow. The absolute pouring of emotion through words, fear of failing, flailing through experiences, and using writing as a tool and therapy both. It’s something that I’ve shielded a bit on this site as traffic grew, but it’s a disservice especially to myself as it stifles my creativity.

I kind of blame Jori Des Jardins’s recent post for sparking some of this this morning. Thanks for that something – I plan on creating something more often :)

Want more Venice? Check out my posts and photos about Early Morning in Venice or Sunset Aperitivo in Venice.

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Sunset Aperitivo in Venice
• Nanowri-what?
• It’s Alive!

(For past birthdays, read about Drunken Devil’s food cupcakes, Kitchen Sink cookies, Chocolate Brownie cake with homemade caramel, and a Chocolate and Coffee Mousse Cake)

This year, things have changed a bit for me. If you’ve been reading along, you’ll remember I started a new site, Food Blogger on a Diet, to talk about healthy living. It’s related to how I let my body degrade despite my good intentions. But good intentions only count if they’re accompanied by a lot of work. So, the past 7 months I’ve been exercising, eating better, and I’ve lost quite a bit of weight. 2011 has turned into a great year for me.

I feel much better, and though I’m not avoiding sweets altogether (I need my gelato!), I tend not to keep much in the house as I find it greatly helps me appreciate those times when I do eat sweets, and reduce just-because-it’s-in-the-house eating. That, combined with the fact that I work from home and don’t want an entire cake/pie/dessert best suited for 12-14 people sitting in my kitchen, means I wasn’t looking forward to this year’s birthday cake as much as before.

Enter my little Le Creuset mini cocotte. I love this! And the blue color is so pretty. It makes me happy. And today it made me a little cake.

There are so many things I love about this cake, and soon I’ll share a recipe, but I want to keep tweaking it. But what I can tell you about this cake are two great things: it has no oil, butter, or refined sugar in it. And I cooked it in the microwave.

I wasn’t intending on cooking it in the microwave but I wanted to experiment with the batter and it tasted just like I wanted, so why pre-heat the oven for 20 minutes and cook the cake for 10 when 2 minutes in the microwave does just fine? 

If you feel like experimenting yourself, here’s a bit about this cake. It’s full of ingredients I already had lying around my house and am eating on a regular basis – greek yogurt (2% but I’m curious to try it again with 0%), cacao, almonds I ground up, honey, and even a splash of almond milk. I used 1/2 an egg and just 2 T. of flour, though in a future version I’d like to eliminate the flour altogether. Add a pinch of baking soda, and it’s ready to go. After, I wanted to top it with something a little sweeter, and I made a quick chocolate ganache with honey instead of white sugar (and yes, a little butter).

That was just perfect.

If you could make a cake just for one, what would you put in it?

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Drunken Devil’s Food Espresso Cupcakes and Happy Birthday
• Flourless Nutella Chocolate Cake Recipe for World Nutella Day 2011
• Chocolate Brownie Birthday Cake with Homemade Caramel and Pistachios Recipe