I’d never actually made my own nut butter before, so this was a fun challenge. Since we were allowed to make any savory recipe with the nut butter, I decided to make almond butter and then use it to make the Raw Pad Thai recipe from Jae Steele‘s Ripe from Around Here, which I’d just purchased days before completing the challenge.

Making nut butter is pretty easy: Get out your food processor. Put in some nuts: about double the amount for the quantity of nut butter you need, so if you need half a cup of nut butter, put in a cup of nuts. Turn your food processor on and let it process the nuts for a few minutes, then stop, scrape the sides, and process for a few more. If after about 5 minutes you don’t have nut butter, add a neutral tasting oil in small amounts and continue to process until you do have the right consistency. Then, use immediately in whatever recipe you want. You can also add a bit of salt to your nut butter or roast the nuts before using them to give the end product more flavour.

I’ll be honest with the pad thai – I didn’t go 100% raw. I didn’t want to spend the money on a ton of raw ingredients (such as raw tamari) when I have good non-raw ones in the house. As well, I modified the recipe very slightly by adding in some beets, since we had some from our CSA that week.

The end result was amazing.

If you want to try making this yourself, go grab a copy of Ripe from Around Here, which I really recommend that you do. Yes, it’s a vegan cookbook with lots of raw and gluten-free recipes, but I really do think everyone will enjoy the recipes, even those of you who eat meat at every meal and aren’t really into vegan recipes.

If you want to see what the other Daring Cooks did with this month’s challenge, just check out the Daring Kitchen!

Never heard of them?  Fiesta Farms is an independently owned and run grocery store.  They started in 1989, when the owner saw a need in the community for a good local shop for Italian and Portuguese groceries.  Since then, they’ve expanded to include a wide range of organic products, and have teamed with Local Food Plus, which brings together local businesses and local farmers so that the consumer can truly buy locally.

What I love about them, aside from getting to support local businesses, is that they have such a wide range of international food items.  I usually go in there trying to decide what to make for dinner, and come out with a bag full of stuff and some delicious ideas.  Seriously, that’s my idea of foodie heaven.

They also have an interesting selection of organic juices and energy drinks.  I noticed a chai flavoured soy protein beverage while in the store last week; a quick google search turns up this, which I believe is the same one.  Anyone ever tried it? I’m thinking I might like it as a snack in between clients some time.

I just wrote a guest blogger post for foodtv.ca about Fiesta as well, if you’d like to read it.

This year Rich and I made our own Thanksgiving dinner at home, complete with turkey, gravy, stuffing, veggies, bread, and a delicious dessert. Instead of planning a specific menu, we instead decided to pick up a small amount of pre-cooked turkey with gravy and a box of stuffing mix, and then go to the local farmer’s market to select local vegetables.

For $6, I managed to get a head of purple cauliflower, two large bunches of green onions, carrots, and four small bell peppers. We also had a pile of baby red potatoes that Rich had picked up from another market vendor earlier in the week. Anyhow, I made sure to buy only from vendors who clearly indicated where their produce was from, and chose only things that were either locally grown, or at least grown in Ontario. Just look how pretty everything looked:

I also picked up some Art-Is-In bread (locally owned and baked!) and two delicious maple and pecan tarts from Aux Délices Bakery. With both bread and dessert handled for us, we only had to roast the veggies (we decided to just use the cauliflower and carrots, and save the rest for other meals during the week), mash some potatoes, mix together and heat up the stuffing, and re-heat the turkey. Very easy and far less time consuming than your typical Thanksgiving feast, yet just as delicious and filling!

Roasting the veggies was very simple. Just chop them into approximately 1 inch pieces, and place each veggie onto a rimmed cookie sheet (or shallow large baking pan) lined with parchment paper or tin foil. Liberally coat with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, mixing to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Stick into an oven heated to 475° F. About half way through the cooking time, stir them to make sure they roast evenly. The carrots take about 15 minutes, the cauliflower took about 20 or 25 minutes.

The entire table of treats, set and ready to eat:

Delicious roasted carrots and mashed potatoes:

Roasted purple cauliflower:

And those pretty maple tarts:

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Rich and I have been trying to make an effort to buy locally, choosing local produce and baked goods over the mass-market stuff available at our local grocery store. We live near several stores that are locally owned and run, and we will soon have access to a farmer’s market within walking distance, once the weather is good enough for them to open.

A few weekends ago, we picked up some butternut squash ravioli from Parma Ravioli, along with some of their mild tomato sauce. We got buns from the Westboro Bakery, and grabbed some mushrooms, peppers, and carrots from the Herb & Spice.

Dinner was easy to prepare from there: Lightly saute the veggies, add in the sauce to warm through, and cook the pasta until al dente.

How did it all taste? Delicious! My only complaint is the ravioli was very mild, almost too mild. It needed a little something, perhaps some more spices or herbs added to the filling. But otherwise, we were very pleased, and would happily head there again to pick up something for dinner.