Happy Thanksgiving! My friends and I are gonna do a vegan thanksgiving dinner over the weekend, so that's something to look forward to. In the meantime, I have exciting news (for me anyway).
If you're a long-time reader, you'll remember that the last time I went back to the US was Summer 2009. I really wanted to visit again this year, especially during Christmas time, but I kept putting it off. After a while, I kind of just gave up on the whole idea... but then last week, I was talking with my sister in LA, and I just thought to myself, "Ah, screw it. Why not." Tickets may cost an arm and a leg at this time of the year, but I want to go back and spend Christmas with my sister, other relatives, and also visit old friends. So it's done. Tickets are bought, and I'll be in LA for 3 whole weeks! I leave Dec 8th and return Dec 28th, in time for the New Year.
Phew! So I have about 1.5 weeks before I take off. It's gonna go by so fast, and I have so many things I need/want to get done before I leave... ahh! Also, I'm not sure how being in the US for three weeks will affect this blog (obviously, I won't be able to blog about being vegan IN KOREA ), but I do plan to continue blogging and updating. I'll try to bring you along on my LA vegan food adventure. :)
So that was my big news of the day. Moving on!
When I was at my parents' house last week, I was debating the idea of borrowing my mom's humongous food processor. However, just the thought of lugging the massive thing back to Seoul gave me a backache. Well, my mom then proceeded to dig around in the back of one of the kitchen cupboards and pulled out this ancient relic:
A teeny food processor that dates all the way back to the early 90's! It looks like a toy.
So, anyway, the whole point of bringing this food processor to Seoul with me, was that I wanted to try my hand at homemade nut butter. Some of my fave bloggers (ie. (never home) maker, Islaborg, and Pride & Vegudice) have blogged about their success with it, and I was anxious to give it a whirl (no pun intended).
For my first nut butter attempt, I went with roasted almonds. The first time I tried almond butter was this past summer when Janice brought some for me from LA. I really loved its earthy, milder flavor and went through it super fast, which made me sad since I can't buy it here in Korea.
Well, I got some roasted almonds for my birthday so I was eager to put it to use. I put about 2/3 cup in the mini processor (can't fit too many in there) and nothing else. I know other people add a little bit of oil, but I figured I'd try it without. I also didn't add any salt or sugar- wanted it as 'pure' as possible!
Then I began to process.
Here it is after about 1 minute. Every few minutes, I had to scrape the sides and the bottom before continuing to blend.
whirrrl~ The blender is so old-school that I constantly had to have my thumb pressing down on the power-button. After 15+ minutes of blending, my thumb started feelin' a bit sore! It's okay. No pain, no gain.
At this point, I was thinking "what the hell, this processor is crap!"...
... but after a while, I began to see the beginnings of creaminess- fingers crossed!
This is what it looked like after15 minutes of blending/scraping (I was timing it). It looked pretty good and I could've stopped here if I wanted, but it wasn't quite there, so I turned it back on for a few more minutes...
Ah~ now das what I'm talkin' about. Smooth, runny, drippy~
Once it was at the texture that I wanted, it was time to carefully transfer everything to a jar.
My very first homemade nut butter! And almond butter at that. Now I don't have to feel deprived over the fact that I can't buy fancy nut butters here in Korea- I can just make my own! There's just no way I'm shelling 18,000 won for another jar of peanut butter ever again. I can't wait to try peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, coconut butter... ahhh~!
I only got about 1/2 a cup from this one batch, which will probably last me all of 2 days, but I'm not complaining. I'm just glad that it can make it at all, and I'm so proud of my handy chopper! If I can make my own nut butter with a crusty old, miniature processor, you can too! Doooo it.
Oats in a blender? Nut butter smoothie? :)
