Recipe Review: PB & J (or AB & S)

Welp, school is back in session! After a summer spent with a good balance of lounging and working, it's time to get back to book crackin' and essay writin'!

Of course, already my schedule is shot to hell. 8 a.m. classes, homework, and lots of reading have a way of interfering with downtime. So for the rest of the semester I'll probably have fewer complex recipes and more product reviews. Of course, that doesn't mean I'll be eating just a bunch of junk! I think last week's toad-in-a-hole review proved that good things can happen quickly! And what's faster than a good ol' PB & J sandwich.

"That's boring!" you say. Well, FINE Mr. Pickypants. How about I jazz it up a little bit? Today I'll be using two very nice, Michigan-made sandwich spreads, in addition to my favorite bread this side of Lake St. Clair, Avalon Bakery's good ol' Farnsworth Farm Family Bread. It's the best of the best!



Name: Vanilla Almond Butter
Company: Naturally Nutty
Location: Taverse City, MI
Price: ~ $10 for a 15 oz. jar

Today, the part of peanut butter will be played by Naturally Nutty's Vanilla Almond butter. I confess, I've never paid anywhere NEAR $10 for a nut butter before. However, this ALWAYS seems to sell out at the natural foods grocery store where I work part time. Like, people come in and order cases of this stuff - buying jars for friends and family members and stuff like that. So I figured it was a good candidate to gauge Naturally Nutty's mettle as a serious nut butter producer! And you gotta be serious to work with nuts.



It's all natural, natch, so you gotta do the whole stir-in-the-oil thing before you serve. The first thing that hits you is the smell, which has the same sort of creamy, peanutty type scent of regular peanut butter, but oh man, there's a lot of other things going on. Smooth vanilla, peanut butter, hints of chocolate and hazelnut - despite the fact that it contains no peanuts, hazelnut or chocolate. It's an enigmatic scent, reminding me of several types of Halloween candy that I just barely remember the names of before it's dashed away by more vanilla. It smells GOOD.

And it tastes just as good. The creaminess of the vanilla hits you particularly hard, with a nutty finish that doesn't taste particularly almondy. This is fine with me, since almonds are not my favorite nut. The texture is nowhere near as sticky as peanut butter, with a slightly granulated feel to it. I'm assuming those are the flax and hemp seeds that are included for their nutritional benefits.

Is it $10 good? Not quite in my book, but it's pretty damned close. If you know someone who's a peanut butter junkie, grab them a jar and challenge their preconceptions.

Rating: 8/10 - Sweet, tasty and nutty, if a little pricey. Give it a go when you're feeling daring!



Name: Strawberry Jam
Company: Keeweenaw Kitchen's
Location: Baraga, MI
Price: ~ $5 for 10 oz.

Of course, you can't have PB without J. Today's J is actually S for strawberry. This particular jam hails from the Upper Peninsula, which is about as unlocal for Michigan foods as you can get - it's seriously a whole world away from southern Michigan. But the blog title says Michigan, dammit! SO I'M COUNTING IT.

The scent is much that of strawberry juice. There's a fair amount of sweetness here, but the jar says no sugar added, so I guess it's just sweet fruit! The taste is tarter, closer to fresh strawberries, with a nice, soft, spreadable texture. It's very good, but there's not really much to say! It's homemade strawberry jam, and it tastes about how you'd expect.

Rating: 7/10 - Yummy, but nothing you've probably never had before.



So how do they go together? To be honest, it's a bit of a situation where the sum is less than its parts. The almond butter tends to overpower the strawberry jam, and you only catch little strawberry hints in between nutty bursts. It's a good sandwich, but I honestly had more fun dipping my fingers in each jar and just snacking on the butter and jam separately. I guess it's tougher to reinvent PB & J then you'd think!

Final Rating: 6/10 - Use the jam for breakfast and the butter for sandwiches by itself!

Got an suggestions, questions or requests? E-mail me at mibeerguy@yahoo.com!