Almond butter? Well, kind of.

Really expensive (or $$$$ in Disney's guide to eateries)

So I thought it was about time I try to make some almond butter, since I'm going to make Clark some sort of cake-like substance with it. I say that because I have two recipes from the Pecanbread web site, one for almond butter brownies and one for almond butter cake, and they are identical except one has a teaspoon of vanilla and one doesn't. That made me laugh.

I thought I would try my little Kitchenaid grinder.

I filled it about halfway with almonds and processed them into meal. I was doing that before I started SCD and it worked pretty well. Once it started to clump I added extra virgin olive oil a teaspoon at a time until it looked, well, buttery.


I wanted red, but did any of the stores have red? Noooo...so mine's white.

Heartened by my success, I scooped out the almond butter and decided to process a second batch. But could I follow my own directions? Of course not! I was raised by Italians, and the only way to make a good thing better is to mess with it.

So this time I figured it would be better if I added the oil along with the nuts at the start.

This was a Big Mistake. Not only did the grinder not want to grind anymore, it got really hot and started to smell like the motor might burn out. Sigh.

I popped the not-butter into the blender and I fared no better. I'd blend for 10 seconds, stop, scrape down, blend for 10 more seconds, etc. Finally I gave up and dumped the mess in the trash. Stupid blender.

Since I already have a coffee grinder, crock pot, bread maker, and blender, I thought this was enough for me. Oh no. Now I think I'm really going to need a small food processor. And an immersion blender. And a yogurt maker, because SCD is big on that. Perhaps a dehydrator. And finally I will drown in a sea of appliances, amidst a tangle of extension cords.