While I have a list of ideas that I have wanted to write about, most have lost their sense of excitement and fun and have been demoted to the back burner of maybe’s and when’s… there is time, the mood strikes, the ideas flow effortlessly…
Although yesterday in my early morning - maybe I should have reconsidered - holiday season, trip to the grocery store I decided to cave in and buy peanut butter. In 14 months this is the second small jar of PB I have bought, not including the guiltily purchased mini jar of almond butter at the cost of 8 baguettes! But every once in a while the missed gout (taste) of PB stirs my fancy and I ignore the high cost, endless aisle searching, and wrinkled noses as PB is considered gross; quite similar to my reaction to non Nutella lovers.
So, on this highly aggravating grocery trip as I dodged unattended carts strewn and splayed ‘momentarily’ across aisle ways, and festive shoppers whistled merry tunes amplifying and reverberating off my eardrum, I wandered around half searching for a jar of PB. You would think that jars of PB would sit nicely beside the jars of jam or honey, but NO… instead there you can find Nutella, crème de marrons, and jars of spreadable creamy style Speculoos made from gingersnap spice cookies popular in France, but no peanut butter L I have been tempted however to buy a jar of the Speculoos spread as the cookie is delightful, but considering a jar of Nutella lasts less than one week, I can only imagine the nonexistent shelf life of the Speculoos variety!
As I wandered the aisles I came across an unknown brand on a small shelf devoted to British fare. I struggled to remember where I had seen it last and pictured the little jars of Skippy relegated somewhere to the bottom recesses of a shelf along with maybe rice noodles and creamed corn. Luckily enough somewhere else randomly placed on a miscellaneous shelf I found a crunchy no name variety, but at almost 5€ a pop I wasn’t going to play around with inferior PB! And then!! Not Skippy or a familiar brand of home, I spotted a fair trade Nicaraguan jar of PB for less than 4€, complete with an endorsement photo of a nice looking Nicaraguan man on the label! Off to the cash I went with my new find and other purchases ready to sample a non North American variety of PB.
Following my usual 6h30 automatic wake-up and one and a half coffees later I unpeeled the paper seal from the jar of PB and heartily spread some on a moist and chewy slice of rye bread topped also with peach Bonne Maman jam. But, before I could sample this new spread, my recent obsession with photographing just about everything I cook or bake took hold and I spent 5+ minutes in food photography heaven. Just then my usually analytical thoughts switched to the scattered ones of maybe I should carve out a personal niche in food photography?... Okay back to the PB. While it is different from the ultra smooth, sticky and sweet ones back home, this fair trade variety is slightly grainy with much less sugar and probably preservatives, lending it to a truer taste of protein perfection!!
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