Meet Amos Gruber.  Puppy of my friend Katie.  He’s living with us this week, and it’s kind of fantastic.  

(for those of you not facebook friends with me, I’ve had absolute puppy-fever for about a month now…completely fruitlessly mind you)

            The kids on the block are loving having Amos around.  I think this is a good reason for us to get a puppy of our own.  Agree?

I also acquired a lovely bottle of goodness this week.  Espresso flavored balsamic vinegar.

Thank you Tina Kocol : )   now I just have to figure out how to best use espresso flavored balsamic…I’ve read it makes a mean barbeque sauce.  Recipes to follow…

 And also new this week – our dear friends Joel and Chelsea became legit at TCC!

Don’t worry, I won’t break out old school MC Hammer videos again.  It is exciting though, welcome to the family guys!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I perfected my peanut butter recipe over the weekend! 

(which I may or may not have mentioned previously, but I’m pretty stinkin’ proud of it)

Here’s what you need…

Valencia peanuts, roasted and shelled

Peanut oil

Honey

Cinnamon

(so much shorter than the list of ingredients on a jar of Jif or even my old standby Skippy Natural…guarantee it.)

In a blender combine 1 cup of peanuts with 1-2 TBS oil and blend on the highest setting for 3-5 minutes, stopping to stir when necessary.  Add in 1-2 tsp each of honey and cinnamon or until you think it tastes like peanutty heaven, it’s really up to you if you even put these in at all.  The longer you blend and the more oil you add, the less chunky your butter will be.  Ball (the glass canning jar people) makes awesome freezer jars that are essentially plastic wide mouth jars PERFECT for homemade peanut butter!  Store in the refrigerator.

Ta-daaaaaaaaa!

Your bag lunches may feel free to thank me profusely at any point.

totally off topic (not that there has ever been a clearly defined topic in this post…) but i saw God in this song this morning as i, yet again, sought to feel the height and depth and vastness of my Savior’s love. and yes, i know Bob Dylan wrote this.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0put0_a–Ng]