Monday, June 4, 2012

buckeyes

Recently, i have realized that many of my troubling abdominal issues are related to... wheat!  

Really?  Wheat?  I went to the doctor.  He said my blood test showed negative for celiac (whew!) but that it isn't always accurate (90%) and that I still may have a wheat sensitivity.  I have pretty much stopped eating wheat and I feel so much better.  Still. No pizza?  No whole wheat toast or cracked wheat in the morning?  No pancakes?  No spaghetti?  No cookies?  


I know, I know. There are "gluten free" recipes.  But gluten free flour is so... chalky.  ick.
 
So, i got a recipe from a friend for a wheat-free peanut butter cookie.  Yum! right?  Well, yeah.  But... crumbly.  Of course, i didn't take any pictures, because who takes pictures of food that's not pretty?


But I do have that recipe if you want it.  Sharon gave it to me. She got it from this website.


So, last night, for Michaela's cookie social, I just decided to take an old standby: 
Ohio Buckeyes
 This is a picture of Jen's buckeyes.

Of course, i didn't take a picture of mine because they didn't turn out as cute as these.  And then when Jen emailed me this picture, i started getting all nostalgic about Ohio.  What's not to love about Ohio(I mean, besides the Winter)?  the leaves in the fall are so gorgeous and the Apple Butter Festival?  Mmmm. 

Or maybe just I'm just missing Jen.  It's been 10 years since we visited her in her Colorado Springs home, but if there is ever someone who epitomizes the gracious host, it's Jen.  I have just had to imagine her home in Centerville, but whenever we have visited, she has known all the places to take us and made all the best local recipes to share with us.  Her home is lovely and comfortable and now she is moving to Japan.  Waaa!  That's so far away and, oooh, wait!  Maybe I can visit her there. 

Ok, here's the recipe:

Ohio Buckeyes
(do they look like the eye of a male deer? or a chestnut?  does a chestnut look like the eye of a male deer?)

1/2 lb.  peanut butter
1/4 lb.  butter
3/4 lb.  powdered sugar
6 oz. semi-sweet choc. chips
3 oz. milk choc. chips
1/4 bar paraffin (this ingredient makes Jen oogey so she leaves it out and adds a dollop of shortening)

I don't weigh ingredients, so i just melted 1 cube of butter in the microwave and globbed out what was left in my peanut butter jar and mixed in the sugar until it was the right consistency... kinda like play dough.  Then i just dipped them in semi-sweet chips because that was what i had.  i didn't add either paraffin nor shortening.  they tasted great.  Again, not so cute. Yummy but not cute. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

yum yum and yum.
Miss ya!

Carolfrog said...

Good call, Jen. Hydrocarbons are not edible. ;) Tho Wikipedia says food-grade paraffin passes through without being broken down, so maybe it's not as dangerous as it sounds. (What movie is it where Julianne Moore scolds a little girl for sucking on an oily bolt or something?)

Cindy at LottieBird said...

just so you know...we made these with paraffin once. I didn't know we could opt out! They were delicious.

Jen said...

I think the ones in the picture were made with paraffin, actually. The chocolate stays hard and shiny at room temp if you use it. It IS the food grade kind you buy in the canning section of the store, but just the idea gives me the willies, so I usually leave it out and plan to get chocolate on my fingers. Rough.

rose said...

you know this happened to me last year right? I realized around March why I was feeling sick and terrible, I had developed a wheat sensitivity and the symptoms were became increasingly volatile... after a few bad experiences I didn't even touch wheat (or barley or rye) until I had a few sneaky bites at thanksgiving.



the good news is it was a temporary sensitivity, at least in my case. I didn't get sick at thanksgiving and have reincorporated wheat since then with no ill effects. strangest thing, but there is some kind of hope!

and also there are increasingly good food options and gluten sensitivity awareness out there these days. but I know it's frustrating anyway. I have a few good dessert recipes if you're interested.

msaonika said...

I just think that you should know that it's not about the "pretty" - it's about the "Flavor"... I am glad to know that they were tasty... :) Sorry to hear you are getting all sensitive to wheat.