pounded ground nuts

I once had a shirt that said, "make your own everything" and I feel like that is just what I have been doing.

Some of the ingredients that I cook with at home can't be found here; however, sometimes I can find what I'm looking for, but its just really expensive.

Last week I wanted to make a recipe that called for cottage cheese, so I attempted my own at home. The consistency was more like ricotta cheese, without the big chunks, but I feel that with time, I can perfect it some. Maybe if I used milk with a higher fat content, I would get bigger curds.

Last year I made my own hummus(which by the way is SO much better than anything found on the shelves of a grocery store).

And yesterday I made my own peanut butter. It would have been much easier if our blender was working, but it broke down, so I made it the old fashioned way, with a mortar and pestle. By the way, just a little side note, Nigerians call peanuts, "ground nuts" because of the way that they grow on a ground. So I guess if you wanted to go all Nigerian, you would say that peanut butter "pounded ground nuts."

Growing up, I never really liked peanut butter very much. Unlike several of my brothers, I wasn't a fan of PB&J sandwiches, and I never really snacked on peanuts. Although I do like peanuts more now, I still think get a little queasy with peanut breath(Thanks to dad, who snacks on the nuts, then loves to blow it in my face when he gets home from work). I began to like peanut butter after I discovered the "all natural" stuff in the stores. Instead of a long list of ingredients, there were 2, peanuts and salt.

You can buy jarred peanut butter here, but I've only seen the Skippy brand. For a small jar of peanut butter, it is around 690 naira, when a large jar of peanuts is only 250, so I thought I'd try my own.

I did have to add a little bit of oil, since the peanuts were roasted. 

The final test, does it taste good on bananas? Yep!