Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."
When we think of peanuts, we think Virginia, ballgames and a top hat-wearing, cane-holding, monocled mascot. However, peanuts are also a staple in West African cooking and used prominently in many dishes. One such typical meal is a hearty stew made with tomatoes, sweet potatoes and peanuts.
This vegetarian version of the soup relies on the saltiness and creaminess of peanut butter -- the pantry staple and venerated American spread that is an often unsung hero in meals that don't include jelly or two slices of bread.
Presenting a new (and more acceptable) way to eat peanut butter by the spoonful.
What does Sarah Palin eat after a day of snowmachining? Learn the answer to that and many other fun facts about US presidents' favorite foods.
Presidential Food Trivia Quiz
An August 29th US News and World Report article cited which of these hearty dishes as Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's favorite meal?
Moose pot pie
Elk burgers
Caribou stew
Moose stew
Which US president claimed to be able to assess colleagues' character traits from the way they selected jelly beans from the jar on his desk?
Lyndon Johnson
Bill Clinton
Dwight Eisenhower
Ronald Reagan
Mary Todd Lincoln, concerned about her husband's health and gaunt frame, found that he'd eat multiple helpings of which dish, a childhood favorite?
Venison stew
Turkey and stuffing
Fricaseed chicken
Apple pandowdy
A longstanding Washington D.C. rule makes it illegal for residents of the White House to run a barbecue smoker.
True
False
During which president's term was the White House Easter Egg Roll established?
James K. Polk
Calvin Coolidge
Rutherford B. Hayes
John F. Kennedy
Which president was the first to establish a French chef in the White House kitchen?
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Franklin Pierce
Banjamin Harrison
Which vegetable was banned from meals on Air Force One and at the White House during George H. W. Bush's presidency?
Broccoli
Lima Beans
Okra
Brussels sprouts
George W. Bush's tenure as president nearly came to an untimely end due to his choking on what snack food?
Potato chip
Dorito
Pretzel
Peanut
Millard Filmore caused an uproar in the White House's kitchen when he became the first president to install which now common appliance?
Refrigerator
Cooking stove
Dishwasher
Toaster
William Howard Taft loved which dish so much, he brought a chef to the White House for the sole purpose of its preparation?
Brains and eggs
Steak and kidney pie
Turtle soup
Spaghetti and meatballs
James Garfield was a particular fan of what down-home soup ingredient?
Alligator
Tripe
Squirrel
Blood sausage
Which president picked prune whip as his most favored dessert?
Lyndon Johnson
Woodrow Wilson
Dwight Eisenhower
Franklin Roosevelt
Which president and son of a Vermont cheese maker kept a private stash of Swiss cheese to make sandwiches for himself and his Secret Service detail?
Calvin Coolidge
James K. Polk
Grover Cleveland
Herbert Hoover
Cheshire, Massachusetts pooled the milk of every cow in town to present a mammoth wheel of cheese to which president?
John Quincy Adams
James Madison
Thomas Jefferson
Zachary Taylor
The Cheshire Mammoth Cheese was not the last giant hunk of fromage to make its way to the White House. Which president was gifted with a 1,400 pound cheddar by an Oswego, NY farmer?
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Jackson
James Buchanan
John Tyler
Prior to his heart surgery, Bill Clinton was known to favor which fast food staple?
Whopper with Cheese
Big Mac
KFC Extra Crispy Chicken
In-N-Out Burger
Continuing the long tradition of gentleman farmers in the Oval Office, what was Jimmy Carter's cash crop?
Corn
Cotton
Tobacco
Peanuts
Not much is known about George Washington's first state dinner, but which of these dishes was reported to have made it onto the menu?
Head cheese
Boiled leg of mutton
Oyster stew
Cornish game hen
Which president claimed tuna-noodle casserole, meat loaf and Ozark pudding as his most favored comfort foods?
Woodrow Wilson
Herbert Hoover
Harry S. Truman
Lyndon Johnson
Which of these dishes has First Lady Laura Bush claimed to be her family's favorite?
Fried chicken
Chili con carne
Enchiladas
Tacos
Richard Nixon's go-to comfort food was an odd combination of which two ingredients?
Try saying this three times fast: Chocolate Mousse, Salted Caramel Ganache, Peanut and Banana Caramel Tart. As difficult as it may be to say, it looks like a breeze to eat (three times fast, of course).
Baked by Aran at Cannelle et Vanille, these diminutive beauties have almost as many complex layers as the Earth's surface. The chocolate shells are filled with a layer of banana caramel with peanuts, another layer of triple chocolate salted caramel ganache, and then crowned with a cloud of chocolate mousse.
The whole is garnished with cocoa powder, chocolate shavings and chopped peanuts. Eat. Await indescribable bliss.
I've always been thankful that I'm not allergic to anything. I breathe a sigh of relief every time I get to say "not that I know of" when the doctor asks if I'm allergic to anything. At the same time, I've always felt really bad for people who do suffer from food allergies. Lactose intolerance? You poor thing! What? You can't eat wheat/bread? I just don't think I could make it.
I realize that if you are one of the people who can't eat certain foods you get used to it and take it in stride. And of course, food labels are enormously useful in helping people avoid those dangerous foods. Even though there are more, manufacturers are required to list the top eight, which are responsible for 90% of allergic reactions. I'm sure all of these look familiar to any careful label reader!
1. wheat 2. soy 3. peanuts 4. tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc) 5, milk 6. eggs 7. fish 8. shellfish
It already holds delicious selections of bread, cheese, and other goodies, and now the ante has been upped on New Seaway Fish in Kensington Market -- ruby tuna, butterfish, and even sushi extras.
Wine suggestions under $20: Yellow Tail 2007 Pinot Grigio, Cono Sur 2007 Shiraz, and Nobilo Regional Collection 2006 Sauvignon Blanc.
We already mentioned that we (wouldn't) be celebrating March as National Flour Month, but we certainly don't want the wrath of peanut lovers everywhere falling upon us for not recognizing it as National Peanut Month (not to be confused with November as National Peanut Butter Lovers Month). On this last day of the month, let's take a moment to identify some of this special legume's nutritional benefits: high-quality plant protein, unsaturated fat, vitamin E, minerals such as magnesium, copper, phosphorous, and zinc, B vitamins (including folate), and zero cholesterol.
We highly recommend the easiest way to commemorate this day: with a simple peanut butter sandwich, but don't let us stop you from something more elaborate like a peanut soup.
Uh. Yeap, that definitely look like a heart-shaped peanut to us.
However, we highly doubt that the tiny heart-shaped peanut was grown specifically for Valentine's Day, as the farmer claims. It seems to us that, like finding Jesus, Mary, and Elvis on toast, the heart-shape is just a natural, one-time anomaly that can't be reproduced by the farmer. We'd be interested to see the heart-shaped peanut's siblings from the same plant.
With all the fancy schmancy genetic engineering they can do nowadays, scientists could probably design a plant that grows heart-shaped nuts, but not for this Valentine's Day.
First of all, shame on you for what you're thinking. Second, shame on you for what you're thinking.
Today is National Grab Some Nuts Day. I have no idea how this differs from National Nut Day (I'm sure such a day exists), except for the grabbing aspect. Don't lift or scoop, you have to grab.
My favorite nuts are cashews and pistachios, and I've been meaning to pick a can or two up (even if I do think of nuts as a fall and winter snack, don't ask me why). Here are some recipes you can make with nuts: Sugar and Spice Nuts, Rosemary Toasted Nuts, and a bunch of recipes from GroupRecipes.com, including salads, side dishes, and desserts.
Thanks to the work of a North Carolina food scientist, help is on the way for the more than half million U.S. residents who suffer from life-threatening peanut allergies.
Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has devised a way to deactivate peanut allergens. The allergens are removed by processing rather than by breeding. All of this has no effect on the peanut's taste or quality, and may actually make them easier to process.
Ahmedna's discovery is also a boon for peanut farmers, who produce the U.S.' 12th largest crop valued at some to $1 billion a year. His work is good news for folks with other food allergies, too. Ahmedna is tweaking his process to remove allergens from other foods.
Peanut butter preference can be a very personal thing. Some people like theirs chunky, others prefer theirs to be creamy and smooth. Some would rather have natural, others enjoy the familiarity of commercial brands that they ate growing up. Growing up, my family solved the problem of preference by having multiple jars of peanut butter on hand at all times, ensuring that everyone had something they liked for toast and sandwiches, in addition to making sure there was something to use for baking peanut butter cookies.
Joe, at Culinary in the Desert Country, usually does a great job with plating and photographing the recipes that he blogs, in addition to choosing ones that sound promising in the first place. His Snickers Fudge takes the cake, though. Not only does it look perfectly made and far better than a "real" Snickers bar could hope to, but it sounds even more decadent than the popular candy bar. The one significant twist that his recipe offers is that it has peanut butter in several of the layers, adding a distinctive richness to the chocolate layers and the nougat. (Snickers - are you listening?) Normally, making the nougat would be a challenging endeavor for even experienced cooks, but this version is made in part with marshmallow creme - hence the designation of the recipe as fudge - and has a fluffy texture. Salted peanuts are folded into the layer before it is topped of with a thick layer of chewy caramel. Joe points out that the only thing difficult about making these is that you have to wait for each layer to set up before moving on. The actual work is very simple and primarily involves melting and spreading, so this might be a fun thing to make with your kids over the holidays
I first discovered this eminently cravable snack food at a Mexican grocery store/taqueria. Cacahuates Estilo Japonés, or Japanese-style peanuts, usually come in clear blue bags. I've always been fascinated by the imagery on the small packages, which ranges from a geisha to a Mr. Peanut-type character dressed in a baseball uniform.
The nuts themselves are sweet and salty all at once. They're coated with a thin shell, that's got a hint of soy sauce. That flavor may very well be this snack's only link to Japan. Hours of Googling, yielded plenty of places to buy them online, but no definitive answer as to whether they're actually from Japan. I did, however, turn up this really cool video blog. Check out the closeups!
We think of many foods as being nuts, but what are they really? Nuts are seeds, but not all seeds are nuts. Specifically a nut is a dry fruit with usually one, but sometimes two or more seeds. These seeds are contained in a hard wall derived from the ovary and remain unattached to the wall. Seeds can be removed from the fruit, but nuts are compound ovaries which are the seed and fruit combined. Not all nuts are edible, some are just too small, and others can be very bitter. Culinarily we label many seeds as nuts when they are not. Peanuts are actually legumes. Cashews are a "false fruit" that forms off the end of the cashew flower. Many "nuts" such as almonds, pistachios, and coconuts are actually drupes. Drupes are when a fleshy outside layer surrounds a hard walled seed, such as a peach.Pine nuts are coniferous seeds. Macadamias are kernels of seeds. Did you know that macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs?
Nuts are high in protein and fats, but the fats tend to be the type that are actually a healthy part of our diet. Especially those found in almonds and walnuts. Nuts have many other nutritional and dietary benefits; Pine nuts may curb the appetite and Pecans are good for your heart. So don't feel too bad about eating all those nuts during the holidays, just don't go overboard, and enjoy going nuts.
Scientists think that a vaccine against food allergies will be available within the next ten years. In the past, 1 in 70 people were reported to have food allergies to items like peanuts, tree nuts like Brazil nuts and cashews, and other serious food allergies. Then doctors started reporting numbers in the 1.6% range. Recently the numbers of people reporting food allergies seem to be in the 5% range. These numbers seem to be increasing, or are they?
Well food allergies may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists are on the verge of being able to create hypo-allergenic versions of the food molecules that cause allergies. These can then be combined with inflammation reducing compounds, to form a safe vaccine to use to desensitize people, and so prevent allergic response. It may take awhile, but our next generation of kids may not have to worry about what their friends are eating for lunch, or kissing someone who ate peanuts earlier that day.
Try saying this three times fast: Chocolate Mousse, Salted Caramel Ganache, Peanut and Banana Caramel 
First of all, shame on you for what you're thinking. Second, shame on you for what you're thinking.
Thanks to the work of a North Carolina food scientist, help is on the way for the more than half million U.S. residents who suffer from life-threatening peanut allergies.
Peanut butter preference can be a very personal thing. Some people like theirs chunky, others prefer theirs to be creamy and smooth. Some would rather have natural, others enjoy the familiarity of commercial brands that they ate growing up. Growing up, my family solved the problem of preference by having multiple jars of peanut butter on hand at all times, ensuring that everyone had something they liked for toast and sandwiches, in addition to making sure there was something to use for baking 
I first discovered this eminently cravable snack food at a Mexican grocery store/taqueria. Cacahuates Estilo Japonés, or Japanese-style peanuts, usually come in clear blue bags. I've always been fascinated by the imagery on the small packages, which ranges from a geisha to a Mr. Peanut-type character dressed in a baseball uniform. 
We think of many foods as being nuts, but what are they really? 
Scientists think that a 
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