A Little Nutty, A Lot Grateful 🥜🤍 Twisted Compass Test Kitchen Day with Rhonda

A Little Nutty, A Lot Grateful 🥜🤍

Twisted Compass Test Kitchen Day with Rhonda

Ten recipes completed. A few tweaks to make. One priceless bestie.

Now that is my kind of kitchen math. 🧭

Rhonda and I had ourselves a Twisted Compass Test Kitchen Day, working our way through recipes from the Twisted Nut Butter Pocket Field Guide.

A little breakfast, a little supper, a little something sweet. Apparently, we had no intention of letting peanut butter sit quietly on a piece of toast and mind its business.

There were pancakes to drizzle, dates to stuff, noodles to twirl—and plenty of reasons to taste just one more bite.

For research, friends. We do take our work seriously. 😂

🧭 Compass Heading

Good food takes a little testing. A good friend makes the whole process sweeter.

From My Kitchen Table

The idea behind this field guide is simple: one jar of peanut butter transformed into a delicious pumpkin spice peanut butter, and 18 ways to use it.

Start with the jar, then wander a little. Breakfast and sourdough toast. Snacks and little bites. Baking and chocolate. Even supper gets a turn.

And yes, pumpkin spice peanut butter can go savory. Ginger, lime, a little garlic—suddenly that jar has evening plans.

Our test kitchen day brought some of those pages right onto the table: sourdough discard pancakes with skillet apples and a nut butter drizzle, a pear-and-toasted-oat yogurt cup, pecan-stuffed dates, a creamy dip with fruit and pretzels, crunchy chicken slaw, a loaded Compass bowl, oat bites, and ginger-peanut rice noodles.

Sweet, savory, crunchy, creamy. We covered some ground.

The lime, naturally, was not decorative. 😉

A Few Tweaks Are Part of the Recipe

We completed ten recipes, and we have a few adjustments to make.

That is exactly why I want these kitchen days.

A recipe needs time off the page. It needs to be stirred, cooked, tasted, and considered. Does the texture work? Would a little more of this help? Would I make it again?

I want the field guide to be something you actually cook from—with pages you return to, notes in the margins, and a few favorites that become part of your own kitchen routine.

So we’ll make our tweaks and keep working. Delicious homework is still homework, although I will admit the benefits package is excellent.

🤍 The Best Part Was Rhonda

As much as I love seeing these recipes come together, the biggest blessing of the day was sharing it with my bestie.

Rhonda’s friendship and support mean more to me than I can fit into a blog post. But you know me. I’m going to give it a paragraph or two anyway.

Building The Twisted Compass means taking ideas I care about and putting them out into the world. There is joy in that. There is also a fair amount of figuring things out as I go.

Having people beside me who care about what I’m creating—and care about me in the middle of creating it—is a gift.

Her time matters. Her encouragement matters. The support she gives this little dream matters.

And her friendship? Priceless.

Rhonda, thank you for sharing this day with me, for helping me work through these recipes, and for being such a dear part of my life. I am grateful for what we accomplished, but I am even more grateful I got to do it with you.

Ten recipes are a pretty good day’s work.

Time with my bestie made it a day worth remembering. 🤍

🥜 A Peek Inside the Field Guide

The Twisted Nut Butter Pocket Field Guide begins with a simple pumpkin spice peanut butter and offers 18 ways to bring it to the table—from sourdough toast and little sweet bites to bowls, noodles, and even soup.

There are nut butter swaps, kitchen notes, and room to write down what you made and what you would change next time.

These photos are a peek at our testing in progress. We still have some fine-tuning ahead, and I’m excited to keep sharing what comes out of this kitchen.

Pull up a chair. There’s a good chance something needs tasting.

🧭 Compass Thought

It is easy to count the things we finish and forget to notice the people helping us along the way.

Today, I can count ten recipes. But I also want to stop and thank God for Rhonda.

The Lord has given me a friend whose support reaches into something I love doing. I don’t want to get so busy building the dream that I forget to tell her what that means to me.

Maybe someone came to mind while you were reading. The friend who keeps showing up. The person who asks how it’s going and waits for the real answer.

Tell them. Let the gratitude have a voice.

🧭 Compass Verse

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,”
Philippians 1:3 (NASB)

🧭 Compass Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for Rhonda and for the gift of her friendship. Thank You for time together, food to share, and the joy of creating something with someone I love. Help me notice the care people give and be generous in giving it back. Bless the work of our hands, and let the people around our tables know they are treasured. Amen.

Find Your Way Home.
~Karen / The Twisted Compass