It's been a while! Sorry! But here's an idea for you!
A little while ago, I made a salad and, as per the request of my boyfriend, I added walnuts to it. I'm not a huge fan of raw nuts to begin with so I got them it was a nice crunch, whatever.
A few weeks later, I noticed that I still had walnuts sitting on top of the microwave and I needed to use them.
While watching Food Network one day, I saw a little mini show in the commercials. What I've found that Food Network does is they take a segment of a show and turn it into a commercial sized recipe.
For example, Ina Garten did a show on how adding small things to basic recipes boosts up the flavor without knowing the ingredient is there- like adding coffee to chocolate. So, for this minisode, they showed the cupcake recipe she used during the show, splicing it into a tiny 30 second piece. Promotion for Ina, promotion for the network. Cool!
Elie Kreiger has managed to not really catch on to Food Network and looks like she's found a home on Cooking Channel. However, they did a minisode of this super simple recipe:
Maple Walnuts
2 cups whole walnuts
1/3 cup maple syrup- the real thing!!!
A pinch of salt
Take the nuts and put them in a dry skillet. Toast for a couple minutes until they smell super nutty. Add the syrup and salt and cook until it's just about smoking and burning. That means that the water has cooked out of them. Spread out on a plate or baking sheet (parchment paper on it is a good idea) and let them cool and dry. Consume as desired. These are high in calories so I like portioning them into sandwich bags to just grab and go.
Now, I always have maple syrup in my kitchen. If I want pancakes, I don't go for cheap syrup. I grew up in Massachusetts and went to school in Vermont. I'd rather eat them plain. I'll discuss maple syrup in another post.
My point is that I had all the ingredients in my pantry to make this so I thought what better time to do it?!
And it was amazing. Those things were gone in a day or so. It was bad. Really bad. But so good. So good I think it could be an alternative to chocolate.
Don't believe me? Consider this.
I'm a milk chocolate person. I crave that fat, that silky smoothness of it. And it's chocolate and I have two X chromosomes.
But walnuts have fat in them too. They have a little bit of creaminess to them, along with a crunch. Wait. Unless there are almonds in my chocolate, it doesn't crunch. But these are sweet too, a nice and natural sweet. And the salt that kicks it all off! AND walnuts are good for you with omega 3s!
So give these a try! Simple and delicious!
Until next time!
-Miss Merry
