Ground Nuts

When I first heard the term ground nuts it was in relation to a sauce--ground nut sauce. My ears heard it as nuts that were ground up and put in the sauce. Wrong. Ground nuts are peanuts. They grow in the ground, therefore, they are ground nuts. They are also called G-nuts--as in G for ground. Consequently you have things such as G-nut butter (peanut butter) and roasted G-nuts.

A couple of weeks ago one of my new friends, Sr. Elizabeth came by and asked me if I liked roasted ground nuts. Sure, I like roasted peanuts. She gave me a jar. They were clearly home grown and roasted. They were quite good, so good that I didn't get very many. Bry'Chell ate most of them. In fact, I found the almost empty jar on her bed, even though she knows she's not supposed to eat in her bedroom!

Saturday Joan's mother gave me a bag with some food in it. I glanced at it quickly before thanking her and thought it was beans and bananas. That was fine. We like beans and bananas, although not usually together.

When we finally got back home, I looked more closely and realized that what I had thought were beans were really peanuts. I sampled one and realized they were raw. Bry'Chell not believing me, had to sample them as well. She had to sample two or three.

Being the typical modern American, I went on-line to find a recipe for roasting peanuts. It wasn't hard. There were probably a dozen. Anyhow, I vaguely remember Mom roasting peanuts once or twice when we were kids. However, all the recipes said to sprinkle the nuts with salt after roasting. The one's Sr. Elizabeth gave us were salted, but there was no grainy salt to suggest that they had been salted after roasting.

After mass on Sunday I asked Sr. Cecilia how to salt them. She said to dissolve some salt in half a cup of water and sprinkle it on the nuts before roasting. Ah ha! It worked. I made about four cookie sheets of roasted peanuts. The first tray was a little over done, the second was a little underdone, but they were all fit for consumption. In fact, they're about half gone as I write.

I must admit, the fresh produce, including peanuts, is superior to what I buy in Chicago. G-nuts are just the latest adventure.

I should also note that the peanuts had been shelled, that is taken out of their shells. That's a lot of work and a real sign that the peanuts were meant to be a special gift. They were.