Oh nuts!

So I had a hankering for some honey roasted peanuts...pretty much since November. Don't ask me why? I am not a huge peanut fan, I don't generally eat a lot of peanuts, nor snack food in general. My snack food usually consists of a bag of nachos and a bowl of salsa. What actually happened is that my withdrawal from North American availability has drawn me to think more and more about looking for all things North American when I am at the supermarket, or any food shops. So I was looking around and thought,"They don't have honey roasted peanuts." So, naturally, I wanted them more than anything else I could think of.

My friend Eric came to visit from Slovakia (he is Canadian) with his Slovak wife and Canadian cousin, who was on a Christmas break holiday romp through Europe with him. They happened to saunter into Marks and Spencer one night and found a honey roasted nut combo of peanuts and cashews. As I had mentioned to him about the peanuts, and him being a jolly good soul, he bought be a pack. They were good...for honey roasted nuts where there aren't any...but not great.

I decided to make my own. They are easy enough...my dad could probably even make them...and I am sure he would overdose on peanuts if he did. So I went to Diana's Svet Orisku (World of Nuts) at IP Pavlova, and found what I needed: fresh, unsalted, unroasted peanuts. Took them home, doused them in honey and chucked them in the oven. It was my first batch, so of course there was excess honey, and probably not enough salt (I salted them after I took them out, as you should if they are to taste finger smacking good!) but I was quite impressed. Even Maja, who was quite skeptical about mixing nuts and honey (Czechs are always skeptical about things that they didn't think of!), was all over it once she got a taste. They did last until the next day, but after that, it was another trip to Diana's in the cards for me.

In a foreign country you aren't going to find everything you want to find, but lately it seems that we are finding ways around everything...its just a difference between buying stuff ready made and buying ingredients to that product and making it yourself. You usually end up with better food in the end, anyways. That leads me to my next blog post, in which I will talk about our weekend making sausage and pasta at the in-laws!