Cashews, Sweet Cashews

Cashews are plucked, apparently, from the end of a cashew apple. Add this fruit to my list of things to try when (someday) I'm  in South America and/or India. I always thought of cashews as the most decadent nut, the ones that get plucked out of the mixed-nuts bowl first, and the ones that were the most (gasp) fattening. But it's better fat, right? I don't care.

Earlier this year I had raw nut pate for the first time at a yoga studio/raw food cafe. I was somewhat skeptical of what sounded to me like glorified chunky nut butter, but I loved it and made my own by adapting this recipe. I made mine much chunkier than the photo on that website.  It's like a very coarse nut chutney.

Who knew that waterlogged nuts pureed with onions and garlic and herbs and bell pepper could be so good? The cashews make the pate savory, and, eaten on crackers or stuffed in a red cabbage leaf, the stuff is addictive. Which makes me wonder why I've only made it once.

How My Mother Got Me To Like Walnuts

Out of all the nuts, walnuts have always been one of my least favorite. Okay, my very least favorite. Okay, I actually kind of have an aversion to them, generally. Okay, "aversion" is too strong a word, really. I tend not to really avoid any foods; there are just some foods that I take much, much less pleasure in eating than others.

So you won't find a small pile of raspberry-vinaigrette-doused walnuts left in my plate after eating a salad or anything. I can't make any promises about a can of mixed nuts, though. Something about their bitterness has always turned me off.

Walnuts have never been something I've ever eaten for the mere pleasure of eating them. I devour cashews and chocolate covered walnuts ravenously. Walnuts? No, thank you.

Except, well, my mom. Mothers. They're sneaky.