Nuts about Nuts

I could seriously live on nuts alone! I mean, really! Nuts can be salty, sweet, tangy, crunchy, chewy and pretty much any describing word imaginable! I prefer mine without any additions...just plain old perfect NUTS! BUT I do toast them almost every time I eat them. Tonight I had a truly sweet, wonderful, beautiful house guest over for dinner and after our meal of grilled bison over a bed of mixed greens, cucumbers, red peppers, celery, fresh salsa and nutritional yeast (I will post about bison this week...I PROMISE!) she sampled some of my baked goods. She tried my coconut Bailey's Irish Cream Belgium waffles, mini pumpkin currant muffins, and toasted walnut cinnamon banana bread. She said she loved all of my baked goods but then we got onto the topic of toasted nuts. She had never toasted her nuts before eating them. So we did a little test. I had her eat 2 plain, unsalted, almonds. Then I microwaved a few almonds in a single layer on a microwave safe plate for about a minute and a half. She tasted the toasted almonds and could not believe they were even the same nut. She agreed with me that toasting the almonds (Yes, even in the microwave!) made a deeper, more flavorful nut. She even exclaimed, "It doesn't even taste like the same nut!". I wish we did the experiment with walnuts or pecans....in my opinion 2 much more flavorful, fuller bodied nuts but I used up the last of my walnut supply baking my tasty banana bread. So the moral of the story is that I wanted to make sure that all of you out in bikini baking land know to toast your nuts! Add nuts to your morning oatmeal, Greek yogurt, fruit mixtures, salads, baked goods, chicken and fish recipes but make sure you toast them first to get that added flavor! Enjoy!