How to Soak Nuts
Inside: How to soak nuts, an easy and healthy practice. Plus a new way to get my salt–a simple, addictive recipe for buttery salted nuts.
I have dubbed August “DIY Summer Projects Month” here at the blog, and though it might seem odd to think of soaking nuts as a project, I have wanted to try this “ancient” nourishing tradition for a while.
But let me back the truck up first and explain.
As a woman in her early fifties, I’ve noticed that what had been working in my diet for all these years is suddenly not working as well. I’m in the process of tweaking some of my food choices to support my thyroid and adrenals. Upon reading some suggestions from Dr. Axe, he mentions sprouted nuts. While I’ve eaten sprouted grain bread as a once-in-blue-moon treat (and loved it), I’m not fond of sprouts. But upon doing some research, I discovered you can simply soak the nuts, much like you would rice or beans over night, and for much the same reason. Grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts contain phytic acid, which interferes with the body’s ability to absorb the nutrients in the nuts. In a nutshell (pun intended), soaking improves digestion and nutrient content. Wellness Mama gives a more in-depth explanation, if you’re curious.
What You’ll Need:
- 2 cups of raw almonds (and shelled)
- 3 – 4 cups of warm water (most people recommend filtered)
- 1 tablespoon of sea salt
Dissolve the salt in warm water. Place nuts in a large jar or bowl and add the water. Make sure the nuts are completely submerged, and leave the container on the counter for at least 7 hours or overnight. (Do not place in the refrigerator.)
When the time is up, rinse almonds thoroughly in a colander and drain. Place nuts on a baking sheet and dry in the oven at the lowest setting (mine doesn’t go under 170 degrees, but 150 is recommended) for approximately 12 hours (though mine didn’t take that long). The almonds should be thoroughly dried to avoid mold. You can also use a food dehydrator if you prefer, but it might take longer.
The Results
The texture and taste of the almonds were slightly different, though not much. I was pleased with the results. I also tried walnuts, in the same proportions but soaked them for a shorter time as I had read elsewhere not to go beyond 5 hours of soaking. Drying the walnuts took about as long as for the almonds. Again, texture and taste were slightly different, but not much. For the nutritional benefits alone, I will continue doing this, but I can see how it would be more efficient to do larger batches at one time to save on energy costs.
A New Way to Get my Salt
I’ve also noticed from doing keto dieting for so long that I tend to be short on salt. This summer I discovered a really great way to up my salt intake when I made an ice cream recipe which required the nuts be sautéed in salt and butter. The simple recipe follows.
- 1 cup of raw almonds (pecans or walnuts work well, too)
- 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt
- Melt the butter in a 10-inch skillet.
- Add almonds and salt, cooking over medium-low heat until the nuts are toasted and golden, stirring frequently for 4 - 6 minutes.
- Remove from heat and strain off the butter, which can be reserved for another use.
- Allow almonds to cool and enjoy!
Have you ever tried soaking nuts? Tell us about it in the comments.
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5 Delicious Ways to Use Up Strawberries
Stay Cool with Water Infusions
Open Windows, Food Shoot, and Other News Fresh From the Farm
Inside: Enjoying life with my windows wide open, making my food look good, and my mini staycation.
Enjoying Life with my Windows Wide Open
Mid to late July gave us a stretch of miserable–albeit typical–summer weather with high 90s and a few low 100s sprinkled in for good measure. I’m not a fan. (Though I have plenty of them running in my house this time of year!) High temps mean extra watering and monitoring of fragile plants, avoiding the use of my oven, higher cooling bills, and closed windows. And not only closed windows, but blinds down on the south side. No looking out into the pasture, lost in thought. No listening to birds singing at dawn or the nightly serenade of cicadas. No fresh breeze with the hint of some delicate flower. My connection to nature is relegated to short morning bursts when the sun is young in the sky and hasn’t yet turned mean.
But here comes August–normally brutal–but decidedly charming this year. Nothing hot or dry about it–so far. I say that cautiously. Almost whispering it. I know how fickle summer in Missouri can be.
Meanwhile I will enjoy my breezes and bird songs, insect sounds and sweet-scented air, and the view of the good green Earth I know simply as home.
Making my Food Look Good
This past weekend I got my first lesson in photography (which means “painting with light,” by the way) and discovered firsthand what it’s like when the subject doesn’t say cheese–because it is cheese. Welcome to the world of food photography! My daughter Emily, who is a talented photographer, dropped by to take pictures for future recipe posts, warning me ahead of time that I should prepare to learn.
And I did, sort of.
I learned that food photography takes a lot of prep work–both from a cooking standpoint as well as staging.
I learned that it’s a messy process. Be prepared for lots of dishes and, in my case, moving furniture.
I learned that it’s fun to snack on props.
And I learned I have so much to learn!
So stay tuned as my skills will grow (hopefully) and the pictures on this blog will look better and better.
My Mini Staycation
So Hubs has a week off starting Tuesday. Me, not so much. (We’ll call it a light week for me.) Sure, I make my own hours, but as most women will agree, job aside, there are meals to fix, dishes to wash, floors to sweep, and laundry to fold. As I’ve said to my spouse before, “When is my day off?” (I say it lightheartedly and with a smile these days.) But what Hubs doesn’t know yet is that I will be defrosting a lot of meat for barbecuing–his domain.
No special plans at this point. A meal out, maybe. A movie, if there is something worth seeing on the big screen. Relaxation, plenty of coffee, good conversation. Staycations can be a good thing.
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Wash Day in the Midwest
Inside: Today’s post is dedicated to my new friend Calen from Impromptu Promptlings. I met her during the A – Z Blogging Challenge, lured to her blog because of a shared love of classic television, and she’s been so supportive of this website since then. I’ve become a fan of her writing and taste in poetry–another shared love. So, Calen, here is one of my favorites, “Wash Day in the Midwest,” written more than a handful of years ago. Hope you enjoy it!
Wash Day in the Midwest
The corn wilts and puckers,
waiting to get its feet wet
in the playground of grasshoppers
as cows collect
beneath the coffeenut tree.
The dog doesn’t bother to get up.
It’s hot dry August in the Midwest,
where people assemble
in the frozen foods section to complain.
“Hottest day of the year,” one says.
“If it weren’t for the humidity!” says another.
And somewhere,
from the back door of a hundred years ago,
behind the old farmhouse
Great-Grandma gathers her skirts
’round the washboard and tub,
takes up her fight against several days’ dirt
and laughs out loud.
“They’ve all gone soft,” she says.
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Stay Cool with Water Infusions
Inside: It’s a challenge to keep hydrated in the hot summer months. Stay cool with water infusions. Our DIY adventure will show you how.
The Attempt
For a while now I’ve been wanting to try some water infusion recipes, and when Mom showed up to help with the stump garden a few weeks ago, she happened to have a fruit-infused water in her hand which contained lemon grass, cukes, and some type of citrus. “Try this,” she said. “It’s refreshing.”
And it was. Right there on the spot, the wheels in my mind started turning, and I knew I’d be doing a post on water infusions sometime this summer.
Enter sometime. So Mom and I embarked on a mini DIY adventure making water infusions this past week. I found some intriguing recipes on Pinterest, pinned them to my board Good Things, and we dived right in. (Notice the clever water theme.)
Mom brought over some sage, lavender, cilantro, mint, and one jar of a water infusion she’d already made. I had the fruit and the rest of the jars, and we got busy slicing.
Here is what we tried:
Quart one – slices of cucumber, lemon, lime, and strawberries (pictured top right).
Quart two – slices of orange, whole blackberries, and a sprig of mint (top left).
Pitcher – grapefruit slices and two sprigs of rosemary (top middle).
Pint one – whole blueberries and three small sprigs of lavender (below left).
Pint two – peach slices and sprig of sage (below middle).
Pint three – orange slices and small sprig of cilantro (below right).
The Execution
(Meaning performance of, not killing, although some fruit was hurt in the making of this blog post.)
We added water, fruit, and herbs to the jars. Then we did the photo shoot.
Then I read the directions. After washing the ingredients, which I did, we were supposed to “muddle” the ingredients to release the juices and flavors and then pour the water over top and stir or shake. I wasn’t familiar with muddle (muddling?) except when Judy Garland belted out the word in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Upon looking up the term, I discovered it meant “to mix or stir.” Having tried my own water fusion a few weeks prior by simply slicing lemons in a jar, I figured maybe the muddling part was overrated. The next step? Wait 24 hours while the fruit and herbs released their flavors.
The Results
The following day I was eager to try my fruit-infused waters, and Hubs was willing to be a taster. So we swigged, sipped, and gulped our way to these impressions.
First up, the pint with four peach slices with one sprig of sage. Probably our favorite, although the peach flavor was too subtle. I did try squeezing the fruit, but it didn’t change the flavor much. We both felt the sage worked well, and I could see how a sprig of sage added to a pitcher of peach tea would be tasty. The sage added a refreshing hint, yet it didn’t overpower the water.
The next pint we tried was the one with a handful of blueberries and three small sprigs of lavender. We ranked this one third overall. Again, the fruit was too subtle, but the lavender was perfect. We felt this infusion had potential if the blueberry flavor was stronger. The only drawback was some of the lavender fell apart, and the tiny pieces were irritating.
The third pint contained two orange slices and a tiny sprig of cilantro. I tried it solo because Hubs is a cilantro hater. (Yeah, one of those people.) My feeling was that both the orange and cilantro were too subtle, but I think more orange slices and a large sprig of cilantro would have me loving this. As with the sage, the cilantro added a refreshing quality I could appreciate on a hot day.
Moving over to the quarts, the one with a big handful of blackberries, three slices of orange, and two sprigs of mint came in second. Both of us felt the three flavors mixed well together, and, not to sound like a broken record, the mint added that refreshing quality. Admittedly, we tried this at 48 hours, and the flavors were stronger, though I also ended up mashing the fruit and shaking the jar, which didn’t make for a pretty presentation.
The other quart went home with Mom, and so I asked her to tell me her impressions. This one had six thin slices of cucumber, four thin slices of lemon, three thin slices of lime, and a small handful of strawberry slices. She had this to say, “It’s slightly tart but very refreshing. Really quenches your thirst. A good re-hydrator.”
The pitcher had me intrigued. I made this one the biggest because I anticipated liking it the most. This had one whole sliced grapefruit (peeled because we were trying to avoid that bitter taste) plus two big sprigs of rosemary. Turns out I didn’t like it at all. While I’m fond of grapefruit, I only tasted the bitter aspect of it (even without the peel), and the rosemary, which I also like, was much too strong.
Overall, I would try making most of these again–except for the grapefruit-rosemary concoction–but next time I’d gently squeeze the fruit first, add a small sprig of whichever herb the recipe called for, and shake it up before drinking it. I can also see how adding a small sprig of sage or mint to fruit-flavored iced tea would be good. I plan on giving this a try.
Stay tuned for more DIY projects in August.
Have a favorite recipe for a fruit-infused water? Share it with us in the comments.
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