Anyone with children knows that the continual refrain of summer vacation is, "I'm hungry." All day.
Given the amount of cooking I do to prepare three meals every day for six people, I am not very enthused about preparing snacks as well. That's why snacks for my children are almost exclusively nuts or fruit. Both of these things require no prep from me (well, except for if I make spiced almonds), which is key.
We often don't have fresh fruit, though, so nuts are the staple snack in our house. And this summer, the reigning nut is roasted, salted peanuts in the shell.
We used to get these when we were on the beach at Blackrock in the summer. I bought two bags of them online just a few weeks ago, because they really are the perfect summer snack.
Why? I'm so glad you asked!
First, they're relatively healthy. They satisfy the desire for a tasty, salty, fatty snack, but don't actually have any weird ingredients or sugar. And they have protein.
Second, they're relatively cheap. You can get five pounds of peanuts for less than ten dollars. That's a LOT of peanuts for not a lot of money. (I bought two five-pound bags because I had no clear idea of how much five pounds of peanuts actually is. It's a lot. I have a lot of peanuts.)
Third, they're fun. Eating peanuts in the shell is a social activity, with everyone sitting around shelling nuts and sharing the excitement of finding the coveted triple-peanut, or the disappointment of dropping the peanuts and losing them to the dog.
Because of the mess involved in shelling the peanuts, they're best eaten outside. Which is of course where you want your kids to be in the summer, anyway.
So, if you're having a party outside soon, or just have a bunch of kids hanging around requesting food all day, go ahead and get a big bag of roasted, salted peanuts, set up a bucket somewhere in the middle of a bunch of chairs . . .
. . . and enjoy one of the great pleasures of summer.
7 comments:
My dad used to eat these all the time. They are a great snack!
Linda
This is genius.
My husband grew up in Mississippi, so he's familiar with boiled peanuts which are exactly what they sound like, served up in a paper cone from the back of someone's truck by the side of the road. I, as of yet, have not been brave enough to try making them.
I ate these with my dad at ball games--any kind of ball game. We'd get a bag and drop the shells between our knees onto the bleachers. The first time I went to a game with my husband (Baltimore Orioles?) he tried to be neat and not drop the shells, which is futile. Once he saw everyone else doing it, he was fine.
If you're hunting triples or even quadruples (!!), you might look for Valencia peanuts, which tend to have 3-4 peanuts to a shell. Plus, they have the added benefit of being somewhat local food for you -- they're grown almost exclusively in eastern New Mexico/western Texas and processed in Portales. My family used to buy them in 25-lb. yellow net sacks, but I have no idea if they're still available that way. Maybe for a fun project, the kids could grow their own ...
--Karen.'s sister
Karen.'s sister: I had no idea. That's cool. Thanks for the information.
Oh she beat me to it.
I remember going to the peanut elevator in Portales and watching them make peanut butter in a small machine, and then we could take that home. So good.
And the shells make good compost, too!
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