Addicting Snack

So a few weeks ago I went to this impromptu baby shower and realized that I needed to bring something edible with me. I found out about this shower on maybe Monday or Tuesday and it was the next Friday. Crud...not a whole lot of time. Yes, I'd get groceries Friday morning but that still didn't leave me much wiggle room.

Enter the idea of maybe a snack instead of a supporting player to a meal. Hmmmm, nuts perhaps? But not just any nuts, special nuts. I know this is last minute but I still care enough to put in a little effort. Say hello to Ellie Krieger's Spiced Nuts.

When I decided to do this, I of course was in a hurry and wasn't remembering the recipe correctly so only got almonds. Nor did I have maple syrup. Crapiola! Well, honey can be just as good as maple syrup. And as long as I have 2 cups of almonds, that the same as her 2-cup total conglomerate that she has listed, right? The result was better than I could have hoped! Rob was glaring at me as I boxed up the little gems to take away, leaving him only the sweet-spicy aroma behind (there were leftovers and he forgave me). ;)

So on Friday I tackled this recipe again, this time with more nut variety AND with maple syrup in hand. I made this mainly to take with this weekend so we'd be armed with snacks instead of having to buy them. I doubled the recipe and used 1 1/2 cups walnuts, 1 1/2 cups almonds and 1 cup cashews. The result? Well, they were out of the oven and cooling when I got Gavin up from his nap so the scent of them was all over the house by that point. Gavin looks at me and says "Cookie?" Then Rob tells me he quite possibly has a new favorite snack. :D If that's not a fantastic reaction to good ol' home cooking I don't know what is! :)