Why is everyone running away screaming?  No I'm not going to write about those nuts!  Sheesh!

Sometimes you want a snack (I said this wasn't about those nuts, so get your minds out of the gutter) but alas, there just isn't anything in the house you want to nibble on, because you haven't made a grocery run lately, and you don't feel like cooking up something just for snacking on.

Times like that some folks (at least me) will eat something that we might otherwise have given a miss... the end-of-the-loaf-of-bread that nobody wants smeared with peanut butter, that half full box of Harvest Crisps that has been in the pantry for like a millenium because nobody in the family likes them, a handful of chocolate chips, you get the idea.

So a couple weeks ago I was in that circumstance and the only thing I could lay my hands on was a half-eaten canister of generic-brand mixed nuts.  I would hasten to add, that a can of mixed nuts is among the last things I would choose to eat given my druthers, but that's what there was.  And (at least in my house) half eaten nuts means one thing and one thing only--no cashews.  Because AFAIC cashews are the only thing worth eating in a can of mixed nuts, and the fam agrees for the most part.  When you first open a can of mixed nuts, there's that delicious nutty aroma, and a pleasant few minutes of picking out and eating the cashews.

Then you shake the can, and pick out more cashews.  And each time you do, the can requires more shaking to find the cashews until such point as there are no cashews, or so few, that you are just shaking the can over and over again and not actually nibbling on anything.  At which point you either resign yourself and eat a few peanuts (which are basically packing material for the cashews), or you just put the can back in the pantry.

I don't really like nuts much at all.  Cashews are okay I guess but I prefer no nuts.  I don't like cookies, or chocolate, or brownies with nuts.  And if I could still eat ice cream, I wouldn't want any nuts in that.  The nuts I have actually eaten are: cashews (which aren't really nuts), pistachios (mmm), peanuts (boring), almonds (blandtastic), pine nuts (meh), and walnuts (blechh).  There is a special place of loathing in my bowels for walnuts, I'd rather crunch balsa wood.

So I have this nut aversion.  Which explains why this (half-eaten) can of nuts was not a very enticing proposition, but at least I could choke down the peanuts, and I was hungry enough so it would have to do.  According to the can it contained peanuts, cashews, almonds, brazil nuts, filberts, and pecans.  So I decided, screw it, I would try them all... I've avoided pecans, filberts, and brazil nuts for like, ever, and maybe I would like them if I tried them?

But first the almonds... I've only ever had these in chocolate... never by themselves.  They are every bit as bland alone as they are in chocolate...

Next the Brazil Nut.  Brazil nuts are HUGE.  Sometimes you see these in Christmas platters with their scary dark brown shells still on, looking like thumb-size cocoons ready to pop open and release a fat unsightly grub.  Without their shell they look a lot less scary, but still dauntingly large, especially if you are not enamoured of nuts, like me.  I found eating the brazil nut to be a chore, and the taste to be utterly bland.  As bland as the almond.  If the nut were unsalted I think I'd have tasted nothing at all.  No points for the brazil nut I'm afraid.

Then the Filbert.  Sayyyy... these are delicious!  These are what hide inside those shells that look like pointy acorns on those Christmas platters of nuts that were so ubiquitous at family gatherings of my childhood.  They are otherwise known as hazel nuts, and they are quite tasty.  I think once you're done shaking the can and picking out the cashews, it's definitely worth it to shake it again and pick out the filberts.  Nummy!

Finally the Pecan.  I saved the pecan for last because the weird shape of the nut-meat reminds me of the shape of walnut-meat... which led me to believe they probably taste like walnuts.  Holy cow was I wrong!  Pecans are delicious... way better than walnuts, almonds, or even the filberts.

So at nearly 40 years of age, I've finally gotten to know my nuts.  And you know?  They're not all that bad after all.

Nut pictures from The Nut Factory, a source for nuts and other snacks.