Make your mouth happy

Check this out:

1/2 teasp ground cumin
1/2 teasp chili powder (MORE PLEASE)
1/2 teasp curry powder
1/2 teasp garlic salt
1/4 teasp ground ginger
1/4 teasp ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups shelled whole almonds, pecans or peanuts
Coarse salt

Preheat the oven to 325.

Mix all the spices in a small bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in your cast iron skillet, add the spice mixture. Stir well Simmer about 3 or 4 minutes to mellow the flavors. (Stir it, it'll stick and burn, and that will piss you off)

Dump the nuts in the iron skillet with the spices, stir well to coat. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and bake in the over for about 15 minutes, keeping an eye on them, and shaking the pan once or twice.

Remove the pan, toss the nuts to get any oil and spices that may have accumulated on the bottle of the pan. Sprinkle with coarse salt and more garlic salt if you want. Let cool for 2 hours.

You can store them in airtight jars, if they don't all get eaten during the cooling.

This is wonderful stuff. Pecans are the best, but this morning I made peanuts like this. Makes your house smell wonderful too. Yummy. Can't wait til they cool, so I can eat some without burning my mouth.

Oh I got this recipe from The New Basics Cookbook by Sheila Lukens and Juliee Rosso. This is one pretentious cookbook, but there are some nice recipes lurking amidst the pretention.