Walnuts

Use them to stuff pitted dates. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!! What a great snack!

I like walnuts a lot too. Have been putting them in different quick breads recently..

This is a bit of a tangent, but you might find it interesting - a BBC article on the health benefits of walnuts:


Walnuts 'combat unhealthy fats'

Eating walnuts at the end of a meal may help cut the damage that fatty food can do to the arteries, research suggests. It is thought that the nuts are rich in compounds that reduce hardening of the arteries, and keep them flexible. A team from Barcelona's Hospital Clinico recommend eating around eight walnuts a day.

The study, which appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, also showed walnuts had more health benefits than olive oil.
The researchers recruited 24 adults, half with normal cholesterol levels, and half with levels that were moderately high to the research, which was partly funded by the California Walnut Commission.

Each was given two high-fat salami and cheese meals, eaten one week apart. For one meal, the researchers added five teaspoons of olive oil. For the other, they added eight shelled walnuts. Tests showed that both the olive oil and the walnuts helped to reduce the sudden onset of harmful inflammation and oxidation in arteries that follows a meal high in saturated fat.

Over time, this is thought to cause the arteries to start to harden - and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. However, unlike olive oil, adding walnuts also helped preserve the elasticity and flexibility of the arteries, regardless of cholesterol level. Arteries that are elastic can expand when needed to increase blood flow.

Lead researcher Dr Emilio Ros said eating high fat meals disrupted production of nitric oxide by the inner lining of the arteries, a chemical needed to keep blood vessels flexible.

Key chemical

Walnuts contain arginine, an amino acid used by the body to produce nitric oxide. The nuts also contain antioxidants and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3 fatty acid with health giving properties.

Dr Ros is starting a new trial to see whether the ALA in walnuts can help people with abnormal heart rhythms. He warned against people assuming they can eat what they like so long as they accompany it with walnuts.
"Instead, they should consider making walnuts part of a healthy diet that limits saturated fats."

Professor Robert Vogel, of University of Maryland in Baltimore, said: "This demonstrates that the protective fat from walnuts actually undoes some of the detrimental effects of a high-saturated-fat diet, whereas a neutral fat, such as olive oil, does not have as much protective ability.

"This raises a very interesting issue because many people who eat a Mediterranean diet believe the olive oil is providing the benefits.
"But this research and other data indicate that's not true.
"There are probably other factors in the diet, including that it is a relatively rich source of nuts. "This is not to say that olive oil is bad, but it's not the key protective factor in the Mediterranean diet."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/6036409.stm

Published: 2006/10/10 09:38:33 GMT

© BBC MMVI

I use them in salads, and pecans are good for that too. Also put them in turkey stuffing (yum). Love nuts of any type.

Isn't it great when something you love is also good for you? Like Mame, I love all kinds of nuts.

Pecan or walnut crusted fish is also delish.

Pecans. I buy them raw, put them in the oven at 325 for about a 1/2 hour with a little olive oil. Add a little salt. Perfection.

Another walnut plus besides the health benefits and taste, they are relatively inexpensive. Pecans are a little pricey.

Walnut Cranberry stuffing is to die for!!

Oh, and walnuts are pretty good in a granola. I like eating granola with milk for breakfast sometimes, throw in whatever nuts fruit is around. It's good.

Whazs that dessert, Matrimonial cake ...I've had it with walnuts in the date mixture and it was very good. That cake is very good so it would be hard to go wrong there.

I have a wonderful pine nut/rice/onion/brandy stuffing for cornish game hens that's to die for.

And who doesn't love roasted, salted almonds (homemade)? I'm salivating

That stuffing sounds good, Mame..


I've posted this recipe on a2k before -

Chocolate Walnut cake from Venice


This is in a little book called Venice Cooking with Betty Evans. She is a friend. She and her husband lived in Rome for a while, as he pursued an artist's life, before buckling down to working in the aircraft industry in California. Everywhere they lived, she listened and cooked; she teaches cooking at her wonderful house in Hermosa Beach, California (a small house with, in the back yard, italian cypress in two rows pruned up to have an overhead trellis under them, a bed of gravel underneath, and picnic tables.. grape vines grow over the trellises...)

I will copy what she says....


Italian cakes are flatter than American cakes. There are flavorful and smaller slices are served. This cake is quite simple to make. You do need a spring form pan. These pans are available at any kitchen store and handy for many things. (Osso - I know it has worked in one of those bundt pans, though springform is better..)

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar (or less)
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate (3 squares) (Osso - If you only have 2, it's fine)
3/4 cup of strong coffee
2 eggs
2 tablespoons rum (or brandy or?)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups chopped walnuts

Procedure
Cream the butter with the sugar. Melt the chocolate in the coffee. Cool slightly. Add to the butter sugar mixture. Beat in the eggs and rum. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the batter along with the chopped walnuts. Place in a 10" spring form pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 - 40 minutes until firm. Remove from pan and cool on rack. Sometimes whipped cream is spread on top. This will serve eight.

The biology lab had what looked like a mannequin. You could remove
various layers and organs and see the ones underneath. It was sexless,
devoid of reproductive organs. So before one we removed the lowermost
existing organ, put a couple of walnuts in its place, and closed it back up.

Added a little humor to following class.

Cornish Game Hen Stuffing:

Some cooked rice (1 - 2 cups depending on how many birds)
Some minced, sauted onions (usually 1/2 cup, again, depending)
1/4 cup raisins soaked in 1/4 c. of brandy
1/4 c. of toasted pine nuts
savory (herb)
s & p

Basically, that's it. I always stuff the birds under the breast skin, too, because I like stuffing.

Use the leftover branding in your jus or gravy

I also baste the bird with a mixture of some kind of jelly (jalapeno), brandy, and butter.

That sounds good whether or not it's used as stuffing..


Sometimes I make pizza with whole milk mozzarella, a bit of gorgonzola scattered about, some walnut halves, a dribbling of walnut oil...

Winter greens with toasted walnuts, blue cheese, and red onion.

Nuts and cheese - what a combo! Love them.

I had a simple salad the other day -

Mixed greens
Chevres
Spicy pecans
red onions

and some kind of sweet but spicy dressing - fantastico.

I'm glad to hear women speaking candidly and unabashedly about their love of nuts.

Have any of you ever tasted fresh Kickynuts? I've been told they are delicious.

Now there's a thought.... chopped and toasted..

Hung on the wall.

with maybe a drizzle of basalmic

How about if I dip them in chocolate sauce? Come on ladies, get yer fresh tasty chocolate-covered Kickynuts while they're hot!

Flushd, Why is it called Matrimonial cake? What's in it besides nuts?