Some Thankgiving Feast Prep

Yesterday I blanched the green beans in prep for the green bean casserole for our Thanksgiving Day Meal. I use some gourmet-ish type that Costco is selling now, fresh, trimmed, cleaned, packed in a bag they say “can be microwaved as is to cook the beens”. Not my style, not possible anyhow, as we don’t have a microwave by choice.

I love blanching veggies … it makes them so easy to use later, and makes them absolutely beautiful. Bright deep green beans grace the top shelf of our side-by-side fridge in a gallon-size freezer bag, 2-1bs. worth.

Also I sliced an apple for the stuffing, that’s in a bowl in the fridge (with some fresh squeezed lemon juice [to keep the apples from browning, as well as add a bit of lemony fresh tangy zippety-doo!] )

Another item I like putting in my stuffing is “walnuts”. I love making Crispy Nuts, as prescribed in the Nourishing Traditions cook book starting on page 513. I don’t make them very often though, I have an oven that isn’t up-to-snuff for the task. I’d like a nice Dehydrator. I had researched which type I wanted last year, I think it was, but the pricing range just threw me off the trail, and so I just make Crispy Nuts in my derelict oven very seldom.

I messed up this time though. I put them to soak yesterday, and was going to put them in the oven overnight … just a bit ago I remembered them, sitting there soaking in the bowl still … auggghhhhh!

So I’m drying them out in a faster oven, just to get some for the stuffing. I could put non-crisped walnuts in the stuffing, but once you know NT Crispy Nuts, nothing else will do.

The method is to mix a certain amount of sea salt with a certain amount of nuts and cover in filtered water, then soaked like that for a certain amount of hours. Then the nuts should be drained and spread in a single layer on a SS baking pan and put into a 150 degree oven until done, several hours.

My oven is hotter than that on it’s lowest setting, which is why I would like a Dehydrator. I would make Crispy Nuts often if I had a good Dehydrator. I’d do other veggies and fruits as well, but mainly just nuts.

Various nuts soak different amounts of time. Cashews are very ‘delicate’ and need quicker soaking. Anyhow, I like walnuts in stuffing, they are really just “the right touch” in my very humble opinion. [The NT way of making Crispy Nuts is supposedly a method that unlocks enzymes which are inhibited in raw nuts … making them easier to digest and more nutritious therefore.]