Christmas Nut Cracking

One of my favorite memories of Christmas as a child was the struggle to crack and eat unshelled nuts. I can't remember if I was the only one in the family that enjoyed the challenge but I might have been. There were some nuts that I liked more than others. I liked the taste of hazelnuts the most; I liked cracking almonds more than Brazil nuts (I also did not know what to correctly call Brazil nuts until I was living in New York years later).

By far the most challenging of all the nuts was the walnut. Walnuts are both difficult to extract and difficult to eat (with all the little paper-like sections you find inside). You can easily ruin the whole nut by squeezing it too hard or by moving too quickly. I guess I have grown to respect walnuts because I spent the most time with them at Christmas.

Now that I am old, my love for walnuts continues to grow. Even now if I am struggling to keep my weight down, the walnut is my food of choice. I am convinced I burn more calories trying to get at the nutty center than I consume eating the bits-and-pieces that I extract. If I am struggling to keep my expenses down, walnuts work well again. After cracking one or two I am done! Binge eating is not possible with these unshelled nuts. I am too quickly frustrated and too quickly exhausted to eat more than a few.