Nuts About You Valentine

I didn't know I was so wild about Valentine's Day.

Turns out, I am.

Since having Adi I've realized, or maybe remembered, that there's always something to celebrate, always something to enjoy, get excited about and craft and cook for. I love that about her, and about having a little person in my house.

SO we've read valentine's books, had valentine's cookies, watched valentine's movies. We've cut just about every piece of paper we can find into the shape of a heart. And almost every room in the house has something pink or red on it somewhere.

I really love that we celebrate LOVE on Valentine's. It's nice.

ANYWAY (I'm rambling) what I really wanted to post about was that we made we made some yummy valentines today: Homemade honey roasted peanuts.

I was so fun and simple that I was thinking as I did it, "everyone should do this at least once," so I thought I should share. Here you go!

All you need is some honey, butter, salt, brown sugar and some raw peanuts, shelled and without the skin. Look at this one, dying to be made into a valentine of some sort.

The recipe calls for 1 lb of peanuts, which is about a quart ziploc bag full and makes four snack bags.

Preheat your oven to 325 so it's nice and hot when you're ready to put the peanuts in.

Combine 2 Tbsp honey, 2 Tbsp butter and 3/4 tsp salt in a saucepan over medium heat on the stove. Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture starts to bubble on it's own.

Then dump in the peanuts and stir until they're coated. They won't be dripping in the stuff, just barely covered.
Then pour them into a 9x13" pan and spread them out pretty thin so there's basically just one layer of nuts. Put them right in to the hot oven, and set the timer for 30 minutes. I had a ton of peanuts, so I did a few batches. Some were a full pound and took the entire 30 minutes, but the others had just a little less and were done after about 25. You need to stir them two or three times. Once when the mixture gets kind of soupy and bubbly, then again when they start to darken and roast - just so they all get evenly roasted. If they start to smell even a tiny bit like they might be burning then go ahead and take them out and pour them into a silver bowl. Add 1/3 cup brown sugar and stir until they're coated. I did see a recipe that called for 1/4 tsp of other spices, so if you're into chipotle or cinnamon, mix it with the brown sugar before you stir it into the peanuts. Then spread them out on a sheet of wax paper, breaking up the big clumps so they dry out and cool.
I wish I would have thought ahead and bought some bread bags so I didn't have the zipper on top of the mini snack bags, but they are the perfect size for 1/4 lb of nuts per valentine. I did do a couple sandwich bags full for the grandpas, and they hold a bunch! Then I just made 4x6 labels for the mini bags and 5x7 labels for the big ones in Photoshop with the Wild Love digital kit from The Shabby Princess. I used gluedots to hold them onto the bags because those babies are strong! Wah-Lah. Nuts About you Valentines!