Writing is continuing to be hard today.  Between fits of coughing and the husband’s requests for records to finish filing our income tax, I’m going nuts.  We hate filling out our tax reports so much that it is almost assumed that we will be late and filing for an extension.  All those statements with tiny numbers and dates that are nearly impossible to find.  Maybe someone else should do our taxes.

As a treat for myself, knowing that this day was coming, I went to the big box store and bought myself some nuts.  And as a treat for my daughter who is getting tired of nutrition information, all I’m going to say is nuts are good for you, in moderation. It’s not like you can’t go look this stuff up yourself, right?

“Can’t you write a story about nuts?”  she wanted to know. And I’ve been thinking of the myriads of times in my life when nuts have figured prominently.

Back in the 70’s when I got married, Gourmet Magazine ran a layout about a wedding that I admired greatly.  It was very “flower child” oriented, woodsy settings, and a beautiful cream colored cake with several tiers.  And decorating the steps of the tiers were little meringue mushrooms and halved walnut shells.  The walnuts were probably in there somewhere too but it is the shells that I remembered. When the cake was refashioned for my wedding I think the walnut shells were replaced by small pine cones.  So much for prominence.

And much more recently, peanuts have saved me from traffic accidents. (I will slip in the fact that peanuts are legumes, not tree nuts, but they have similar nutritional benefits.) Driving home from work in the midafternoon became difficult for me.  My early rising and active physical work day left me quite tired and I would find myself sleeping at stop lights and perilously close to sleeping while moving slowly in traffic.  For probably a year, I would keep a 2 lb. can of peanuts in the car for those times.  I found out I could not eat and sleep at the same time, and although I often got rather sick from too many peanuts, I always made it home in one piece.

Back to the cashews, it seems lots of people like them.  It’s something about the consistency and the salty way they crush in your mouth.  Last year, shopping in Cambodia with my friends Mike and Trish, we found cashews in the Russian Market.  Somewhere in the middle of this vast place there was a candy and food vendor who had 1 lb.measures of cashews all shrink-wrapped up in shiny plastic and Mike decided to get them.  I was skeptical as I am a little fearful of eating from the Market.  Mike said they were pretty good and he didn’t get sick so my daughter and I went back later to buy ours.  The Russian Market is covered, very crowded, very little moving air and probably 100 degrees F. in the summer. Unless you live in it, it is very easy to get lost in the maze of similar looking booths and tables, meals being cooked on hibachis, children napping in corners. It is such an interesting place. We did finally find our cashews.  Mine were not as good as Mike’s.  I’m sticking to nuts from home. End of story.