Peanuts! Fresh Roasted Peanuts!

If the delicious aroma of peanuts roasting fills the air, I am immediately filled with memories of lazy summer days and carefree family outings.  These were easy days and always sans my mother and the drama that generally accompanied her.

Candidly, I never really liked baseball itself, but my father adored it.  Hence the first song I learned was:

    Take me out to the ball game...

    Take me out to the crowd...

    Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks

    I don't care if I ever come back

    For it's root, root, root for the Hoe-knees

    If they don't win it's a shame.....

    For it's one! Two!  Three strikes you're out...

    At the old..... ball.... game.............!

Of course,  it should have been root, root, root for the 'home team', but my father never corrected me.  As if a musical rabbit's foot, he would ask me to sing the song whenever the Red Sox had the bases loaded. Then a pitch-perfect two-year-old and a willing ham, I delighted in my power to elicit his joyful and precious laughter.   People around us would end up laughing too, of course, and so I never minded the interminable length of the game.

In our family we learned to sing as we learned to speak.  Formal instrumental training was delayed until elementary school, although we all begged for lessons beforehand to no avail.  All generations on both sides of my family sang well, but my mother was the true diva.  She sang opera professionally and was also a classical pianist and bass violist (the stand-up bass).

My father's family was less interested in performance but rather concerned that we grow up 'cultured'. We were not actually given a choice of which instruments we played, hence I played violin to please my grandmother, mandolin because my father loved the romance of it, and eventually gravitated to guitar so I could accompany myself.  My older sister played piano, clarinet and guitar; my younger sister piano and my brother, clarinet.  Yes, he used the one my older sister discarded as my parents insisted he learn clarinet before they invested in a saxophone, his heart's desire. 

As all things do come to those who wait, my parents were finally rewarded when it was determined that my youngest sister, like our mother, was a musical prodigy.  She is a classical violinist who plays viola just as beautifully and her repertoire includes everything from fine jazz  to orchestral symphony classics. Hey, one out of five isn't bad odds.

Knowing this background, it may seem surprising that it was my father who was our voice teacher.  My mother found her first four children, well, let's just say musically boring little tots and sadly average.  Divas see things differently, take my word for it.  One could make a case that she misjudged our talents as by the time we older girls were three and five we could easily harmonize.  Harmonize what, you ask?  Anything with an alto and soprano part and nothing too complicated, such as songs like Roy Rogers' and Dale Evans' theme, Happy Trails to You.  Of course, my fingers were in my ears as I sang the melody which slayed my father, but the only public performing we did was for our inter-generational extended family. 

The fifties would later become known as the 'Golden Age of Television', but Radio, if not still King was at least the Princess Bride.  Vocal tone and expression were therefore meaningful and I developed a baby's vibrato before I turned four.  Believe me or don't believe me, but my granddaughter did exactly the same thing.  She also has an amazing octave range for a child, as did my daughter.  Yes, my daughter sang as a toddler also, and I remember her singing Happy Birthday to my father when she was one day short of two. 

Rounds like Frere Jacques and Row, Row, Row Your Boat are two favorites we sing with our granddaughter now, but if my mother were alive she would remain unimpressed. 

Alas, she had probably tired of my father's expensive hobbies (musical instruments, boats, oil painting and wood-carving) by then.  After the first five hundred get-rich-quick, hair-brained schemes he contemplated and often attempted in an effort to better support us, she was unimpressed when the misguided man dreamed of raising a New England version of the Osmonds.  When my brother was born, and then another sister, he got really carried away.  Everytime he took any of us in the car we all sang.  It never occurred to me that normal people talked on their road trips. 

My brother was too much of an ADD bumble bee to practice anything other than falling into our pond on a daily basis, so he was rejected as a viable member of our group.  My father's dream faded, however, when my sister and I were 12 and 14.  A large group of friends were assembled at our house for a big  party which included the activities, 'eat, drink, dance and be merry'.  My sister and I were adolescent enough to dislike performing like trained seals. 

My father's most admired friend (who was a professor at Harvard) was in attendance along with his wife and several of my very stodgy New England relatives.  As my father gave us the look that telegraphed we would sing or else, my older sister picked up a guitar and whispered in my ear.

Roasting your own peanuts is easy and a way to eliminate extra salt, unwanted wheat or other processing by-products of concern to allergic individuals.  If you are serving them at a party, however, always notify your guests you are serving peanuts and place them out of reach of unsupervised children.  (Peanut allergies can be life-threatening.)  Finding raw peanuts should be easy, but if you want to buy them on-line, Freddie's sells raw Virginia peanuts at $9 for three pounds.  Here's a link:

If you have children around and want to make this a really fun activity, hide the shelled peanuts in the yard (or in the house).  Let the kids find these treasures before the squirrels and blue jays do, help you shell them, season them with their favorite flavors and roast them.  Of course, when it's time to eat them, you won't have any problem convincing them peanuts are nutritious.  This is a fun activity for all children but for those kids who love 'adventure', this is a real-life scavenger hunt with a primal twist.:)

Recent studies have also concluded that although peanuts are a relatively high calorie food, they help depress appetite.  Hence, in reasonable amounts they do not cause weight gain.  They also contain monounsaturated fats, which are healthier for and much more easily digested by the body as they provide quick energy.

Roasted Peanuts

Ingredients:  Any amount of shelled, raw peanuts, any spices of choice, olive oil, sea salt

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Shell the raw peanuts and then place them in a shallow baking dish.  You can create your own seasoning by using any ingredients you like.  No fat is needed, but if you want to add a tiny bit of olive oil the seasonings may adhere a bit better. 

A few suggested flavors you might try (separately) are curry, cinnamon, cajun, chili, lemon pepper, tamarind, tarragon (that unusual flavor in Hollandaise sauce and Chicken Kiev) or wasabi powder. 

Try not to over-do the seasonings, as you want to be able to taste the flavor of the nuts.  

Roast the plain or seasoned peanuts for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Serve them warm but pace yourself.  30 peanuts is considered one serving and the same daily amount the studies determined will not cause weight gain. Then again, an extra handful of these peanuts might be worth running around the block a few extra times.  You decide.:)

 © 2008 Elizabeth Madrigal