Chestnuts Roasting by an Open Fire...

We interrupt this song to ask you a question. Have you ever, in your entire life, actually roasted chestnuts? By a fire or otherwise? After many a year of trying to tune this song out, along with all the other Christmas songs that inundate the days after Halloween, I realized that I wasn't even sure what a chestnut looked like! I certainly had never tried one. I decided it was time to put the old chestnut to rest.

Turns out, roasting chestnuts is easy, and even better, they're tasty! I followed the directions I found at ehow.com, piercing them and sticking them in my toaster oven for 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Then I peeled the shell and skin and tried one. Wonderful! It was warm, and chewy, and somewhat sweet.

In the store, the chestnuts looked like lumps of mahogany. A beautiful dark shell like fine wood. Surprisingly, though, the shell is thin and easily pierced and peeled. Underneath is a fuzzy skin like a kiwi. And under that is the nut, looking like a wrinkled brain. How is it I had gone all these years without the enjoyment of chestnuts? Silly me. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and try miniature golf next.


Blog Tag: Chatter