A spicy sweet holiday snack

With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, most of us will be spending a lot of time with those we love most. For everyone else, who is spending a lot of time going insane with people who drive them nuts, I give you a better kind of nuts. So at least you can have some spicy sweet snack to take your mind off of things. Might I also suggest a lot of booze?

Anyway, regardless of your familial circumstances, I highly recommend snacking on these with great frequency. And if you try any, I can almost guarantee you will, because there’s just something addictive about them.

This recipe is really quite simple: First, preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with foil, to save yourself a lot of cleanup (unlike me). Place all the nuts, spices, liquids, etc. in the pan except for the salt and rosemary.

Mix them thoroughly, add half the salt and rosemary, and mix again.

Bake 10 minutes, stir them all, bake 10 more minutes, stir them again.

Bake 5 more minutes, and you’re done. I’d suggest moving them to parchment paper or something, because they’ll get sticky and stick to each other, and parchment paper is better than foil to get sticky stuff off of.

Chipotle Rosemary Spiced Nuts

Servings: 8-10

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil
• 3 cups whole roasted unsalted cashews (14 ounces)
• 2 cups whole walnut halves (7 ounces)
• 2 cups whole pecan halves (7 ounces)
• 1/2 cup whole almonds (3 ounces)
• 1⁄3 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 teaspoons ground chipotle powder
• 4 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves, divided
• Kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Line a baking sheet with foil, and brrush it generously with vegetable oil. Combine the cashews, walnuts, pecans, almonds, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, the maple syrup, brown sugar, orange juice, and chipotle powder on the sheet pan. Toss to coat the nuts evenly. Add 2 tablespoons of the rosemary and 2 teaspoons of salt and toss again.Spread the nuts in one layer. Roast the nuts for 25 minutes, stirring twice with a large metal spatula, until the nuts are glazed and golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with 2 more teaspoons of salt and the remaining 2 tablespoons of rosemary.

Toss well and set aside at room temperature, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking as they cool. Taste for seasoning. Serve warm or cool completely and store in airtight containers at room temperature.