Almonds. I like them, and always have. Wendy doesn't. She says they taste good for the first couple of seconds, but then it's like eating dirt. I can see why she says that, but for me they're still tasty.
Many years ago, back when we lived in Colorado, I remember trying a new flavor of Nature Valley granola bars: roasted almond.
They were really good. But I remember, as I was eating it, thinking "Huh. This tastes like birthday cake. That's weird." I didn't think much more about it.
Some time later, while visiting my family over the holidays, Joy made a comment about how the almond extract Mom adds to cake frosting makes it so delicious. The light bulb went on in my head, and the mystery of the granola bar was solved.
Mom learned to make frosting that way from a cake decorating class she took years ago. As I told her recently, that class certainly paid for itself in deliciousness!
There's more to say about almonds, but first I have to take a short detour. I've always been fascinated by the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce (1877-1945). I keep thinking I'll write a blog post about him, and I even have an outline of one, but it's too huge for a single post. There's a lot to say about him.
Basically, Edgar Cayce could be put into a trance (really a light sleep), and his higher self would answer any question that was asked. When the trance was over, Cayce would wake up and have no recollection of what was said. Eventually they learned the person putting him into trance affected the quality of answers, so his wife became the only one allowed to do so. Cayce became a minor celebrity; the NY Times wrote several articles about him, and many people sought his advice on how to cure their ailments.
He gave over 14,000 readings in his life. They were thoroughly documented, cataloged, and eventually digitized. The majority of those readings were health-related; the rest were on metaphysical topics.
Now, back to almonds. My hands have been very dry the past few months, as is typical of winter. A few weeks ago I was thinking about how Cayce frequently recommended massage, and that he had suggested several combinations of oils that were good for the skin, both as a massage oil and as a general skin lotion. I thought what the heck, I have nothing to lose, so I ordered one of the formulas, called Olivae Skin Lotion. It's a combination of peanut oil, olive oil, and... almond oil!
I've been using it for the past week or so, and I am surprised at just how much it smells like almonds. Basically, I smell delicious after putting it on. Just like birthday cake! From some of the reviews at the above link, people love it and have used it for years with good results, so I think I'll keep it up and see how it goes.
There's another interesting thing Cayce had to say about almonds. Several readings suggested that eating two or three almonds a day could help prevent cancer. Here are some quotes from the readings:
"Other characters of nuts are well, though especially almonds are good and if an almond is taken each day, and kept up, you'll never have accumulations of tumors or such conditions through the body. An almond a day is much more in accord with keeping the doctor away, especially certain types of doctors, than apples. For the apple was the fall, not almond - for the almond blossomed when everything else died. Remember this is life!" Reading 3180-3
"And know, if ye would take each day, through thy experience, two almonds, ye will never have skin blemishes, ye will never be tempted even in body toward cancer nor towards those things that make blemishes in the body-forces themselves." Reading 1206-13
"And, just as indicated in other suggestions - those who would eat two to three almonds each day need never fear cancer. Those who would take a peanut oil rub each week need never fear arthritis." Reading 1158-31
Does this really work? Who knows. Almonds these days are pasteurized (even raw ones) so who knows if that changes anything. But, as Cayce said in one reading "Expect much, you will obtain much! Expect little, you will obtain little!" (Reading 5325-1). Thus, a year or so ago I thought what the heck, I have nothing to lose, so I started a habit of eating a few almonds each day. As experiments go, it's certainly a tasty one!