Hot Nuts and Seeds

The bridal shower menu list can basically be described as a museum of traditional and modern food dishes all arranged one beside the next on table after table, smorgasbord after smorgasbord. There are so many dishes and so many courses to fill out- pre-appetizer dishes, appetizer dishes, main courses, desserts and cocktails, that in the race to finish preparing them all, sometimes you forget all about providing the presentation and extra perks for the dishes. As a result, while a lot of the bridal showers I have personally been to have delivered when it comes to quantity of food prepared, when it came to the presentation.. the less said the better of it!

Also, when a bridal shower guest is immediately given heavy appetizers like sausages to feast on as soon as he arrives on the scene, he or she may find it a bit much to down all of a sudden, especially if he or she is arriving at the venue slightly out of breath and a bit winded up. In this condition, people just cannot consume something like sausages all of a sudden.

There has to be something extremely light that they could have which would help stall their hunger for the time being. At the same time, it has to be something that their temporarily unstable digestive systems could handle easily as well as be something, which would help keep their appetite intact for the succeeding dishes to be served. The first eatable substance that comes to mind when you talk of light transition "food" is hot nuts and seeds.

Nuts and seeds happen to be uniquely awesome as-

1. They satisfy the criteria already mentioned above,
2. Just so happen to be extremely popular even with "ultra conscious weight watchers" who may not touch an ounce of the rest of the food but never realize how many nuts they are downing at one go during an immensely invested conversation (they are seriously that addictive and convenient) and
3. They make for pretty neat visual appeal. You must have seen stacks of nuts and seeds arranged in glass bowls. This is because of the different color coded contours and textures that the mixture of different kinds of nuts and seeds put together provide to the eye visually (the elliptical greens of pistachios against the raven blacks of squiggly raisins and the elegant, flower shaped insides of walnuts).

   Hot nuts and seeds as ornamentation

   Nuts and seeds happen to be cool because they are multipurpose as explained above and are no hassle at all. Such is the case for their presentation utility as well. You do not have to take any effort at all-

   There is just no limit to serving mixed nuts. You may build a little pyramid pile out of the different nuts bang in the center of a bowl decorated with flowers or fill up a glass bowl to the brim. Each of these dishes and bowls may be situated at strategic points in the midst of different courses, or side trays and tables, in utensils of different shapes and sizes.

   If you want to try something unique, how about going for a glass bowl piled till the brim with night black raisins with a few almonds scattered here and there! The almonds may be blanched. This is natural beauty at its finest. Could give the most expensive flowers a run for their money!

   You could also try a hand at the following recipe when it comes to hot nuts and seeds:-

   Ingredients

   You could take about 10 ounces of seeds and nuts (preferably not salted in advance). You may take your pick from the following compilation:-

   • Peanuts
   • Cashew nuts
   • Watermelon seeds
   • Pumpkin seeds
   • Sunflower seeds
   • Almond nuts
   • Walnuts
   • Pistachios
   • Pecan nuts

   Ingredients for roasting the nuts and seeds include-

   • Salt
   • Melted butter
   • Cayenne pepper

   Procedure

   Preheat your gas oven (to much more than 250 degree C)

   Whichever seeds and nuts are of your liking put them all into a roasting utensil.

   Now you may melt the butter on a frying pan.

   Take the melted butter and smear it uniformly on the seeds. Add the salt and cayenne pepper to the concoction. Roast the nuts and seeds until they attain a golden brown hue by stirring them occasionally (you may use a baking sheet for the same).

   Hot nuts and seeds for desserts

   Sometimes, people organizing bridal showers totally forget to serve anything to go with desserts. Sometimes, the sudden sweetness of desserts can be too overpowering at the end of a meal and there should be a presence of some kind of element which reduces the sweetness of the dessert.

   Again, nuts and seeds to the rescue! You could sprinkle them on everything from ice cream sundaes to chocolate brownies to sweet orange cream. You name the dessert, and nuts and seeds will go along fine with it!

   With alcohol

   Nuts and seeds also make the perfect accompaniment to champagne, wine and beer, if our bridal shower happens to be a cocktail shower. Peanuts especially are good to go with alcohol.

   See how much of an all-star nuts and seeds have turned out to be? Just make sure that they are available to guests at all times of the shower, during all courses from beginning to end. Truly, hot nuts and seeds are the unsung heroes at every event, bridal showers being no different. So be sure to include them at your party, the bridal shower guests are sure to appreciate them, age no bar!