Blanched almonds are a staple in lots of recipes, and surprisingly easy to make at home.

Photo: Jennifer Iserloh.

Tamari almonds make their way into my banana-nut breakfast smoothie as they add a hint of saltiness against the sweetness of really ripe bananas. But as unexpectedly good as they may taste, I was in for another shocker: As I recently reviewed my grocery bill, I realized that those tamari almonds were almost $2 a bag!

Since I had a bottle of low-sodium tamari taking up space in the cupboard, I shopped for the plain, raw almonds with the skins on and tried my hand at homemade tamari almonds.

Bacon-and-date-wrapped hot dogs. Photo: Fork This

Hot dogs are as ubiquitous as Ray Bans this summer, with all-beef franks gracing grills at backyard BBQs and gourmet versions making cameos on restaurant menus. But a hot dog coddled in bacon is a rare treat.

These bacon-wrapped dogs were captured by our friend Fork This at a Hot Dog Cookoff before being placed in buns and topped with crushed almonds. Though we have mixed feelings about the crushed-almond topping, these look good enough to eat straight off the grill.

Aptly called Dog Date Afternoon, the heart-attack-inducing treats sadly didn't take home top (or any) honors, but it's pretty likely there were none left for their maker to take home, either.

[Via Fork This]

Ah, almonds. So beautiful in their tidy simplicity, so limitless in their potential. This bowl of almonds, snapped by Andrea of Bella Eats, was destined to become a jar of almond butter. And while it was undoubtedly delicious, this photo speaks volumes about the raw appeal of raw almonds. It's easy to imagine sprinkling them over yogurt with a drizzle of honey, or stirring them into some oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar and butter -- or simply eating them by the fistful, straight from the bowl.

[Via Bella Eats]

Yesterday I mentioned how much I loved and devoured oranges as a kid (they just don't seem the same nowadays). And that got me thinking about clementines. Not just eating them on their own, but a dessert that featured them.

This recipe for Clementine Cake (which sounds like the name of a Bond girl) comes from Nigella Lawson, and it actually looks quite easy to make: just clementines, almonds, eggs, sugar, and baking powder.

In honor of the primary voting currently taking place in the state of Wisconsin, I thought I'd put up this recipe for Carmelized Almond Raspberry Brie. I couldn't resist a recipe that put those four words together into one item. I used to hate cheese-based desserts (like cheesecake), but now I love them, and I'm intrigued by the combo of Wisconsin Brie, sliced almonds, raspberry jam, honey, and shortbread cookies.

And yes, Hawaii and Washington, I know you're voting and caucusing today too. I just felt like putting up a cheese recipe, nothing personal.

I've been doing these food holiday posts since last year and I'm pretty good at keeping track of what special food day it is and mentioning it here (if it's worth mentioning, that is). Somehow though I missed the fact that yesterday was National Almond Day. I almost bought almonds but decided to go with salt and pepper cashews instead. Big mistake. I love cashews, but these were the Target brand and they tasted like old salty Monopoly pieces.

Anyway, here are some facts about almonds, and here are recipes for Almond-Mushroom Wild Rice, Chocolate Almond Biscotti, Almond Roca, and Almond Cookies.

Roasted nuts (along with chips/dips and vegetables/dip) are a good thing to set out at a Super Bowl Party just before the event starts. That way, if guests show up early, or you happened to have underestimated how long you would need in the kitchen, your guests will have something to snack on while you run around the kitchen like a chicken with its Buffalo wings cut off. I like to put out little trios on different tables around my house of roasted peanuts (a standard), roasted pistachios in shells (with a small bowl for the discarded shells), and these ridiculously, deliciously addictive Rosemary Marcona Almonds from Trader Joe's that I ate by the bagful over the Holidays. You can also make these yourself, using a recipe that Bob posted a few weeks, substituting Marcona almonds for the cashews.

For a fun finger-food rich in Omega-3s and protein, check out this spicy mix of almonds and hazelnuts, courtesy of the show everyone loves to hate/hates to love, 30 Minute Meals.

Sesame Five-Spice Roasted Nuts

1 cup peeled whole almonds
1 cup whole hazelnuts
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons five- spice powder (ground star anise, Szechuan peppercorn, cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 cup smoked almonds. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees F, and roast the nuts for 7 minutes.

Toast sesame seeds over medium heat in a skillet for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Add butter, five-spice powder, and hot sauce, then add roasted nuts and smoked nuts and toss to coat in butter. Add sesame seeds and toss with nuts. Serve warm.

This is finger food.

Literally.

From Boston.com (adapted from CDKitchen), a recipe for Frightful Finger Cookies are perfect to serve at a Halloween-themed party )and freak your guests out). I think they're almond-flavored, considering the recipe includes almond extract and almond slivers. The slivers are for the fingernails, by the way.

My brother was the cook in one of the restaurants I worked in several years ago, and he made a really great chicken salad that had grapes in it. I have to remember to get the recipe from him one of these days.

In the meantime, the Kitchen Monkey has a recipe I have to try, for Grilled Chicken Salad with Sage, Almonds, and Cranberries. There are many ways to make chicken salad (and I'm sure you'll tell us how you make yours in the comments below!), and this one looks like it's worth making today. There's still a couple of hours before lunch! Full recipe after the jump.

Before we get into Happy Hour recipes for the celebrations this weekend, I wanted to draw attention to this non-alcoholic Mexican drink that admittedly sounded strange to me until I tried it - now I am hooked.

Though there are drinks under the name Horchata in other cultures, the Mexican version is made from blended rice. It looks (and even tastes) like a milky drink, but there is absolutely no dairy in the recipe. It is rumored that this drink helps to cure hangovers, so you may want to whip up a batch if you plan on indulging at all this weekend.

If you want to try the drink but don't want to go to all the effort of making it yourself, Rice Dream apparently makes a version that is already prepared, though I've never tasted that myself. You can find the full recipe after the jump.

You ever get in one of the modes where you eat the same snack for days and days and weeks?

That is what's happening with me right now with Planters Chocolate-Covered Cashews. They come in cans now (the bags vanished several months ago). They're big cashews, and the chocolate is delicious too. I have no scientific proof to back this up, but it seems to me that when companies cover their nuts with chocolate, they seem to use bigger nuts. It's especially noticable with whole cashews. Maybe they just seem bigger because they are covered with chocolate, I'm not sure. I just know I'm going through whole cans in one sitting while watching television or reading.

Marzipan is a confection with a long history, as it is one of the oldest sweets that is still in the repertoire of modern pastry-makers. Even if you really love marzipan, you're probably not going to want to shell out $32 for this set of three adorably sculpted marzipan frogs from Dean and Deluca. If your Valentine loves marzipan on the other hand, you may want to rethink that position. This hand-sculpted set would make an awfully cute - and tasty - gift for a marzipan-loving significant other.

Available from Dean and Deluca, the amphibious trio weighs in at just 1.5-ounces. They were carefully crafted by Rebecca Russell, an award-winning New York based pastry artist who specializes in creating miniature figurines for wedding cakes, displays and, as in this case, gifts.

They will be hard to eat - not because the sugary almond paste itself is so hard, but simply because they are so cute!

To be completely honest, I am not usually impressed too much by nuts, even those coated in sugar and spices. I can easily make my own. So with this in mind, it was a complete surprise to me that I liked the Nutorious Nuts I sampled at the Fancy Foods Show so much.

Nutorious Gourmet Nuts started out as an old family recipe. Deliciously flavored nuts were passed out as holiday gifts to family and friends until their popularity finally pushed the nut-makers into the business world. Using only nuts and a few ingredients, like butter, sugar and spices, every batch of nuts is handmade in one of several delicious flavors that are crazily addictive:

• Oooo La La Original - classic buttery sweet combination
• Cha Cha Chipotle - savory and a little spicy, an updated bar snack
• Door County Cherry Vanilla Crunch (my favorite!)- a sweet nut mix with the addition of some dried cherries coated in the same sugar crust
• Cranberry Orange Crunch - nuts mixed with cranberries and tossed in an orangey sugar coating
• Chocolate Coconutty (updated!) - amazingly addictive, with chocolate and toasty coconut.