Sriracha Honey Almonds

Letter # 3


Dear Blog,

Today I want to write about buttons. No, not about the "small disk or knob sewn onto a garment, either to fasten it by being pushed through a slit made for the purpose, or for decoration", but about "a knob on a piece of electrical or electronic equipment that is pressed to operate it" that makes our life easy and saves our time. When I was growing up, we watched a black and white TV with shutter. It had exactly two knobs. One for the volume and one for the channel. And there were only two channels. I don't remember much but I remember that we were happy with whatever came on TV. I have such wonderful memories of that TV. When it would get too hot, the picture would shrink. Me and my sister would go fan the back side of the TV trying to cool it down, especially if there was a cricket game airing live. That TV gave up pretty soon and we welcomed a brand new color TV. With more buttons. Buttons to change the brightness, the contrast and the color of the picture. But, no remote. So, a change of volume every time would mean some one to take a long 5 feet walk from the sofa or the bed to the TV and change it manually. Whew, so much work! So, we got tired of walking that 5 feet soon enough and wanted a TV with remote. But, the TV was working great and buying a new TV just for a remote wasn't a good reason then. So, we designed our own remote. It was tricky. See, you have to choose a tree first, then an appropriate branch which must be straight and sturdy, yet not too thick. Our very own guava tree in our garden did a perfect job. Over the next few months, our thin tree branch (remote) changed in length from 3 feet to 5 feet. But, with increase in length came a problem. Lack of precision. Sitting 5 ft away from the TV, as you try to change the channel using a small little button at the bottom of the TV, most of the time we didn't hit the right button. Instead of walking 5 feet, we would still try to sit there and fix the other end of the twig to the desired button. Ha Ha. Remembering those moments is making me smile now. I am actually laughing out loud. Here, I am now sitting in front of a smart TV with two remote controls (TV and cable) and millions of channels to choose from and no visible buttons. Where does the sounds even come from this TV? Old TVs used to have ears from where the sound came. Good old TV with buttons - I will never forget you.

Missing old style TV,
Smita

Snacking on these as I write this and loving it.

Sriracha Honey Almonds

4 cups ( 1 lb ) Raw whole almonds
¼ cup sriracha sauce
¼ cup honey or maple syrup
3 tablespoon olive oil
½ + ½ teaspoon salt

This is how I made these wonderful snacks:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix the nuts, sriracha sauce, honey or maple syrup, oil and half teaspoon salt properly in a bowl. Spread them in an even layer on a foil lined baking sheet.

Bake them for 10 min. Take it out, stir the almonds around and bake for another 10 min.

Cool the almonds completely. Sprinkle half teaspoon of sea salt on the almonds. If by any chance they are not crunchy put them back in to the oven for another 5 min. But 20 min should be fine.

Enjoy snacking :)