Roasty Toasty Almonds

Put your nuts on the fire.

3-4 cups raw almonds
1 egg white
a fine dusting of sugar
slightly less cinnamon
less cayenne pepper
salt if you must
some cooking oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Slop a little oil into a glass baking pan. I guess you could use metal. But be even more careful not to burn the nuts.

Whisk the egg white in your big ol' mixing bowl until it is kind of frothy. To get an egg white, without the yellow bellied yolk, make like you usually would to crack an egg. It is ok if your technique doesn't result in one clean crack all the way around the middle, the sides can be different sizes, but take care that you have some kind of control over the cracking motion. Do not dump both halves into the bowl, just the clear half. Gently, ever so gently, transfer the yellow orb back and forth until all of the gooey whites have dripped away. Toss the rest or invent a recipe to use just a yolk and shell. Invent any recipe to use a shell.

After the whites are frothy, add your almonds. They should be rather thinly coated with egg whites. If there's too much, scoop some out or add more almonds. Drizzle a bit of sugar and some cinnamon. Add a nice touch of cayenne to give them a bad little kick after the sweet crunch. You can add a smidge of salt if you like.

Shlop the nuts into the pan. Bake for ten min. Stir, add more oil if they are getting clingy and return to oven. Repeat for a total of 40 baking min. Bake for less if the nuts start to get all black and they begin to look like little pieces of coal. That would be too long.

This recipe is like the chameleon of the nut and seed world. Subtract the cinnamon and add a bunch of chopped up rosemary. Or use it on pumpkin seeds with a shorter baking time. Use all of the spices that you would put in pumpkin pie. roast them in tamari. Etc. Just always add the dusting of sugar. It goes well with the kick of whatever you add, even the savory stuff.

Nuts always need a nice kick.