A Sunday afternoon treat

It’s another gray day. I think I can count the number of sunny days we’ve had during the past three weeks on one hand. It’s actually pretty typical for where I live in the northeastern U.S. Several years ago, I recall being somewhat surprised when a friend told me that the NE US is similar to the NW US. Current Results says CT has an average of 56% annual sunny days, while Spokane Washington has 55% and Seattle 43%. I sure do miss the sun when we have so many long stretches without.

To brighten things up a bit, I did a little baking today. I made Gourmande in the Kitchen’s GF Fruit and Nut Bread. I had received some high quality and delicious raw pecans and cashews for Christmas, and my parents had bought some dates when they were visiting, so I had most of the needed ingredients. I always make my own almond butter, so already had that on hand. I just needed to make the cashew butter (easy to do—same process as making almond butter as long as one has a food processor) and run down the street to get some dried cherries. I forgot to add the hazelnuts to my list, so I ended up stirring in some extra pecans. And, I decided the other dried fruits would be plenty, so omitted the raisins. 

It was fairly quick and easy to mix up. I will certainly be making this again. I was a bit worried it might be too rich or sweet. But no, it was just right all around. In fact, I couldn’t resist a second slice. :-)