Appreciation for Boiled Peanuts

Recently my parents made some boiled peanuts.  What you do is buy fresh peanuts(not roasted), wash them, and boil them in a pot of salted water.  What you get in the end is something that is moist and sweet.  When I was a kid (like less than 10), I didn't like it.  I didn't even like stepping into the fields and touching dirt.  All I thought was how dirty it was.  Now if you tell me to go to the fields, I would gladly do so.  If you tell me that I can pull peanuts and daikon from your fields and take it as my own, I would gladly do so.  People really do change a lot if really significant things happen.

People with fairly carefree and easy lives usually have mellow personalities in my opinion.  Compared to me, an individual living in a fast paced city, I have a very strong personality.  Experiences shape who you are so you should never be ashamed of yourself.  So what does this have to do with boiled peanuts?  Not much really except that if I was a kid again, I wouldn't be able to enjoy boiled peanuts.  Because of facing with harsh reality, it made me realize that simple things like enjoying boiled peanuts made me really happy.  If I made things complicated, I would become depressed and angry.  The cycle would never end.

When I was in middle school, I was given a research assignment to pick an issue that affects the nation.  I didn't know what to do so I decided to do research on food in America and specifically on food additives.  From there, I discovered that there were a shit ton of additives and some of them which were responsible for causing me allergies.  I shared this research with my family and we became very health conscious from then on.  We boycotted all products that contained nitrates, sorbates, preservatives, artificial flavorings, and artificial colors.  This was at least a decade ago, but I still see the same additives put in foods today.  Now we are seeing new health reports on more food additives that cause harm.  Did you know now that caramel color is a carcinogen?  Caramel color is everywhere and most commonly seen in sodas.  I can't trust the foods I eat now and I almost boycott every heavily processed food out there.  Now I say almost because not all processed foods are cancer causing.  However I stand by to make things from scratch.

Making things from scratch like boiled peanuts has a lot of benefits.  You know what you're putting in so there's no worry for food additives.  This is assuming that all your ingredients are raw ingredients and not pre-made like ketchup and ranch dressing.  You save money cooking your own food than eating out.  Sometimes certain foods are cheaper if you eat out, but I can't guarantee nutritional value.  This doesn't mean restaurants are evil establishments.  They're not responsible for making sure you eat all your veggies, you are.  Boiled peanuts are quite healthy.  They're easy to make and tasty.  You can control the amount of salt that goes in to flavor the peanuts and peanuts are really high in nutritional value.  Unless you're allergic to them then I would highly suggest you stay away from them.  I feel bad for people with food allergies because there are so many tasty things out there.   

If you ever come across some fresh peanuts, make some boiled peanuts.  You can also add spices to the mix.  Another Chinese style way is to add in a star anise in the boiling water.  Remember to appreciate the simple things like your friends for instance.  You should be glad that they even talk to you or see you in person.  These can be friends that you will see for the next twenty years.