Requisite Animal Photo

This here's The Scrumpy Chicken. Technically, his name is Antimony. (I co-adopted him with an engineer and if that doesn't explain everything, how much time have you spent around engineers?) I suppose his photo is relevant here because he is a little nuts. Looking extremely confused and chasing things that don't exist are among his favorite pastimes.

Anyway. On to the real food. I made a double batch of these guys in DC over Christmas to hand out to friends and I could barely get them out of the house because my family kept chowing down on them. They have that sweet-salty-spicy thing that makes you want to just keep putting more in your mouth:

Chipotle-Rosemary Roasted Nuts

Vegetable oil
3 cups whole roasted unsalted cashews (14 ounces)
2 cups whole walnut halves (7 ounces)
2 cups whole pecan halves (7 ounces)
1/2 cup whole almonds (3 ounces)
1⁄3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons ground chipotle powder
4 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves, divided
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brush a sheet pan generously with vegetable oil, or for much more convenient cleanup, line it with a sheet of parchment paper. Combine the nuts, 2 tablespoons of oil, the maple syrup, brown sugar, orange juice, and chipotle powder on the sheet pan. I actually stuck to the recipe here for once, but I think any mix of nuts that you prefer/have on have of equivalent volume would be fine. Toss to coat the nuts evenly. Add 2 tablespoons of the rosemary and 2 teaspoons of salt and toss again.

Spread the nuts in one layer (for me this took two baking sheets). Roast the nuts for 25 minutes, stirring twice with a large metal spatula, until the nuts are glazed and golden brown. Keep a close eye - they go from perfect to burnt really fast around this point. When they're done, they will still be very sticky - the coating will harden as it cools. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with 2 more teaspoons of salt and the remaining 2 tablespoons of rosemary.

Toss well and set aside at room temperature, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking as they cool (this is very important, or you will have giant blocks of nuts). Taste for seasoning. Serve warm or cool completely and store in airtight containers at room temperature. Recipe from the internet, which apparently adapted it from Ina Garten. Happy munching.