Pumpkin Spice & Date Walnut Butter

So the good news is, my voice is almost back.  Did you know that when you communicate to someone that you have no voice, the first thing they do is ask you how you lost it?  Because clearly if I have about five minutes of voice time in this entire day, I want to use it explaining to you how I lost my voice in the first place.  I’d rather save those few minutes of real communication for something really important like “I’d like a large cup of split pea, please” or “Can I have the manicure before the pedicure today?” or even “How good is that girl on X-factor who did the Beyonce song from Dreamgirls?!”

Because otherwise I’m left sounding like the combination of a squeaky mouse, a 13-year old boy and a 27-year old 3-pack-a-day female smoker.  I’ve been compared to all of those things in the past few days.  And when I met Madison in real life for the first time at dinner with Kris, I was barely audible.  Didn’t my co-workers know I had to save my good voice time for dinner with blog friends? Priorities, people!

But I digress. On top of having my voice back, I have my other senses are back too.  I can finally really smell and taste what I eat again.  (Not that being under the weather affected my appetite in anyway.  I was still plenty hungry, if not hungrier.)  And this walnut butter, with the spice of pumpkin pie seasoning and the sweet addition of dates is a great treat that I can enjoy even more.

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Pumpkin Spice & Date Walnut Butter

Yield: Makes 14 tablespoons of walnut butter

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups walnut pieces (unsalted)
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 chopped dates

Cooking Directions

1. Place walnuts into food processor and process for two minutes or until creamy
2. Ad pumpkin pie spice and salt; grind for another minute
3. Add dates and run through processor until distributed evenly (you can leave them in pieces or process until they are fine)
4. Store in a jar or tupperware up to one month in the fridge

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What annoying questions have you been asked lately?