Boiled Peanuts

Boiled peanuts really take me back. They take my parents back too as a matter of fact. As we snacked on the star anise and clove boiled peanuts my mom made, my dad told me of how they used to sell bags of these at the movies in Hong Kong (back in the day). They would pop out each morsel and savor every bite--well maybe more like pop them in their mouths non-stop like we do popcorn at the movies. Then they would just throw the shells on the floor. Mounds and mounds of peanut shells, lima bean shells, and garbage would pile up on the floor. So the way everyone would get out of the theater would be to hop up on the seats and skedaddle out so that the people could sweep up the floors in time for the next showing.

Now we didn't throw the peanut shells on the floor yesterday, but we did enjoy the peanuts like they did way back when.

We bought about 2 pounds of peanuts.

Cover them with water and add 2 star anise and a 4 or 5 of whole cloves and about 4 table spoons of salt and boil until the peanuts are tender and the shells have soaked up some water. (about an hour, but it's really best to try them after the first 30 minutes or so to gage where they are in the cooking process).