Remember all those chestnuts we collected back in October?  Pocketfuls, or is that pockets full?  Anyway, we collected a bunch.  We know from experience that you need to freeze them, because somehow when the flowers are being pollinated, insect eggs are laid inside the flowers.  Then when the seeds (the chestnuts) are formed, the eggs are inside them.  If you don't freeze them the larvae hatch inside the chestnut and then drill a hole in the shell to come out.

 

You don't even want to know how I know this.  But I do, and I'm telling you to freeze them when you collect them, to save yourself a lot of extra work.

 

OK, after all THAT:  Years ago Linda gave me a cool tool that exes the top of the chestnuts, cutting into the shell so they don't explode in the microwave.  So I cooked a few and they are delicious.  Now we are going to add them and to our Thanksgiving stuffing:  chestnut stuffing.  

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!