We have been exploring our new home here in Portland.  This weekend we went in search of some fall color, which seems to be just starting here.  So we headed a little bit north and did what appears to be “a thing” here – we walked across the St. John’s Bridge.

We did get to see some color, but also got to see some neat veiws back up the Willamette River towards Portland.

When we came home, I made challah french toast for dinner – I really do love breakfast for dinner. To take advantage of the foods available to us here, I used local hazelnuts to make hazelnut maple syrup to top the pancakes.

Since they are my favorite nut, I am looking forward to finding all different uses for hazelnuts. But this syrup is definitely a good one!

Hazelnut Maple Syrup

½ cup hazelnuts

2 Tbsp butter

1 cup maple syrup

Directions

Chop the hazelnuts into medium sized pieces.  You can give them a quick whir in the food processor, but rough hand chopping is fine, albeit less uniform.

In a medium skillet, saute the nuts until lightly browned. Remove from heat. Add the maple syrup and allow the hot pan and nuts to warm the syrup.

Serve with french toast or pancakes.  Or, do as I did the next day, add a little to plain greek yogurt for a real treat for breakfast.