Walnuts are delicious after dinner with cheese, pears, apples, and a glass of port. Authentic Italian pesto often includes walnuts as well as pine nuts. Their flavor is strong, but in small amounts, they add exotic interest to cakes and cookies. Try them in a poultry stuffing. Black walnuts are hard to remove from their rock-hard shell, so you'll always see them sold shelled in broken pieces.
Pecans are another native American nut.
They have an incomparably rich, sweet flavor and a tender, almost crumbly crunch. Try a few tablespoons finely chopped in your favorite pie dough recipe. Toss them into a salad of romaine and blue cheese, sprinkle them over candied yams, or fold them into a poultry stuffing. Almonds are at their peak harvest in November, just in time for holiday baking. Use them whole, sliced, slivered, chopped, or ground in cakes, cookies, candies, tarts, pies, and puddings.