I had no idea granola was so easy to make. The first batch I made just with what we had around the house and it wasn't nearly as good as this last batch. I looked at this recipe from Catherine Newman as well as the one from Eating From the Ground Up and came up with this one that seems to work for us.
10 cups oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup ground flax
2 cups chopped whole almonds
1 cup unsweetened coconut
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup honey (although I will try Maple Syrup next time)
Preheat over to 250F.
Mix all the dry ingredients together and then mix in the coconut oil and honey.
After the hour and a half turn the oven off and let it cool completely, I did this in an afternoon and left in the oven until morning. In the morning I pulled it out and there were lots of chunky granola goodness. Store in an airtight container. Dave eats it plain, Hannah and Harper like to add raisins and a little dried apple, I like a small bowl as a snack with banana.
Sam Roberts in playing in the background (Me and Julio) on CBC, the girls are anxiously waiting for Busytown Mysteries to come on and have thanked me twice for letting them watch TV this morning (we have come to a time where we feel comfortable having both girls get up and watch TV while we sleep a little later - Hallelujah!). I am enjoying an uninterrupted cup of coffee, the kitchen is littered with various dishes and bits of breakfast food here and there, we are all still in our PJ's and the sun is shinning outside. It's Friday and Hannah's off today, what a treat!
Hannah loves having days off school and I love having her home, I take these days to try and say yes every chance I get, we never get anything that needs to be done, and there usually involves some baking and cooking. Plus, there's someone to play with Harper and I often get more than a few minutes to myself here and there. The best part is, we all know it's a treat, even though we never actually say it, and are all light of spirit. The only down sides are that Dave's not home and that when Hannah has a day off, that usually means that Harper has the day off preschool the day before. Harper does not enjoy days off. Wednesday night my heart broke for her as she tried to understand why she didn't get to go to preschool the next morning, and she eventually fell asleep on top of me, with her face buried into my neck and her little body still sobbing. It was really sad, school is the highlight of her week, well that and lunch. Harper asks if it's lunch time from the moment we drop Hannah off at the bus stop (I often feel that way too, wishing for lunch the moment after I take the last bite of my breakfast).
After a small bout of craziness where I had to insist the girls play outside to exert some of the energy that was busting the seams of the house, we baked. Before we baked, I looked out the window to see my two darling girls pounding a downspout drainpipe into the snow in the middle of the front yard. I went outside and asked them not to take parts off of our house and play with them. Hannah responded, "It wasn't attached, it was just laying there" to which I actually had to respond, "Please don't take parts that have already fallen off our house and play with them." This category actually encompasses more than just this drainpipe...perhaps the kitchen wasn't the smart choice of where our house needs improving - but it does make us the most happy! After this, we baked.
I think I have posted this little cookbook before, which Dave's parents bought for Hannah. She has been known to sneak it over to my parent's and ask them to bake with her. She has also mentioned she needs to know where it is for Grammie and Grampie's upcoming visit. The cookie recipe in it is really great because it only makes 10 cookies! Brilliant!
While the dough rested the girls decided to make kites and fly them outside. Hannah complained that she just couldn't seem to keep hers up and Harper's advice was, "lift your arm higher!" She then looked me square in the face and said, "Hey, I named my kite John!" and ran off around the car.
As they ran around with sheer glee I couldn't help to think of the child that died in Boston this past week, the havoc, the craziness, the sadness, the loss. Dave keeps texting me about the hunt that is taking place today, how they are in lock down and I wonder, how is it that these things happen? Why does it feel like the world's gone crazy when there is such joy and innocence that exists? My prayers and thoughts go out to all those affected.
I have been a little worried and excited about Friday night's pasta all week. I borrowed my parents pasta maker and it has been sitting on the counter, taunting me. So today, while the girls flew their kites, I dumped the flour on the counter, poured the salt and eggs into the middle and started to mix.
14oz flour
4 eggs
pinch of salt
From Eating From the Ground Up.
There were many moments when I was pretty sure I wasn't doing it right, but wondered how I might be doing it wrong.
It all mixed in and after breaking a sweat kneading it (don't let that scare you, I break a sweat pretty easily - too much info?), it became all uniform and I was able to divide it into 5, lay it to rest, covered in plastic for thirty minutes.
I then rolled it out with the pasta machine, with a little help.
When I put it through the cutting side, and I first saw the little strands of spaghetti my heart skipped a beat, *blush* is that maybe an embarrassing omission? Well it did, I was so excited! I made pasta and it wasn't even really very hard.
Now, I refuse to buy a proper pasta drying rack until I know I'm going to continue to make it so I draped it over various racks that I had around.
When Dave came home and I had a pot of water boiling I was suddenly nervous again, will it really work? I dropped all the pasta in and it cooked, doesn't it look...like real pasta!
When it came out I mixed it with a little sauce and voila it was gobbled up! Raved about! Hannah declared, "This is probably better because it's homemade!"
For the sauce I lined a roasting dish with tin foil and squished in as many halved deseeded Roma tomatoes I could. I drizzled them with olive oil and whole cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like it, I used a whole head of garlic), a sprinkle of salt and roasted them in a 200F oven for 6 hours. When they were ready I put them in the food processor with a cube of pesto I had in the freezer. The sauce turned out a little thick and so I thinned it with a little olive oil and cooking water from the pasta. It was still a thicker sauce and I just mixed in a little at a time to coat the pasta. It was yum and then I froze the rest!
When I reread this post before publishing, I moved around the part about Boston, finding it awkwardly sandwiched into our day and wanting to mention it, but not in any way wanting to seem flip about it. I realized there was no easy way to add it. It's not clean and neat, it doesn't fit into a certain part of the blog or our lives. It is messy and scary and sad, it horrifies us and then we must carry on with our days and lives. Count ourselves lucky that we don't live there or haven't lost any loved ones, count ourselves unlucky that this is the world that we live in, where a whole continent is rocked by the actions of a couple. It creeps into our day, finds us in some of our joyess moments and reminds us of how our worlds can be shattered in an instant. I wish that I had proper words or prayers to help those that have been so closely, emotionally and physically affected, I don't. But, I do hope and pray for them and all of us...
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