Gorgeous Granola

I'm not one to brag but the granola I made on Friday night is GORGEOUS. I'm "making eyes" at it right now. The color is fantastic. The rolled oats, chopped cashews and chopped pecans have a beautiful golden brown color.

I'm composing this post at 5:30AM on Saturday morning. My 1-year-old son is not even up. I have no idea why I'm awake, but here I am staring at granola. Yes, I'm officially a weirdo. Not weird in all ways, but a bit odd when it comes to food.

My husband loves granola. We've sampled many supermarket brands, and we've dabbled in locally made farmer's market types. There are definitely some good ones out there, but after whipping up my own granola I might be hooked on homemade. There was a great article and recipe about granola in the most recent Bon Appetit, "Breakfast Outside the Box," by Molly Wizenberg. Her article spoke to me because as I stated above, I'm a weirdo. But her point being, you don't have to dread your hair or wear patchouli to make your own granola. Granola is delicious, it's easy to make, and it's way cheaper then buying it at the store. It's half the cost.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper

Combine the following:

6 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped cashews
1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon
1 heaping teaspoon of ground ginger
1 heaping teaspoon of salt

Now taste it. Does it taste good? Then proceed. If not, add more cinnamon or ginger or whatever spice you like.

Now add 1 cup of honey and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

Stir vigorously. You want to get the oats and nuts coated with the honey and oil.

Pour out on to your baking sheets.

Place in oven and set timer for 8 minutes. Take out of oven and stir the oats around. They will already being browning. Place in oven another 8 minutes. Continue this process until the oats are the right color for you. Also, it burns fast, so keep on eye on them. Total cooking time for me was about 25 minutes.

Let cool, and store in Tupperware in refrigerator.

Serve with milk or yogurt. Delicious.