Paella and cookies and stress, oh my!

It's been a wild and crazy fall, and not really in the good ways.  Lots of unforeseen expenses, money, work and life stress, and oh wait did I mention that I'm almost 6 months pregnant and the HORMONES!  Oh, the hormones.  Let's just say that the highs are high, and the lows pretty much suck.  And it can change on a dime.  Oh insanity, this is how you must feel.

But instead of giving in to those hormones and my very high stress level, I stress bake!  And I cook.  And I watch Project Runway and The X Factor.   And I drink a LOT of water with lemon, juice and seltzer, and the occasional vanilla milk shake (I mean, if she can't drink alcohol, what's a gal to do?)  But writing about myself watching tv isn't really fun for anyone (although I did find out that now Fraiser is streaming on netflix and I couldn't be happier), so let's talk about the stress baking and cooking, shall we?

Last weekend I happened to be off on a Sunday (so rare and lovely), so I made pumpkin pancakes.  I didn't take any pictures of them, and they are but a lovely and distant memory, and I don't have the recipe in front of me, but you should all go google a recipe and make them immediately.  They were the perfect fall breakfast, and I am a sucker for anything pumpkin.  (I admit it, the one time a year I go to Starbucks is in the fall for their pumpkin spice latte.  It's so badly good, I can't help it.  Even in all decaf, thanks to baby Groucho, they are the tops.)  So stop reading this, and go make pumpkin pancakes.  Or grab a pumpkin spiced latte.  Then come back when you are in your pancake or pumpkin coma.

Are we back?  Good.  So last night, I was feeling the stress of the world on my shoulders, and the tragedy of the empty cookie jar was bugging me.  So first things first.  There was a one day deal on shrimp at work (I don't normally like shrimp, but I'm telling you, I have always really enjoyed the shrimp I buy at Whole Foods.  It is yum yum yummy, and they have decent recipes on their site to boot.)  I had recently made the shrimp etouffee that I posted about around this time last year.  So after looking around for some other recipes, I decided it was high time I wrote about making paella on this here blog.

My sister is all about anything Spain.  The food, the cheese and most of all, the cheap spanish wine (love you, sis!)  I keep trying to have her be a special guest columnist here, as she is a SUPERB cook in her own right.  So leave some comments on here voicing your support, or bribe her with a bottle of wine and if we can convince her, I'll turn the reins over for a post or two.  Anyway, she introduced me to my first ever paella.  It's a surprisingly simple dish of rice and veggies, with a more traditional version having chicken or seafood in it as well.  You need a nice big, shallow dish to bake it in (like a paella pan, or a large wide sauce pan worked for me in the past.)  Not being an eater of chicken, I took a friend's tofu paella recipe and with a few tweaks of my own, came up with this gem.  Now remember at how awesome I am at measuring things specifically (note, not at all) but this is close to the method I used.

Shrimp/tofu/some other protein of your liking Paella recipe

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion-coarsely chopped
1 large sweet red pepper-cored, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic-minced or put through a garlic press (my method)
1 standard size can (14 or so ounces) diced tomatoes- (it said to drain them, but I don't like to waste  anything so I just reduced my liquid a bit and threw it in, juice and all.)
1/2 teaspoon each of salt, ground turmeric, dried basil, dried thyme and saffron (again, don't stress over this.  If you are out of one of these, skip or of use something else you enjoy.  Cooking is supposed to be fun, darn it!  There is ENOUGH STRESS in the world!  *breathe*)
3 1/2 cups broth (I used vegetable, and only used three cups since I had the juice of the diced tomatoes)
2 cups white rice
1 head of broccoli- broken into bite sized pieces
Veggie of choice if so inclined- I love my veggies so I used 1 zucchini squash, chopped up into bite sized pieces
Protein of choice- In the past for an all veggie version I used 1 lb of firm tofu, drained and cubed and 1 can (15 oz) of chick peas.  This time I used half a bag of frozen lima beans (LOVE lima beans) and 1 lb of shrimp, peeled and devained with the tail removed because I am lazy and I don't like to stop in the middle of my meal to take apart my food.

Heat your oil in a paella pan, or 3 quart (ish) skillet over medium high heat (or so, you know your stove better than I do) and saute the onion, pepper, garlic and veggie of choice (but not the broccoli, hold off on that one) for about a minute until veggies start to become soft.

 By the way, that is what a paella pan looks like (again, thanks to my sister for the Christmas gift of it.)  A large shallow pan with two handles, one on either side.  Mix tomatoes and spices in and stir every so often for 3-4 minutes.  Stir in stock, beans or peas of some kind (if using) and bring to a boil.  Add rice and bring to a boil again, before adding tofu (again, if using.)

Cover with a lid, or if you are using a paella pan or don't have a lid, use aluminum foil, and cook over medium heat for 25-30 minutes.  At this point, all the liquid should have been absorbed, and add the shrimp (if using) and broccoli.  Cover again and let it sit 5-8 minutes to lightly steam.  This is how my finished product looked:

And it was yummy!  My man added hot sauce to his (hot sauce is his condiment of choice), but I didn't add anything, and it was fine by me.  But what did we do about that sad, empty cookie jar you ask?  Did I stop simply at dinner?  Did I MENTION how stressed I've been?

Soft Oatmeal Cookies (from allrecipes.com with my own adjustments after reading reader's comments)

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar because it was what I had)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda (I have a funny story about this part)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups oats (it called for quick cooking, I used regular and they were perfect, so again, the point of this post is NO STRESS!  Use what you have.)
1 cup assorted add ons of choice (raisins, walnuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, candy, whateves!)

In a medium bowl (or if you are me and OBSESSED with your kitchen aid standing mixer, use that instead) cream together butter and both sugars.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.  Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and stir into creamed mixture (or if you are me, add each one into the mixer bowl one at a time, forgetting to put in the baking soda until the second before you roll out cookie dough.  Oops!  Pregnancy brain strikes again!  At least I remembered BEFORE baking them.)  Lastly, mix in oats.  Then mix in assorted add ons of choice and chill in fridge for at least an hour.  I split the dough into three batches: one with 1/3 cup raisins, one with 1/3 cup chocolate chips, and one 1/4 cup shaved coconut bits and 1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries.

After the hour is up (I'm cleaning up post paella dinner at this point, in a happy food haze, forgetting the stress level of prior weeks) preheat oven to 375 and take dough from fridge and scoop into "walnut sized balls".  (What do they mean by that?  Are we talking walnuts in the shell?  'Cause that's a bit bigger than a regular walnut.  I did about 2 or so inch balls, and left it at that.)  Place balls on a well greased cookie sheet about 2 or so inches apart (I always use parchment lined trays because I am LAZY with clean up) and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

As much as I love cookies, I don't think I had ever made oatmeal cookies before!  We tried all three types last night and could not decide which was the best, they were all so good!  I recommend making them all and deciding for yourselves.  It's worth it.  And this recipe fit all the cookies I made PERFECTLY into my cookie jar.  You can't beat that.

So after this upcoming week, hopefully the stress will subside a bit.  The next few weeks will bring our babymoon over Halloween weekend, where my monkey and I are escaping to NYC for a few days, hopefully our only ultrasound, and then the Thanksgiving holidays!  So things are looking up.  But with the remnants of all this stress cooking I can count on two things; having very happy taste buds and not going hungry any time soon.

A Baby Story

Well it was only a matter of time.  You are in an amazing relationship, your job is good with excellent benefits, you are as broke as can be, and you go off of your birth control after a good talk with the person you are in an excellent relationship with.  You enjoy drinking (I mean, who doesn't?), you have run the Charlottesville 10 miler (never thought THAT would ever happen, and I even enjoyed it), you finished the Bikram Yoga 30 day challenge (again, never thought it would happen and I LOVED it).  Your good job has a major relocation 10 plus years in the making, and you are EXHAUSTED.  I mean, I've never had mono, but I'm guessing this is a similar feeling.  No amount of sleep, lack of work, or coke zero will fix it.  Then it dawns on me.

Am I?  Should I take a test?  I mean, the new store is opening in two days, I haven't been puking which is always the first sign in any movie (as we all know), it's just been a long couple of weeks, right?  To be on the safe side, I proceed to eat a huge tuna caesar salad from Bodo's Bagels, and drink some really good scotch while at a friends house for dinner.  I mean, in the event that I AM preggers, better enjoy this last potential day of freedom.

So it's Monday, June 6th.  I work, I get home, and then I think, better now than never.  The time for the at home pregnancy tests that have been hiding under the bathroom sink for over a year (do those things ever expire by the way?) has come.  It was one of those "first response" ones.  FYI, spend the extra couple bucks for the digital ones (see above and below.)  I took one, and it *kind of* looked like there may be two lines? (1 equals not preggo, 2 equals better get it together lady, cause life as you know it is FOREVER CHANGED.  Not to be dramatic or anything.)

I show it to my fella.  He goes (while holding it up to the light) "um...not to disappoint you but...I don't think so."  (Note to anyone ever trying to read a pregnancy test.  You don't read it by holding it up to the light like a view-master.  Little did we know.)  I was like "Um...when I've taken these in the past, it's been much clearer". (And yes readers, I have taken my fair share of these, the most memorable one being in the bathroom of a Starbucks on aster place in NYC on my way down to the Planned Parenthood office...but that's a different story.  And it came back negative so no worries there.)  So I do what any sane girl would do.  Drive to the CVS 5 minutes from my home and pony up the extra $25 and buy a digital test.  I get home, drink some water, and try again.

Well, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?  I proceed to call a few girlfriends and my sister and scream for the next 3 hours.  Aren't you glad you weren't around for that?

That was over three months ago.  Since then, it's like I've been submerged into a world that speaks a totally different language.  I suddenly know what phrases like "tummy time", "lanugo", and "I'M STARVING SO SOMEONE HAND ME A SANDWICH" really mean.  I have gained around 12 pounds (according to my scale, let's not go by the doctor's shall we?  Everyone knows that they are wrong and you are NEVER to weigh a lady with her shoes on.)  It took me a total of 10-12 weeks to not be able to fit in my pants anymore.  Obviously, (or maybe not), I'm not drinking (yeah, that's a major bummer.  I'm not going to lie, if you are like me and there is no greater joy than sharing a glass of wine with friends over dinner or having a PBR shandy on a summer morning, this sucks.  No way around it. But it's fine and you get over it.  And thanks to what my dear friend Miller taught me, everything tastes better out of a wine glass.)   We found an awesome doctor, whom we both really like, and for the first time in my life, I can't wait for my next appointment.  Other changes?

Things like this KILL me with cuteness.  And then I want to cry.  A LOT.  At commercials.  At random acts of kindness or unkindness.  Because I can't fit in my pants.  Because I don't look pregnant enough.  Because that damn cat kept me up.  Because when I have don't have to pee all the time, I'm in a sleep coma.  Oh hormones you saucy minx.  You just keep me on my toes, dontcha?

Aside from the weighing more than I ever have (not easy to take, but again, not much choice in that matter so you just deal and move on) and the hormones, the differences are less blatant.  I eat breakfast and I never used to (again, I have no choice in the matter, thank you ever expanding and loud stomach).  I have super human smell which is mostly totally AWESOME!  (I've never had the best sense of smell so this is really big for me.)  I miss things like soft cheeses, riding roller-coasters, and getting in hot tubs  (all of which were summer opportunities that I had to decline).  But mostly, it's really flipping cool.  At the most, I don't plan on having this experience but one more timer ever again in my life, so I'm kind of loving it.  I was really lucky to have a stupidly easy first trimester and I am very aware that most people do not.  I never threw up, or felt nauseous (but I also was constantly eating so my body didn't have time for that.  Or that's my theory).  I had to stop running after about 6-8 weeks (bless all of you large bosomed ladies out there.  My hat is off to you, cause I could have NONE of it.)  It's like I've switched boobs with Christina Hendricks from Mad Men.  A whole new world, let me just say.  Instead of going out drinking with my friends, my Friday nights are now mostly spent laying on the couch with my feet up, eating dessert and throwing baby names back and forth with my fella.  And I'm okay with it.  It's actually really nice.  And no, we are not going to find out the sex of the baby before it's born.  And yes, that will make it hard for you to buy gender specific clothes for baby Groucho so please just deal.  And yes, hearing the heartbeat for the first time, and every time, is.....amazing.

So this is not what this blog will become completely.   I'm not going to rename it "things my baby Groucho does that are just precious" (mostly because that word makes me want to vomit.)  It's called "Things I like, by me" and my likes continue to mostly focus on family, movies, friends, food and drink.  But all of a sudden, family means something a little different, because it's going to BE a little different.  There is going to be a little person that my best friend and I have made together.  We have and are in the process of creating our own family, bigger than just us and our cats.  And it's not all going to be pretty.  I won't pretend that I didn't have a minor freak out when it actually occurred to me that there is a heart beat.  In my tummy. It's kind of creepy, and I'm not going to lie about it.  But it's exciting!  And it's different!  And fall is right around the corner.  Soups, and pumpkins, and (decaf) english breakfast tea, and walks in the fall colors, and baking are all just moments away.  I have to say I'm just pretty lucky to be where I am right now.  And I have a feeling those maternity pants will come in handy around the holiday eating time.  Just saying.  I may never give those up.

Summer peach muffins for a Sunday Brunch Fest!

Three day holiday weekends don't mean anything to me.  I work customer service.  At a high end grocery store.  Meaning that the only days we are ever closed are Thanksgiving day and Christmas day, or in the off chance that we get 2 feet of snow dumped on us.  If I take three days off in a row, I am not getting paid for them, so often I never take them.  This memorial day in no different.  I am working tomorrow and getting paid time and a half to do so.  I worked yesterday like usual.  But today is a Sunday.  And I happened to be scheduled off!  What to do, on a Sunday morning?

Silly you.  Couldn't you guess?  Sundays invented a thing called BRUNCH!  It's a beautiful meal where you gorge yourself on heavily carb and protein based num nums, and you nurse that nasty hangover with a bloody mary, a mimosa or a PBR shandy (mix half PBR and half ginger ale.  I like mine over ice.)  Working most weekends, and most Sundays, I don't often have the pleasure of taking the time to make brunch for me and my Monkey.  But today, today is different!

So I asked the Monkey what he wanted for breakfast.  We often have smoothies of some kind on my weekdays off, and we had just enjoyed pancakes earlier in the week when we hosted a slumber party extravaganza for my three little step nieces.  We needed something different.  Exciting.  Unusual.  I didn't have any good bread handy for french toast and while I adore waffles, they are much too similar to the recently consumed pancakes.  I did what I do when I need an inspiration.  Help me Betty!

A quick side note.  One of the first things I did when I moved out on my own was drive to Barnes and Nobel and purchase two books.  One of them was "The Joy Of Cooking" and the other was "Betty Crocker's Cookbook."  It seemed to me that any adult who has the slightest interest in not eating out all the time, should own these two books.  I have since added MANY classic to my collection (Moosewood cooks at home, a few classic Martha Stewart collections, etc) but Betty is always there for me.  I love allrecipes (especially the ipad app!), epicourous, the Whole Foods Market website, and many other blogs (smitten kitchen, the sisters fierce, living with purple) but I always refer to Betty for the basics.  Her chocolate chip cookie, zucchini and banana bread, and pancake recipes are my go to, and the pie crust page of the book is wrinkled with water and flour stains from the number of times I have used it.  Let's see what I can find this time.

Betty Crocker's Muffin Recipe
(This is her recipe for blueberry muffins, I used fresh chopped peaches instead.)

Streusel topping:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons cold butter or margarine (I used butter)

Muffins:
3/4 cup milk (I always use soy since that is what I always have in the house, with nether myself or the Monkey being milk drinkers.  Soy has always been an even substitute and has never been a problem for me in my cooking)
1/4 cup oil (I always use canola or olive.  Yes friends, olive oil can actually be amazing in sweet baking. Today I used canola.)
1 Egg
2 cups flour (again, here is where I get creative.  I always use Spelt flour while baking.  I am not gluten intolerant, however I do have a sensitivity towards wheat when I eat it often, so I just err on the side of safety and use spelt.  I did one cup whole spelt and one cup white spelt to make it the teeniest bit healthier and because I enjoy a little substance in my food.  The exception to this rule is when making sushi when white rice will always conquer brown in my opinion.  But I digress.)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fruit (Today I used three small peaches, chopped into bit size pieces.)


1) Heat oven to 400.  Line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with paper baking cups (which is what I did, because I am, say it with me now, LAZY) or spray bottoms only of cups with cooking spray.  In medium bowl, stir in 1/4 cup flour, the brown sugar and cinnamon until mixed.  Cut in butter, using pastry blender or fork, until mixture is crumbly; set aside.
2) In large bowl, beat milk, oil and egg with fork or wire whisk until blended.  Add 2 cups of flour, sugar, baking powder and salt all at once; stir just until flour is moistened (god I hate that word).  Batter will be lumpy (another awful word.  Bleh.)  Gently fold in fruit.
3)  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, and sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon streusel.
4) Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (I baked mine 25 minutes since I used peaches which are a little more firm than berries.)  If muffins were baked in sprayed pan, leave in pan about 5 minutes, then remove from pan to cooling rack.  If they were baked in paper baking cups (which is what I did), immediately remove from pan to cooling rack and let cool.
5) Consume muffins, either while warm or cool.

Let me just say, YUM.  I don't remember ever making muffins before.  As a kid, my family was big on cookies, pancakes, waffles, pies and banana bread, but muffins were not in the rotation. Well, let's just say that those days are far behind me.  This was delicious and easy, and I foresee the muffin pages of my Betty Crocker cookbook, becoming wrinkled and water logged with my repeat love and attention.  And maybe also due to the fact that I am far more talented at making messes than baking.  But you have to be good at something in this world, right?  

4.   

How modern electronics and a few cups of coffee, make my days off so productive.

I had a day off.  Two of them, in fact.  With no plans, nothing set in stone, aside from the fact that I should probably work out at some point on one of those days, since I am running in my first ever race in 3 weeks, it's 10 miles and I've never run more than 7.  But who's counting?  As one of my dear friends said, "I run because I love to eat" and those are my exercise beliefs in a nutshell.

So I had some time off, and lots of things I wanted to make.  We had finally ran low on the copious amount of granola from the prior post (which keeps really well for the record), and with the sweet knowledge that  two days off in a row from my job, comes with the dread that sometime in the not so far off future, I will have to work many days in a row before having 1 day off (see today, day 1 of 9) I wanted some good healthy snack options for me and the Monkey to eat in the week ahead.  So I made my list.

-Granola (a must)
-Hummus
-Bread

But wait.  As I was getting my thoughts and ingredients together, I had a horrible realization.

This is my cookie jar.  And something is very, very wrong.

THERE ARE NO COOKIES!  Oh, no, no, no!  This will not do.  A house is not a home without homemade cookies!  Isn't that a song?  Okay, so let's write a new list.

-Granola: (it's so easy, we can totally bust this out in no time.  See prior post.  So.  Easy.)


-Hummus: Okay, I've never written about this before, but if you own a food processor, could not BE any easier.


-Bread:  I will address my love for my new kitchen toy, my awesome bread machine, in a later post.  One when I'm feeling really lazy.  There is no skill, but I still love it.

-Cookies: Clearly the front runner.  So this is how it's going to work.

I had two cups of coffee while I worked.  I hadn't been on a cooking frenzy like this since we had our annual family making, pie and thanksgiving dessert extravaganza, which included my sister, my niece, and a LOT of red wine.  I started the bread machine first.  I have been trying to make my own sourdough starter for a few weeks, and it's going okay.  The bread doesn't quite have the amazing sour taste of a store bought kind, but it's pretty good in it's own right, and I'm hoping that the flavor will get stronger over time.  So I put together two recipes, one of a basic sourdough bread machine recipe, and another (which I had made before to excellent results) rosemary bread machine recipe.  Half white, half wheat flour.  It turned out really nicely, and I will continue to tinker with recipes and report back.

Next, once I hit that power button on the bread machine (that's really all it takes, folks.  If you can just remember to put yeast in last, you are set), I moved on to the granola.  Oven at 325, same for most cookies.  Perfect!  The granola is just as yummy as last time, but I forgot to buy coconut.  Bummer.

Moving on, granola is in the oven, I move on to hummus.  My favorite flavor that I have made is sun-dried tomato.  Take some tahini, garbanzo beans (or chickpeas, depending on what you call them.  Same thing), garlic (I like LOTS), lemon juice, olive oil (depending on how rich you like your hummus, just add more or less) and a little water.  Throw everything in the food processor, and blend. Add more olive oil/water or less depending on how thick you like it.  Then add anything else fun.  Parsley, roasted red peppers, or if you are me, sun-dried tomatoes.  So good.  And then it's done.

Finally!  The most important.  More important than the breakfast that is granola, the lunch of hummus, the dinner that could be rosemary bread.  Dessert.  Cookies.  I ask the Monkey what kind of cookie he wants.  The winner by a long shot, over oatmeal raisin (he's not a big fan) or peanut-butter is Molasses.  I doubled the recipe to freeze half the dough (because if you haven't guessed by now a) I'm lazy and b) I love entertaining and there is nothing I love more than baking fresh cookies for a gathering.  Even when they aren't fresh.  And they have been living in my freezer keeping the fake meat products and the frozen bananas for smoothies, company.  I also added chocolate chips to half of the dough, because who doesn't love a little bit of chocolate mixed in with just about anything?  The only thing I would do differently in the future is a little less sugar, as they were a bit sweet to my taste.  Also, instead of sprinkling/rolling them with sugar, I sprinkled them in a pinch of kosher salt.  The secret I learned recently, of a good cookie (specifically chocolate chip, but really this is pretty universal with any cookie) is add just a tiny bit of extra salt.

Thank you Gourmet, by way of Epicourous.  Enjoy these.  We are.  And the fake meat and the frozen bananas in the freezer seem to be pretty fond of them too.

Makes about 25 cookies.

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325°F. and lightly grease 2 large baking sheets.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.

In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter, shortening, and 3 cups sugar until light and fluffy and beat in molasses. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture and combine well.

In a small shallow bowl put remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Form dough into 2-inch balls and roll in sugar. On baking sheets arrange balls about 4 inches apart and flatten slightly with bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake cookies in batches in middle of the oven 15 minutes, or until puffed and golden. (Cookies should be soft.) Transfer cookies with a metal spatula to racks to cool.

I made it thought the wilderness...somehow I made it through... and made granola!

 I am a very bad blogger.  I should be one of those people that doesn't let a week go by, without feeling the need to create amazing bits of food and then express the experience of it via the information superhighway and interwebs, paired with beautiful photos.  However I am not one of those people.  There were holidays, there was baking where the only documentation of it's existence is the fading memories of the food comas it induced.  There was a show I was in, where I existed on a diet solely made up of salads, nachos, soft baked pretzels vast amounts of emergen-C, coke zero and peanut m&m's.  So no blogging was to be had by me.  Fast forward a month and a half, past the insanity of Valentines day at work, and here we go.  A day off, and a desire (planted by one of the sisters fierce blog team and my friend) to make granola.

After spending time in the bulk section at my friendly neighborhood grocery store (AKA also where I work) I picked out everything I could ever want in my granola.  This is what made it into this batch:

raw (not quick) rolled oats

sliced almonds

raw cashews

sesame seeds

sunflower seeds

dried coconut pieces

pecans

dried cranberries

raisins

agave syrup

honey

vanilla

cinnamon

nutmeg

canola oil

Firstly, I preheated the oven to 350.  Then, I started mixing all the dry ingredients into one bowl.  It was about this time when I realized I didn't have enough room for everything in one bowl, so I had to split it up into two bowls.  Something you may have learned about me by now (or perhaps you have enjoyed it first hand, by being sent home with a vast amount of leftovers) is that I always make ALOT of something.  It's this disease I have, like never being able to line up the buttons on my sweaters correctly and not realizing it until I'm out in public and my sweater is hanging all funny, with one side longer than the other.  I always make a ridiculous amount of food, and I can't help it.

So back to the granola.  I mixed all of my dry ingredients together.  Next, in a small sauce pan, I heated over medium heat I'd say about 1 cup of agave syrup (once again, measuring is not my strong suit.  I just dumped into it looks like a good amount) and about 1/4 cup honey, and 1/2 cup canola oil.  Then while heating and stirring, I added a few splashes of vanilla.  After all the liquids were mixed and a little warm, I drizzled them over the dry items, mixed it all together and spread it unto a shallow baking sheet, lined with parchment.  (Note: I could write an entire post about my love of parchment paper.  By gollie, it is the BEST!  The lack of clean up!  The lack of scraping sticky items or bits of melted cheese off of my dishes!  Every kitchen should have it, along with bon-ami and steel wool for when everything goes all wrong.)

Anyhoo, with the oven being up to temp, I baked two trays at a time (this ridiculous amount of granola took up four and a half baking sheets. Yeah, I have issues), leaving them in for ten minutes, taking them out and tossing the granola to make sure it was being toasted on all sides, and then rotating the trays from the top to bottom and visa versa and putting them in for another ten minutes.  Twenty minutes (and much snacking on the remaining raw granola that I hadn't baked yet) later, the kitchen smelled awesome and this is what I had.

Mmmm.  Crunchy granola yumminess.  So, there is really no recipe to duplicate here folks.  Just put together what you like in your granola (I read a few recipes that said to wait and toss the raisins in after you had baked the granola and let it cool.  Of course, I read this AFTER I had mixed raisins into half of the recipe, so I baked some and then added some later. And it all tasted fine.)  I had been really intimidated by granola before this.  My dad makes the best I've ever had to this day, and it was nice to make it and see that there is no hidden granola mystery.  It's easy.  And fast.  And so much cheaper than buying it!  Thus disproving that age old theory of the triangle of "Cheap", "Fast" and "Good".  The idea is that you can pick any of those two, but you can't have all three.  Now I'll have to change it to "cheap, fast, good and granola".  That folks, may have to be the name of my cookbook.  Or my autobiography.