Dark Days in the morning

Breakfast has been really enjoyable around my house lately. My second Dark Days meal has actually lasted me through many meals.

My friend Katie (Hi, Katie!) has been making granola at home for awhile. I was interested in the idea, so I asked her for her recipe.

She cooks a lot like I do, more throwing things together than deliberately following a precise recipe. So, the recipe goes something like this.

• 3 cups of rolled oats (Washington state, or possibly southern B.C. Not sure, and I haven't investigated more to be sure.)
• A cup or two of nuts (she uses pecans, I used hazelnuts from Lynden)
• A quarter of a cup of honey (more if you like your granola clumpy. My honey was from Tahuya River Apiaries. )
• An eighth of a cup of oil, stirred in with the honey. (I used olive oil. Canola probably would have worked better but I didn't have local canola oil. My oil was, again, from Oregon.)

Mix everything together in a big bowl and then spread it on a cookie sheet. Bake at about 250 for 25 minutes, checking often and stirring. And you really should check often and stir well. My hazelnuts on the edges got a smidge too toasty.

The granola is delicious. The best thing is you can endlessly customize it. Katie adds in dried berries when she's done baking it.

I added mine to yogurt from Grace Harbor Farms in Custer. I love their yogurt. It's so delicious. I also spooned a dollop of strawberry freezer jam from the summer onto it.

The berries are from Marysville. I made them into jam this summer. While freezer jam is not a hard task, everything is a hard task while you have a newborn -- especially one that will only sleep while being held. I'm really glad I made the effort, because it's paying off now.

This simple meal has made me a collection of really delicious breakfasts. I think I'm going to be eating it a lot more often.