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.