Crunchy granola

I've begun making King Arthur Flour's crunchy granola every week. The photo above is from the first batch, using whatever we had in the house--walnuts, raisins, dates, and dried apricots.

We modified the recipe somewhat:
1/3 c. oil (instead of 1/2 c.)
1 c. nuts (instead of 3 c.)
1/4 tsp. salt (instead of 1/2 tsp.)
rice syrup (instead of maple syrup, because it has no sucrose)
2 c. dried fruit (instead of 5 c., to cut down on the fruit sugars)

It's fantastic. It came out exactly as the recipe said; here it is baked up, before the fruit is added (I didn't mess around with parchment paper--just greased the baking sheets):


We figured out that our recipe comes out to $6.08/lb. (King Arthur says on their blog entry that their recipe is $6.70/lb.) That's .38/oz. It sounds expensive, but the cheapest granola that we can get at our grocery store without added sugar is .50/oz., so we're coming out ahead--and that's even with the fancy, organic walnuts! With farmers' market dried fruit and nuts, in a different mix every week for variety, it's even cheaper--and more delicious.

(And in case you're wondering, our version is 225 calories per cup.)

Pasties

The September challenge for Ravelry's Pie Challenge group (requires free account to log in) is the, "Take-Along Pie challenge. Mini-pies for the lunch box, turnovers, empanadas, baby quiches, things that are easy to carry with you as life gets busier again."

An excuse for pasties!

As usual, the filling was a combination of what was in the fridge needing to be used up (some aging green onions, yellow onion, and a bit of red bell pepper) and what looked good at the market (crimini mushrooms, sweet potato, turnip), combined with some sort of grain--I was out of barley, much to my surprise, and didn't want to make another trip to the store, so this time I used rice--and the usual herbs (bit of leftover fresh basil) and spices (I never remember what I toss in--it's different depending on the veggies used):


I have to admit, the combination of red bell pepper and, well, everything else, was less than successful--that flavor really dominates. Live and learn!

(Photos by Paul.)

Scarf Mania by Chris Lanier

This is a cartoon written and animated by Chris Lanier, and although I've known Chris for a while, I saw the cartoon for the first time tonight and loved it--I think knitters & crocheters might like it, too. Although it really has nothing to do with knitting or crocheting, I find it interesting for making me think about how comfortable one can be--or not--in one's garments, and the influence of fashion.

And I think Romanov is adorable.