This One Bears Repeating
Pecans
Sesame seeds
Rice syrup
Rolled oats
I jot one ingredient after another down the page so as to avoid grocery-store amnesia. Because I really don't want to forget these things, not with a winter storm looming. Not when the temperature plummets and snow's blowing past the windows. Not when the only thing better than smelling granola roasting in the oven, is eating it. Morning, noon, or night, it really doesn't matter (I've had it at all three), a bowl of this granola hits all the right notes in all the right places. Spoonfed comfort, indeed.
There are some foods in this house that I can make with zero fear of any boy, stray or domestic, waltzing through and eating it all up. This is one of them. I can make a batch and know, with restful assurance, that I'll be the only one eating the entire thing. Small victories. And if there are no more moments in the day than those scraggly ones here and there in which to make it, that's plenty.
Pull out the big crockery bowl while you're waiting for the water in the kettle to heat for morning tea. Add the oats, nuts, and seeds after you've poured water over the leaves in your cup. Give it a stir while you take your first two sips, then leave it on the counter and go about your work-at-home day. When you're back kitchen-side at lunch, stir the wet ingredients together. Enjoy your left-over lunch from the fridge, then, while you're washing your lunch plate, preheat the oven for roasting. When you've dried your hands, pour the wet ingredients over the dry, stir together, and spread evenly over two baking sheets. Pop both into the oven. Return to work. Before you know it, the smell of toasting oats and nuts, edged with ginger and cinnamon will fill the air, calling you back once or twice to peek and stir. A slim forty minutes later, you can pull the sheets from the oven, give them one final stir, and leave them til you're back in the kitchen at dinner.
In other words, it basically makes itself.
For the recipe, I'm going to send you right on over to Molly's place, because I got it from her, and she got it from Nigella. It's a bit of a her-turn, my-turn, your-turn, re-post, re-run but I'm not a bit worried about that, because, unlike many things on the interwebs these days, this one bears repeating.
P.S. Not to hurry straight past Thanksgiving and on toward Christmas, but here's a thought: Wouldn't this make the best of thoughtful (and easy) gifts? Fill a jar, tie it with twine, stamp a tag, and there you go.
