Best Chunky Granola Recipe

This chunky granola recipe is simple and infinitely customizable!

Basic ingredients I like (with a few options.)

3 c. Organic rolled oats (NOT quick oats)
1 c. Sliced almonds (peanuts, pepitas, etc.)
1/2 c. Unsweetened coconut (optional)
2 TBS flax seed (sesame, sunflower, etc)
3 TBS Brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger (optional)
Pinch of nutmeg or allspice (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c. Honey (maple syrup, molasses, etc.)
2 TBS peanut oil plus 1 tsp oil (olive, etc.)
1 egg white, slightly beaten
Dried cherries, raisins, mango, etc.(optional)

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Rub a large rimmed baking pan with 1 tsp oil.

At this point start preheating the oven to 300 degrees.

Pour the honey into a glass measuring cup. Add 2 TBS oil and heat in microwave 1 minute or so just until it starts to bubble.

Stir the honey and oil together and pour over the oats.  Careful it is hot! Use a wooden spoon.

Mix well, scraping any sugar that might stick to the bowl back in to the oats.

Pour the beaten egg white into the oats and mix well. The egg white helps it stick together and makes it chunky, good for trail mix. If you don't want it chunky, skip this step.

Pour the oats onto the baking pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Then rotate the pan turn the heat down to 250 degrees and bake 15 minutes. Rotate once more, and bake 10 more minutes. If you skipped the egg white you can stir the granola to ensure even browning.

Let cool completely.  Add dried fruit before storing in an air tight container, so it stays crispy.

Homemade Linen Spray

Inspired by something similar I read on a perfume blog, I am going to make a linen spray to put on my sheets before I sleep.

Juniper for subtle protection, ylang for sensual comfort, lavender for easy relaxation in an alcohol and water base, so this is like a cologne for sleep!

I've been working on this sort of thing for a while. I've made a super soothing lotion for irritated skin for my super sensitive hubby which works great!

I'm going to give these for Christmas presents this year.  If they are a hit with my family, I will think about selling these more widely.

Lost tools

The circular saw is lost in the shop.

Items that have come to light while looking for the saw include a chain that went missing years ago, numerous fencing supplies, wrenches and pliers and other handtools, and boxes never unpacked from when we moved in here.  But I have not found the saw yet.

It's like an archeological dig!

So this is a project....15 minutes every day.

And no, there will not be a picture until it is a little more presentable...

Experiments in Perfume - Linden flower, bergamot and wild rose

The multi stem bass tree, called linden in Europe, which sits by my front gate has burst into bloom and is covered with pendulous bracts of fragrant yellow flowers.  Also the dark pink wild roses growing with black raspberries in a bramble pile around a sumac tree in North Pasture 6, are blooming, so I am trying a little experiment in natural homemade perfumery.

The rose is actually not strongly scented, but the petals are a strong pink color, so even if it doesn't contribute much to the smell, maybe it will make a nice color to the final product.  I put a handful of these petals in a pint canning jar.  I added a white yarrow blossom and a few yarrow leaves for a little green underneath. Then I noticed the wild bee balm is starting to bloom, so I picked one of the leaves - a strong bergamont odor, so I put that in too.  Then I plucked enough linden blossoms to fill the jar up half way and covered this up with everclear and put it in a dark place.  I'll pick more linden blossom tomorrow and recharge the jar with fresh blossoms,  and maybe another Monarda leaf or two, and repeat this every day until the linden blossoms stop.  Then I'll let it sit for a few months, and we'll see what evolves.

I  meant to do this with the invasive multiflora rose that infests our pastures. It has a fabulous odor, killer thorns, and the growth habit of metastasizing cancer - it seems to take root just by saying its name somewhere.  This beautiful, nasty plant bloomed a few weeks ago, but I was distracted by pressures at my day job, and it rained every day for two weeks, so there was not a good day to get any of those petals.  Maybe next year.

In any case, the first of October, I will see how my first experiment in local perfumery turns out.  Now that I am reminded of the bee balm, maybe I will try another bottle of  bergamont, more yarrow and wild mint leaves, which should make an approximation of a classic cologne. Maybee a juniper berry or two as well. Or an oakleaf.  Or moss!  Oak moss - I have oak trees, I probably have oak moss!  Cool.

When a tree falls on the garden...

Adorable hubbie and I live in a little open pocket in the woods.  A couple days ago a strong front passed through with high winds, which left 70 or 80 thousand people without power in the middle of the state.  We didn't lose power, but a large limb from one of the wild cherries at the edge of our clearing came down on the garden. This morning we have been cleaning up the garden, and cutting up the cherry wood.

Adorable hubbie has cut the wood into firewood sized pieces.  We'll load that in the tractor bucket and take it down to the wood shed to split it, later in the week. Cherry wood is not the greatest firewood, but it was easily acquired - we will burn it late next spring. Then he chipped a bunch of the little stuff to refurbish the walkway which we have woodchipped a few years ago - it is getting bare, so this is a good opportunity to fill it in.

The garden is is a fine state of disarray - this spring has been very busy after a hard winter, and tending the garden has repeatedly taken a back seat to a wide variety of other projects and emergencies.  So, the emergency of the tree falling on the garden is not such a bad thing.  It missed most of what I had managed to get planted, and knocked down a lot of weeds!  It knocked down the deer netting in two places but didn't break any fenceposts.

We worked together to get the big sticks out of the garden.  Then, while hubbie dealt with the small wood, I pulled more weeds, and located a few things that have survived this not so benign neglect.  The two tomato plants I put in the week before it rained for a month, are both smaller than the monster plants I had two years ago, but do have a few tomatoes coming on.  There is some lettuce that is trying to bolt, but other lettuce is pickable, and it is good time to put more seed down.  The potato plants are also small but going strong.  I found a few onions -  a couple large ones, and many stunted ones that can be scallions.  The cauliflower and brussel sprouts are chewed on, but growing.  The pepper plants on the other hand, are all disappeared but this is the only thing that is a total loss.

On the other hand, the bee balm plant I put in last year is now 4 feet high, almost as wide and just starting to bloom crimson red blossoms!  The lemon balm, Greek oregano, and horseradish are also going great guns, and the peas are covered with pods, so I will be picking those later today!

So we got a good three hours of work in this morning.  Now, it is July 4th, so we are going to celebrate with a nice long nap in the cool dim house before we go back to cleaning up the garden later.  I count my blessings.

Choose Reality

This is it.  This is all there is (and it is not much!)  So, pay attention to what is.

Notice distractions such as other human being's delusions of reality, and pay attention to this. Here. Now.

This experience you are having, what is really happening?

This experience you are having - who is having this experience?

Pay enough attention and you will start to notice your own delusions of reality.

Let go of the delusions, the emotional attachments, the memories of other experiences, the conditioning that encourages attentional lapses.

Pay attention to what is.

Who is paying attention?

What is?

Ah!

Current audio book for my commute

I'm listening to The Corsican Caper: A Novel (Unabridged) on #Audible for #Android. Get the app free: https://www.audible.com/wireless @audible_com.  I love Peter Mayle-best escapism stories ever...with foodie interludes.

Pony paradise

Wonderful weather-a few rainy days and then a few sunny days has our pastures growing faster than the ponies can eat them down, but obviously this guy is doing his best to try to keep up!

Current status....

Working in Radiology has a clarifying effect...

2014 started off rocky, but I'm back...

So, 2014 gave us record snow cover, with the attendant issues with our lane. We bought our place in a dry, cool November, when the 1/3 mile long driveway seemed like an appealing addition to getting away from it all. But, the season of snow, followed shortly by the season of mud, proves to be a yearly challenge! Sometimes we are heroes just getting to the paved road.
So, the snow was beautiful, a big distraction. Then, I messed up my knee and have been gimping around for a month and a half, trying to favor it, while having to walk our lane twice day for most of March...another distraction. Then of course, trying to get the very expensive but not ready for prime time new software implemented at work, has been a drain on my energy and attention. And then there is adorable hubby, finishing up his Master's one 6 week intensive grad school class after another. But, now, my knee is tender but clearly on the mend, finally. If I am careful where I step, I can walk the lane pain free. The lane is dry except for a couple spots where we seem to have spontaneous springs generating little puddles in the middle of a dry stretch. There seems to be some slight breakthroughs in the healthcare application front. This lovely April Sunday, adorable hubby is finishing up our taxes, the ponies are nibbling fresh grass in the paddock we call S3, and the chickens are scratching around in the lawn. I have surveyed the bees, which didn't make it through the winter, so we will take a break from that project for a year and regroup. the bulbs are popping up everywhere, the vegie garden is calling to me - clean me up, plant some peas! So I guess I will get off this blog, and go do that.

Wonders of winter....

It snowed some more yesterday afternoon and then the temperature went to 27 degrees, so the Interstate was freezing and thawing and refreezing during rush hour. I left the hospital at 4:20 and turned into my driveway at 6:00, twice as long as usual. Saw three wrecks where people had slid off the road. Ugh. I remember, as a small child, being very excited as a very big storm dumped more and more snow on the ranch. It was beautiful to wake up and have the world covered with a new blanket of unsullied whiteness. It was fun playing in the deep snow. And I remember feeling a little sad that my mother did not seem to share my joy and the new world. Now I know why! But a side benefit of leaving the heat lamp on in the chicken house is we got an egg yesterday... Ok, enough complaining. Gotta get ready to go to work again...