homemade granola party!

 I’m not going to fool you into thinking this is health food but it sure is delicious! My husband eats old-fashioned oats for breakfast every morning with a sprinkle of cinnamon & a drizzle of honey. He LOVES having this homemade granola to stir in for crunch, sweetness & extra nutty flavor! I love it mixed with yogurt and it also makes a great to-go snack when I’m running late for an early appointment. 

My daughter first discovered the recipe. I’m not sure where she got it but I’ve changed it up a bit & we all love it. You can customize it with any combination of nuts and dried fruit. All ingredients besides the oats are optional. I add the wheat germ but if you don't have it, feel free to skip it. If you don't like walnuts, leave them out. My daughter has been known to stir in some m&m’s or chocolate chips after it’s cooled. It makes a TON & the recipe can be halved.

 Today I added dried craisins, dried apple chips & banana chips. I loved these golden delicious crispy apple chips. YUM!

Homemade Granola

ingredients

8 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup chopped almonds

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup wheat germ

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup pure  maple syrup

¾ cup honey

1 cup oil (I use coconut oil but you could use vegetable or canola)

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups of your choice of dried fruit, cranberries, raisins, banana chips, dried apple chips, etc. to be added after baking

directions

1.     Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.

2.     Combine oats, pecans, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds and wheat germ in a large bowl and stir until mixed well.

 3.     In a small saucepan, mix the brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt. Bring just to a boil then pour over oat mixture. Stir well to coat. 

 4.     Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets. If you like the big granola nuggets like the picture above, press it down into the pan a bit. Bake until toasty about 25-30 minutes, stirring half way through. Granola may appear to be wet, but will crisp up as it cools. 

 5.     Allow to cool completely, then stir in dried fruit.

grandma clark's zucchini bread party!

I’m so thankful that I grew up with two sets of doting grandparents. I’m blessed to have known all of my grandparents and have many years and memories with them. My grandmothers couldn’t have been more different but they were both wonderful examples to me of living a simple life, having high morals and spreading seeds of love.

Today marks 7 years that my Grandma Clark has been in heaven. My grandparents met when grandpa was 6 years old and grandma was 4. Grandpa was in first grade; he went home that day and announced to his mother that he had met his future wife. They were engaged on Christmas day when grandma was a senior in high school. She spent the summer after her graduation making quilts, sewing pillowcases and canning vegetables to prepare for their wedding. They were married for 53 years before Grandpa passed away in 1992.

Grandma and Grandpa Clark lived on a 140 acre farm, their favorite book was The Bible and they believed that every meal should include bread and butter. Grandma loved having family over for lunch and you could count on lunch being at noon, straight up, 12:00, don’t be late. If you were lucky it would include her cubed steak and brown gravy. If you were really lucky it would include mashed potatoes and her famous chicken and noodles.

As a very young child one thing I loved about mealtime at Grandma Clark’s house was that they had SOFT margarine that came in a little plastic tub. Oh, it was very special, no wonder I licked it off my bread  and asked for more. No one else I knew had little plastic tubs of soft margarine. I would slather it on the cornmeal mush Grandma would fry for breakfast. I would wash it down with a big glass of orange TANG. It was full of sugar but Grandma served it for breakfast and I loved it.

She must have had a hundred of those little plastic butter tubs in her cupboard and she put them to very good use. They had a huge chest freezer in the basement and grandma would buy many different flavors of ice cream, her favorite dessert. She’d divide it into the plastic butter tubs and label it for individual servings. The freezer was full of ice cream in butter tubs and you would think you were at an ice cream parlor when she opened the heavy freezer lid. After dinner we would go to the freezer and ponder the flavors as grandma would read them to me. I would consider each one and take my time deciding, knowing there was no where else in the world to have this opportunity except at Grandma Clark’s house. I was just about as tall as the freezer and I can still feel the excitement I felt when the ice cold air hit my face, waiting a millisecond for the mini cloud of vapor to clear so I could see all of the little bowls of ice cream neatly labeled and stacked.  It was usually a battle between chocolate and butter pecan. Inevitably someone else at the dinner table would claim to have the same dilemma so I’d grab one of each and we’d split them both.

To remember Grandma today I made her delicious zucchini bread.  It’s simple with the perfect sweetness and full of cinnamon and walnuts. It freezes well and makes a great little after school snack or giveaway treat.

I love you, Grandma! My kitchen smells like yours tonight. xo

Grandma Clark's Zucchini Bread

click HERE to print recipe only

ingredients

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 cups shredded zucchini (I put the shredded zuke in a strainer and press the excess water out of it.)
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans 

directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease loaf pans. I also like to line the greased loaf pans with greased parchment paper. 

 2. Beat eggs, sugar and oil. You can use an electric mixer but I use a whisk. 

3. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.

4. Stir in flour. Batter will be VERY thick. If you started with a whisk, trade it for a wooden spoon. 

5. Stir in zucchini.  Stir in nuts.

6. Bake in 2 greased loaf pans for 50 minutes to one hour. I baked it in two smaller loaf pans for 40 minutes and made 24 mini muffins, baked for 15 minutes. 

To test doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the bread. If it comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs attached to it, it's done.

Grandma always served this with whipped cream. Enjoy!  

sugar spiced pecans party!

 
These spiced pecans give me a flashback to 1987, living in Indiana & working at Columbus Bank & Trust. We had a certain daily customer, stiletto high heeled, platinum Barbie haired, short skirted (mostly leopard print), gorgeous, construction business owner, probably in her late 50’s who brought us a pound of spiced pecans every Christmas & we devoured them like a pack of hungry wolves.

The main reason I hated quitting that job was those spiced pecans. I worked there for 4 years & begged her every year for the recipe & she refused to share it.  From time to time I’d find a recipe for spiced pecans & try it & it was never the same as hers. In fact, a few years ago I tracked her down & let her know that I moved 1,500 miles away, 20 years had passed & Columbus Bank & Trust doesn’t even exist anymore. I asked her again if she’d share her recipe with me & I swore on the Bible that I wouldn’t share it with a living soul. The answer was still NO. Can you believe that? Well guess what, sexy lady? I cracked the code to your spiced pecans & the recipe couldn’t be easier!

If you make these for someone I can pretty much GUARANTEE that they will NEVER forget you! They will be talking about you on the world wide web 25 years from now. This is proof! What are you waiting for? Go make someone’s day…namely YOURS!

Sugar Spiced Pecans

adapted from www.allrecipes.com

1 pound pecan halves

1 egg white

2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg white, water & vanilla together until frothy, with a fork.

 3. In a separate large mixing  bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon & salt.

3. Add pecans to the egg white mixture. Stir to coat the nuts evenly

4. Toss the egg coated pecans into the sugar mixture & stir until coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet

 

 

5. Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes

P.S. I also made several batches of these with 1/2 the sugar & they turned out PERFECTLY sweet!