Granola Night Marathon

It was December 21, my Christmas shopping wasn't done, I hadn't finished sending out my Christmas cards, I hadn't bought any food for the big day or baked a single cookie but I was determined to make recipe #96, Granola (pg. 316). Kid had her Christmas Concert at school that night, it was 8 p.m. and we were just getting started and I was beginning to think that my priorities were a little screwed up. Okay they were really twisted.

Let's back up a minute. December 1st I had the BRILLIANT idea that it would be great if I could get to 100 recipes by Christmas. The only problem was that I was only on #83 and I had a very busy 24 days coming up. By Dec. 12, I had only progressed to #89 and the following weekend was a loss since we would be visiting relatives the next state over on Saturday, and on Sunday the kid's Brownie troop was going to see the Nutcracker. The Sunday night and Monday night before Christmas I got a lot done but I still had 5 recipes to complete before Dec. 25. Tuesday I was watching my applesauce loving niece and that night was the Christmas Concert I mentioned above (she plays the violin). There was much to cook and very little time to do it in.

So, with my family looking at me from across the kitchen island like I had really lost my mind, I pulled out the ingredients for the granola. Even though they thought I was nuts, I do think they had fun helping me make it. We took turns dumping the ingredients onto a cookie sheet (the kind with sides): 2 cups of quick cook oats, 3/4 cup shredded coconut, 1 heaped cup of mixed nuts (I used a mixture of walnuts and almonds), 1/4 cup of mixed seeds (all I had was sunflower), 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Then Kid and I drizzled 5 tablespoons of maple syrup and 5 tablespoons of olive oil on top. Gave it a good stir and popped in the oven (preheated to 350). The Granola does require a bit of babysitting, you're suppose to stir every 5 minutes or so and cook for a total of 25 to 30 minutes. So we stuck close by the kitchen, I actually worked on writing blog entries in between hopping up and stirring the granola. When it was nice and golden, we let it cool and then added 1 1/2 cups of dried fruit (I used raisins and Craisins which were very festive).

We made 3 batches that night then packaged them in pretty little jars, tied ribbons around them and delivered them to neighbors and friends the next day.

So, do you think I reached my goal? Stay tuned….

Merry Christmas everyone!
Love,
Amy

Recipes cooked: 96
Recipes left: 77
Days left: 74