The Granola Recipe

Emily’s Baked Granola
Modified from The Kripalu Cookbook

6 cups rolled oats
1 ½ cups pumpkin seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1 ½ sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped
2 cups blanched almonds, chopped or in slivers
2 cups shredded coconut

½ cup barley malt
¼ cup honey
1/3 cup canola oil
1 ¼ cup maple syrup
2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
A little cinnamon
A little salt

Chopped dates
Raisins or currents

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine all the wet ingredients. Add the wet mixture to the dry and combine well.

Spread the mixture into a large baking sheet with tall sides and bake for up to 50 mins. Check the mixture every 20 mins and rotate the mixture in the pan so the bottom doesn’t over brown. When mixture is lightly browned, remove from oven. Let cool for 30 mins. Granola will harden and darken as it cools.

Mix in the raisins and dates and serve immediately or store in airtight, sealable container after it’s cooled completely.

Random things that are probably obvious to everyone but me

* Frozen chicken breasts should always be kept on hand for those dinners you forget to plan

* LL Bean tote bags are fantastic after you've washed and dried them in the dryer

* Yogurt squeezers are really great frozen

* To get a disagreeable toddler to cooperate, singing the same song to them when doing the disagreeable act (changing the diaper, picking up crayons-toys-spilled green beans) is a pavlovian wonder spell

Finding Om in the Brillo Box

I skipped yoga this morning based on the thin excuse that there was too much snow for me to drive. Since I live in Maine and we've had about 30 feet of snow this season already, this is especially weak, but my husband was being sweet and it was my son's first day of swim lessons - how could I abandon them for a sweaty mat and some hip opening contortions?

So, instead, I made them omelets. Recently I read this article in Gourmet about one man's obsessive crusade to make the perfect omelet. I had never thought much about how to make an omelet but now I view it as a work of great art. My first, by the way was a dud, but the second one was much improved.

The real highlight of breakfast wasn't the omelet. It was the cleaning of the omelet pan. Not the inside - that part is Teflon and cleans in a snap. It was scrubbing the bottom. I'm not quite sure how this particular pan had gotten so nasty but it was dark and various shades of dark brown to black. I went in with a vengeance with my new-found-love the Brillo Pad. My mom used to always have some on hand and I remember the joy of getting hard to clean pots clean. This past thanksgiving my sibs and I stayed in the home of a fellow clean freak and discovered her stash of the Brillo. Oh, the joy! I forgot about this ingenious cleaning tool for I had been toiling away with the green scrubby for most of my adult life. I spent a good fifteen minutes putting serious arm muscle into the job, mindful to keep my shoulders relaxed, my hips aligned and my jaw relaxed. I went in circles this way and that and in this cleaning trance, the shiny, gleaming lovely All-clad omelet pan revealed itself to me. I saw my reflection in the bottom and as it happened, Krishna Das was chanting from the stereo. I had found my yoga moment after all.

How to Host a Mom's Group Brunch

One word: Quiche.