And yet I do. I make a batch of you, and I sing your praises while we eat every last crumb of you, promising to make a fresh batch every few weeks until I'm senile. Then we move onto other foods, and the next thing I know, it's eight months later and I'm suddenly remembering how nice it would be to eat granola. And since store-bought granola is, as far as I'm concerned, priced out of reach of most mere mortals, this means we simply don't eat granola.
So now I have a solution. I've just made myself a new grocery-type list, only this one is not for shopping. In the spirit of continuing to move towards a "making" mentality and away from a "buying" mentality, this morning I started a second food list on the fridge for things I need to make sure I always have made. So far it only has three things on it (because I have a terrible memory and can't think of what else I make to keep around): bread, chicken stock, and granola.
Bread is a no-brainer since I make about 95% of our bread. Chicken stock is somewhat obvious, but I don't pay too much attention when we're running out--I just make it every time I roast a chicken. So I'll do a better job keeping up on that so there's never a need to reach for that last 1/2 square of bouillon I have in the cupboard. And now, granola. This batch made three big jars, but this time when it runs out, I'll remember to make it. As the weeks go by and I start thinking of things I make or would like to make to keep around (as opposed to making on the spot, for a meal), I'll add them to the list. Can I tell you how excited I am about this?
I realize that for many people, this is probably the most obvious thing in the world. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this on my blog, but cooking is a relatively new thing in my life. Sure, I thought I was cooking, but up until 2 1/2 years ago, I didn't even realize that humans actually made risotto from scratch or that they roasted whole chickens. I didn't know you could make pancakes without pancake mix. Feel free to laugh. In addition to cooking, the planning of cooking is also new(ish) to me, something I only started once I became a mother, but still need improvement on, hence my ridiculous excitement about my "to have made on hand" list.
For those interested, the granola above is an adaptation of the basic granola recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
, one of my go-to cookbooks. Here's the general gist of what I included:6 cups rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup coconut
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon cinnamon
heaping 1/2 teaspoon ginger
heaping 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
heaping 1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup maple syrup
pinch salt
In the interest of making this affordable (still much more so than store-bought granola), I did the following:
- cut down the coconut from 1 cup to 3/4 cup
- used the tiniest amount of dried cranberries since unsweetened cranberries are not only hard to find, they're also expensive. I added just enough to get a little sense that they were there.
- used the minimum amount of sweetener, 1/2 cup of maple syrup (he calls for 1/2 cup to 1 cup). I made up for the lost flavor by adding lots of spices. It's still so delicious that I'm certain I can go even lower next time, so I'll perhaps try 1/4 cup and even more spices next time.
- used only 1 cup of nuts and included inexpensive seeds for the rest of the "crunch" factor
22 comments:
I do exactly the same thing when it comes to granola! It's not hard to make, and yet I rarely make it. Perhaps I will put it on the calendar for later in the week. =)
Oh--I meant to add the fact that it's so easy to make! It's true. I made it this evening while heating up leftovers for dinner, playing with Bojey, and organizing the kitchen. It's not even remotely hard to make, so that doesn't explain why I never make it.
I just thought of a fourth item for my list: vinaigrette. We go through quite a lot of it, and while it's very easy to make, I feel annoyed when I realize we are out of it the very minute we're sitting down to dinner.
Ha, how far you've come in such a short time :) I too only truly started to cook, or really cook from scratch, after becoming a mother.
Are the oats completely uncooked? I've never made my own but I am tempted to. I guess maybe they get softer due to the maple syrup? (ok, am I sounding silly now?)
And, as for vinaigrettes... we just use olive oil, wine vinegar (or balsamic) and a touch of salt. No need to make in advance.
Nadia--yep, they start out completely uncooked. They get a little crisp from the baking, and they do get softer from the maple syrup. No--not a silly question at all. None of the ingredients were precooked.
As far as vinaigrette, that's what we end up doing when we don't have any made, but I so much prefer it with dijon mustard, freshly minced garlic, and a few other herbs! It's so, so good. If we had any in the fridge, I'd dip some carrots in it right now :).
Oooooh sounds so delicious! I've never made my own but I am now inspired by you to give it a crack! I'm also one of those new to cooking types, so I definitely see where you're coming from! :)
Mexican food is a serious cornerstone of our diets over here. (Perhaps it was those five years of living in Tucson?) So we go through a lot of beans. Now, canned beans are pretty darn cheap, so for me, this is more a buying local/heirloom issue for me, but I try to cook most of our beans from dry, now.
Beans were really my aha! moment -- that I could make things from scratch and it just wasn't that hard. Of course, we still keep a variety of canned beans on hand, as seven can (vegetarian) chili is one of our go-to crap-I-forgot-to-plan-dinner winter meals.
I love homemade bread and chicken stock! I have a long ways to go with menu planning...
Ah yes, homemade granola. I haven't made it in years and it is so much better that storebought. I will have to remember to make some.
I've been thinking about impvoving my turkey stock and bean making skills over this summer. Both leave a lot to be desired and both we use a lot.
I would love to have bread, hummus, yogurt and granola made and on-hand at all times, but I've run out of steam on that sort of thing--we've been getting bread at a bakery and we either eat the yogurt too fast or too slow to make more and the hummus--that only happened once or twice. Oh, and the granola is a summer thing around here, but I like the sounds of your recipe!
greenie--we, too, love Mexican food. I lived in California for five years, and I'm sure that helped cement the love I already had for it. I'd in fact like to add enchilada sauce to my list--thanks for helping me think of it! I have a delicious recipe for it, and I've wanted to make some in bulk and freeze it for years. Also, salsa! If I decide I'm brave enough to try canning this summer, I'll definitely can salsa.
Kathryn--turkey stock sounds wonderful. Do you cook turkey that often? I pretty much just make it once a year. It's never occurred to me to make it other times, but it's so yummy--I should.
Andrea--hummus! Of course! I have yet to try making yogurt. I know it's supposed to be so easy, delicious, and economical, but for some reason I'm scared of it. Have you had good luck with it?
Thumbs up on the list of 'to make', Jaimie! That's awesome.
I make granola in spurts too...I made so much to give away at Christmas, that I haven't thought about it until now.
I keep homemade pancake mix on hand as much as possible. Also homemade syrups, pesto (frozen), salad dressing, pizza sauce & dough (frozen), pie dough, stock, and ....well jam and stuff like that. Preserves.
Right now if the fun time of the year where we can binge on jam, preserves and frozen veg because we know a new season is just around the corner!
Thanks for posting this, I will definitely try this!!! I also appreciate your variation on making the ingredient list more affordable.
While I cook, I am not the type that makes large batches of things, it's more a space (or lack of) than any other reason.
Yep. We like to roast a whole turkey every 4-6 weeks. They can be hard to find in the supermarkets outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas around here. But I was able to find two local farmers over the past year so I am hopeful we will be well stocked this year.
There is little better than a fresh turkey sandwich. :-)
Regarding the Intentional Community: would that be the Sunshine Ranch? Hubba and I happened upon it when we were out for a drive recently. We weren't sure what it was so I had to look it up.
Yum!!! I hope I get a moment to do this- school is sooooo busy!
Yes! I have the same relationship with granola. Finally made another batch this week, and apparently my 2yo is Major Fan, so I imagine that will help me remember, because YUM!!!
Just found your blog. :) Very fun.
Yes, beans, I keep on hand. I cook them in huge batches and then freeze them in baggies.
Jeannette--I'm so happy to have you here! Freezing beans is a great idea. Does it impact the texture?
Jaimie, (sorry to be getting back just), I don't think freezing them affects the texture, but I tend to overcook a bit, bc I tend to do the cook them forever method bc I'm always afraid of undercooking them. So very unscientific.
and I'm loving your blog. :) I added you to my feed reader, which is saying a lot, bc I rarely add blogs now bc it's so huge. :-P
Jeannette--thanks for coming back and answering! I think I will try that then. I'm still not that great with beans. I actually find that I under-cook them, and then they're just really unpleasant to eat. I also tend to forget to soak them ahead of time, and then I just end up cooking something else. I think I'll try to freeze some this week. Thanks for the tip! And thanks so much for the compliment on my blog :). I know what you mean about a full feed-reader--I'm in the same boat.
PS Jeannette--I love your t-shirt yarn. I couldn't figure out how to comment on your blog, so I thought maybe you'd see this here.
Oh, the beans. I never remember to soak the beans. You can do a quick soak...bring them to boil, then turn it off and let it sit for an hour, then change the water and proceed to cook per directions (usually bring to boil then simmer for 3-4 hours).
And apparently, if you throw them in some kind of tomato-y thing (say, chili) thinking they'll cook a bit longer, they won't, bc tomato stops the cooking process of beans (first hand experience).
Sorry about my blog. it's in design flux. :-P Help, I married a programmer.
whoops that was me up there (aka diber) signed in with a different profile. Stupid google...
Hey how are you doing? I just wanted to stop by and say that its been a pleasure reading your blog. I have bookmarked your website so that I can come back & read more in the future as well. plz do keep up the quality writing
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