No, I didn’t just run out of ideas this week. It has been a week of travel, of remembrance, of the worst sleep in a hotel I have ever had (which is saying something), and of recovery. My family said goodbye, in the Lord, to my paternal grandfather this week and all my attempts at tribute have fallen short to the point that I refuse to hit publish. Turns out, I am not a good biographer. You want a smashing metaphor about your relationship with your family pet? Sure. I can probably do that. But to tell the great stories of what God has done in and around the life of an individual that I have loved and respected from my youth? I’m all thumbs. So instead, we are going to talk about granola today.
In truth, both of my grandmothers were (are) more intelligent homemakers than I am and would just go buy granola rather than do what I am about to suggest to you. Alas, I still have a lot to learn and while I also buy granola, I thoroughly enjoy the smell of homemade granola baking in the oven and it makes an inexpensive and versatile treat, stored in a Mason jar on your countertop, and so today I offer you my favorite recipe for the cereal of superior grandfathers in the hopes that it will feed and uplift the superior people in your life.
Heat your oven to 300 degrees.
2 cups old fashioned (you know, as opposed to new-fangled) oats
1/2 cup yellow millet (yes, an odd buy, but it is actually my favorite part of this recipe)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup oil (use what you’ve got. I tend to use olive oil, grapeseed or avocado)
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
Stir up the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, mix it up happy-like. Spread your granola on a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, nice and even, and bake for 45-60 minutes, stirring about every 15, until it is golden brown and crispy at the edges. Let it cool, break it apart, and now we have fun…
If I might be so bold as to suggest that you take a Sunday morning and honor my grandfather, then perhaps you ought to enjoy this granola topped with blueberries and MnM’s (Valentine MnM’s are out in stores and dare I say, they taste better than the normal candies? It is a fact. You cannot argue with facts). Or perhaps I have not yet shaken you loose of your perverse attachment to the persistently “health conscious”. in which case, feel free to heap this atop your Greek yogurt (but do us a solid and make sure it is full fat Greek yogurt, will ya?) with berries and a drizzle of honey. Or just munch it by the handful on a Sunday afternoon while you enjoy the rest you have in Christ, and contemplate with me the certainty of our hope, of our coming resurrection, the ultimate rest that we we are given a taste, a glimpse of every Sabbath.
Taste and see that the Lord is good… that’s right. Put MnM’s on your granola.
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