June 19, 2008

Food For Thought This Morning
I'm not much of one for posting recipes. In my experience, when you want a recipe you go looking for it. When you don't want one, its just visual noise on a blog. So, sorry or "sor" as my nephew once said. But this morning I am knitting lace and baking and thinking about synthesis and patterns.

For Handmade Granola get yo'self a huge roasting implement. I favor cast iron myself. But we have very little cast iron left in our kitchen. Its bad for my marriage, this iron. Because my husband isn't southern. And if you are not southern, you are congenitally unable to understand the iron which has been cast for cooking. I'm not bitter. I've been happily married for nigh unto 13 years. I choose my beloved husband over pots and pans any day. So, grab your stainless steal wok (sigh) and dump in oats. Add all the left over Cheerios and stale boxed cereal in your cupboards. Add salt, honey, molasses, and oil. Add Lots and Lots and Lots of yummy nuts. We like almonds and sunflower seeds. Mix, adjust all components for taste, and roast at 350 for an hour or so, ish. This whole recipe is delightfully ish. (Which reminds me, go find the book Ish and read it. Its about art. You need to read it. We all need to read it yearly.)

Warning, do not add dried fruit. If you have to have dried fruit (say for instance because you are deeply flawed that way) you should add the evil dried fruit at the end. If you add and then roast your evil fruited raisins or apricots or what have you, they will transform into foul glass. You have been warned.

Now go pick up your knitting and knit a few rows. Then go mix your granola and return it to the oven. Then knit some more. Then turn and roast some more. Then knit some more. Then check to see if your granola is roasted to perfectionishness. Decide, perhaps, it needs to go just a hair longer. Return it to the oven and turn your oven off.

Settle yourself with your knitting. Think about how helpful it is to have a pattern to follow. But then, how we are so frequently broken and mired in our patterns. And how sometimes the best thing you can do, as hurtful as it seems and indeed can feel, is to refuse the pattern. Break your thread and go do something else.

6 comments:

candyn said...

If I could knit something like that beautiful lace, I would be simply a knitter and abandon all other silly half-hobbies I attempt.

The granola sounds really good. But since I am a rebel I think I would toss in some evil dried cherries after the roasting part. :) Oh, and thanks for clearing up as to why I am unable to keep cast iron properly. Obviously it isn't in my genes, much guilt relieved.

MOM #1 said...

Uhhh... if I could knit, I wouldn't have to blog to keep myself busy, LOL.

That granola looks delicious. I'll have to pass that recipe onto Mom #2. Anything that takes more than 30 minutes falls into her department because I am a lot of things, but patient with a long attention span is simply not one of them.

I guess I must be the last living Southern Bell who doesn't own any cast iron. *SIGH*

K said...

Holy Shit, Mom #1! Please tell me you have read Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady. Puhleeeese say you've read it. Lordy, it is funny. Now, it is in the old white southern tradition of funny. But still, pretty damn funny. I think you might like it.

: )

Heather said...

My husband has problems with cast iron too, specifically when I don't wash it. (As every cast-iron lover knows, it's the ancestors of food cooked in them for years that make everything taste so good.) Rinse it out with some hot water, dry it well, occasionally wipe it with a little oil and just Leave It On There. He's afraid he might get some horrible form of food poisoning and die a terrible death. He said, "Anything that can rust in the back of the cupboard, get scrubbed out with a brillo pad and oiled to use AGAIN is NOT something you should cook food in." Sigh. So the cast iron has been retired to the "camping pans" category, when dear husband is less likely to freak about *dirty* things.

K said...

Well it happened. I knew if I said something ugly about posting recipes I would find about 25 interesting ones about 25 minutes later. Oh well. I am happy to be wrong. Posting recipes is lovely.

Mommylion, thanks.
Heather, I feel for you. Isn't it odd how some folks just don't get it?
Mommylion, sorry. You can come visit and I'll make you an honorary southern belle and give you a cast iron crown one day.

Anonymous said...

You've got me rolling here at this post! First fantastic recipe! Can't wait to try it.

My dh would 100% agree with you on the evils of some dried fruit! It's only worst if it's covered in dried yoghurt. *he cringes* I'm not sure I think it's all vile though. *raises eyebrow in contemplation of depraved dried fruit* My dh would have to disagree with the lack of cast ironness going on in the house. But alas, the things we give up for our loved ones. *sigh*

You're inspiring me to post some photos of my current knitting project. It's taking forever since my son is at that whacking and pulling apart age. It's sitting up on my bookshelf for save keeping!

Thanks for the laughs!