Baby, it's cold outside...

We got snowed out of church today, so we are having a quiet day around the house. Lots of couch fort building, bread baking, sock knitting (see previous entry... woo hoo!), napping, reading and other unexpected-day-off-fun!

It poured all night long and then started snowing early in the morning, then warmed up again, so we have a bog in the backyard right now. The picture isn't necessarily that informative, but suffice it to say that all of the dark patches are really, really, really soggy ground. Practically a pond, in fact.

The bread I'm baking is called granola bread from the King Arthur Whole Grain cookbook, and if it's any good, I'll post the recipe. I made a different granola bread a couple of weeks ago, made from a flawed recipe in The Soup and Bread Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon (yes, that's really the author's name...). The recipe had WILDLY too much liquid for the amount of dry ingredients, so I had to add a lot more flour to make a viable dough, but it was very tasty. This is a much leaner dough (the other was enriched with butter, eggs, whole milk, etc.) and the I worry that the recipe might go too far in the other direction because the dough seems a bit dry, and is rising really S-L-O-W-L-Y but I'm hoping for the best!

In the meantime, I'll share my new favorite granola recipe, from the same King Arthur cookbook:

Maple Granola

In a large bowl, mix together:

7 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (I subbed a couple of couple of cups of rolled wheat and barley for some of the oats this last time, and it was good)

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1 cup chopped almonds

1 cup coconut

salt

In a smaller bowl, whisk

1 cup real maple syrup

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla

Pour over dry mixture and mix thoroughly (your hands are the best bet here)

Pour onto two rimmed cookie sheets and bake in a 250 degree oven for two hours, stirring twice.

Let cool thoroughly, then mix in up to 3 cups of dried fruit (I've used raisins, cherries, craisins and apricots). Store in an airtight container or freeze.

Easy, easy, easy, and it's a breakfast cereal that I KNOW is wholesome. Oh, this last time I made it, I had a serving or two of grapenuts left and I tossed that into the cooled mix, just for another crunchy element.

Well, I was going to post a photo of the Daddyman napping, but the computer downloading really slowly, so I'll have mercy! Later!