Granola as one of those things I didn't really give much thought to for many years. It looked kind of gross at a glance, was never kept in the house growing up, and I always made the assumption that you had to be somewhat of a dirty hippie to enjoy it. The fact that we referred to said dirty hippies as 'granolas' probably didn't help it's cause. Oh to be young and uninformed...
I think my first actual enjoyable encounter with granola was of all places...the culinary mecca that is McDonald's. For reasons I still can't totally comprehend, I signed up for a part time job there my senior year. Probably because I needed some college cash and in my microscopic home town, there were about 3 options for part-time employment; and I don't think my parents would have been thrilled with me working the graveyard shift at Sheetz.
The stories from the 8 months I spent working there are ridiculous, hilarious, sad, and sometimes even unbelievable and could really be the topic of a totally separate and unrelated blog.
Working in fast food is certainly something I will never forget, and even beneficial in the greater sense of being a better human being, but I'm even more glad it was short-lived. I literally did cartwheels to my car through the parking lot the last night before I left for college.
One story that comes to mind was an evening that I decided be helpful and change the ketchup bag in the back that needed to be inserted to a dispenser on the wall. I had no idea what I was doing. Zero.
This thing was somewhere between 3-4 gallons and while I was pretty scrappy back then, a 4 gallon bag of ketchup isn't exactly light. Somewhere during this process, I apparently poked a hole in the bag. Through a series of cloudy events that occurred in what had to be less than 60 seconds, somehow the bag was punctured, the cap over the pour spout had come off and there was ketchup squirting all over me like some sort of fast-food geyser. As you may or may not know, ketchup is also very slippery. Before long I was sprawled out on the floor rolling around in a pool of ketchup unable to stand up, all the while the bag still squiring. Others tried to help, but they too just ended up falling down in the floor. The whole thing was very 3 Stooges. It's amazing we all didn't end up in the ER with worker's comp injuries. Although I think this was after our ER started closing at 10 p.m. Maybe that's why we didn't go. Another reason we were all very fortunate that another co-worker managed to catch himself right before he went headlong into a deep fryer one night before we closed.
Anyway, after evenings like this (and there were many), if there were any of those fun fruit and yogurt parfaits that were going to expire before the next day, I would help myself. I have always been a big fan of yogurt and the extra crunch of granola was a welcomed one. So much so, that I now make my own. Eating it is still soothing, even if I don't smell like a walking Heinz factory or have a job that requires I dip myself in de-greaser nightly.
Granola has a ton of flexibility, but this is one of the recipes that I've found to be most successful.
3 c. Old Fashioned Oats
3/4 c. Honey
1/4 c. Wheat Flour
1 tbs. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Ginger
1 tsp. Nutmeg
2 tbs. Fresh Orange Juice
2 tsp. Orange Zest
1 tbs. Vanilla Extract
2 tsp. Canola Oil
Mix the old fashioned oats, wheat flour, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a bowl. Mix the honey, vanilla, orange juice, orange zest and canola oil in a separate bowl until combined and pour into dry ingredients. Mix until the liquid is absorbed and distributed and spread out to bake on a cookie sheet. Cook at 250 degrees for around an hour. Cool it on the pan and store in an airtight container. My favorite way to eat it is still on vanilla yogurt with fruit, but this also works as a cereal or even on ice cream.
Even if you don't like granola, if you like the house to smell good, this is a good way to do it. There's something about the smell cinnamon and orange juice. The people at Glade should really look into it.
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