More Capital Reef - and Granola

Charles and Iain, walking through a riverbed. My favorite kinds of hikes: flat and shady. Add some pretty rocks and I'm sold. So Capital Reef wins all my happy awards.

Of course, we chose to stroll through an area behind the ranger station. Check back with me in June when I've slogged up the hot, shiny bits on a warmer day. I might not be quite so enthusiastic.

Today is overcast. Grey, cold, moist and generally not what Utahns like in weather. So I'm making granola.

Partly, it's the weather. Partly, it's the huge bag of rolled oats left in my pantry from a cooking experiment gone wrong several months ago. When you have too many rolled oats the best thing to do is make some granola. Breakfast: covered. Pantry: bulging a bit less. House: smells nice.

So that's the task. I mixed two recipes today, one from this blog and one from Use Real Butter. The basic formula goes like this:

• 6 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 to 3/4 cups fat (I used a stick of butter and a little oil today)
• 1/2 to 3/4 cups sweet (I used maple syrup and honey today, in the same proportions as the butter and oil above- 1/2 cup of the first, 1/4 cup of the second)
• Some nuts and stuff (I had almonds in the freezer, plus half a cup of old peanuts plus some leftover Brazil nuts and weird seeds (flax? Pepitas? I dunno) in a bag of trail mix. Just toss it in. Who cares?)
• Some dried fruit for later. I have dried cranberries and a tiny bit of other stuff from that trail mix. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm sure it will be fine.

So you mix all the stuff except the fruit, spread it on a sheet pan (with a silpat if you value your time and don't want to scrub for the next week), and bake it at a little less than 350 (I'm using 315 this time because my old recipe says 300 and Jen says 350) for 30 minutes.

Wham. Done. Granola for brekkie this week.