SNOW DAY!

i am not a fan of snow but i am today because it means no school!  i was supposed to have a test today, but rather than study extra hard to ensure i get a 100 tomorrow, i decided to make apple cinnamon granola.

i had heard so much about Christie's boyfriend Charlie's granola (and homemade yogurt!) that he served at Christie's birthday brunch this weekend that i decided to make my own!  i didn't have a recipe but i had a basic idea of what it would need:  oats, fruit and nuts, liquid sweetener like honey or maple syrup (or agave nectar!!), oil, spice, and some salt and sugar.  i'm sure there are more variations on the theme but i really just wanted to play with stuff in my pantry.  it's clearly far too cold to go outside.

the inspiration behind my granola was these local dried apples gary bought me from red jacket orchards' stand in the union square greenmarket.  i love eating them by themselves -- they are the perfect snack!! -- and i thought they might be EVEN better in some granola...  

i just recently tricked out our ikea spice rack with some awesome spices from kalustyan's, including some whole cinnamon which i thought would pair nicely with the apples.  unfortunately we don't have any nuts in the house right now so i had to omit those.  i also had a great jar of local honey from the hamptons honey company that i knew would be perfect for this application...

as you can probably see by my improvisational granola, i'm not a recipe person so i don't remember how much of anything i put in

recipe:

2-3 c rolled oats (or enough make up the bulk of the granola)

1.5c dried apples (i chopped mine into bite-sized pieces)

1 tbsp brown sugar

one stick of cinnamon, ground fine

pinch of salt

oil and honey (roughly equal portions of each)

preheat oven to 350.  mix together everything but the oil and honey in a bowl.  then mix oil and honey separately in another bowl and pour over rolled oats mixture.  mix together and spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet.  bake in oven til brown and crispy (30 minutes?), using a spatula every 10 minutes or so to move the mixture.

unfortunately, because i was too busy multitasking (apparently, blogging and baking simultaneously is a bad idea!!  who knew???) and the granola came out a little too charmander... but still is really delicious

can't wait to have some over some fage!!! mmmmmm