granola and gossip girl

With J-Cat out of town for the week, not a whole lot of cooking is happening in my house. As he so accurately predicted, my meals this week have centered on rice, eggs, and that "weird dried pork stuff". That's not to say that I abandon my interest in tasty things when I'm alone, as rice, eggs, and weird dried pork stuff happen to be some of my favorite things. I just must admit that sometimes it's nice to take a break from cooking, especially when it is 90 degrees in late September. I did make some homemade blueberry granola the other day, though, to take to work and sprinkle on my yogurt for breakfast. It was my first foray into granola making and it was not entirely successful, though it was tasty enough. To start with, when trying to get my canister of oats down from the over-fridge shelf, it completely overturned, lid flying off, and about 32 ounces of oats went flying all over my kitchen. Opaw thought this was fascinating. I was not amused. In any case, my issue with the end result was that I think it cooked at too high a temperature and was on the verge of a burnt flavor. I think the key to granola is a really really low temperature and perhaps not spreading it quite as thinly on the baking sheet.

In other J-Cat-is-out-of-town news, it's all about "Gossip Girl" in my house right now. I really thought that I would hate this show, but I can't help it, I love a stupid soapy high school show about bitchy rich kids. Unfortunately, it was revealed in last night's episode that the "not as rich" family lives in Williamsburg. Like the neighborhood needed any more mocking. They must also be pretty retarded since they keep taking the Brooklyn Bridge to Williamsburg when coming from the Upper East Side.

Granola recipe after the jump:

Nutty Blueberry Granola
Adapted from cdkitchen.com

Ingredients
4 cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup dried blueberries (raisins, craisins, or any other dried fruits of your choice)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. In a bowl mix the oats, nuts, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. In a saucepan warm the oil and honey. Whisk in vanilla.

Carefully pour the liquid over the oat mixture. Stir gently with a wooden spoon; finish mixing by hand. Spread granola in a 15x10 inch baking sheet. Bake 40-50 minutes until golden brown, stirring carefully every 10 minutes. Transfer granola-filled pan to a rack to cool completely. Stir in dried fruit. Seal granola in an airtight container or self-sealing plastic bag. Store at room temperature for 1 week or in the freezer for 3 months.