Cook in the Kitchen #1

Well, I tried to start a weekly series so I would be updating my blog at least once a week, but that (Happenings Grab Bag) failed rather miserably :-P Partly because my happenings come in bunches I guess. I still want to be blogging at least once a week, but I couldn't think of anything that I did weekly that would be blog-worthy. That is, until this morning, when I realized that I bake breakfast once a week, and I usually try something new every week. So I thought I'd give my culinary endeavors a chance at being my weekly series. Presenting Cook in the Kitchen! :-)

This week, I tried something I had never done before - making granola. It's actually pretty easy to make, even in large batches (which is a big advantage in my book!).

WI tripled the recipe so I had three sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cups of honey. Yum! :-)

Melting the butter and honey together.

Sticky goodness! I brought it to a boil to caramelize it a bit so that the granola would clump better and added some vanilla for extra flavor.

I poured that mixture over about 12 cups of oats and a few cups of pecan chips while my lovely assistant (Mom :-) ) stirred it in.

I spread the mixture out on several trays to bake. . . 

. . . and after about 8 minutes at 400 degrees, they were done! Some of the tops were a little browner than they probably should have been, but overall it was a successful experiment. It clumped better than I thought it would, so that's good.

Looking forward to breakfast on Monday!

~ Mac