In The Kitchen Sundays

I decided to try another recipe from Baked and it did not let me down. This time I made the Easy Homemade Granola. It is delish!!!!

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 tbs plus 1 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup each: almonds, hazelnuts, golden raisins, dried cherries

Abbreviated instructions: Combine the first three ingredients in one bowl and the next 4 ingredients in another bowl, then combine. Using hands mix to ensure all oats are coated with mixture.

Spread mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 325.

Then, add the almonds and bake another 5 minutes. Then, add hazelnuts and bake another 10 minutes. (My granola is sans hazelnuts because I couldn't find them in the grocery store.) Each time you remove the baking sheet from the oven, flip and mix the mixture with a spatula.

Let granola cool on the baking sheet. Then add raisins and cherries (or dried cranberries in this case), toss and store in an airtight container up to a week.

Voila.

Cooking/baking in the kitchen would not be complete without one of the girls or both sitting at my feet just waiting for me to drop something. She wasn't so lucky today!

While the granola cooled I whipped up a batch of hummus in my new Kitchen Aid Food Processor that I got for Christmas. I'm loving it! Way better than my circa 1980's processor!

The hummus recipe I use is from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I have made this recipe a number of times and it is so simple.

Ingredients:

2 cups canned chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)

6 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)

2 tbs water or liquid from the chickpeas

8 dashes Tabasco sauce

When I first made hummus, I searched high and lowfor tahini. I went to several stores with no luck. I finally found it at our grocery store on the ethnic aisle (in the above picture next to the lemons). Over the years the price has gone up. It is currently running $7.50 a can. But, you can get several batches of hummus out of it and it keeps for quite a while in the fridge.

Using a can opener, remove the lid. The tahini will have separated so take the time to stir and combine all the ingredients. This can take several minutes. When you open the can, the paste will have settled to the bottle leaving the oils on the top.

After stirring the tahini it should resemble a paste.

The two lemons I squeezed generated more than 6 tbs of juice, so do yourself a favor measure the liquid before adding to the other ingredients. Or your hummus will be too lemony.

Place all ingredients in the food processor bowl and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed.

We like to each hummus with toasted pita bread drizzled with olive oil or Stacy's pita chips.

While writing this post, Elliot wore herself out removing the innards of her stuffed animal.