Granola

Lester made me a birthday cake! It's lovely and delicious and will come car-camping with you with grace. It will also come back from camping ready to be eaten for breakfast.

The syrup from candying the orange slices is worth making on its own—it's already found its way into John's old-fashioneds and this granola. The rest of the granola, using these ratios, is just sweet enough and nicely nutty. This was my first granola attempt, but don't be surprised if there are more granolas in our future.

(Sorry for the smudges in the centers of those photos, I just checked and I do indeed have a fingerprint smack in the middle of my lens. My bad.)

1/2 c raw whole hazelnuts
1/2 c raw shelled pumpkin seeds
3 c oats
1/2 c shredded coconut
2 T sugar
dash of salt
6 T cardamom-honey-orange syrup
3 T canola oil

Preheat the oven to 300F. Toast the hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds in a frying pan, then roughly chop the hazelnuts. Combine the nuts, seeds, oat, coconut, sugar, and salt in a bowl, and toss with the syrup and oil until everything is coated and clumping slightly. Spread onto one or two rimmed baking sheets and bake for 25 minutes or until golden and slightly crunchy, stirring once or twice during baking. Stir again on the baking sheet(s) then let cool completely. The recipe suggests adding chocolate bits, which I'm sure would be wonderful. But we enjoyed it chocolate-less by the handful, in yogurt, or with milk.