In all my years of baking, I don’t think there’s any one food I’ve tinkered with more than granola. Actually, that’s a lie. Let me try again. Besides chocolate chip cookies, there's no food I've tinkered with more than granola. But granola! The goal: delicious, crunchy yet chunky enough to eat on its own, and not just dessert masquerading as a healthy snack. Doesn’t sound too hard. But… the best tasting is inevitably the worst for you (not to name names...Panera copycat recipe). Consistency should not be a trail mix of sugared oats and nuts and fruit. There should be chunks you can hold without crumbling. So, when I stumbled upon a granola so good the restaurant sends guests home with their own little prepackaged personal sized portion, I had to give it a try. And to document my trials so when I inevitably forget the recipe, I'm writing this post so it’s here waiting and ready. (And maybe, you, too, have been seeking that perfect granola recipe??)
I’m generally not one to reknit patterns, reread books or rewatch movies. That said, once in awhile I come across one of the aforementioned that warrants repeating. And repeating. And repeating. I can’t get enough. It’s the reason I’ve watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation 400 times, memorized most episodes of Sex and the City and Seinfeld and it’s the reason there is always at least one Elizabeth Zimmermann’s baby sweater on the needles. Mostly the Baby Surprise Jacket (the surprise gets me every time. Seriously, how does that strange stretch of fabric become a sweater?!), but also the February Baby (or Lady!) Sweater . There’s just something about that gull stitch pattern that makes this sweater fly off the needles. There’s enough to it to keep my interest, but it’s not so taxing I can’t multitask or memorize the pattern. And the garter stitch yoke / lace body combination makes the sweater appropriate for any season, isn’t too girly, and has that little extra somethi