Granola!

This smells like cookies while it's cooking. Dangerous. I didn't add in dried fruit since I wanted to be able to change it up depending on what I was doing with the granola. Future batches will involve experiments with other nuts, peanut butter, maple syrup, etc. If you have any good granola ideas, let me know. It's based on a recipe I found in a Disney magazine.


Granola
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup chopped almonds
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup brown sugar
cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup peanut oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup water
1 cup dried fruit
Combine dry ingredients. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients. Combine until well coated. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and bake at 300 for 40-50 minutes until lightly browned. Stir occasionally while cooking. Once the granola is cooled, add dried fruit if using and store.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Langostino

I normally don't post recipe variations, but this one was particularly yummy, so I thought I'd throw it out there. 


Here's the base recipe. Then: 

Remove the mushrooms and the thyme.


Substitute champagne for white wine and vegetable stock for chicken stock.


Add 1 1/2 cups butternut squash and 1 1/2 cups langostino (pre-cooked). I also meant to grate some fresh nutmeg over the whole thing once it was done, but I forgot. You might try it though.