So our title for this post has nothing today with the content of this blog except it randomly popped into my mind. The rest of this blog is random as well so I guess that is our theme (not the assassination of Roman emperors).
- One of our most recent date nights involved attending a film series feature films from WWII. We settled into to the back row and shared a box of popcorn with each other while watching Anchors Away. The rest of the crowd at the film was of a slightly different age than us -- by an average of 50 years older. Arthur and I have always known that we are "old fogies" (with the most respect for our readers of the older generation) deep down inside and often find activities that attract a more mature crowd to be to our liking.
- I am one of the newest members of the bell choir at our church. Frankly, the bell choir is one of the best parts of joining a Methodist church. I am holding strong with the D and E bells as we prepare for Easter services.
- Our evening walks have returned in full force thanks to spring weather and longer evenings. We head out after work, talk about what we did at work, if we learned anything, and then discuss the major issues of state. Arthur often tells me that I am like a border collie and am always happier after a good, long walk-- it's true.
- We are counting down the days until Arthur gets his new screen printer at work-- 4 more days. We might even have a party to mark this momentous occasion.
- A few weeks ago I planted our tomato seeds and have seedlings happily growing in our basement under the grow lights. My boss and I both planted tomato seeds about the same time so I have been doing some friendly bragging about how well our seedlings are looking.
- We recently attended a wedding shower (a couples shower which is why Arthur had to join me) for two of our friends who are getting married this summer. Our table included Arthur and the husband of the matron of honor who are in our Bible study group. He is a high school English teacher so the discussion around our table focused on Mark Twain and writing Huckleberry Finn as well as Arthur trying to determine how he could make a machine to unwrap gifts that would be more efficient. The guys didn't seem to be interested in ooohing and awwwwing over the KitchenAid mixer or the latest model of crock pots. Why do we invite men to showers-- who is kidding themselves to think that they will have a good time?
- Arthur is currently watching clips on YouTube from Troy. I think he has decided to be more manly and warrior-like so tomorrow he is going to shout in is deepest, growly, man voice, " I am Arthur, slayer of inefficient processes, crusher of souls. Look on me in despair. Just beyond this door lies my destiny. Do not forget how menacing I am, I'm a lion. (So this loses a lot in translation being typed than hearing him shout it-- it made me tremble in fear.)
- I had a patient this morning who is terrified of flying overseas. The main reason is because there are sharks in the ocean and he doesn't want to end up in the ocean with the sharks. Two minutes later he tells me that his wife got him a gift certificate to go skydiving this spring which he is super excited about. I'll take my chances with the sharks if my plane ever goes down versus jumping out of a plane.
- Final randomness-- you are more likely to be murdered by your spouse than be attacked by a shark. Omnia Vincit Amor.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Mud on the Tires
An ordinary weekend at our home consists of going somewhere to spend
some time in the great outdoors now that the weather is getting warmer.
This winter we were blessed with several nice weekends that allowed us
to hike even in January and February. Now for the most part we just
plan on hiking instead of waiting with baited breath to see if the
weather forecast is going to be favorable.
A few weeks ago we headed to Fancy Creek State Park to try out a
new trail. Instead of our normal hike through prairie this trail was
through cedar "forest" and fairly "rocky" on the edge of a lake. For
the most part we had the 6 mile loop of trail to ourselves expect for a
few mountain bikers and one family with kids. Now that I think about it
with most of our hiking we have had the trails to ourselves which is
great since we aren't a big fan of crowds. For this hike we had loaded
packs again but probably the most challenging aspect was the portion of
the trail that was very muddy. We probably ha a few extra pounds of mud
caked onto our boots during our hike. Once we finished our first loop
we had our lunch--everything seems to taste better as a picnic during a
hike since we were so hungry. Overall it was a great training hike--one
of our longest hikes and we felt pretty good (i.e. we were still able to
move) at the end.
This past weekend we headed out to Kanza Prairie, one of our favorite hiking locales. It was the first day of spring and the weather matched. There was quite a crowd out there too. In the Flint Hills each spring there are controlled burns of the grasslands. It looked like the Kanza had been burned earlier in the week. The purpose of burning is to clear out the dead grasses, prevent trees, weeds, and other invasive plants from taking over, and allows new grass shoots to green up quickly. From the top of the hill looking over where the grass had been burned it looked like a different planet-- all charred and black except for the white lime stone rocks strewn over the hillsides. We will have to go back in a few weeks when everything has had a chance to green up. As we were hiking we could see plumes of smoke across the horizon from 5 or 6 other controlled burns in the area. We also found some of the larger hills that we have hiked on so far and I for one need to do more training to get up and down mountains this summer. At least in Kansas it only takes a few minutes to get to the top of the hill and then it is easy going again. Over all I think it was the best we have felt hiking yet. My pack was loaded up but fit well finally. Arthur doesn't seem to be phased by his pack at all. We figured out that we both carry about the same amount of weight for training hikes but my back is 20% of my body weight and Arthur's is 10%-- maybe that is why he skips and prances in circles around me. We are also figuring out what fine tuning needs to happen-- I keep getting blisters so I will have to try different socks and boots while Arthur's pack is rubbing his side which he didn't realize until we were finished. If we had kept going he might have had a gaping flesh wound. We really couldn't think of a better use of our Saturdays right now than being out in nature walking endless miles with one another. We are both suckers for punishment. Omnia Vincit Amor.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
San Diego
Among the many experiences this event provided, travel was by far the most trying. We arrived to work on Monday expecting to leave Kansas City via airplane Monday afternoon headed to Dallas; instead, the airline had already rescheduled our flight for the next day due to the weather in Dallas. Waiting until Tuesday was unconscionable; we had meetings set up for the morning with multiple potential suppliers. Instead we opted to fly to Chicago to Denver to San Diego, putting us in San Diego (theoretically) at 11 p.m. Monday. Ironically, flight delays in Denver kept the pilot who was to fly us to Chicago from arriving in time for us to make our flight to Denver; instead, we spent the night in Chicago and got up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a flight down to Dallas (where, mind you, conditions had cancelled our initial flight). Flying from Chicago was no problem, but when we arrived in Dallas, we where delayed, not by weather, but by a sick stewardess who had to be replaced. We arrived in San Diego at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday; humorously and/or infuriatingly, had we kept our original flight, we would have arrived 4.5 hours earlier.
After scrambling to take in as much as we could with the 3 hours the expo was open that day, we did get in some recreation. We ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant and went to see the Midway aircraft carrier. One thing I was especially looking forward to was seeing large naval ships in the harbor. In all the years I have read about the size of these monsters, I have failed to wrap my mind around the scale of these things. We walked by the Midway, three iron football fields floating in the bay, four stories rising above the surface, three hiding below. Heck, forget the football field, its bigger than the stadium where my high school career took place. And the United States has 10 active carriers today that are just over twice as big!!!We didn't stay especially long; it had been a long day and there was a lot to do the next day. We spent the next day checking out screen printers as well as checking out some of the latest and greatest technology. I picked up some new techniques for testing the value of components in-circuit, which in itself was worth the value of my plane ticket, and drooled over ECD reflow profiling boards (engineers are weird).
We were invited to a wine/beer-tasting party thrown by an equipment manufacturer we have purchased several pieces of equipment from over the years that evening. It was a fascinating event with live musical entertainment and approximately ten staffers doing everything from recommending selections from the extensive wine and craft beer cache to walking around with hors d'oeuvres. The expense of the party halfway made me shake my head; I figured that the company would have to sell 6 pick and place machines as a result of this get together to make the entire enterprise a profitable venture. Regardless, I had a wonderful time speaking with others in the industry.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Family Get Together
Last weekend Alex and I headed to Kansas City to hang out with my side of the family. We spent the weekend staying at my uncle and aunt's home in KC and they were great hosts. The driving force of our get together centered on the Western Farm Show, an annual event where a large amount of equipment is on display. No one in our merry group (comprised of Dad, my uncle, my brother-in-law, and myself; the womenfolk went shopping) actually is currently employed in the agricultural industry, but Dad grew up on a farm and still loves looking and drooling over farm equipment. This sentiment was shared by everyone in our party, with perhaps the caveat that I have never had enough of an interest in farming to educate myself on what half of what we were about to see is actually used for.
In spite of my ignorance, I really enjoyed myself, though I was looking through the eyes of an engineer as opposed to hobbyist. I got a great deal of entertainment looking at a piece of machinery and imagining how it was assembled. It was a reminder of how we are all surrounded by stories, if you have the background to read it. Even though I lacked the background, it was interesting to think that someone very purposefully chose, say, a 4 inch, 3/8 diameter cast iron bolt with 18 threads per inch with a hex head to perform a certain function. Something as simple as a bolt was specifically chosen for its specific characteristics which were meticulously tested (I found a datasheet with 35 pages worth of data on a bolt.)...
While Arthur's background of engineering gave him a lens to view the farm show through, I (Alex) am a physical therapist. My experience and interaction with the agricultural industry through my line of work is that once I find out my patient farms or ranches I know several important things: 1. They will probably be a nice person but they will be a terrible patient. 2. They won't listen if I say to take it easy, don't lift anything, or back off if you start having pain. 3. They are impatient- they wanted to be better two weeks ago and they will get on with planting now matter what. I think it is ironic that farmers are some of my most impatient patients (that's also ironic) since who else waits several months for factors outside their control (weather conditions) to see the fruits of their labor. 4. When I ask what they did since their last appointment that has caused increased pain I don't really want to know that they unloaded a truckload of seed and have back pain, jumped off the tractor in a hurry and tweaked their knee, or got kicked in the shoulder by a steer. Anyway the only thing I need to know about the farm industry is how tall the steps to a combine or tractor are since getting back on the equipment is the chief goal of many of my knee replacement patients.
Therefore I didn't go to the farm show. I actually haven't really been back to Kansas City since I finished up graduate school and I still have several friends in the area I wanted to catch up with. I met my friend and former classmate Anna for brunch at her new home. In school we lived two blocks from each other so we would car pool, go running, or study together. She and her husband recently bought a home about a mile from our old stomping grounds so it was fun to go back and see how the area has changed so quickly in less than 2 years. Over brunch we talked about work, what our classmates are doing, all the wonderful things that young couples without children do with their social lives-- we really decided we like to hang out at home and go to bed early. It was also interesting to get a tour of her home and appreciate her sense of decorating.
This leads into my next stop. An IKEA just opened about 2 miles from where I lived and I have always wanted to go to IKEA for the experience. I talked my former roommate and blogging partner Jules into meeting up and walking me through the IKEA experience. First of all the building is huge and there were a lot of people-- I didn't handle this well when I lived in the city and now I am out of practice. I knew I would love IKEA right away since there were escalators-- riding an escalator is one of the small joys of life. We wandered through the showroom floor following the maze of people and furniture. Since IKEA is a Swedish company many of their products are design for living on a smaller scale in Europe. On of my new interests is understanding how to design small spaces to not feel too small and cluttered and to optimize the use of space. We then perused the shopping floor looking at neat kitchen gadgets, bookshelves, lamps, a plethora of throw pillows (I had to resist the urge to bring home a new throw pillow for Arthur). We finally found our way out of the unending boxes of furniture that needs assembling and to the cafeteria. I couldn't fit a futon in the car so we decided to get dessert instead and catch up on each others lives...
About the time Alex was dreaming of superfluous throw pillows and other accessories, I (Arthur) headed to the shooting range, dreaming about what I would do to said throw pillows should they dare wander past my threshold. I have shot guns twice before in my life that I remember; once out at my grandparent's farm and once I went clay pigeon shooting with some of my fraternity brothers. Among the many different ways you can categorize the human population, one interesting demarcation is whether the first time a person squeezes the trigger of a gun that person goes "Whoa, that was awesome!" or whether that person goes "That was loud and unpleasant." That first time as a timid boy on my Grandpa's farm found me rooted firmly in the former category. The second time as a strong college kid was more enjoyable, but frustrating (I can't hit the broad side of a barn, much less a four inch disc moving at 30 mph 50+ yards from where I stand. The worst part is I don't understand how anyone can tell how far off they are to make appropriate corrections.) This time, shooting at stationary objects where I could at least tell how much I missed by, was by far the most pleasant shooting experience I've had.
Well, this blog is getting plenty long, so suffice it to say we had a wonderful time with my family--there was time spent eating out, visiting, laughing, and general family togetherness. Omnia Vincit Amor.
In spite of my ignorance, I really enjoyed myself, though I was looking through the eyes of an engineer as opposed to hobbyist. I got a great deal of entertainment looking at a piece of machinery and imagining how it was assembled. It was a reminder of how we are all surrounded by stories, if you have the background to read it. Even though I lacked the background, it was interesting to think that someone very purposefully chose, say, a 4 inch, 3/8 diameter cast iron bolt with 18 threads per inch with a hex head to perform a certain function. Something as simple as a bolt was specifically chosen for its specific characteristics which were meticulously tested (I found a datasheet with 35 pages worth of data on a bolt.)...
While Arthur's background of engineering gave him a lens to view the farm show through, I (Alex) am a physical therapist. My experience and interaction with the agricultural industry through my line of work is that once I find out my patient farms or ranches I know several important things: 1. They will probably be a nice person but they will be a terrible patient. 2. They won't listen if I say to take it easy, don't lift anything, or back off if you start having pain. 3. They are impatient- they wanted to be better two weeks ago and they will get on with planting now matter what. I think it is ironic that farmers are some of my most impatient patients (that's also ironic) since who else waits several months for factors outside their control (weather conditions) to see the fruits of their labor. 4. When I ask what they did since their last appointment that has caused increased pain I don't really want to know that they unloaded a truckload of seed and have back pain, jumped off the tractor in a hurry and tweaked their knee, or got kicked in the shoulder by a steer. Anyway the only thing I need to know about the farm industry is how tall the steps to a combine or tractor are since getting back on the equipment is the chief goal of many of my knee replacement patients.
Therefore I didn't go to the farm show. I actually haven't really been back to Kansas City since I finished up graduate school and I still have several friends in the area I wanted to catch up with. I met my friend and former classmate Anna for brunch at her new home. In school we lived two blocks from each other so we would car pool, go running, or study together. She and her husband recently bought a home about a mile from our old stomping grounds so it was fun to go back and see how the area has changed so quickly in less than 2 years. Over brunch we talked about work, what our classmates are doing, all the wonderful things that young couples without children do with their social lives-- we really decided we like to hang out at home and go to bed early. It was also interesting to get a tour of her home and appreciate her sense of decorating.
This leads into my next stop. An IKEA just opened about 2 miles from where I lived and I have always wanted to go to IKEA for the experience. I talked my former roommate and blogging partner Jules into meeting up and walking me through the IKEA experience. First of all the building is huge and there were a lot of people-- I didn't handle this well when I lived in the city and now I am out of practice. I knew I would love IKEA right away since there were escalators-- riding an escalator is one of the small joys of life. We wandered through the showroom floor following the maze of people and furniture. Since IKEA is a Swedish company many of their products are design for living on a smaller scale in Europe. On of my new interests is understanding how to design small spaces to not feel too small and cluttered and to optimize the use of space. We then perused the shopping floor looking at neat kitchen gadgets, bookshelves, lamps, a plethora of throw pillows (I had to resist the urge to bring home a new throw pillow for Arthur). We finally found our way out of the unending boxes of furniture that needs assembling and to the cafeteria. I couldn't fit a futon in the car so we decided to get dessert instead and catch up on each others lives...
About the time Alex was dreaming of superfluous throw pillows and other accessories, I (Arthur) headed to the shooting range, dreaming about what I would do to said throw pillows should they dare wander past my threshold. I have shot guns twice before in my life that I remember; once out at my grandparent's farm and once I went clay pigeon shooting with some of my fraternity brothers. Among the many different ways you can categorize the human population, one interesting demarcation is whether the first time a person squeezes the trigger of a gun that person goes "Whoa, that was awesome!" or whether that person goes "That was loud and unpleasant." That first time as a timid boy on my Grandpa's farm found me rooted firmly in the former category. The second time as a strong college kid was more enjoyable, but frustrating (I can't hit the broad side of a barn, much less a four inch disc moving at 30 mph 50+ yards from where I stand. The worst part is I don't understand how anyone can tell how far off they are to make appropriate corrections.) This time, shooting at stationary objects where I could at least tell how much I missed by, was by far the most pleasant shooting experience I've had.
Well, this blog is getting plenty long, so suffice it to say we had a wonderful time with my family--there was time spent eating out, visiting, laughing, and general family togetherness. Omnia Vincit Amor.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Titans Clashing, Harmoniously
Even before our first date and before Arthur was ever on Alex's radar, Alex's mother made the comment that a relationship between us would be like the clash of titans. I'm sure she meant this in the best way possible. Now 5 years later we joke about the truth of this statement. Before you become concern about marital conflict let us explain.
We often discuss our personality type results from the Myers-Briggs test. This test examines how a person views the world, takes in, and processes information. The categories are extroversion or introversion; sensing or intuition; thinking or feeling; and judging or perceiving. Arthur is an INTJ (the mastermind-- I know everyone is shocked to hear this). Alex is an ISTJ (the duty fulfiller). Understanding our personalities and common traits have really been enlightening in how we interact.
Arthur as an INTJ since he loves to deal in the theoretical and abstract. He is reserved, serious, and spends a lot of time thinking. One of my favorite questions is, "Arthur, what are you thinking about?" The answer is always interesting and rarely the same thing twice (unless it is some form of political thoughts.). He is pretty intense and likes strategies. This makes it challenging to find a game to play together since I hate strategy. As an INTJ, Arthur would rather think about things rather than actually doing them. Mundane tasks are boring for him. They become more tolerable if he is able to escape to his own thoughts. Early in our relationship I was very surprised that Arthur never felt threatened by conflict but rather enjoyed a good debate for the sake of exchanging ideas. As someone who is often lost in their thoughts it is common for an INTJ to not be in tune with their own feelings or the feelings of others. (after all what are the use of feelings?). Some of the best careers for this personality type is an engineer or scientist. They have no patience with inefficiency. Each morning Arthur walks out the door on his way to work "to rid the world of inefficient processes". Finally, INTJs are "generally serious but will let loose and have fun if drawn in by others. This is my job- I think the amount of fun in Arthur's life has drastically increase in the past few years since I have dragged him into "fun".
I am an ISTJ. This personality is characterized as stable, practical, and down to earth. They tended to be dependable and like structure and organization. I also tended to have strong opinions about how things should be done-I am sure everyone is shocked by this. I like facts and ideas that are concrete. This group likes to play by the rules. We want to focus on the task and don't care to debate the process but instead spend time getting to work on it. ISTJs tend to be good with handling money but are very financially conservative. Good careers include medical professionals and military leaders.
Of course marriage means two different personalities have to work together as one. This further exposes weaknesses but also maximizes the strengths. Neither one of our personalities are very in tune to our own feelings or others. We both know this so we do try to specifically ask the other if something is wrong since we might not pick up on the subtle hints. As an ISTJ I am less likely to give others a lot of praise or encouragement. Words of affirmation is Arthur's top love language (maybe we will do a post on the five love languages sometime.) I know that I need to be aware of this weakness. We also think with very different purposes- Arthur is all abstract, theoretical, and strategic. I want structure, organization, and to stop thinking about it and to get to work. When I ask Arthur to think about something I expect his response to be a action plan but instead I often get a theoretical thesis. There is one common trait that both of our personalities share-- we value our own opinions over the opinions of others. This may not be the best quality to have in a marriage and it has lead to some rocky discussions when one or the other of us felt that we weren't being heard. Maybe a benefit of this is that these disagreements mean we have to spend considerable time talking the issue out which usually helps us develop an even better solution or opinion that either of us had in the first place. As I mentioned earlier, Arthur is our mastermind as an INTJ and occasionally my nickname is "the general" because of many of the military characteristic that an ISTJ exhibits. My mother's prediction of The Clash of the Titans wasn't that far off-- but hopefully we exhibit more of a symbiotic relationship than "clash" would normally bring to mind. Omnia Vincit Amour.
We often discuss our personality type results from the Myers-Briggs test. This test examines how a person views the world, takes in, and processes information. The categories are extroversion or introversion; sensing or intuition; thinking or feeling; and judging or perceiving. Arthur is an INTJ (the mastermind-- I know everyone is shocked to hear this). Alex is an ISTJ (the duty fulfiller). Understanding our personalities and common traits have really been enlightening in how we interact.
Arthur as an INTJ since he loves to deal in the theoretical and abstract. He is reserved, serious, and spends a lot of time thinking. One of my favorite questions is, "Arthur, what are you thinking about?" The answer is always interesting and rarely the same thing twice (unless it is some form of political thoughts.). He is pretty intense and likes strategies. This makes it challenging to find a game to play together since I hate strategy. As an INTJ, Arthur would rather think about things rather than actually doing them. Mundane tasks are boring for him. They become more tolerable if he is able to escape to his own thoughts. Early in our relationship I was very surprised that Arthur never felt threatened by conflict but rather enjoyed a good debate for the sake of exchanging ideas. As someone who is often lost in their thoughts it is common for an INTJ to not be in tune with their own feelings or the feelings of others. (after all what are the use of feelings?). Some of the best careers for this personality type is an engineer or scientist. They have no patience with inefficiency. Each morning Arthur walks out the door on his way to work "to rid the world of inefficient processes". Finally, INTJs are "generally serious but will let loose and have fun if drawn in by others. This is my job- I think the amount of fun in Arthur's life has drastically increase in the past few years since I have dragged him into "fun".
I am an ISTJ. This personality is characterized as stable, practical, and down to earth. They tended to be dependable and like structure and organization. I also tended to have strong opinions about how things should be done-I am sure everyone is shocked by this. I like facts and ideas that are concrete. This group likes to play by the rules. We want to focus on the task and don't care to debate the process but instead spend time getting to work on it. ISTJs tend to be good with handling money but are very financially conservative. Good careers include medical professionals and military leaders.
Of course marriage means two different personalities have to work together as one. This further exposes weaknesses but also maximizes the strengths. Neither one of our personalities are very in tune to our own feelings or others. We both know this so we do try to specifically ask the other if something is wrong since we might not pick up on the subtle hints. As an ISTJ I am less likely to give others a lot of praise or encouragement. Words of affirmation is Arthur's top love language (maybe we will do a post on the five love languages sometime.) I know that I need to be aware of this weakness. We also think with very different purposes- Arthur is all abstract, theoretical, and strategic. I want structure, organization, and to stop thinking about it and to get to work. When I ask Arthur to think about something I expect his response to be a action plan but instead I often get a theoretical thesis. There is one common trait that both of our personalities share-- we value our own opinions over the opinions of others. This may not be the best quality to have in a marriage and it has lead to some rocky discussions when one or the other of us felt that we weren't being heard. Maybe a benefit of this is that these disagreements mean we have to spend considerable time talking the issue out which usually helps us develop an even better solution or opinion that either of us had in the first place. As I mentioned earlier, Arthur is our mastermind as an INTJ and occasionally my nickname is "the general" because of many of the military characteristic that an ISTJ exhibits. My mother's prediction of The Clash of the Titans wasn't that far off-- but hopefully we exhibit more of a symbiotic relationship than "clash" would normally bring to mind. Omnia Vincit Amour.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Granola
A few of our friends joke with Arthur and I that we are becoming "granolas". (The slang term granola is used to describe people who are "environmentally aware, tree-huggers who are concerned about consuming organic products.) I guess I could see how the tour of our home that included the composting worm farm, all of our recycling bins, and the seedlings being started under grow lights could come across as a little crunchy. While I wouldn't consider us to be "granolas", I am pretty sure I have eaten my body weight in granola which leads to the real topic of this post.
I realized that we aren't doing a very good job at keeping our blog updates coming regularly. We are working on a few drafts but they just haven't received the finishing touches yet. I was trying to think of a post topic and remembered that you should write what you know. This thought came to me while I was making my weekly batch of granola. For the past five years I have eaten granola for breakfast almost every day. (I'm not one for much variety.) Even after five years one of the things that I am most excited about when I get out of bed in the morning is that granola is for breakfast. However, how I eat my granola as evolved somewhat. I began eating granola by itself and at that time I baked it longer so it was crispy. I then discovered that I liked it even better when it was still slightly sweet and sticky. Then I got crazy and started adding raisin or dried cranberries if I was feeling extravagant. As I have progressed from a grad student with a limited grocery budget to a fully employed adult with more expendable cash for luxury items I began mixing in a little yogurt into the granola each morning. The final upgrade has been making the step to Greek yogurt and if it is a special day I will add frozen pomegranate arils-- talk about a classy breakfast. Outside of breakfast we use granola for fruit parfaits, ice cream toppings, mixed with fresh fruit like peaches (it tasted like peach cobbler but so much easier), and with peanut butter and a banana wrapped in a tortilla for a snack. Another benefit to eating so much granola is that nothing smells better than a freshly baked batch of granola in the kitchen. Here's my adapted recipe:
10 cups oatmeal
1 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
1/2 T salt
1 1/2 T cinnamon
1 1/2 T vanilla
Mix together well and bake at 275F for 30 minutes. (Bake for 45 min, stirring a few times, if you want it crunchy).
The original recipe called for 1 cup honey but we haven't noticed a difference using 2/3c since we mix it with yogurt and I got tired of buying honey all the time. This is a basic bare bones recipe. With granola it can be custom-made with coconut, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, nuts, etc.
As you can tell we are ready for spring around here and suffering from cabin fever if my thesis on granola is the best thing we have to blog about. Omnia Vincit Amor.
I realized that we aren't doing a very good job at keeping our blog updates coming regularly. We are working on a few drafts but they just haven't received the finishing touches yet. I was trying to think of a post topic and remembered that you should write what you know. This thought came to me while I was making my weekly batch of granola. For the past five years I have eaten granola for breakfast almost every day. (I'm not one for much variety.) Even after five years one of the things that I am most excited about when I get out of bed in the morning is that granola is for breakfast. However, how I eat my granola as evolved somewhat. I began eating granola by itself and at that time I baked it longer so it was crispy. I then discovered that I liked it even better when it was still slightly sweet and sticky. Then I got crazy and started adding raisin or dried cranberries if I was feeling extravagant. As I have progressed from a grad student with a limited grocery budget to a fully employed adult with more expendable cash for luxury items I began mixing in a little yogurt into the granola each morning. The final upgrade has been making the step to Greek yogurt and if it is a special day I will add frozen pomegranate arils-- talk about a classy breakfast. Outside of breakfast we use granola for fruit parfaits, ice cream toppings, mixed with fresh fruit like peaches (it tasted like peach cobbler but so much easier), and with peanut butter and a banana wrapped in a tortilla for a snack. Another benefit to eating so much granola is that nothing smells better than a freshly baked batch of granola in the kitchen. Here's my adapted recipe:
10 cups oatmeal
1 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
1/2 T salt
1 1/2 T cinnamon
1 1/2 T vanilla
Mix together well and bake at 275F for 30 minutes. (Bake for 45 min, stirring a few times, if you want it crunchy).
The original recipe called for 1 cup honey but we haven't noticed a difference using 2/3c since we mix it with yogurt and I got tired of buying honey all the time. This is a basic bare bones recipe. With granola it can be custom-made with coconut, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, nuts, etc.
As you can tell we are ready for spring around here and suffering from cabin fever if my thesis on granola is the best thing we have to blog about. Omnia Vincit Amor.
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