Although my recent granola attempt turned out well, I wanted to try something less sweet, so I made a batch of Tracy Granola. I didn't have enough Quaker oats, so I supplemented with McCann's Quick-Cooking Irish Oats. It turned out well--deliciously spiced, slightly sweet, and chock full of nuts. Yum! Here it is in our handy new Tupperware cereal storer. It's just the right size to hold a batch of granola.

Tracy's granola is great with yogurt but not quite right as cereal (too many nuts, not enough oats). I'd like a granola that can perform well in both situations. I'm not quite sure what to try next. Although Andy's Fairfield Granola is delicious, it's a little overly sweet for daily consumption, and it seems more prone to overbaking. I think I'll stick with Tracy's general baking approach and sweetness level and just play with the ingredients incrementally until I find something that works for me.

There are a few more things I'd like to try in future batches (not all at once): Bob's 5-Grain Rolled Hot Cereal, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, coconut or lemon oil, cocoa, and crispy rice. Now to plan my next batch.

Not deserving of its own entry: we had Stir-fry with Curry Sauce (chicken, baked tofu, broccoli, zucchini, snap peas, crimini mushrooms, romaine lettuce) on oven-baked brown rice and barley with baked mashed sweet potato on the side. The vegetables were all from our box, and I was excited to use them all in one dish. The volume of vegetables turned out to be much higher than the recipe called for, and the stir-fry was pretty boring (not bad, just not the kind of dinner you'd look forward to eating). I won't write off this recipe yet though; I need to try it again with the appropriate vegetable-to-sauce ratio. It's definitely healthy and easy to make.

I had a good birthday weekend, but I don't have time to write about it tonight. I have to go to bed early so I can bike to work tomorrow (I didn't end up biking on Friday because it was rainy. Not an auspicious start to my 2007 biking season).

As I said in my last entry, we returned to Mudd last weekend for our 5-year college reunion. Prior to the reunion, I kept exclaiming how it didn't feel like it had been 5 years, but I think after the reunion, it does feel like it has been that long. Things have changed on campus and in our lives. I think it was good to go there and realize that we have grown up and changed. It's good to mark milestones like that. It did make me feel kind of old though...

Friday, April 27

Patrick and I flew into Ontario airport on Friday morning. We were on Southwest in the C boarding group, but luckily we were able to find seats together. We arrived around 10am. When we were landing, I was reminded of how brown and dirty the Inland Empire is compared to the Bay Area. It was still nice to come back to Ontario airport. It's familiar, as were a lot of things we encountered during our visit. Southern California was home for four years--longer than I've lived here!

We picked up our rental car, which had all sorts of mysterious buttons that didn't do anything. I begged Patrick to drive down Foothill Blvd. instead of taking the freeway, since that's how I always drove to and from the airport in college (since I hate freeway driving). Not much had changed in five years, except that $1 Chinese Food and Donuts has been replaced by another Chinese fast food establishment. That was kind of sad. I used to love going there, mostly for the novelty of cheap Chinese food and donuts in the same place.

Foothill Blvd. isn't the most glamorous stretch of road. It's lined with chain stores and quite a few adult bookstores. But, as with the airport, it was familiar, which counts for a lot. We drove through Ontario, Upland and Montclair before arriving in Claremont.

We had a few hours to kill before check-in time at the HoJo's, Claremont finest hotel establishment. We parked in the Village (Claremont's nice downtown area) and walked around. The weather was beautiful the whole weekend, which was nice. I wished I'd brought more dresses and skirts to take advantage of the Southern CA weather.

We walked around for a while and visited Rhino Records, and then we went to Harvard Square Cafe for an early lunch. Harvard Square was one of our favorite fancy restaurants when we were in college. Now that our food horizons have expanded, it doesn't seem quite as fancy, but it's definitely a nice restaurant. We sat on the patio and had some tasty sandwiches for lunch, and Patrick had a good Arnold Palmer (it's his go-to drink when it's warm out).

A little after lunch, we went to Bert and Rocky's for ice cream (man, if I'd seen that Chowhound page before the trip, I would've gotten the peppermint ice cream!). I had a scoop of Cookies and Cream frozen yogurt in a sugar cone, which was quite good. Patrick had the Dutch sweet cream ice cream, which was good as well. It was a perfect day to sit on a bench in Claremont and eat ice cream. How nice not to have to go to class!

Next, we drove over to Mudd and got our registration packets in front of Kingston. They have added two new buildings since we were there (Hoch-Shanahan dining hall and Sontag residence hall), but the buildings blend very well with the older buildings (which is to say they are boxy and covered with warts, as things at Mudd should be). Both new buildings are landscaped with drought-tolerant plants, which is a nice change from the flowers that need lots of watering and have to be replanted frequently because they can't handle the desert climate.

After getting our packets and sitting around for a little bit, we drove down to the HoJo's (right next to the freeway; not the nicest place we've ever stayed, but it worked fine for us) and checked in. I had originally wanted to drive to L.A. while were there, but we were both pretty tired, so we just sat in our room and watched TV for a few hours.

Tree, Andrew, and Jacob spent the day driving down from the Bay Area, and they apparently hit some nasty traffic near Pasadena. Ah, Southern California. They arrived in Claremont around dinnertime, so we met up and headed to the Village for dinner.

They were excited to go to Heroes for dinner, which sounded good to me. Heroes is exciting (to me at least) because they give you bags of peanuts, and you get to throw the shells on the floor! I'm easily amused. Oh, and they have a big selection of beer, and they serve it in big mugs, but since I don't like beer that's not really a selling point for me.

We waited ~40 minutes, and once we had gotten a table, the service wasn't great. But it was still a good meal. The portions are big there! Tree and Andrew were initially disappointed because the loaded potato skins were no longer on the menu, but the kitchen still made them for us at Tree's request. These weren't any dinky potato skins--they were huge!

Following the appetizer, we received our entrees, which were also huge! I had a yummy Ahi tuna burger with (giant) chunks of fruit on the side, Andrew had fish and chips, and everybody else had burgers, I think. Tree's burger was almost as big as her head! She didn't make much of a dent in it, I'm sorry to say.

As our meal was winding down, a group of people approached our table, and one asked us if we were Mudders. When we said we were, she place a small white paper ball on the table. We were momentarily baffled, but then she said that it was a napkin ball (a Mudd tradition--students aren't allowed to throw food in Mudd dining halls, so instead they make balls out of napkins and throw those). We had totally forgotten about napkin balls! It was a well made napkin ball. These people were clearly experts. Tree, showing much foresight, put it in her purse in case we needed it later.

We headed over to campus and caught the end of the annual Media Studio show (Media Studio is a class where students make their own short films. Patrick and Andrew both took it when they were at Mudd). There were far fewer people in the audience this time than there were 5 years ago. I know this sounds cliched, but it wasn't nearly as good as when we were students. Maybe we just missed all the good stuff at the start of the show. We weren't the only ones who were underwhelmed. Some alum's kid said, "This is boooring" in the middle of the show. Harsh, but true.

After Media Studio, we walked around the academic buildings, revisiting familiar classrooms and hallways. We were particularly excited to come upon the classroom where we had Chemistry 21A first semester freshman year. It's the class where Patrick and I met (though we also had friends in common and saw each other in other classes and outside of class, so I'm not sure if it's technically where we met). Awww...Here we are, where it all began. I took the one left-handed desk in the room, as I always did back then. As it turns out, Tree is left-handed too, and she had to use a right-handed desk when we were in Chem 21A together, but she did not begrudge me the special desk. She's so nice!

We stopped at the Muddhole in Platt, which got a facelift and is now called Jay's Place. Platt is all different now that it's not the cafeteria and is just a student center. The mailboxes are where the kitchen used to be. It's just strange.

Eventually, we wandered down to the residential end of campus. A few dorms were having parties, but we felt a little strange trying to get in, since everybody we knew at Mudd had already graduated (sigh). We visited the Linde Activities Center, where there was supposedly an alumni hospitality suite, but apparently they'd packed everything up for the night, because all that was left were a couple of tea bags (not even any hot water!).

Discouraged by the lack of exciting activities and food, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Saturday, April 28

We had breakfast at the BC Cafe, which is in the same parking lot as the hotel. It's a popular breakfast place among Claremont residents, but the food was too unhealthy for a delicate Bay Area flower such as myself. Even the "Lite" breakfast options were a bit much. I guess I can't fault them for serving big portions laden with fat and sugar; it's what people want.

I had a bowl of granola with vanilla yogurt, honey, berries, and bananas. It was yummy (very sweet). Jacob had some sort of an egg sandwich, and it came with a bowl of tapioca pudding and mints on the side. I thought that was pretty exciting. How often do you get tapioca with breakfast?

After breakfast, we headed over to Mudd so that Tree, Andrew, and Jacob could register. The schedule said that there would be Foster's Donuts at registration. We were hoping they would have strawberry donuts (donuts split in half and stuffed with sugared strawberries--yum!), but there were no donuts (strawberry or otherwise) to be had by the time we arrived. We planned on making a donut run later in our trip, but we never got around to it. Sad!

We walked around campus and ran into quite a few people from the class of 2002. I had been worried about making small talk with people I hadn't seen in a while (and hadn't known that well in college), but it was easy to find things to talk about. Phew!

We went to the new president's address before lunch. She seems nice, and it seems like she really enjoys being at Mudd. She did manage to fit in a request for money, but I guess that's part of her job.

After the talk, we had lunch (Platt burgers and picnic food; not worth $20) in the hot, hot sunshine in Hixon Court with Prof. Kuenning (from the CS department). Patrick had his second Arnold Palmer of the trip, and I tried desparately not to get sunburnt. I succeeded!

After lunch, we followed Prof. Keller around for a tour of the CS department. I wasn't very interested in the actual department tour, but we did get to see Prof. Dodds along the way. He was my favorite CS professor (not that I knew many CS professors, since I was a Chemistry major). I'm glad we got to talk to him.

After hanging out briefly in the new CS digs on the second floor of Sprague library (and almost getting stuck in the library stairwell because we didn't have key cards for the doors), Tree and I ran into Dr. Daub from the Chemistry department. He took us around the department, and we talked for a while. Not much seems to have changed in Chemistry, at least in terms of the building. It's too bad there weren't any other Chemistry professors around, but I'm glad we got to talk to Dr. Daub. He's nice.

We tooled around campus for a few hours after that. This time the hospitality suite in the LAC was better stocked, and I enjoyed a cookie and some lemonade. We checked out the new dining hall and sat in one of the private dining rooms, watching people walk by outside. College can be kind of boring when you don't go there anymore and don't have a dorm to go back to!

Ooh, at the new dining hall, they not only have horchata (which they had at Platt back in the day, but everybody was afraid to drink it because they didn't know how delicious it was), they also have agua de jamaica and pina colada drink! Sadly, when Patrick tried to sample the horchata, the liquid that came out of the dispenser was not horchata at all! What a disappointment. Good thing we have horchata up here in the Bay Area too. Man, I wish we could be at Platt for the Cinco de Mayo lunch tomorrow. They always put on a good show, with a mariachi band and food (including churros!) out on the lawn.

We visited Huntley bookstore, and upon returning to Mudd we happened upon a game of beer ball out behind Linde, which was in direct defiance of a memo included in our registration folders. Beer ball is a popular alumni weekend activity, but the administration does not like it at all, unsurprisingly. I didn't want to get in trouble for breaking the rules, so I didn't stick around to watch the festivities. It's just like in college. I'm still lame!

We headed back to Galileo Hall and sat on the cushy leather couches that our class had given to the school (the couch gift was made less special by the fact that Platt was later outfitted with more of the exact same couches and chairs a few years after we left). The chairs are unfortunately situated directly outside of the men's room in the Galileo foyer, but I still like them.

Soon enough it was time for the cocktail hour and class reunion photos in Hixon Court. The hors d' oeuvres were tasty, especially the baked brie and cocktail meatballs. We got to catch up with some more people from our class, including Charlie and Chrissy, who both live in the area and luckily decided it was worth their whiles to stop by.

It's crazy how quickly we reverted back to our old college personalities. It's not like we've changed hugely in five years, but we've definitely grown up. That all melted away once the boys of OG Suite were reunited, let me tell you!

We assembled for the class picture (I wonder if we'll get a copy). Patrick and I stood (or, in this case, kneeled) next to each other, just as we did for all of our other class pictures at Mudd. I remember when we took our freshman year class picture, I was all excited and nervous to be standing next to Patrick in the picture. It was like we were a legitimate couple! Who knew that seven years later we'd be getting married?

After our class picture, the top secret location of our class reunion dinner was revealed--the tent on the grass next to Platt! We were sharing the tent with the class of 1997. We had purchased tickets for the dinner, but they ended up not checking the tickets, and I think a few Westies from the years below us snuck in and got a free dinner. Oh well, their company was welcome.

Dinner was buffet style and was pretty good--filet mignon, veggie puff pastry, and chocolate mousse cake. They were pretty generous with the wine, and at the end of dinner, a napkin ball war broke out between the two classes. I tried to stay out of it because water and wine glasses were being knocked over right and left. People were having a great time. It felt like we were back in college. I tried to get an action shot of napkin balls flying, but I don't think I succeeded.

We'd heard rumors that West dorm might set up the Octagon (an impromptu wrestling ring made of security fences and a big pile of mattresses) later that night, which was a big deal, since the Octagon is normally reserved for HHP (Heaven, Hell, Purgatory--an annual West party). Andrew and Jacob had a score to settle, as they'd wrestled at HHP when we were in college, and their record was tied. This would be a decisive night!

It was still kind of early (by college standards) when we got to West, and not much was going on. Some students were playing with a spray bottle of flammable liquid, sort of an impromptu flamethrower. It made me nervous, as you might have guessed. I'm such an old lady. I wasn't much better when we were actually in college. I've never been a real wild and crazy type. It's probably good that I didn't end up living in West, as I'd wanted to when I visited in high school. West is the crazy dorm. I lived in Atwood, which was much more laid back and quiet.

Beer was consumed, more people showed up, and a band started setting up on a makeshift plywood stage. The alumni were all standing at one end of the courtyard, and the students were at the other end. At one point, one brave Westie approached us and addressed us as "sketchy alums" (which is exactly how we viewed alumni who came to parties when we were students). He encouraged us to actually talk to the students instead of standing around talking to each other, but we remained segregated. That's when it really hit me that I wasn't in college anymore. Sigh...

Andrew wrestled not only Jacob, but also Charlie and Austin. It's not exactly clear who won, but I think they enjoyed themselves. I was kind of worried somebody's head would get cracked open on the cement (there were scary gaps in between the mattresses in the ring), but the worst injury was a bloody nose. I'm guessing there won't be any Octagon wrestling at our 10-year reunion, so it's a good thing they were able to get in the ring this time!

The OG boys were excited to spot a Westie who looked eerily like our friend Noah from a distance. They got him to pose for a picture (he's the one in the green shirt). He seemed a little spooked. I probably would be too if a bunch of sketchy alumni approached me and wanted to take a picture with me!

Drew stopped by with his guitar and sang us a song before heading off to serenade random Scrippsies. Ah, Drew. Tree visited East Dorm (she was proctor there senior year) and met a lot of friendly Easties. They were much more approachable than the Westies. They were updating the East Dorm Wiki when I stopped by. I'm in it, as is Tree!

We headed back to the hotel around midnight, just when the party was really getting started. We really have gotten old, haven't we?

Sunday, April 29

We didn't do much on Sunday. We got bagels at 42nd St. Bagel Cafe in the Village. Actually, I had oatmeal, which came in a styrofoam bowl but wasn't half bad. Ooh, and Patrick and I split a honey whole wheat bagel encrusted with cinnamon sugar. Good stuff.

We lazed around the hotel the rest of the morning, and then we met up with Jeff M. (another member of the class of '02) for lunch. We stopped at Wolfe's to get sandwiches. Each sandwich includes a side salad of your choice (I went with the 4-bean salad--yum!) and a choice of pickles, peppers, or marinated mushrooms. So exciting! I had a mesquite turkey sandwich on squaw bread, which was quite good.

We took our sandwiches to the park on Indian Hill Blvd. and had a picnic there. Patrick and I had quite a few picnics there back in the day. It was good to go back. After talking and enjoying the weather for a little while, Tree, Andrew, and Jacob left to drive back up to the Bay Area, and Jeff headed home to Pasadena. Our flight wasn't until 8pm (a poor choice, in retrospect), so we laid on the grass in the shade for a while, and then we swung on the swings. It was so nice and peaceful.

We had some time to kill before dinner, so we drove down to Montclair (Upland?) to see a movie. Unfortunately, nothing good was playing when we got there, so we drove one exit down to our beloved old mall, Montclair Plaza, and hung out in Borders for a while. I guess it's appropriate to go to the mall when you're in Southern CA.

We drove back to the Village and contemplated getting pearl milk tea at a cute little bakery, but they were just about to close. Instead, we decided to go to The Press for dinner. I had heard good things about it while in college, but we'd never been. I really liked it!

The decor was fun (strings of blue Christmas lights, exposed rafters, unusual art on the walls), and I was excited about the menu. It had a bunch of vegetarian/healthy options, which is just what we were looking for. Patrick had a tofu stir-fry (and his third Arnold Palmer of the trip), and I had the eggplant burger (a blend of eggplant, oats, and TVP), which was interesting. I would definitely go there again. It just felt like a comfortable, familiar restaurant with reasonably healthy and tasty food. It's too bad we never went in college.

After dinner, we headed to the airport, returned our car, and got situated at our gate. This time we were in boarding group A, but unfortunately, our flight was majorly delayed. Initially it was delayed by an hour and a half, but they kept delaying it more as the night wore on. I think we ended up taking off around 10:45pm. At least they gave us each two packets of honey-roasted peanuts (my favorite airplane food) to make up for it. It was pretty boring waiting around the airport for hours on end. Most of the restaurants were closed, and the TVs weren't showing anything interesting (America's Funniest Home Videos and Dr. Phil), so we just read magazines. I could think of better ways to spend a Sunday night.

When we finally arrived in San Jose, the shuttle to the off-site long-term parking lot was nowhere to be found, and we didn't have their phone number, so we ended up taking a cab to the lot (it turns out the shuttle was still running, but I don't think they would've come to the airport unless they'd gotten a call). Our cabbie seemed a little out of it. Maybe he was just tired. I was glad to get to the parking lot safely. We drove home without incident, went to bed, and the next morning we returned to our normal, non-college-student lives.

I'm glad we went to the reunion, even though it made me feel nostalgic and a little wistful. It was good returning to Claremont and visiting some of our favorite places. We grew up a lot in the four years we were in college. Returning to Mudd made me think about my 10-year high school reunion coming up next year. That'll be even stranger. I wonder if we'll even have a reunion. I hope so!

We've been busy recently! Last Wednesday, we went to see the Decemberists at the Warfield with My Brightest Diamond. We only recently started listening to the Decemberists, and we like them a lot. I know, we're like 5 years behind the times. It was a fun concert. Toward the end, they played Chimbley Sweep, and they all ended up crowd-surfing in the general admission area (we were up in the balcony). Two teenage guys got up on stage (perhaps invited, perhaps not) and played the drums and guitar and sang a little bit, and everybody cheered for them. It was nice.

Tree and Andrew saw the Decemberists a while back, and Tree and I agree that we totally want to learn to play the accordion like Jenny Conlee. She not only plays the accordion, but she also plays organ and tambourine (she played a sweet solo at one point during the concert), and she has cute hair!

We were out past our bedtime, but it was worth it. We should go to more concerts!

The next day was Take Your Kids to Work Day. I helped marginally with the activities at work. Kids are both cute and exhausting. I wonder if we'll ever feel really ready to have one. I'd definitely like to have kids someday, but it seems like a pretty daunting task at the moment. Good thing we have time to wait.

After work, we drove down to the South Bay and had dinner at my grandma's house with my mom, Auntie Nance, and a few of my favorite local relatives. It's always so much fun getting together with all of them. I like my family (and not just because they read this website :)

Both my sister and Patrick's are seniors in high school, so they've been making exciting choices about their futures recently. Patrick's sister is going to Stanford, and mine is going to Franklin in Switzerland! Very different choices, but both exciting. My sister has definitely beaten me at going as far away from Colorado as possible for college. And I thought California was far away! I'm excited to see what the future holds for everybody!

Speaking of college, this past weekend was our 5-year college reunion at Mudd. That gets its own entry (with a few pictures!), probably tomorrow.

The softball team at work has been doing great this season. Last season I helped manage the team, but this year I opted not to manage because I found it too stressful and I could care less about putting together a good lineup. Instead I just keep score at the games (using a situational scorecard). It makes the games go more quickly. It's nice that our team is doing so well this year. We're even having a party at work tomorrow afternoon to celebrate our undefeated status.

I'm also going to start riding my bike to work again every Friday, now that it's getting warmer. I took a long break from riding my bike over the winter, but it's time to start again with Bike to Work Day coming up on May 17. Unfortunately it looks like it might rain tomorrow, but I feel like I have to bike to work tomorrow or else I'll lose my momentum. A little rain isn't a big deal, right?

It's hard to get back into the normal rhythm of life after being gone all weekend! There doesn't seem to be enough time to do all the things I normally do in a week. Eh, it's good to shake things up every so often.

While at the market this afternoon, I spotted some fava beans. I'd never prepared them before, but they seemed like a good springtime side dish, so I picked up a pound to have with dinner.

Conveniently enough, the April Sunset had a blurb about how to prepare them. First you remove them from the pod (the interior of the fava bean pod is so cushy and velvety. If I were a bean, I'd want to be a fava bean). Then you boil them for 2 minutes (I think these beans were a little mature and would've benefited from a slightly longer boil). Then you remove each cooked bean from its skin. I tossed the finished beans in some lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper and topped with grated Parmesan.

It was quite a labor-intensive process overall, and I didn't think the finished product was worth the effort. But I'm glad for the experience. I've definitely had yummy fava beans in restaurants, so maybe it's just a matter of finding the right recipe.

I planted our summer garden today (pictures here). This summer, we'll have three new kinds of tomatoes (Supersweet 100s, Black Zebra, and Stupice), Crane melons, beets, and a bunch of herbs (basil, cilantro, thyme, sage, parsley, and orange mint--it smelled so nice at the nursery!). In addition to using our patio boxes, Patrick convinced me to plant stuff in the empty patches of dirt on either side of our patio, which don't technically belong to our apartment. Our neighbors have already commandeered the patches of dirt near their apartments, and the building manager doesn't seem to care. The dirt is pretty clay-heavy, so I don't know if the plants I put there (tomatoes and melons) will survive, but it's worth a try.

We've had some decent chicken dinners lately. First, there was Chicken, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes with Port Wine Sauce, Sugar Snap Peas with Lemon and Toasted Almonds, and oven-baked polenta (from Lorna Sass's Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way). The chicken recipe turned out well, considering it used boneless skinless chicken breasts. I especially liked the garlic--I'd double the cloves of garlic next time. The peas were yummy! The polenta was a little dry, but it was easy to make. I'm sure it would have benefited from some butter and cheese, but I was trying to keep things healthy, so I left it plain.

Last night, we had a chicken-free meal of Otsu from Super Natural Cooking. It's a simple dish combining soba noodles, tofu, and cucumber slices in a tasty dressing. It was easy to make and enjoyable to eat. It's definitely worth repeating. Yum!

Our dessert was less successful. I made the Chocolate Rice Pudding from Feast (which I ended up buying last week, since I felt so sad when I had to return it to the library). It was super easy to make--just mix all the ingredients in custard cups and bake--but it didn't impress me. When I took it out of the oven after the designated baking time, it was still all liquidy, so I put it back in for 20 minutes, but it didn't help much. I could have gotten the same effect by pouring chocolate milk over cooked rice. It tasted okay, but it wasn't like real rice pudding. Oh well, at least I didn't spend much time on it.

For dinner tonight, I tried another Feast recipe, St. Tropez Chicken, along with Israeli couscous with toasted pine nuts, spinach and feta (based on the wheat berry salad in Super Natural Cooking). I used six chicken thighs instead of cutting up a whole chicken. It smelled good while it was cooking, but the skin came off of two of the thighs while they were cooking, and they dried out (no big surprise). The thighs that were protected by their skin turned out well though. It wasn't as amazing as I'd imagined, but it's good enough to make again on a lazy weekend.

Both of us enjoyed the couscous salad a lot. Not as healthy as Heidi's original wheat berry salad, but I'm trying to use up what we have on hand, and the Israeli couscous has been in our cupboard for a while. I would definitely make the salad again, either with wheat berries or another grain.

You can tell that I'm excited about Feast; in addition to the rice pudding and chicken, I also made a half batch of Andy's Fairfield Granola, which is one of the first recipes I earmarked after buying Feast. Patrick frequently eats yogurt with granola as a snack, so it would be great if I could find a good granola recipe to call my own (I even ordered a Tupperware cereal storer in anticipation of this becoming a regular activity; I'm sad their FIFO version has such a big footprint--it's impractical!). Also, I was excited to have a reason to buy and use brown rice syrup!

I think I overbaked it a little. I left it in for a little longer than 40 minutes because I was expecting it to crisp up toward the end of the baking time, but it was still pretty pliable when I finally gave up and took it out of the oven. I needn't have worried--it got nice and crunchy as it cooled. This granola is definitely on the sweet end of the spectrum, and because of this it's really yummy (almost like candy). The sweetness is probably due, in part, to my using apple butter (which had some added sugar) instead of apple sauce. I think next I'll try Tracy's Granola (on the less sweet end of things) to see if we like that better (it would certainly be better for us). I'm looking forward to having a favorite granola recipe! It seems like a good thing to have in one's repertoire.