Saturday in the kitchen

Graeme took Luca swimming this morning and Kian slept for over two hours (OMG), so I decided to do something I never get time to do anymore: potter in the kitchen.

I labelled jars, sorted out my baking cupboard and discovered I had far too much in the way of store cupboard ingredients. A big container of sesame seeds, bags and bags of almonds, enough rolled oats to see me through a few winters and several packets of pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Time to have a clear out.

With maple syrup in the fridge (my sister-in-law is Canadian and always bring us back a nice jug), I start thinking home-made granola. God only knows why I spend good money on fancy mueslis and other cereals when it's so easy to make a decent granola at home — especially when I already have everything in the cupboard. It's that 24-hours-in-a-day problem I suppose...

I go to my trusty place for recipes: BBC Good Food. I'm a bit biased, really. I used to work for them — write recipes for them, restaurant reviews and kitchen design features and I also on occasion went into their kitchens in west London to test recipes.  No recipe makes it into the magazine unless it's been tested over and over, unlike many other publications and websites I could name. And it's not just about the testing; the recipes are well written (if you can forgive the omitting of seasoning in most recipes) and for the most part it's food I really want to eat.

And it's great when I'm in a hurry and I can't put my finger on the right cookery book. A quick search and usually there's a good choice of dishes.

In this case, I opt for Good-for-you granola. It could have been written for me today. I've got exactly 250ml of maple syrup left (I'm always doubling recipes). And I add a few extra bits and pieces.









So I spent the morning mixing, licking, baking, tossing and nibbling (makes very good nibbling), while... 

Graeme and Luca made chocolate cupcakes (and I did some more licking of their bowl).

Result was a nice big tub of granola that should last us a couple of weeks, except that... 

I left the tub on the stove. The stupid ceramic stove that looks like all is off, when it's still searing hot from when Graeme was melting chocolate.

We had a good giggle. Eventually.

 

Vanessa