Crunchy Granola People

This recipe for a savory, crunchy granola went around my little corner of the internet a while back. 

I'm not a big fan of granola's chewy, sweet, stickiness, but I like all of its components, and this recipe was billed for non-granola lovers.

And we've had all this oatmeal lying around ever since my dad passed away. 

And we were about to go to the Anza-Borrego Desert, so I cut some of the sugar, added hazelnuts for my hermanita and dried cranberries for my mum, and off we went. 

We had some interesting breakfast company.

And the granola was crisp, the indigo bushes were blooming, and both went well with the morning air.  

And we had a wonderful, beautiful time.

 But I'm still not a granola fan.

Of Cats and Cookies

Regardless of where I met them, or how we've stayed in touch, or what they do with their lives, just about all of my closest friends have three things in common: a love of food, laughter, and cats.

The food and laughter are obvious, of course. I just don't really understand people who are serious about anything other than what they want for dinner. But the last one came as a surprise. Having grown up with dogs, I've always identified very strongly as a dog person, even as nearly every household I lived in after my parents' house counted at least one cat among its residents.

Seconds later, she rolled off the cabinet.

I just always assumed that living around cats was simply a phase that my friends and I were in, a stage emerging adults go through before they're able to create a dog-friendly living space. But, in the last few years, I've come to realize that these cats have become a permanent part of my friendships. We sit around drinking tea, making cookies, and inquire into the health of Minna, discuss how to transition Dino and Sprocket into the new house, debate which circle of hell Marcel originated from, worry about the weight problems of Olive and Kona, compare Blanket and Tipper's relationships with the neighborhood cats, and endlessly analyze the many psychological issues of Noel (above and right). These cats have turned all my friends into cat ladies. And probably me, too.

So, of course, one of the first things I do when I visit California is head over to a dear friend's house to make cookies, laugh, and hang out with the cats.


We made salty chocolate chip and roasted pecan cookies, adapted from a recipe by David Lebovitz (which you should expect to see even more of here, because, as if I wasn't getting enough recipes from his blog, I just received his book for my birthday!).

I think salt is the newest fad - salt selections are being offered in restaurants, bloggers and cooks are discussing which salts they use for different dishes, and I'm having trouble finding table salt in kitchen cupboards - everyone's switched over to sea salt (including my own household). Being a little late to the party, and a chronic under-salter, I haven't got an opinion on what sort of salts are the best, but they really do make chocolate chip cookies taste better. As do the roasted pecans. And the semisweet chocolate chunks.

And then we sat around the table drinking tea, eating cookies, and talking about cats.

cat.

cookie.