Granola Gone Wild

So I've been mixing up my granola in a four gallon pot (which is bigger than the eye on the stove, to give you an idea).  It cooks soup for serving 20 or so.  Anyway, I started using that because I couldn't find a bowl that was big enough to satisfy me.  My family eats granola almost every day.  And my first interaction with Jesse is typically, "Mommy, what are we having?  Granola?"  Especially after having oatmeal for a few days--he starts to get a little antsy for granola.  It's just too heartbreaking to say no for that fourth day in a row.  So I started making enough to last for a few weeks. 

This time it got a little out of control.

I have an old recipe I used posted on the right of the blog, but I've actually changed the way I make it.  I no longer measure, but I do about one part liquid ingredients to 12 parts dry--enough so that the oats clump together some when you squish them together.  Here's the basic mix:

Val's Granola

Mix dry ingredients, including any or all of the following--use raw nuts when possible:

rolled oats
walnut pieces
pecan pieces
almonds (or almond pieces)
brazil nuts (broken up slightly)
cashew halves
about a cup of flaxmeal (or ground flax seeds--same difference, or buckwheat flour, etc.)
shredded coconut

Heat up wet ingredients on the stove in a saucepan:

mostly honey or maple syrup
considerably less olive oil
very small amount water
cinnamin, a lot

The wet ingredients are ready when they're about as thin as water.  Pour them over the dry.  Stir (and squish with your hands, if you like those bigger clumps of oats).  Spread it on a baking sheets with raised sides and bake at 275 deg. for half an hour.  Then add some raisins and scrape the granola off the bottom of the baking sheet and stir.  Put it back in for another 15 minutes. 

 I had my dry ingredients half-filling the pot and mixed up the wet.  But then I realized that I had a little more wet ingredients than usual.  So then I added more oats to my dry ingredients, but then I had to add more nuts because it didn't look like the right balance anymore.  And of course I forgot that I had roasted almonds so I wanted to add them with the raisins near the end.  And the raisins at the end . . .

I think I ended up with at least four gallons of granola.