So,

I’m not sure if i wrote about it the second time.  I made a different recipe of granola for my second go.  It worked well.  We didn’t have powered milk, and so it didn’t get as chunky as the recipe led me to believe.  It was called Chunky Granola after all.  :-D  So tonight, I made another batch.  We ate through the burned batch and the first go at chunky this morning, so I needed to fill our buckets.

Chunky Granola works.  Some how the time for cooking doesn’t work so hot though.  here’s what i found.  I was nervous and experimenting to make it get chunky.  So we actually remembered to purchase powdered milk.  I made 2 batches simultaneously.  Other’s like to call this doubling the recipe.  :-D  Either way, i added a little more honey, cooked them at the same time, and actually cooked them for 15 minutes, and then had to put dinner in the oven.  So i took them out, let them cool in my room (so people wouldn’t snack on it) and then threw it back into the oven like 2 hours later for 15 more minutes.  It’s still in the process of cooling, but it looks a lot more chunky and able to hold together.  *snaps to powdered milk*  it’s pretty darn sweet though, which isn’t bad.  I realized after i started pulling the ingredients together, that I should have measured out the liquids separately in two bowls.  because when you’re doubling a recipe, bare with me it’ll make sense.  When you’re doubling a recipe you’re mixing everything together.  but when you’re making two batches, and you’re working with oil and honey, it’s difficult to separate that evening into the two different batches.  So next time i learn.  I also tried roasting the cashews and walnuts more than last time, but i forgot cause i was cooking dinner, and burned the hell out of them.  they sizzled in the compost.  I’m also going to try using real oats instead of quick oat, if we ever get any.
On another note - the city repossessed some houses from the tax foreclosure auction.  And there’s one near by with a vacant (and unbuildable) lot next door.  After reading (i’m almost done) This Organic Life by Joan Dye Gussow, i want to make a farm in the vacant lot and live in the house.  There’s some book that Far (ant hill) mentioned and it’s about this urban house that is pretty much as far off the grid as you can get.  I’d like to try that.
I realized there’s a line between being conscious and frugal - and depriving yourself of  the basic necessities of comfortable living.  like heat.  :-D  our house is not well insulated and we keep the heat low - but it works.  I’m not too cold, i believe every single one of my family would die here.  :-D  it’s all relative when I say i’m cold.