We made some impossibly large batches of granola, working assembly-line style, to give away as Christmas gifts this year. Yet somehow we were only left over with a one day’s supply for ourselves. Is that an indicator of how much we had left, or how fast we consumed it? Let’s not dwell on that one..

I love having fresh, homemade granola at home. Certainly, it excites me to scoff at the 9$ bags grocery stores somehow get away with selling. But more so, I love being able to customize the crunchy goodness to my exact tastes, and to know for sure it contains no ingredients I can’t pronounce, and none of the dreaded high-fructose corn syrup. Plus, it’s so easy and cheap, and in my opinion makes the loveliest gift. Admittedly, I’m beating around the bush. There is that one other reason I love making granola.. You see, the following picture captures one of my favorite smells in the world. I have an inkling that melting the butter is not exactly essential to the process – surely using butter soft enough to simply allow the ingredients to be combined would do the trick – but why pass up on an opportunity to paint my house in the full, almost nutty caress that is the smell of melting butter? Ah…

I just put a fresh batch in the oven, and now wait for a warm treat I can douse in cold creamy milk and decorate with a graceful plopping of thick yogurt, knowing that now my mornings are once again crunchy and delicious.