…and “Carrock Granola”
On November 9, my husband told me my face had the same expression it had when my parents died.
So, it’s been about a month since the election and my gazillion new Facebook friends from the “secret” Pantsuit Nation are still in mourning. Many still have this photo of Lady Liberty weeping instead of a personal one. All their panties have been in an uproar and now my feed is filled with indignant shares of questionable and perhaps fabricated links; hard to tell anymore, what with all the fake news out there. For me, however, about the only redeeming part of this election has been the Biden/Obama memes, where Joe apparently lets loose with pranks against the incoming staff and Barack has to rein him in.
Well, the Democratic party is a mess. It has lost its way and needs some young blood to shake it up. I’m not so devastated about Hillary losing; I’ve voted for losers before. I don’t think I would be so profoundly disturbed if a more normal Republican candidate had won—let’s face it—the party pendulum normally swings to the opposite side as a matter of course. But with this election… one can only have nightmares thinking about whatever chaos our incoming president will inflict on our country. I said in a previous blog that I would give Trump the benefit of the doubt (cheekily entitled “Doomsday Approacheth”), but… all I have now is doubt.
AND—the Republican party is also a mess, even though they won. It has also lost its way and needs some young blood to shake it up. Perhaps the two-party system is now obsolete, and now would be the perfect time for some serious election reform. Will it happen? I’m not going to hold my breath. Voter suppression, campaign spending and financing; why can’t we have second and third choices? Why can’t we only spend, say, 90 days on election preparation? The conventions were a waste, the debates were a farce, the results are disconcerting at best. Half the population believes they have taken the country back, but back to what? The other half believes this is the beginning of the end of this great experiment in democracy.
The pollsters were wrong. The pundits were wrong. I know this is cooking website, so I won’t bore you with more details about politics; we’ve got plenty of more educated bloggers doing that. I just wonder if someone like the woman in the photo below will regret her choice in the near future? Nevertheless, at this particular moment, she looks like she would welcome a bit of pussy-grabbing.
Pussy didn’t grab back hard enough.
And now, lose yourself in some comfort food. That’s all I’ve been doing for the past few weeks. Sad.
From “The Hobbit”—Beorn
Beorn lives near a great rock that he calls the Carrock. Why does he call it that? Because that is his name for it. Perhaps he brings with him a giant bowl of granola, and sits there contemplating the nearby Misty Mountains and other philosophical matters. It is likely that Beorn would pour cream on this granola; I would suggest milk instead, unless you feel you can afford the calories.
“Carrock Granola”
- 8 ounces old-fashioned oats
- 2 ounces pecan halves
- 2 ounces walnut halves
- 2 ounces sliced almonds
- ¼ cup dry roasted salted sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup dry milk powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup walnut oil
- ½ cup honey
- 6 ounces dried cherries
- 3 ounces chopped sugar dates or chopped dried figs
- 3 ounces dried blueberries
- 3 ounces raisins
Preheat oven to 350°. Liberally coat a 13″ by 9″ glass pan with cooking spray. In a very large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In a 2-cup glass measure, whisk together the oil and honey. Pour over the oat mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon. Pour into the pan (don’t bother washing bowl) and bake for a total of 30 minutes. Stir with the wooden spoon at 10, at 20 minutes, and finally after you remove it from the oven. Remove and let cool in pan for one hour.
Meanwhile, combine the dried fruits in the bowl. Break up the oat mixture with the wooden spoon; pour this into the bowl and mix well. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Makes about 8 cups.
