Maple-Almond Granola

This is the basic formula Dave and I have been using from Cooking Light.  We change it up all the time depending on what ingredients we have on hand.

4cups regular oats
1/4 cup slivered almonds (and chopped pecans or chopped walnuts--we do up to a ½ cup mix)
1 ½ (I use 2) teaspoons ground cinnamon

(we add a bit of cardamom, ginger (crystallized or dried), all spice, nutmeg—not all of them all at once)

(we add ¼ wheat germ or flax seed)
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup water (or I use apple cider)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons brown sugar

(A bit of molasses)
2 (I use 3) tablespoons canola oil

(Vanilla or almond extract)
Cooking spray

1 cup minced dried apricots (or dried cranberries (mix) or whatever dried fruit you like)
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325° (we do 335-340 keeping an eye on it)

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.
Combine water, honey, syrup, sugar, and oil in a small saucepan; bring to a boil.. (add extract off heat)  Pour over oat mixture; toss to coat. Spread oat mixture on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 325° (335-340) for 35 minutes or until golden, stirring every 10 minutes. Place in a large bowl; stir in apricots and raisins. (Cool completely in oven with door open—this helps crisp it up.)

New Kayak Camping Destination

 Dave and I have planning a new kayak camping trip and we found this beautiful spot in Maine near Baxter State Park called Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area which is thankfully protected by the Nature Conservancy.  Here's a little description:

Nestled in the shadow of Mount Katahdin, just south of Baxter State Park, The Nature Conservancy’s Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area (DLWA) is a vital link in nearly 500,000 acres of contiguous conservation land.

Debsconeag means "carrying place," named by native people for the portage sites where they carried their birchbark canoes around rapids and waterfalls. The DLWA contains the highest concentration of pristine, remote ponds in New England, as well as thousands of acres of mature forests. A fun Side trip:  Traverse mature forests strewn with enormous glacial boulders, enjoy spectacular views of Mount Katahdin and descend into an ice cave for a chilly reminder of winter.

Where we will be this summer!

Wilco to curate Festival at MassMOCA!!

Wilco 4/6/2010 Orpheum (Boston, Ma)

(Picture is from last summer at Lowell, Ma when I was in front row!!)
Sue was a great pal to come with me to see Wilco at the Orpheum in Boston, although I was prepared to go solo if necessary.  When we were checking the concert venue out before the concert, we saw the fabulous Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche walking around--just walking around like a regular guy.  Very cool.  
The Orpheum is a beautiful old theater from the 1850s that clearly has not been cleaned or updated since then...the seats were very icky, but conversely, the restroom was spotless and very hip with green and back tile...anyway, our tickets unlike the last concert (3rd row!) were waaaaay back, but the theater was nicely pitched so we saw the stage pretty well.  Sadly the audience when you're that far back are losers and people mostly chatted or texted which was depressing.  It's a lot more fun when people are dancing and singing along with you.  Anyway, Wilco was fantastic again and played their asses off.  I was thrilled to hear so much off their A.M. record--very cool to hear It's just that Simple, I must be High, Passenger side, and of course Casino Queen--I just love those songs, but then again I love all of them.  Three solid hours of Wilco bliss.  Here's the setlist:
 Wilco (The Song), Bull Black Nova, You Are My Face, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart ; One Wing, A Shot in the Arm, One by One, Either Way, Company in My Back, Sonny Feeling, Handshake Drugs, Impossible Germany, It's Just That Simple, California Stars, Poor Places; Spiders (Kidsmoke)*, How to Fight Loneliness*, You and I*, Forget the Flowers*, Someday, Some Morning, Sometime*; Laminated Cat*, When You Wake Up Feeling Old*, War on War*, Passenger Side*, I Must Be High*, Airline to Heaven, Via Chicago, Theologians, You Never Know, Jesus, Etc., Hate It Here, Heavy Metal Drummer, I'm Always in Love, Walken, I'm the Man Who Loves You, Thank You Friends^
Encore: Dreamer In My Dreams, Casino Queen; Outtasite (Outta Mind)
Notes: * Acoustic, ^ Big Star cover  
(Thanks to http://strangersinthestreet.blogspot.com for both setlists, you rock)

Road Trip to Providence, RI to see Wilco 4/4/2010

(picture is from last summer in Lowell, Ma)
What a sweet city Providence is!  I cannot believe in all the years we have lived here, Dave and I have not ventured the mere hour down the road to check out this funky town.  But we were both charmed by this city with it's cool architecture, pretty streets, and interesting restaurants--we promised to return to explore more!

After the inevitable bout of getting crazy lost and after a kind and generous citizen of Providence offered to escort us to our destination (I kid you not!), we found Seven Stars Bakery, a place I have been dying to visit for years!  And it lived up to my dreams with many gorgeous bread loaves and sweet treats.  (I would love to work there and learn to bake these perfect loaves!) We loaded up a big bag to bring home of Vermont Cheddar bread, Sourdough, Toasted walnut and raisin bread, and a Country loaf.  Then, of course, we got amazing sticky buns and cinnamon buns to fortify us for the day ahead of touristing around. 

Coincidently just down the block we spied a funky restaurant that Dave had chowhounded called Julien's and we quickly vowed to eat there for dinner as it looked really cool.
The rest of day was spent walking around the pretty streets around Brown University and people watching while lounging on a shaded bench on the Brown's college green which very much reminded us of UW's Bascom Hill.  It was a lovely spring scene with families picnicing and kids playing frisbee. 

Before we headed to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel for Wilco, we early birded it to Julien's on Broadway.  With amazing Belgian beers (Triple Karmeliet for me and ...? for Dave) to sip we sat in the sun outside and pondered the yummy blackboard specials offered (that took a server 20 minutes to inscribe).  Lulu's is a another restaurant that I would kill to have in Cambridge or Boston: it features a funky, creative and uncliche menu with many interesting vegetarian and non-veg dishes to make your mouth water.
Dave went with the homemade black bean burger loaded with all kinds of goodies (sauted summer squash, cheese, onions) including a divine homemade ketchup with an interesting hint of allspice.  I got the seared tofu encrusted with pinenuts in a honey glaze that came with awesome soba noodles with black sesames and sesame oil, and sauted brocoli rabe and oyster mushrooms.  So delicious!  I'm not kidding, it was fantastically flavorful!  My mouth is watering just remembering this beautiful and yummy dish.

Wilco.  My very favorite band.  I was trying to remember how many concerts we have been to now:
Boston Harbor Lights (Bank of America Pavilion), Tanglewood (Lenox, Ma), North Hampton, Lowell, Ma, Lupo's (Providence, RI), Orpheum (Boston, Ma) and next will be this summer at MASS MoCA.  Woohoo!

I cannot believe we were so far back in line waiting outside to get into the Lupo's and yet we got so incredibly close to the stage: 3rd row standing (much closer than if you sat)!  It was amazing!  And many short people like me banded together and would not let any tall people stand in front of us so incredibly I had a perfect line of vision to the stage.  So lucky!  The concert started a little oddly in our opinion like Tweedy was suffering from one of his terrible migraines and he left the stage for a minute--I thought to puke or something (like he has admitted doing in the past when he has migraines) and he looked exhausted, but who wouldn't be after all that touring?  Anyway, as the concert progressed, Wilco and the audience got more and more revved up and the band sounded great!  It is so fabulous being that close to the stage because you can see the magic that Nels works on his guitars and see Tweedy leading this great band. It was really cool how they half way through the concert transformed the stage to make it more intimate and homey with the funky old lamps and went acoustic playing their more folksy and country songs, the songs that Dave loves the best.  They played Dave's and my fav. Forget the Flowers (including banjo part!), a song we play over and over in the car never tiring of it.
Wilco is incredibly kind to their fans--they play their hearts out for over three hours, they give away dinners to cool restaurants, and they seem to have a lot of fun on stage.  We had a fabulous time even though our feet were killing us and we were dying of thirst and had to drive back to Boston and had to work the next day.  All worth it.   "This band brings all their equipment on the bus."

Setlist: (this is for me really.)
Wilco (The Song), Bull Black, Nova, You Are My Face, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart > One Wing, Radio Cure, Sonny Feeling, Summerteeth > Misunderstood, She's a Jar, Handshake Drugs, Impossible Germany, California Stars, Poor Places > Spiders (Kidsmoke)*, What's the World Got in Store*, War on War*, Forget the Flowers*, Heavy Metal Drummer*, Laminated Cat*, Passenger Side*, Airline to Heaven, A Shot in the Arm, Jesus, Etc., You Never Know, I'm Always in Love, Hate It Here, Theologians, Too Far Apart, Walken, I'm the Man Who Loves You, Red-Eyed and Blue, I Got You (At the End of the Century), Thank You Friends^
Encore: Dreamer in My Dreams, Casino Queen, Outtasite (Outta Mind) 
Notes: * Acoustic, ^ Big Star cover

Stan Update

It's been a week since Mr. Stan had surgery to extract the majority of his teeth.  I think he's feeling better, but still not eating great at the moment which is a worry to us.  But he's still on Clavamox, an antiobiotic which often upsets his tummy so no wonder his appetite is down and he most likely has to get used to eating without teeth.  We were imagining if we had all our teeth pulled and then tried to eat--it would be a bit odd!!!  Poor little guy.  We also have to give him "mouth wash" every night to clean the bacteria out of his mouth--he just loves that!  Stan is sleeping better and seems more comfortable and at ease than before the surgery and he purrs a lot, so that makes me think his mouth does feel better even though it's healing.  Anyway, we take Stan in for a check up in a month or so.  I hope the rest of his remaining fangs can be preserved.  Stan's favorite song is:
http://www.myspace.com/antsypantskids/music-player?sindex=-1.0&shuffle=false&amix=false&pmix=false&plid=27579&artid=4799701&sseed=0&ptype=3&stime=13.244&ap=1&rpeat=false