Things are happening around here again.  Domestic things...

Homemade Granola! Why didn't anyone tell me how delicious homemade granola tastes? I decided to whip some up primarily as a cost saving measure (I haven't run the numbers to determine whether this was less expensive). But this stuff was delicious.  After a bit of research, I decided granola was pretty versatile, so I went with the recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (you're wondering why there's a granola recipe in a bread book, aren't you? It's to use when making the Granola Bread, a variation I haven't yet tried).  It took me five minutes to throw together, and it only took that long because I had to search high and low for my coconut. Easy peasy.

I used sliced almonds, coconut, regular oats and some raisins. I also doubled the amount of vanilla it called for, because I love vanilla granola. It's crazy good. Mr. Plaid and I were snacking on it throughout the evening.  We finally had to call it quits so there'd be some left over for breakfast.  The recipe makes about six cups...

Also in the kitchen this weekend were some delicious cupcakes using a recipe from Scholastic's Parent and Child magazine. It's a Sandra Lee recipe (find it here), so it starts with a cake mix. I didn't have all the things on hand, so I improvised. Here's what I used:

• Yellow cake mix
• Box of white chocolate sugar free pudding (I don't usually do sugar free, but this was left over from a Weight Watchers faze I went through)
• 1 cup Whole Foods Cherry Vanilla soda
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• about 1 cup white chocolate chips, or however many were left in the bag...
  

The cupcakes were great. They ended up very moist, and had such a good flavor that they didn't need frosting. You can't always say that about cakes from a mix, but these were tasty. Um...no pictures, because they were gone quickly.