Cream Biscuits

5 ingredients. 4 biscuits. 3 minutes. 2 hands. 1 easy bleeping recipe.

You don't have to be fussy with the temperature of your butter. You don't have to worry about over handing your dough. You don't need a rolling pin. You don't need any patience at all.

All you need is a handful of ingredients and a biscuit cutter. You also need to be comfortable with adding more or less cream than the exact amount given, because taking into account the humidity of the day, the type of flour you've bought, and how you measured it, you may need a (slightly) different cuppage. Also, this recipe is seriously adaptable. Add cheese, herbs, whatever you're craving.

The good people of America's Test Kitchen are GENIUSES, I tell you. Why don't you subscribe to CooksIllustrated.com (or better yet, the magazine) yet? They never let you down. Seriously.

Cream Biscuits

adapted from ATK; makes 4-5 biscuits; ready in 20 minutes or less

1 cup flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 425º. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt (and any add-ins) in a medium bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and stir, adding more until you achieve a cohesive dough.
2. Turn out onto a lightly-floured countertop and knead until smooth, about 30 seconds. Press into a circle (about 6-inches in diameter) and cut out with a biscuit cutter (or other sharp-sided utensil). You can recombine, press, and cut out more biscuits if your dough allows, but try not to do this too many times.
3. Throw in the oven and bake until tops and bottoms are golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Serve warm.

Omelette Roll

The concept of an omelette roll first crossed my palette at a ladies brunch, the potluck type held by church groups and junior leagues South-wide, where each contributing member is secretly desperate for their contribution to be the star of the show. Great care is taken to make it appear both lovely and effortless. One arrives fully prepared to share (or theatrically withhold) her recipe. Chatter surrounds the dish. Plates clutched expectantly. Ladies making audible noises of delight while eating. Dismay expressed when it is gone. Wistful desires for a second helping. Eagerness for it to be recreated in the future.

The omelette roll--brought forth at just such a Bible study gathering some years ago--had this precise effect. It is essentially a great mess of eggs and cream, beaten and baked to firmness, then wound up like a jelly roll cake and sliced just as pleasantly. The whole idea is perfect for a bake-and-take occasion, because it is a pretty low-maintenance dish that serves a crowd: no eggs to order; no messy skillet; no gummy casserole.

And the beauty of it is, you can fill it with just about anything you like. Sometimes on the weekends, I want a breakfast to sit down to, to eat slowly with a fork. I need to break out of my regular rut of scrambled whites on a piece of toast, swallowed almost without chewing as I race out the door to work at 4:45. I want to slow down and have a real adult morning.

This is the perfect little dish. It can serve 1 or 2, can be breakfast lunch or dinner, and can be stuffed with whatever manner of items you have in your fridge--anything you would throw in an omelette or frittata on the stovetop.

Omelette Roll

serves 1-2; takes about 20-25 minutes

1 oz cream cheese, soft

3 Tbsp milk

1/2 Tbsp flour

3 eggs

salt & pepper

1-2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 cup shredded cheese (of your choice)

toppings to sprinkle (for me, this time, it was chopped tomatoes and scallions)

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Line a small rectangular baking sheet (I used 6x9, which worked well, but would be the upper end of size you want) with parchment or foil and spray or grease well.
2. Whisk together cream cheese, milk, and flour until smooth. Add eggs and beat well, then pour into prepared pan. Bake for about 15 minutes, until eggs are puffed and set (jiggle the pan--you don't want the eggs to shake). Keep oven on.
3. Remove from oven and pull paper/foil out of the pan. Working quickly, spread with mustard, sprinkle most of cheese and add toppings. Roll from one short side, ending with seam down, and reposition so roll is in center of paper/foil. Top with remaining cheese and return to oven for another 3-5 minutes, until cheese is melty.

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls: 2 Ways

Cinnamon Rolls and I have a complicated relationship.

There was once a time when I believed their origins to be exclusively bound up with a puffy white spokes-thing emblazoned on a blue can, a blue can that you had to press (in great fear and anxiety) with the back of a spoon to get to pop open. Oh, the delicious Sunday mornings that can and I shared together.

Then I learned cinnamon rolls could be got in other ways, namely at restaurant drive-thrus before the clock struck a bitter 10:30 a.m. Equally sweet. Equally tooth-decaying. Equally delicious.

About 5 years ago, Southern Living told me you could buy a bag of frozen biscuits, thaw them out, pat them together, cover them in cinnamon sugar, and achieve a "homemade" result (long before Sandra Lee earned television time to teach me similar stultifying tricks). I felt empowered. I felt confused. Is this what cinnamon rolls are supposed to be?

Then somewhere along the line, I stumbled into scratch baking, which meant I had no one but a recipe writer to help me achieve can- or drive-thru-transcendence. It was then that I discovered the true essence of the cinnamon roll: the soft, bready roll, the gooey brown sugar center, the cream cheese blessing to be showered over top.

This was also about the time that I discovered 27-year-olds cannot get away with eating the things 17-year-olds do. And though I often crave (and I mean reeeally crave) the gooey goodness of a cinnamon roll first thing on a lazy weekend morning, I just can't bring myself to eat that for breakfast anymore. But dessert? That's another story.

So cinnamon rolls it is! Four of them, to be exact, adapted from ... well ... from an unidentified recipe that has been in my cookbook for several years now. Because the pumpkin train keeps rolling these days, I also did an alternate version of these rolls using the orangey goodness. Both are divine.

Part 1: Plain Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls

makes 4 rolls; can be ready in about 30 minutes

Filling:

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

dash nutmeg

1/2 Tbsp melted butter

Dough:

1 1/4 cup flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 Tbsp melted butter

Icing:

1 Tbsp cream cheese, softened

1 Tbsp buttermilk

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425º. Combine filling ingredients in a small bowl and stir together until mixture resembles wet sand. Set aside.
2. For dough, whisk together dry ingredients in medium bowl. Add buttermilk and butter, and stir until you get a shaggy dough. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead a time or two. Pat into a 6 x 9 inch rectangle, then sprinkle all of filling evenly over top. Roll from one 6-inch side to the other, pinching dough shut when rolling is complete. Cut into 4 rolls.
3. Transfer rolls, pinwheel side up, to a small, greased pan (a 5 x 5 size was perfect for me), and smush them down just a little, until they touch. (NOTE: If you have a choice between a pan that is too small and one that is too big, air on the large side. You want these rolls to spread out, not up.) Bake in preheated oven for 20-23 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine icing ingredients, whisking until smooth. Spoon over top and serve warm!

Part 2: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (alterations marked in bold)

Filling:

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

dash nutmeg

1/2 Tbsp melted butter

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Dough:

1 1/4 cup flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

dash nutmeg

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup buttermilk

3 Tbsp melted butter

Icing:

1 Tbsp cream cheese, softened

1 Tbsp buttermilk

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

• Follow instructions for Buttermilk Cinnamon rolls, whisking spices into dry ingredients for dough and adding pumpkin with the buttermilk and butter (you could even decrease the butter if you wanted, since the pumpkin will provide plenty of moisture). Everything else is the same.

Apple Jacks

Apple flapjacks, of course. Back in the days (last week) when I was feeling all homestead-y, I had a show down at the farmer's market with a certain 10-lb. bag of apples. Apparently it prevailed because that bag has been plopped in one of the chairs at my kitchen table, just high enough to peek over the surface and taunt me with its perishability.

Thankfully apples are hearty and, I recently learned, in a plastic bag with a few slits cut in it, will last for weeks in the back of your refrigerator. Hopefully the pioneer spirit will return to me soon and I will engage in some apple saucing or butter-ing, but until then, don't be surprised if those little beauties start showing up with great frequency around these parts.

Here's a perfect apple pancake for a crisp fall morning. Maybe you know or maybe you don't, some secrets to making pancakes: (1) Do not over beat the batter. You want to mix the wet ingredients together as well as the dry, then combine the two just until the dry stuff is moistened. Small pockets of flour are a-ok. This is one of the secrets to fluffiness. (2) Let the batter rest 10 or so minutes. Ever wonder why the first batch of 'cakes is always a throw away and the last ones are perfect? Partly it's you figuring out how hot your pan is, but its also the batter itself. If you give it 10-15 minutes to rest, you'll get more of the perfect kind and less of the give-that-one-to-dad-he'll-eat-anything kind.

Apple Pancakes

serves 2; takes about 20 minutes, including rest

1 egg

3/4 cup buttermilk (or just plain milk is ok)

2/3 cup white flour

1/3 cup whole wheat flour (or just 1 c white)

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 large apple, cored, quartered and grated (leave the skin on--more fiber!)

1. Whisk egg and buttermilk in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flours, sugar, soda, and cinnamon. Pour dry into wet and using a spatula, mix the two until flours are distributed but NOT fully incorporated--lots of white streaks. Add the apple and continue to stir until evenly distributed. Don't overdo it! Let batter sit 10-15 minutes
2. With 5 min to go in your wait time, set your preferred pancaking-pan over medium heat and allow to heat up gently.
3. When your pan is ready, scoop out batter in about 1/4 cup amounts. Use a spatula to flatten into thin circles. Because of the apples, these won't cook as easily or quickly as regular pancakes, so you don't want them to be too thick. Wait for bubbles to appear on surface and flip. You've made pancakes before, you can take it from here.
4. Serve with real maple syrup or, if you're me, peanut butter!

Buckwheat Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup

What do you know about buckwheat? Well, for starters, are you aware that it's not even wheat?

Buckwheat is a plant grown mostly for its kernels (like cereal grains, plants of the grass family whose seeds are used as food grains, named for the Roman corn goddess, Ceres; think wheat, rice, barley, oats, ryel, maize, millet, etc.) and is an entirely separate entity from wheat. In fact, buckwheat is not a grass at all; the kernel that we eat is really a fruit seed. Because of the similar ways in which it is cooked, though, we tend to mentally lump it along with other cereal grains. Its name comes from the Dutch, bockweit, meaning "beechwheat," apparently earned from its seeds' resemblance to beech nuts. But I digress.

As a member of the Clique of Whole Grains, buckwheat shares all the fiber-soaring, heart-healthy, potentially cancer-fighting characteristics of that bunch. It also has some lipid lowering effects that have been shown to help prevent high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. So swap these pancakes out for your regular recipe every now and then. I admit, whole grains can be an acquired taste sometimes, but just think about all those years you're tacking on to the end of your life! And then pour on the blueberry syrup.

Buckwheat has no gluten, so it must be combined with higher protein flours to get the lift you want in most baked goods. According to those geniuses at King Arthur, you can sub up to one-third of the flour in a bread recipe with buckwheat if you so choose. (Buckwheat flour in sweeter creations was not recommended--stick to pancakes, biscuits, and other breads.)

Buckwheat Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup

serves 2; total time about 10 minutes; adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bakin soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 beaten egg (scramble up the rest to go with your b'fast)

1 Tbsp molasses

1 cup buttermilk (OR a mixture of yogurt + milk OR orange juice + milk)

1/2 Tbsp veg oil

1. Stir together flours, powder, soda and salt. Make a well in the middle.
2. Whisk together egg and molasses, then add buttermilk and oil. Dump wet ingredients into dry well, then stir just until dry ingredients are good and moist (do not over mix!).
3. On a preheated skilled (preferably cast iron), scoop out 1/3-cup amounts of batter and cook 2-3 minutes, or until you start to see bubbles. Flip and cook 2-3 minutes more. Serve warm with blueberry syrup, if you like.

Blueberry Syrup

1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1 Tbsp sugar

• In a small saucepan, stir together blueberries and sugar over medium heat. After a few minutes (a bit longer if they are frozen), berries will start to break down and release their juices. Boil just a minute or two, until thick. Use warm.

Minor Failure: Tortilla de Patatas

Even though this morning's breakfast experiment was something of a bust, it had so darn much potential that I had to post it anyway. Plus, I think I know how it can be fixed!

If you are not yet familiar with the deliciosity of the Spanish tortilla de patatas, allow me to introduce you. It's a dish consisting of many layers of thin-sliced potatoes, semi-fried in olive oil, then mixed with eggs and pressed into a pan, then slowly fried again until it becomes a thick mass of tubery goodness. Once cooked, you slice it like a piece of pie and enjoy with just as much calorie-ignoring fervor. (It's often cut bite-size and served as tapas.) Just do a google image search of it, go on . . . now, tell me you're not sprinting to your stove. You're not even reading this anymore, are you?

Well, in case you are, here's a lazy version adapted for the impatient and pants-size-conscious cook. I scoured the net and read many-a-recipe, finally settling on a bastardized version of all of them. I microwaved the potatoes instead of frying them to cut down on time and the copious oil called for in every recipe (ok, and probably some of the flavor too). I threw in some garlic scapes because I had them (that's the green you see), but they're not a necessity. As usual, you could toss in any (cooked) item you think would be tasty.

Tortilla de Patatas

(My proposed fix to an irreverent first stab at a classic recipe; serves 2 as a main, 4 as part of 'this balanced breakfast'; takes about 30 minutes)

1 lb yukon gold or red potatoes

1/2 onion, sliced thin

4 large eggs

1 Tbsp water or chicken broth

oil

salt and pepper

• Start by slicing your potatoes VERY thin. I used the slicing attachment on my food processor. If you have a mandoline, set it to 1/8 inch. Otherwise, slice as thin as humanly possible by hand. Toss them with the onions and a few healthy pinches of salt in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with a microwave safe plate and cook for 10-12 minutes on high, stirring partway through. [I cooked only for 8 and they were definitely underdone. You want them cooked through but not mushy.] Pour into a colander set over the sink and let cool 5ish minutes.
• Meanwhile, in an even bigger bowl, beat the eggs with another healthy pinch of salt and 1 T water or broth (to break up the eggs). Add potato-onion mixture and smush down so potatoes are as submerged as possible in the eggs. Let sit 10 minutes.

• When ready, heat 1 Tbsp oil in a small, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Tilt bowl and pour mixture into skillet, pressing down to flatten; cook 6 minutes. Run a rubber spatula around the edges every now and then to keep from sticking. Now is the fun part. Grab your microwaved plate and set it upside-down on the skillet. Flip! And then slide the tortilla [cooked side up] back into the skillet. Press down again.

• Lower heat and cook 3 more minutes. Flip again, as before, and cook 1 final minute. Slide out onto plate and slice. This baby can be eaten warm or at room temperature.

Quiche: It's What's for Dinner

I am only minorly embarrassed to admit that David and I run through almost 2 dozen eggs every week. We love eggs. We eat them for breakfast every day (and I usually bake something with them almost every night). They are a great, lean protein and -- Get ready for another life lesson -- can be really good for you...if you buy organic, cage free, and/or free range (which basically means you can be comfortable both with what the chickens eat and how they are raised).

Alright, you've seen Napoleon Dynamite. Most chickens whose meat and eggs we have been prone to consuming are raised in high-rise, immobilizing chicken barns (where their potentially "large talons" hang out in their own scat). They make cheap eggs, yes, but those eggs are created by genetically modified birds, which are fed hormones and other foods their little chicken bodies were not designed to digest well, and sequestered into tiny pens, just begging for a chicken virus to take everyone out. I'm not talking about having happy chickens, I'm talking about us humans ingesting the best quality (or even just the least bad) foods we can--for lifelong health.

You've heard of Omega-3 fatty acids? Then you probably know that they're very good for you. Did you know that Americans have a startling deficit of Omega-3s in our diet, and therefore in our bodies? Did you know that we should have a 3-to-1 ratio of Omega-6s (a different kind of fatty acid) to Omega-3s and that the average American diet has more of a 10-to-1 or 20-to-1 ratio? Did you know that hens fed a healthy diet can have 300% the Omega-3s that a standard-issue supermarket egg has?! That's THREE TIMES as much. Not to mention improved stats on cholesterol, certain vitamins, and a much better outlook on saturated fat. If you balk at the price of organic eggs, think of it as a small health insurance contribution. And if you don't believe me, talk to the researchers at Penn State.

(Sidenote: don't overcompensate by going for the Omega-3 enhanced eggs either. It certainly gets points for health, but these "enriched" foods are our food system's way of cutting corners on production, then applying a quick-fix enhancement at the last minute. Work on reaching back as close to the land or the animal as you can.)
I'm glad we've had this talk.

Now! On to quiche. The difference between quiche you have at a regular ole meal and quiche you have at a special calorie-unconscious ladies' brunch is the crust. Take out the lining, and you've got a super healthful meal (or two or three) that saves beautifully.
This is a basic, crustless quiche recipe for which I'll give you the proportions and let you go crazy. We used asparagus, leeks, and cheddar cheese, and it was great, but endless variations are possible here--based on what's in your fridge or on your mind.

Crustless Vegetable Quiche

(Fills one 9-in pie plate)

1 heaping cup chopped vegetables of your choice
5 eggs
1/2 cup cheese (I used cheddar)
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (meaning, tear up a slice of bread: not the stuff from the can at the store)
Plenty of S+P

1. Preheat oven to 350º. In a pan over medium-high heat, heat about 1 tsp olive oil. Add vegetables and 1 tsp salt, and saute until softened, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
2. Whisk eggs until well beaten and uniform color. Stir in cheese and bread crumbs, and plenty of salt and pepper. Fold in vegetables and pour into greased pie plate.
3. Bake about 30 minutes. It's ok if the center is a little wobbly. It will continue to cook as it cools.
4. Slice into wedges and enjoy with a nice dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of paprika.

If you have leftovers, just keep in the fridge and slice off wedges at will. It's equally satisfying cold or warm, and could serve as breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner.

The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg (or) Eat Your Vegetables! ... for Breakfast

It's high time I let the secret out...David pretty much makes the best soft-boiled egg you've ever nestled your fork into. What I love about his eggs are that you get the experience of a poached egg without all the fuss of chasing little tails of egg white through a pot of just-simmering water using a spoon that's slotted but not-too-slotted and gauging exactly when to take it out so it's runny but not raw... I'm getting worn out just thinking about it. David's eggs are perfect every time. Get your pencils, people, he's agreed to share his method.

The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg

1. Start with a small pot of water. You want to bring it to a nice rolling boil with enough water to cover the egg.

2. Once you hit the "roll" (his term--for translation, insert "ing boil"), turn off the heat, wait for the big bubbles to settle, and carefully set your egg in the water using a spoon. Cover with lid.

3. Set a timer for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath with cold water and a couple of ice cubes in a small bowl. When the timer goes off, scoop your egg out and carefully place it in the bath for less than a minute--just to shock it to stop cooking. (David says you can run cold water over it, though the bath works better. The idea is that the shock of cold shrinks the egg, separating it from the shell.

4. Take the now-boiled egg and turn it fat-side-up. Gently tap in a circle around the fat end, then pry the shell off. Using either a knife or a spoon, slip your utensil between the shell and the white, gently loosening the shell. Once a decent bit of the shell is off, you can slip a spoon in there and scoop the egg out.

5. Voila! A sprinkle of salt, a piece of toast, and you've got breakfast!

Part 2: Eat your vegetables FOR BREAKFAST

As you'll notice, there's a hefty dose of spinach in my breakfast, pictured above. We've been trying to incorporate veggies into more of our meals lately, and I discovered this 5-minute breakfast technique that I genuinely look forward to. It's great with David's soft-boiled eggs, but if you've only got 5 minutes and one pan, this will do ya:

1. Take a generous handful of raw spinach and wash it. With the rinsing water still clinging to the leaves, toss them in a hot pan. Cover with a lid and allow to steam 1-2 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Once spinach is sufficiently wilted, take it out and put it on a plate.

2. With a wet paper towel, swipe the pan and spray it with pam or drop a small pad of butter in it. Crack and fry an egg to your liking. Place on top of spinach, season with salt and pepper--and my personal favorite--grate parmesan cheese over top.

Coffee Cake Muffins

Ever woken up on a snowy morning with about 8 inches of powdery goodness on the ground outside and immediately thought "I must have something freshly baked, warm, and delicious for breakfast!" ? Today is just such a day, and I went straight to one of my favorite coffee cake recipes from Cooks Illustrated. Their recipe makes 12 delicious muffins; mine makes just 4.

Here's some tips on the recipe: (1) It calls for a food processor, which makes this easier, but is not necessary. I happen to have a mini prep machine, but you can chop those pecans with a big ole knife and mix the rest by hand. (2) It calls for 1 Tbsp (or about 1/4th) of an egg. You can beat an egg and dip out a Tbsp, or ---HERE'S A BIG SECRET ALERT -- buy some egg substitute and keep it on hand. I wouldn't use it for gooey stuff like cookies and custards, but it really makes no difference in cakes, breads, and other fluffy baked items. If you're doing a lot of dividing, egg substitute is a great thing, because eggs themselves are hard to split up.

Coffee Cake Muffins (care of Cook's Illustrated)

Makes 4

2 Tbsp pecans

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup flour

1/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter, soft

1/3 tsp baking powder

pinch baking soda

3 Tbsp sour cream

1 Tbsp beaten egg or egg substitute

1/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º. In a food processor, blend pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon until nuts are about the size of sesame seeds. Remove from bowl of processor and set aside. (Alternately, finely chop pecans by hand and mix with brown sugar and cinn.)

In now-empty processor, combine flour, sugar, and salt until well mixed. Add butter and process until incorporated, about 4 1-second pulses. (Alternately, cut butter into mixture.) Take out 1/4 cup of this flour-butter mixture and and add it to the pecan-brown sugar mixture. To the remaining flour-butter mixture, add baking powder and soda, pulsing to mix.

Stir together sour cream, egg and vanilla. Add to flour-butter mixture and pulse just until flour is moistened, 5 or 6 1-second pulses. Add streusel (pecan-brown sugar-flour mixture) to batter, RESERVING 3 Tbsp to sprinkle on top of muffins. Mix with a gentle hand.

Divide batter between 4 paper-lined muffin tins. Sprinkle with reserved streusel. Bake for 15–18 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 7ish minutes.

Applesauce Granola

Part of the trick to eating low volume is stocking your shelves with things that have a reasonable life span--so you can take what you want when you want it, and leave the rest for later. Case in point: Granoooola!

This delightful recipe came from one of my favorite blogs, Baking Bites. There are a plethora of enjoyable recipes on this site, especially for frequent bakers. Here's a modified version of the recipe you can find there, which calls for puffed rice cereal. Sounds quite yummy to me, but I had none on hand. I like this granola because it uses applesauce for clumpiness, not oil, cutting back on the less-desirable fats (and leaving room for more good-for-you fats in the nuts).

Applesauce Granola

2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant, for pete's sake)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

dash nutmeg

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup (unsweetened) applesauce

2 Tbsp cup maple syrup or honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

up to 3/4 cups chopped nuts of your choice

up to 1/2 cup dried fruit of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Mix together oats and spices.

2. Separately, mix together brown sugar, applesauce, syrup/honey, and vanilla.

3. Stir 1, 2, and nuts together and spread out on a big baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes, then carefully flip with a spatula. Bake 20 more minutes. Let cool on a rack--it will crisp as it cools.

4. When cool, break it up, stir in chopped, dry fruits, and store in a zipper bag, to be sampled in quantities large or small, big or tiny, by the handful or by the single oat. You can take it from there.