Homemade granola: it’s what’s for breakfast.

I had the best breakfast EVER when I was visiting Iceland last month. The Laundromat Cafe is a quirky little place in Reykjavik where you can have an amazing meal and wash your clothes at the same time. I ordered ‘The Clean Breakfast’, which consisted of lots of healthy, healthy food – and came with a little dish of Greek-yogurt-like cheese drizzled with honey and topped with a crunchy, freshly made muesli (basically, an unbaked granola). After messing around with a few recipes, I settled upon this one, for a delicious – and baked – knock-off. It doesn’t last for very long in my pantry. Here’s how to do it!

• 4 cups dry oatmeal
• 3/4 cups oat bran (I like Bob’s Red Mill – in the cereal section)
• 3/4 cups wheat germ (Kretschmer’s!)
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tbsp. maple syrup
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325F. Combine oatmeal through pecans in a large mixing bowl. Combine oil through vanilla extract in a small saucepan and heat over medium flame, stirring to make a syrup (you don’t need to bring this to a boil).

Pour syrup over oatmeal mixture and stir quickly and thoroughly, making sure all the crumbly bits have a little syrup on them. Spread out onto a quarter-sheet baking pan (or two standard cookie sheets) and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir so there aren’t any bits that get too browned. Return to oven and bake another 10 minutes.

Remove pan(s) from oven and set on the counter to cool completely. When cooled, break up with a spatula and store in an airtight container.

DELICIOUS spooned over some honey-drizzled Greek yogurt and berries. Enjoy!

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Fresh corn and avocado gazpacho.

Oven-roasted corn.

This chilled summertime soup takes gazpacho to a whole new level. It’s a velvety sweet departure from the usual tomato-based preparation one usually associates with gazpacho. The roasted corn, sliced from the cob and placed directly into the soup pot adds a lovely sweetness and crunch. Don’t be intimidated by the length of this recipe; it’s really quite easy. And don’t skip the step of making a broth out of the cobs that have been relieved of their kernels. This adds such a lovely, complex flavor that simply can’t be duplicated by replacing with canned vegetable broth that you might have in your pantry.

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Irish Guinness Bread. Slainte!

This bread is a delight with a big bowl of beef or lamb stew, or just about anything that’s been cooked for hours in a velvety gravy. I’ve made this many times, believe me, I wouldn’t lead you astray. And if you happen to have a record album of old Irish rebel songs playing in the background as you’re kneading, so much the better. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, all!

2 tbsp dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar
7 oz. Guinness stout
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp caraway seeds
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp powdered ginger (don’t leave this out; it really makes a difference!)
1 tbsp butter (to brush on loaf after baking)

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Country ham (courtesy of ‘Mama Dip’).

This recipe comes straight from the cookbook “Mama Dip’s Kitchen” by Mildred Council. Ever since I bought this book in 1999, I’ve never made ham any other way.

When buying a country ham, make sure that the ham is soft all over when mashed with your thumb and that the skin is not dry and hard. Allow plenty of time to prepare a country ham. It soaks and cooks for a long while. Use leftovers to make sandwiches and biscuits.

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The. Best. Mustard. Ever.

My husband is a mustard aficionado. If the pantry had less than three jars of Jack Daniels No. 7 mustard, he’d get panicky. I decided to go ahead and make my own. Not knowing anything about the process or the specific chemistry involved, I plunged ahead into the first recipe I found, which entailed nearly and hour of cooking on the stove. Disastrous! It was bitter; no, bitter is too kind a descriptor. There simply are no words.

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