We watched episode 3 of South Park current season, and the Eric Cartman character has a pathological hatred of hippies. This recipe for granola is in honor of him.
Ingredients
4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (rolled oats)
1 cup slivered almonds (any nut could be substituted here, but you want something small enough to clump with the oats)
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 c ap flour
1 tbsp sugar, any kind
pinch of salt
splash of vanilla
splash of almond extract (if you like almonds)
(scant) 1/3 c. maple syrup (the real stuff - not the cheapo maple-flavored crap)
1/8 cup honey
Tools
cookie sheet with a rim
a big bowl, a small bowl
a spatula
Steps
Heat the oven to 350.
Spread the oats and almonds evenly on the cookie sheet and toast for 10-12 minutes, stirring once.
In a bowl (or food processor), combine the butter, flour, salt and sugar. You'll need to chop up the butter until the whole mixture is crumbly.
In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup, honey, vanilla and almond extract. My next batch may contain dried raspberries (added after the mixture has cooled) and raspberry extract.
Remove the oats and almonds from the oven and dump them in the big bowl. Mix thoroughly. Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and combine well. If you think the liquid mixture isn't thin/runny enough, use a microwavable bowl and heat it for 15 seconds.
Butter (spray or the real stuff) the cookie sheet and spread the granola mixture evenly onto it.
Bake in the 350 oven for 12-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. The original recipe called for this time, but I had to go for nearly 20 in order to get my preferred level of crispiness.
Remove from the oven, cool and store in an airtight container. If you want to add dried fruit (raisins, bananas, apples), wait until it's cool.
Another variation would be to use dried apples, and instead of a maple syrup/honey mix try boiling down some apple cider until it's supergooey.
Serve with milk, soy milk (for you hippies out there), yogurt, fruit or ice cream.
With enough experimenting, you could probably bake these into bars, which would be a serious money-saver for me. A box of Quaker granola bars is, what, $2.69? You can get a whole container of oats for less than that, and that has 15 cups in it.

Paul has proclaimed me to be the new Public Relations director (e:news,80). Cool. We talked over a few ideas last night, the bumper sticker initiative being just one of them. Since he hasn't yet posted the others, I'm going to toss them out here.
- featured content, excerpts of posts and comments, pictures or sounds, selected based on a vote by (e:peeps).
- featured peeps - like a peep of the week.
- a print version that "teases" site content for distribution in local hangouts and haunts.
- incentives for bringing in new peeps.
- publicity. No set goal for this, but as much as possible.

I had another thought this evening but I"m floating it by (e:paul) first.

Buffalopundit has a post about Thruway tolls and some steps being taken by local politicians to remove the toll barriers in WNY.
As BP says, go tell the NYS Thruway Authority what you think . You can post your questions to the TA and their answers in my comments - I want to see if they send the same canned answer to all.

My question: Why has the Thruway Authority refused to remove the toll barriers in western New York as mandated by the 1968 Niagara Toll Removal Act?

Their answer: Thank you for contacting the New York State Thruway Authority.
The Thruway Authority collects tolls as a means to providing public transportation services in western New York and across the State. As a user-fee supported system, the Authority receives no State tax dollars, and is paid for by the travelers who use it, an estimated one-third of whom are from out of state.
The Authority is not a trustee of the Niagara Thruway Toll Removal Fund, and to the best of our knowledge, the agreement between the State, the Thruway Authority and the Federal government contemplated by the statute was never executed. No monies have been allocated or appropriated to the Thruway Authority from this fund, and the State has never received Federal money that is eligible to pay for the removal of tolls along the New York State Thruway.
We hope this information is helpful.
Sincerely,
The Department of Public Affairs
//
Thoughts?

A cautionary note for those interested in home brewing: you may, at some point, hear the words "one of the bottles might have exploded." When you hear that, the bottle most definitely did explode.

Chevy lets anyone make their own commercial for the Tahoe.
Take a look at mine


Here are a few sites that are collecting entries.

Random Thought's asks for the naming of 5 top tv shows of all time. I'm just going to name my favorite ones now.
1. 24
2. House
3. Alias
4. Lost
5. Battlestar Galactica

Ingredients
Focaccia Bread, sliced lengthwise
Sliced turkey
Mayo
Dill seed
Roasted red peppers
Artichoke hearts, from a jar
Cheese, any kind including parmesean
Tools
Pizza stone
Steps
Open up the bread so you have your two slices to work with.
Spread a thin layer of mayo on the inside surfaces of the sandwich. I don't like mayo, but in my experiments with sammys I've found that these, especially when toasted, need that little something extra. Plus, the herbs stick better to mayo than the bread alone.
Sprinkle the dill lightly on the mayo.
Pile on a turkey slice, a roasted red pepper, artichoke hearts, with cheese on top (for maximum meltage).
Place on pizza stone in preheated oven at 300-350 until the cheese is melted, 5+ minutes depending on your oven.
Remove from oven and eat. Serve with a dill pickle.
You could also toast this in a toaster oven, or lightly butter the outsides of the bread and grill it on a griddle. I used my pizza stone because it is one of my favorite kitchen tools.

Read the previous entry for sloppy sap (e:kara,51)

J came up with the name, and we won't know the results for another few weeks. As with any alcoholic beverage, this recipe is intended for use and consumption by those of legal drinking age. There's my disclaimer, obey as you will. Currently, we have 2 buckets of the sloppy sap and 1 gallon of hard cider fermenting, 3 6-packs of hard cider bottled and aging, and I can't even guess how many bottles of stout, ale and cider are downstairs.
Brewing is an art. I'd recommend starting with something cheaper, like apple juice for hard cider. The initial equipment costs can be a little steep, especially if you buy the ready-made kits. Niagara Traditions Home Brew has a great selection of equipment and supplies, with knowledgable staff.
Ingredients
5 gallons of maple sap that has been put through a reverse osmosis machine.
[This part confuses me, but basically, the sap we used is 6-7% sugar; what comes out of a tree is 1-2%. You can figure this out using a hydrometer. If you've done any brewing, you know what this means. As a reference, Grade A maple syrup is 65% sugar; that's a lot of boiling.] Our source was Wendell's, down near Springville. If you called around to local maple places south of the southtowns, you could probably find a supplier.
Liquid yeast, available from brew supply stores - enough for the 5 gallons. This needs to come to room temperature before being used. The one I used had 40-60 BILLION yeast cells!
Tools
Bleach (for sterilizing equipment)
A bucket with lid that seals tightly, with hole in the top for the airlock; preferably, this bucket will have a spigot, for easy bottling once the fermentation process has finished.
Towels, for when you spill.
A bathtub or super-giant bucket.
A large spoon (for stirring).
Rubber gloves
Steps
Sterilize the equipment with a light bleach solution - this means all of it - gloves, spoons, and the bathtub. Using a bathtub is the absolute easiest way to do it. A kitchen sink just doesn't have enough space.
From there, dump the maple sap *carefully* into the bucket. Reserve a few cup's worth.
Make sure the yeast is at room temperature, following the package's directions.
Rinse out the bag with some of the reserved sap, so that you get as much of the yeast as possible.
Stir the whole mixture with the spoon. Add the top to the bucket (with the airlock). Leave it sit for . . . awhile. We're going to try it after a week to see if any additional sugar needs to be added.
Leave questions in the comments; I'll have to forward them on to the expert.

If you're an epileptic, or are otherwise prone to seizures, you SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR. I was going to pick up some brewing supplies this evening, and as I pulled out I saw the aftermath of a car accident, with the guy who caused it in the driver's seat in the midst of a seizure. There were three or four people there on cell phones (calling 911) already, and the girlfriend who was with him seemed calm - like it had happened before. That's ridiculous. He could had killed someone while driving, instead of just denting a fender. That person, and whoever knew this and didn't speak up when he tried to drive, is a menace.

In several weeks, we will have many, many gallons of maple syrup mead. I don't know the specifics yet, but it will involve several buckets, a bit of bleach, 40-60 million yeast cells, and sweet, sweet maple goodness.

Today, I bought purple shoes. I may only buy purple shoes from now on, and it was the best $7 I spent all month.

My dog enjoys her three b's: her bear, her bone, and her 'bee (frisbee). Is there any interest in joining Abby for a birthday party? I'm thinking some sunny, April evening (her birthday's on the 19th), (friendly, non-biting) dogs and their owners could join us for an evening of homemade doggie treats and tennis balls.

We rented a Ford Explorer, and after 900 miles at about 14.5 miles per gallon, we got our shiny boat back to Buffalo. Seeing that type of mileage astonished me, and it hurt my tree-hugging sensabilities to see how much gas we went through. I'm glad we have our tiny Saturns that get over twice that rate.
The boat is a Catalina 22, and I need to call today about finding a slip for the summer. Otherwise, simple jaunts out on Lake Erie will require a truck rental and an hour+ of driving, in addition to setting up the mast, the motor and dozens of other little chores.
Unlike our last sailboat (RIP), this Catalina comes with a roller furling (sp), portapotty, lots of other awesome features, and everything is labelled. We even have the original manuals for everything, down to the trailer's brakes.

This was the best purchase of the weekend. The second-best purchase was white cherry blossom spray and lotion . Ever since they discontinued the Flowering Herb line, I've had no reason to go into Bath and Body Works. I remember when they brought Flowering Herb back for a few weeks one summer, I called all the BBW's in Buffalo and found a few left at McKinley Mall; I promptly left work and bought them all. This new product comes close to matching the fruit-flower combination that the Flowering Herb scent that I loved so much.