Homemade Granola? You bet.

I'm a snob. Wait, make that a snob and a half. When I was a kid, there was this one bully-type boy that used to tease me about always wearing Lacoste polo's - hey, it's not like I had a say in that and at least mine kept their color unlike his!:-P

But really, I was often accused of being a snob when I was younger. One of the reasons probably stemmed from me not getting my glasses until I was 13. I would walk by people on the street, not recognising them, because I COULDN'T SEE THEM! Yes, I'm still a bit traumatised by it - there was more than one person getting pretty huffed about the fact that I obviuosly felt so superior I couldn't even say hello. In the end, before I got the glasses, it resulted in me waving hello to a lot of people I didn't even know, just because I thought I'd recognised someone and didn't want to be accused of being a no-hello'er again.

The other thing that added to the title was one that I think a lot of teenagers are victims of - I was shy. Not in the hide-behind-mamma's-apron kinda way, but I just didn't walk up to people and started talking to them, if I didn't know them. I still don't. I'm working on it, but saying the first sentence in a conversation just isn't one of my traits. Usually, I'd wait until someone else got the ball rolling. And I wasn't the one telling big secrets or gossiping about who went out with who, and I'd rather crawl under the sink than start elaborating on myself. Really makes for a hard conversation in teenage-land, doesn't it? The fact that I got a steady boyfriend at a pretty early age added to the whole mysterious girl/snob labeling - I only very seldom attended parties with my peers and I rarely, if ever got drunk with them and did all of the fooling around they did.

I didn't have a lot of friends. I had a couple that were really, really close to me, and then there was a group of people we hung around. You know, a crowd that attended the same parties, interchanged girlfriends and boyfriends. Teenagers! I never considered them friends - acquiantences, you might call them. But for me, a friend is something very different from an acquintance. Maybe I was a snob.

Wikipedia gives the definition of snob my Mom also told me when I was younger: that it is when someone looks at someone else and think them inferior. I would never, ever, do that. I hope, and believe, I haven't ever done that, consciously. But in retrospect, I suppose not saying hello to people on the street would put you in that category. Teenagers are so fast at categorizing. But being the teenager I was, I think it was more like I felt inferior to everyone else.

But you know? I am a snob. Not in the people department, though. In the granola department? Yes, siree. I can honestly say I will look at any other granola than this with a scoff and a shrug of the shoulders - 'cause this is the one, the only. This here, is superior.

Andy's Fairfield Granola - only slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast.

I've made granola before, but the thought of putting apple sauce in the mix was entirely new to me. And I love it. It adds a sweet-sour note and gives you a totally butter-free experience - the other recipes I've used usually had butter in them. Considering this is breakfast, I like for there not to be butter (I rather want a thick smear on my roll for lunch, heh!) Also, this granola makes perfect crunchy clusters, the spices add a lovely flavor and are not over-powering at all, as I was afraid they might be and you know - just make it. There's a little snob in all of us :-)

450 g. rolled oats
60 g. sunflower seeds
120 g. sesame seeds
175 g. apple compote or apple sauce (I made my own, straining it to make it completely smooth)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
120 g. golden syrup
4 tablespoons runny honey
100 g. light brown sugar
150 g. almonds (with or without skins as you prefer), coarsely chopped
100 g. hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
300 g. raisins

In a BIG bowl, mix the dry ingedients, minus the raisins, add the wet and give a good stir. That was pretty hard, huh?

Divide on to rimmed baking sheets and put in a 170 degrees celcius preheated oven. Leave for about 10 minutes, then give both sheets a good stir, maybe swapping their places in the oven. Let the granola in there for another 10 minutes, stir, swap. Keep this up for about 30-40 minutes in total, until nicely toasted and golden. Leave to cool, then mix with the raisins. Enjoy on yoghurt, tykmælk or by the handful as Nigella suggests. But enjoy, you will!