Pat's not-too-sweet, not-too-expensive kinda healthy best granola

Homemade cherry/cranberry/walnut granola

(inspired by David Leibovitz and Nigella Lawson)
A few months ago I suddenly started craving really good granola, the kind that's usually $8 for a small bag and a zillion calories. I hadn't made my own granola since the Campanile recipe was popular for years, but I remembered it was usually expensive to assemble all the ingredients and so rich it was tempting to eat the whole recipe as a snack, leaving nothing for breakfast.
I started with David Leibovitz's recipe, which is in turn inspired by Nigella Lawson, and simplified it a bit. The key is applesauce or pear sauce, which provides sweetness and adds crunch. Unlike Mark Bittman's recipe, there's a bit of fat, which I feel is necessary to make it crunchy and carry the flavor, though less than Campanile's version.
From there I decided that 3 cups of almonds would probably add more calories than I need, plus they're expensive. So I use a half cup of walnuts, but really you can use whatever you want. I don't use the sesame seeds at all, I don't think it suffers without them. I also cut out the rice syrup, because there's already enough honey and brown sugar, and I'm sure it's costly as well. I add a quarter cup of ground flax seeds to make it a bit healthier, and some dried fruit. I use a half cup of dried cranberries and a half cup of dried cherries, but chopped dried apricots are also great, and Nigella prefers raisins.
David uses two tablespoons of vegetable oil. This time I used three tablespoons of coconut oil, which in one of those confusing nutritional switcheroos, is now considered more healthful than canola oil instead of less. I think it strikes a good balance of not too costly, a little addictive but not too, and relatively healthy. It's great mixed with plain Greek yogurt or Go Lean cereal and soy milk. You could also whip some up quickly for Christmas presents.

Here's my tweaks to David's recipe:

Pat's Not-too expensive, Not-too-sweet Kinda Healthy Best Granola

5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (get it in bulk at Whole Foods or in the bag at Trader Joe's)
1/2 to 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds (Whole Foods bulk bins)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds (available at TJ's)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (use more or less depending on your sweet tolerance)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce or pear sauce (available in single serve cups at Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup honey
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil (coconut oil, now available inexpensively at TJ's, makes it even better.)
1 cup chopped dried cranberries, cherries, apricots and/or raisins)
Preheat the oven to 300F.
1. In a  large bowl, mix together oats, nuts, sunflower seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
2. In a small saucepan, warm the fruit puree with the honey and oil.
3. Mix the fruit mixture into the dry ingredients until thoroughly dispersed, then divide and spread the mixture evenly on two baking sheets. (If you have ones with sides, often called jelly-roll pans, use them.)
4. Bake the granola for about 45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the granola is deep golden brown.
5. Remove from oven, add chopped dried fruits, then cool completely. Try not to eat it all the first day.

Kale is having its moment

kale chips are super easy to make

In the time since I first started writing this post a few weeks ago, I've heard kale mentioned approximately a zillion times.
- Bearded guy on the patio at Bar Covell: "Local has the most amazing kale salad!"
- Tweet from someone I follow: "Great greens from Montrose farmer's market 3? kinds of kale!"
Naturally, that tweet came with the hashtag #kaleaddicts.
- Facebook post from the Paris By Mouth blog: "Free kale plants for urban gardens to be picked up at Candelaria? Paris really IS becoming New York."
During that time -- which coincided with the Charlie Sheen meltdown -- there was also an article in the New York Post, "Kale is totally winning."
Why is kale suddenly so sexy? Spinach never had this kind of cachet. No one is that ardent about chard. The main reason is that eating kale makes you feel amazingly virtuous. It doesn't matter if your whiskey-soaked evening was followed by a bacon-laden breakfast -- one kale salad later and you've zeroed out any fouls to the body.
Plus, made into baked chips, it feels like you've pulled off some kind of sneaky swap -- they're addictively salty and crunchy and even coated with a bit of olive oil, still extremely healthy.
Vegans love kale, but so do carnivores who find the slight bitterness nicely offsets something rich like pork belly or shortribs. Though it's actually more nutritious and easier to chew when cooked, kale salads have become popular despite the rather sturdy leaves. What sounds sexy and again, is really good for you? Massaging kale, that's what. Yes, if you want to eat kale raw, it helps to gently massage the dressing into it to soften up the fibers.
Here's Smitten Kitchen's recipe for kale chips. Like Smitten Kitchen, I used lacinato or black kale, which seems sweeter and less fibrous, but I think it works with either kind.
Here's a recipe from Dr. Andrew Weil's True Food Kitchen for Tuscan kale salad, which will be on the menu at the new Santa Monica Place location of the Phoenix and Newport Beach healthy food restaurant, opening May 9.
What other restaurants have good kale offerings?

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-your-Mouth Cookies: Take your cookies to a new level

I thought I was done with Christmas cookie baking, but when a copy of Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich landed on my front porch, I became re-obsessed with finding a cookie that would appeal to my less-sweet, unusual-flavor loving tastes, but might still please those like my daughter who prefer traditional, gooey, sweet cookies. This book has a little of everything, from sophisticated spicy carrot masala macaroons to enough brownie recipes so that fans of every style can find the best one for their tastes.
 
I asked for a household vote on the first recipe, and Matt chose Coffee Walnut cookies, which are nutty, thin and crispy, and perfect with a cup of coffee or dish of coffee ice cream. Some of these recipes appeared in Medrich's earlier cookbooks, like the coffee walnut cookies from Pure Desserts, but they've been re-tested and refined with extremely clear and detailed instructions -- where before these cookies were sliced off a log, now there's also an option to roll them and cut with a cookie cutter, which takes a bit more time but makes a more impressive and refined cookie.
For the next batch, I'm wavering between Chocolate chunk cookies with cherries and pecans, vanilla cream cheese sandwiches (which look much more intriguing than they sound) and Chunky Peanut Butter clouds, which are peanut butter-enhanced meringues studded with hazelnuts and chocolate. If you're a baker at all, this book will likely get a lot of use, and Medrich's recipes are so carefully thought-out and explained that you won't find similar recipes on the sometimes-unreliable interwebs. Yes, Alice is a family friend, but this book would be tempting even if I hadn't spent almost my whole life sampling her goodies from her kitchen and Cocolat.

Salty, wrinkly, and delicious: Jose Andres papas canarias

EatingLA's papas canarias - just like Bazaar!

Everyone was raving about Bazaar's papas canarias the other night, and they're actually pretty easy to make. Hopefully you have a fairly high salt tolerance -- I recommend offsetting the pleasant saltiness with something like a mild, flaky white fish. Here's the recipe from MarthaStewart.com:

Papas Canarias
Ingredients:
2 pounds baby potatoes
1 cup salt, plus more as needed
Mojo verde, for dipping

Place the potatoes in a deep, medium-size pot. Add enough water to cover, and salt. Potatoes should float in the salted water; if not, add more salt.
Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are easily pierced with the tip of paring knife, 25 to 30 minutes.
Drain water from pot, leaving just enough to cover the bottom. Return pot to low heat and cook, shaking pot until the salt covering the potatoes begins to crystallize, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover pot with a clean kitchen towel until potato skins have wrinkled, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately with dipping sauces, as desired.

Mojo verde (don't add salt unless you're serving it with something other than the potatoes)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 cups well-packed chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sherry-wine vinegar
Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and salt to a smooth paste. Add cilantro leaves and cumin seeds; mash until well combined. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while continuing to mash, until all the olive oil is absorbed.
Turning the pestle in a slow, circular motion around the mortar, drizzle in 2 teaspoons water and vinegar. Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.