I would say that one main reason I got into cooking, and why I still do it so much, is because I have control over the final product.  I can do a meatloaf with mushrooms, or not.  I can do a vegetable curry with cauliflower and carrots, or green beans and zucchini, or anything else.  I can do  a chocolate cake with all butter, instead of using vegetable oil, or an apple crumble just the way I like it.
     So, imagine my happiness when I made granola last week.  This is only the second time I have made it, and I have no idea why it didn't occur to me to make it years ago.  I love granola - in fact, I love all cereals and am a bit of a cereal addict.  I try to stay away from the stuff because, you know, it's too many carbs blah blah, but if trying to keep at a good weight and eating a balanced diet wasn't an issue for me I would probably eat it every meal.  I've taken recently to eating a handful of cereal in a little mug with a splash of milk as a snack, and that seems to keep my depravation complex at bay.
     Anyway, back to the granola.  I have spent years loitering in the cereal isle at the grocery store, reading the label of every granola and museli available, trying to decide which one I wanted for that week (the fact that when I hit 40 my eyesight became noticeably worse when reading small print didn't make this job any easier, and my older children laughed at me when they saw me hunched over a box of cereal, squinting and moving the box closer and then farther away as I tried to decipher the fine print).  Should I go for dried pineapple and brazil nut granola? Or banana chips, dried apricots and pecans?  Dried cherries and almonds?  How about the standard raisin and hazelnut combination?  And there was always a pumpkin seed option, gently chastising me that eating granola could only be justified if it had some kind of super food.  So much of the time I just went home without any granola, simply because I just couldn't decide.
     So making granola was a bit of a revelation for me.  I could use any combination that I wanted!  Amazing!  No more looking for someone else's version of the perfect granola.  I adapted recipes from both Nigella Lawson and David Lebovitz - my new favorite food person (although Nigella will always hold a special place ...).  They both used almonds, and Nigella added raisins.  I knew I wanted something else as well, so I added pumpkin seeds, golden raisins and dried apricots.  I served it at a church brunch last Sunday, and someone commented:  'This is like Christmas!'

Customized Granola

400 grams oatmeal (not the quick-cooking kind)
150 grams whole almonds
100 grams sliced almonds
100 grams pumpkin seeds
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon all spice (mixed spice)
1/2 teaspoon salt
200 grams applesauce
3 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil
150 grams agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla
100 grams raisins
50 grams golden raisins
75 grams apricots

Grease a very large, square baking dish with vegetable oil.  Combine all the dry ingredients in a big bowl, except for the raisins, golden raisins and apricots.  Put the oil, agave, vanilla and applesauce in a saucepan, and heat gently until they are well combined.  Pour this mixture over the dry ingredients, and mix well until the dry ingredients are thoroughly coated.  Pour into the prepared pan, and bake at 300F/150C for about an hour, giving it a good stir about every 20 minutes.

     And the fab thing about this is, the nut and fruit combinations are up to you.  Just keep the quantities the same, but chop and change as you will.  I see myself making this on a regular basis ...