I made this for our guests last night. It was supposed to be for breakfast but we opted for farm fresh eggs instead with this on the side.

I also made them a "to go" jar for the car. That way they can enjoy it as a yummy snack while on the road. I love how crunchy this turned out. Very balanced flavors.

Yield: about 6 cups

Ingredients:
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped coarse
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats*
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/2 cup honey (to make sugar free use sugar free honey)
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
½ cup dehydrated cranberries

*Note – Do not substitute quick-cooking or instant rolled oats in this recipe, or the granola will taste sandy rather than crunchy.

Directions:
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Toast the almonds and walnuts in a 12‑inch skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until fragrant and beginning to darken, about 3 minutes. Stir in the oats and oil and continue to toast until the oats begin to turn golden, about 2 minutes. Stir in the sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and cinnamon and continue to toast until the mixture turns golden, about 2 minutes.

Off the heat, stir in the honey, flaxseeds, and salt until well coated. Spread the granola evenly over a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring every few minutes, until the granola is light golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the cranberries. With a spatula, push the granola onto one half of the baking sheet and press gently into a 1/2‑inch-thick slab. Let the granola cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Loosen the dried granola with a spatula, break into small clusters, and serve.  The granola can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Grabbed a couple of pictures on the tour with Britney (Fancy Farm Chic) of our garden. She helped me find that we have 3 carrots and then when we went to mark them we could only find 2. So...we have 2 carrots growing! Then I got to ask her about our Bok Choy, Onions, Neon Rainbow Swiss Chard, Arugula and our tiny bugs that are enjoying our Radish leaves. We also were very proud to show her the progress of our pumpkins - but didn't get a picture of those yet. All in all we learned a lot from Britney and am very thankful for her taking the time out of her own gardening time to help us with ours.

OK, so this isn't the "real" Mt. Vernon - But it is our town's Mt. Vernon.

This year, one of our friends gave us a tank that he used to use to take water out to his cows. So my hubby put it in our garden to collect rain water so we could save money when watering the garden. I love it! He put together a spout, an on/off valve and then attached a long hose so I could get the whole garden with it. We also have collection bins under each of the main areas of the roof that have the most run-off. After it rains, they are usually full, and my hubby will take a cart and wheel the bins over to our large tank and fill it up. We have a smaller one on the other garden which we use mainly for the pallet garden, until we get more planted on that side of the yard.

The other day we were talking to one of our friends (who lives across the state line, in Colorado) she told us that it is illegal to collect rain water in parts of Colorado. How silly is that - they say it's because they want it to run off into the streams and rivers. But when you live out in podunkville (like she does), it would totally evaporate before it could even find its way to the rivers.

Howdy! Here is what my garden looks like today:

INGREDIENTS
1 pound tomatillos
3 jalapeños
1 large onion, quartered
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon Aleppo Chile Flakes
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Ground Pepper

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the broiler oven to 500 degrees F. Remove husks from the tomatillos and rinse under warm water to remove the stickiness. Put the jalapeños, garlic, onion and tomatillos on a baking sheet. Coat with the olive oil and salt. Put on a rack about 1 or 2 inches from the heat, and cook, turning vegetables once, until softened and slightly charred, about 5 to 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle peel the garlic and cut off the tops of the jalapeños (this is also the time to take out the seeds if you want less heat from your jalapeños). Add all the broiled ingredients to a blender (be careful when adding hot items and liquid to the blender. If the glass on the blender is cold, it might break). Puree the broiled ingredients along with the fresh cilantro, Aleppo Chile Flakes, and the Cayenne Pepper (and any juice that oozed out of the tomatillos while broiling). Puree until smooth or your desired consistency.

For me this made 2 pint jars of Salsa. But because I couldn't wait til it cooled to test, there are only 1 3/4 jars left :).

Our garden's very first frost warning is scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night. Boy is this stressful! Making sure everything is covered and tied down, because not only do we have a frost warning but we also have 25 mph winds coming our way for the next two days. So out came the plastic, blankets, and trash bags to cover all of our little guys and praying they make it through :)