REBOOT Granola—Cooks and Books #3 with author, Holly Jacobs

Granola again.

I posted this a while back, but had more requests yesterday. I burned my first batch.  #ThingsCanBurnAtTwoHundredDegrees. (I thought I turned off the oven...and obviously didn't.) The second batch turned out fine.  I used local honey from Fred's Fine Fowl. Anyway, here you go again. This recipe is very adaptable.  I used pecans yesterday and some locally sourced honey.  And coconut.  I've been using that a lot in recent batches.  So experiment...and make sure you turn off the oven.

Original Posts

I keep getting requests for this recipe…well, any recipe from me is a rather broad description.  This one in particular can take all kinds of tweaking toward your own personal taste.  I'm including the version I make most often here and some of the easy substitutes.

Anyway, I'm putting it here so it's easy to find in the future!

Holly's Easy Granola

1/2 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar (or honey or maple syrup…real maple syrup)
1/2 cup water
2 tsp vanilla
6 cups oats (I've been using a Bob's Mill multi grain cereal for part of the oats lately & love their thicker cut oats)
1 cup of soy flour & whole wheat flour (I vary the amounts and have never found a problem)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 TB or more cinnamon
1 cup or more nuts (walnuts, pecans and almonds are my favors…I've been doing more nuts of late)
Place in two greased 9x13 pans and bake about 2 hours at 250, stirring every twenty minutes or so.
I frequently do an hour or so, turn the oven off and leave the granola in it as it cools.  Later in the day I come back and do the other hour or so. 
When I serve it for breakfast, I do a quarter cup or so with about the same amount of yogurt and then fresh fruit or raisins.

Hope you enjoy the recipe reboot!

Holly

This is Me...part two

Yesterday, I posted this poem on my social media and I talked about This is Me as part of International Women's Day...and talked about some of the things that make up who I am.  But I'm more than those things I've become myself...I'm all the people who came before me.

I've been working on my family tree off and on for a few years.  On my mom's side, I come from pre-revolution New England.  My father's side has just as deep history, but from down south.  His family came from the mountains in Virginia, down to North Carolina, then back up to West Virginia.  I am a northern girl through and through, and find this deep southern part of my history fascinating.  One of my favorite books last year was Victuals.  I tend to read cookbooks like novels, and this book had a mini novel in amongst the recipes...stories from the mountains my family came from.  I read about sorghum in that book and a lovely friend, Tami, sent me some. I so enjoyed trying it out...it became one of my Cooks and Books videos.  You can watch it here.  

I was doing some research for my family tree and stumbled across a documentary by NC State called Mountain Talk and watched it today. I was fascinated by the stories about their speech and the music.  This is my heritage.  These are my people.  I think I miss the mountains, even if I've never lived there. 

One of the words that really struck me in the documentary was poke. A shopping bag.  I love that.  And of course, watching the documentary, made me do a bit more research (the trap of every writer...I can get lost in this stuff) and found a fun blog, Blind Pig and an Acorn.  I read an article about pokes there, and am now subscribed.  Yes, I'm falling down the rabbit hole...again.

Before I knew about my heritage, I loved mountain stories.  Do you remember Foxfire Books?  I've got more than a few.  I love to pull one out and read a story about someone's life.

Maybe this is part of why I write.  I get to explore other people's lives and pasts and the pieces of themselves that are there This Is Me definitions.  Because yes, I am part of my wonderful family, a friend, a writer, an amateur potter, a... so many other things.  I am all of them.  But I am my parents' daughter, and their parents' granddaughter...right on down the line. 

I come from a wide rich heritage and that is part of who I am.  And that's what I try to give each character I write.  That kind of history.  Briar Hill Road is a story that deals with more than a couple falling in love...it's about their lifetime of love.  Their ups and downs.  And it's about their history. 
Yes, this is where one documentary led me today!  Down the rabbit hole again.  LOL

I hope you'll join me on a journey down Briar Hill Road and maybe check out some Mountain Talk?! 

Holly

Cooks and Books...Mexican Lasagna

In my last Cooks and Books video, I made Taco Seasoning Powder..today I'm making Mexican Lasagna with it. Watch until the end, I mention how to get young hockey fans to try it!

Hope you enjoy!

Holly

Cooks and Books, Homemade Taco Seasoning

There's a new Cooks and Books out!  

I know, it's been a while!  Join me in the kitchen as we make homemade taco seasoning. It's cheaper than store-bought packets and has no fillers, preservatives or food coloring in it! 

Someone asked me why the cornstarch, and I realized that I hadn't mentioned to add a bit of water, just like the bagged stuff. The cornstarch turns it saucy.

And check out my new series, PTA Moms.  

Holly

The Dance

I'm getting ready for my Ceramic Artist presentation this week in class.  My ceramic assignments are all done.  I'm just waiting for the last two to come out of the kiln.  So this presentation will be my final grade.  And yes, we've discussed that I'm hoping to get an A (I tried not to care too much about grades, but it turns out I do! LOL), but there is something I hope I leave the kids with this presentation.  This is the quote that made me decide that Rob Barnard would be "my" artist...
“In an effort to explain to me what separated pedantic and indifferent ceramic art from the kind of ceramic art that makes us reflect on the very nature of our existence, Yagi held up his index finger and pointed it straight up. This represented, he said, the predictably beautiful; then he turned his finger 90°, parallel to the floor, saying that this position represented what we all commonly think of as ugly. The two positions have a tendency to be fixed in culture, but—and he moved his finger to a position 45° between those two points—it is here, he said, where real Art takes place, vibrating between the beautiful and the ugly.”  (Between Points in Clay, by Rob Barnard, Ceramic Monthly June 1995)    
I loved that description of art.  But there's more.  When I write a book, or an artist creates their art, it belongs to us.  We bring our intent and vision to the book/piece.  And then we're done.  At that point we turn it over to our readers/observers.  They own it at that point.  They bring their own vision to it.  They like it, they don't.  They hate it, they love it.  They see something totally different in it than the writer/artist intended.


Even if the readers/viewer feel they're completely alone in experiencing the book/art, they're not.  The person who created it is a part of their experience.  Even if what they are taking from it is totally different than intended.

That interaction between the creator and the observer is a dance and it takes place somewhere between Yagi's beauty and ugliness in art.

That's what I'm hoping to leave the kids with at the end of my talk.

Literature and art are important.  They have a function.  They make us all look for ourselves in someone else's vision.  And when we find that piece of ourselves in someone else's work, maybe we realize that we are not alone.  That we're all connected.  We are all part of that dance.

Thanks to all my new followers here at Hollyworld, and as always a special thanks to all of you who've supported me and hung out with me all these years!

Happy Holidays!

Holly

Cooks and Books with Author Holly Jacobs, Pi Day!

It's Pi Day!!  And it's time for another Cooks and Books video!  Hope you're celebrating my favorite math holiday of the year...and I hope you're eating some pie!!

Holly

Nook
Kobo
Kindle

Giving Glee

I am not rich...but I try to give.  

Hold Her Heart

Sometimes I give a gift of time.  Frankly, I have less of that than I'd like, but I share what and where I can.  Like Pip in Carry Her Heart, I was the kindergarten story lady for years.  I love reading to kids.  Hey, I even sang.  They never mind that I am definitely not Broadway ready.  Raffi songs were a particular kindergarten favorite.  (And in case there are any other Raffi fans out there, he's touring in the US. I know this because a particular fan—an adult now with kids of her own— has tickets and is Broadway excited about it!)

I've volunteered in other ways...PTAs, school boards, nursing homes...

A Valley Ridge Christmas

But every year, in addition to my time I give to local organizations as well.  I have three areas I concentrate my giving on.  Hunger.  Education.  Community Enrichment.  You all know I love cooking (Cooks & Books).  Part of my love of cooking stems from the fact I like feeding people.  So the charities and organizations I give to all do that.  Places that feed people literally, but also places that feed people's minds and souls.  

As the year is drawing to a close (just a little more than couple months left...how did that happen?) I'm reviewing my list.  Like characters I've written about, I realize I can't change the world or change all the world's hurts, but I will do my best to change my corner of it where I can.  

I hope you take a look around and find places near you where you can spread some glee as well!

Holly

Cooks and Books #4, The Wild Baby Book

In Carry Her Heart, my heroine, Pip was the Kindergarten Story Lady.  Here's an Easter Egg...so I was I.  For years and years.  Reading to children is so important.  It's Read Across America Day! This installment of Cooks And Books isn't so much cooking as...well, booking!  In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, let's read one of my favorite children's books, The Wild Baby Book!


Holly

PS Watch next week for my newest release, A Day Late and a Bride Short!

Granola—Cooks and Books #3 with author, Holly Jacobs

Hey, it's time for the 3rd Cooks and Books video!  Today we're making Granola.  Well, I'm making granola.  But maybe after you see how easy it is, you will be, too??!!

Holly

PS. There are a few March sales still going on:

New Release: Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read.  And on Sale: My Award-Winning book, Carry Her Heart, is on sale for 99¢.  Also on sale...my WLVH Radio series!   Pickup Lines Lovehandles Night Calls Laugh Lines And I didn't forget my friends on the other side of the pond! In the UK NEW RELEASE:  Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read  ON SALE:  Just One Thing on sale for 99¢.

Coming in March, one of my early, classic romances is finally coming out as an eBook! Watch for A Day Late and a Bride Short! (It's available for pre-order now.)  It's a modern day MOC (marriage-of-convenience).

Cooks and Books, #2.5 Cinnamon Rolls and a tour!

Okay, I promised you a bonus video with another treat you can use yesterday's bread dough for. 

And a couple people asked for a kitchen tour. Here you go...

PS. I swear I don't have a chicken collection!

Cooks and Books, Episode #2 Dinner Rolls

My first recipe of 2016...my second edition of Cooks and Books!!

Homemade Dinner Rolls!
Enjoy!!

Cooks and Books #1, Making Christmas Candy!!

I spend a lot of time online talking about two things...books and cooking.  Today I'm trying out a video about how to make Christmas Candy. JJ Abrams isn't worried.  (Please note, I wore something special just for all of you!)

Oh, and as my friend, Susan Gable suggested, I used some product placement in the video!  If you have a minute, I hope you'll check out my newest release, These Three Words!

Holly