Inge's Best Granola Recipe

Hello Folks,

I wanted to share my Mom's awesome granola recipe.  Its surprisingly simple and unbelievably delicious.  It goes great with milk or yogurt or even on its own.

Please beware. This granola is kind of addicting.  After you have it once, all of a sudden you may what to eat it for every meal.

Here's the secret recipe :  Inge says: "change whatever you need and it should still be edible!"

7C oats

1C flaked coconut

1C wheat germ

1C sliced almonds

1C diced pecans or walnuts

1C sunflower seeds

1/2C canola oil

1/2t salt

1C maple syrup or honey

1T vanilla or almond extract

5C raisins - I used only about 3 C and it is fine!

Mix all the dry stuff in a big bowl.  Mix all the wet stuff (w/o raisins - they go in after it is all cooked)  Combine all!

Spread on a baking sheet w/ sides.

Bake 1.5hrs at 250F.  Toss lightly and stir every once in awhile.

Store in a dry container.  Sealed.  

Porcelain Door Knob Coat Rack

As a child, I enjoyed looking through my father's library desk.  In the bottom drawer he had a collection of stuff that was fun to handle - pun intended , as he would like to say!  In that special drawer were old hinges, knobs, skeleton keys, old locks, various screws in glass baby jars, and my favorite - an old turquoise and brown porcelain door knob!  The door handle mechanism was also in there, but it was the polished shiny by years of use, knob that held most of my attention. It was like a huge marble...oh and there was a fine collection of marbles to be found in the drawer also.  This memory came flooding back as I was drifting through some back alley antique shop in Albany and spotted a box of door knobs.
These are a few of the ones that I brought home.

Thinking about the slabs of granite that I had scavaged a while back, I decided to make a coat rack.  Yes we needed a coat rack - since our downstairs entryway did not include a coat closet...or at least not one nearby to the door.  We do have a most excellent gear room but it is on the other side of the room.  It would be great to post a gear room picture here, but it is so jammed with winter climbing gear, skis/snowboards, Christmas decorations, tools ( the garage will be built this year...hopefully! ), building supplies, golf bags..... that it looks more like an ad on Craig's List!


So instead I will show you the pile of granite scraps that I had collected.

It was fun to match the various color door knobs with the granite selections I had.

Taking out the trusty DeWALT hammer drill, I started drilling holes in the granite strips!  Jamming the door knobs into the adhesive-filled holes completed the job.  Here are a few of the racks that I made.

The onyx and white knobs have a bold look on the black and white speckled granite.

So even if the coats and hats still don't get hung up on the coat rack, it will be enjoyable to look at something made out of quality items from the days of old.

Every once in awhile someone does hang up their hat or coat instead of tossing it on the chair!

The Adirondack Cedar Cat Scratch!

When my dreams of shredding powder at nearby Whiteface Mountain were actually the sounds of our beloved cats shredding Sofia Stickley, Chairly Oakwood and Rorrie-Rental Rug, it was time for action!
Stickley doesn't sell an attractive Catscratch, but they do sell some mighty fine furniture.  So after buying a couple lovely couches and chairs, I didn't appreciate our fluffy friends taking to them for their pedicures.  Sleeping on them ( after I laid down a blanket to make fur cleanup easier! ) was fine.

To start the project, I dragged home a long cedar tree that had been cut down by the County road workers.  After rescuing this chipper dodging cedar from the County road crews, I saved it again from being used to heat our Adirondack Haven.  Thinking that it's hairy bark would please any vanity-struck, grooming feline, I asked Carl to nail a 2x6 to it.  Covering the lumber with birch bark, oak leaves and other natural debris, I created this decorative scratching post.

Now the next time my wallet cringes as the furniture is being frayed and singed,  I scoop up our beautiful cat.  Setting her down next to the post, I demo where and how she will be grooming while she's visiting our Adirondack Hide-a-way!  At first she glared at me for thinking that I'd be able to teach her anything about manicures and pedicures.  But not long after, I saw a neat pile of shredded cedar bark that had been scratch off at cat height!  Success!!

Coming soon - The Adirondack Fire Hydrant for those Hard to Shop For Mountain Dogs!

Toilet paper holder!

While I'm still working to finish off the bathroom, I will share the Toilet Paper Holder.

As I was saying in my last post, I enjoy collecting things that I see as I tour the back country roads on my bike. The days of training 'til I'm cross-eyed are gone and enjoying the scenery is easy! While out on one of these rides I came across an old farmer's field long out of service.  Needing to stop to adjust my shoe, I pulled over to sit on a boulder.  As I was getting up to move on, I spotted an old white insulator.  Unable to resist bringing home a memento from this glorious autumn day, I tossed it in my jersey and pedalled on down the road.  Here are some of the insulators I've scrounged up after that day.

A special stash of granite that I gathered from a dumpster one day while I was waiting for my parents (Oma and Op's!) to arrange the replacement of their kitchen counter was my next stop.  I was looking at all the beautiful colored scraps from kitchens and bathrooms all over the Capitol District! The worker there said that it was fine for me to cart away whatever I liked!  My lucky day.  Our Mini Cooper crawled home that day with her heavy cargo!

With the wonderful help of Carl, I learned how to drill the granite.  Finding some long nails in Op's barn, I was able to attach everything!

Shazaaaam!!  Carl fastened it to the wall with countersunk screws and an adhesive to finish this project!

Stained glass Mountain Mosaic shelf

Back to the mosaic idea for this post!  Yes, mosaics are a favorite of mine.  As is the saying "Variety is the spice of life!"  Pieces of this and pieces of that, put together with an individual's touch make up the days and years of our lives.  As a child I would spend hours sewing together fabrics that I had collected.  Later it would be photos of our daughters added to photo albums.  Then it was steps in a running race, bike races in a stage race, mountains to be peak-bagged to accomplish a goal.  All the parts summed up to the whole.

Being older must have hardened me because my favorite mediums are now stained glass, metals and stone!

This project was to create a storage area in our small toilet room.  Firstly a nice niche was already available since the room is located under the stairs.

Finding this photo online, gave me an idea!

Being in the Adirondacks, a profile of the Great Range would be the perfect detail for the long narrow space at the base of the shelf.

Once again I dug out my box of stained glass and set about picking some colors to suit the mountains and sky.

It wasn't long before I cut out a pattern on paper to make the pieces in glass.  Using a grinder I ground the edges of the glass smooth after cutting them with a glass cutter.  Gluing the glass to the wall took a bit of patience to ensure that they wouldn't slide...but before long, this shelf had a face!  Or actually many faces - the faces of The Great Range : (from right to left)  Marcy, Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, Gothics, Armstrong, and The Wolf Jaws! Big Slide sneaked into the foreground for good measure...

I chose colors that were more subtle than the original photo so that there would be details to look at as time went by.  Below are some of the details.

I guess that gives a new meaning to the mountains over head!

Firewood Storage Indoors!

This project is a bit more practical than the last two that involved sticking lots and lots of broken pottery to a wall to create an artful image!

We needed an indoor place to store our firewood.  It had to be separate from the room but I wanted it to add to the character of the space.  This does the trick.  I have collected some odd things over the years.  Riding my bike or running or doing survey work has given me the opportunity to find some interesting materials to use for this project.  Stone, wrought iron and more stone!  One day as I was surveying near a dead end street, I saw someone had dumped a load of marble scraps in the ditch.  Recruiting my husband, who cheerfully helps me gather all the "stuff I find on the side of the road", we loaded up the trailer to bring home my new treasures!

These slabs of marble have been leaning against our garage for a loooong long time.  It was great to put them to use!

The marble was used to protect the wall from being dented and scarred by the firewood.

Next I was able to use some of the massive blue stone pieces that I bought in a collection of other stones and building materials on Craig's List.

The blue stone made a solid footing and boundary for the side of the storage area.

This wrought iron railing is a gem that I have always wanted to find a purpose for!

Being that this project was Carl's idea it was easy to rally him into putting all the pieces in place.

We had a beautiful wooden box that my father had made sometime ago out of oak flooring that I used to stock the kindling stash!

Neatly we could store our firewood close to the wood stove without creating an ugly, unwanted space in our family room!

The big mosaic picture!

To follow up on the pics that I wanted to post with the Dragonfly mosaic post.....  This is a landscape mosaic made with glass beads, porcelain and ceramic tiles, lots of broken pottery and a few pieces of mirrors and marbles.

This mosaic is in a stairwell and thereby hard to photograph.  I did the best to get some overall coverage, but it really is ok to focus on the details since it is difficult to take in 8 feet by 17 feet.  As there really isn't a good vantage point to absorb the entire picture, I will not tire looking at it as I pass! :-)

A close up of the autumn foliage!

The Mighty Oak with a couple of leaning white birch is in a forest of evergreen boughs and a variety of different maples' leaves alongside a roaring brook.  He stands beside a flowering bush planter that is perched on the stone wall soaking up the colors of Autumn.

The base of the Mighty Oak stands beside a whirling pool of sparkling water!

A bit closer look at the planter seated on the stonewall beside the creeping rose bushes.

One of my favorite details is the swirls and curls of the water as it waves and twinkles beside walled off forest.

Perspective makes a big difference when viewing a mosaic.  I tried to show that by choosing some pictures that were from a distance and a few close ups.