Granola is one of those great foods that is so easy to make, and gives such pleasure to those who eat it. Thus, it is the perfect gift. Here is our simple formula for Homemade Granola.
As you already know, it's hip to preserve. And it's easy. If you still have access to good cucumbers, start with good old-fashioned pickles - here is a recipe for Shaker Pickles dating from 1962 (House & Garden magazine). If you want to try other kinds of preserving, consider pickling garlic, beets, and peaches. We have a great recipe for Preserved Meyer Lemons.
One of our favorite ways of presenting homemade foods is with Weck canning jars. The Deco shape is great for preserves, and the larger Tulip and Cylindrical shapes are great for pickles, and even a few servings of your granola.
I adore the Weck jars and for the last few years have asked for these for Christmas and birthdays. I recently discovered that there is some controversy over their safety. As far as I can gather, the issue is whether they need to be processed for longer times than recipes call for, either because their bulbous shape doesn't allow them to heat as fast, or because they come in metric rather than English sizes, and therefore are slightly larger. I myself have chosen to ignore the whole subject and have been blithely and happily canning away (I canned black cherries the size of crabapples this summer--you should see them!) but I thought I'd better toss this out in case anyone else has more of a reason to be concerned with such things.
Diane,
Thanks for that info. We'll look into it. Will you send us a photo of one of your jars of jumbo cherries?