Granola bars for Jesus - the recipe

To see how this recipe came about, see here.

4 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup melted, or liquid honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup natural peanut butter (could use regular)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup applesauce (mine was made from 1 spartan apple and one royal gala apple and a 1/4 cup water)
1 cup raisins (or nuts if you're Jennifer or Johanna and don't like raisins)

Mix everything together. You many have to use your hands to mix it as it will be very thick.

Grease a cookie sheet. I used a 12 X 16 pan (I'm guessing since I didn't measure it). A smaller cookie sheet would have been better, since the mixture wasn't enough for the whole pan. Just grease the portion of the pan that you use.

Press granola mixture firmly and evenly into pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes at 325, or until the edges start to brown.

Cool. Cut into squares. I made 16 large squares. Cut them smaller if you like.

Store in freezer. Or give them to the homeless.

My birthday picture

Applesauce oatmeal raisins muffins

I had to use up some applesauce so I came up with this recipe.

These muffins are very moist. The raisins could be replaced with 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or nuts, since some people don't like raisins. Hard to believe but true.

2 cups of quick oats
2 cups unsweetened apple sauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (next time I'd use 2/3 cup)

1 cup all purpose flour or whole wheat if you have it.
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (next time I'd use 2 tsp)
1 cup raisins

Mix first five ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix remainder of ingredients into a small bowl.

Add dry ingredients to wet and incorporate.

12 muffins at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean.

Oatmeal banana raisin muffins (not muffin cookies)

We're in Victoria, British Columbia. Our escape from the cold that is Ottawa. Which at the moment isn't so cold. I'm glad for Ottawa. But even gladder for us.

We are in a lovely two bedroom condo downtown. Where it's 13 degrees and oh so pleasant. Tons of coffee shops, flowers and sunshine. All gifts straight from God.

Made muffins yesterday. We had eaten a cookie muffin in a coffee shop and it was so yummy, I decided I needed to make some. I'd never heard of "cookie muffins", or maybe it was "muffin cookies", before. They are dense like cookies, but look like muffins.

I googled for a recipe, but couldn't find much, so found a recipe, and modified it. It didn't look or taste like what we'd eaten, but it was still yummy.

I did get a lot of pinterest recipes pop up. But every time I clicked on them, it wanted me to log in or create an account. You know what? I don't want to created an account. I just want the stupid muffin recipe. But no. We can't give it to you if you don't have an account.

I promise you I won't make you log in to get my recipe.

And of course I don't remember the name of the coffee shop we found the muffins, so I doubt it if we could ever find it again. Or maybe we will.

Here's what I made.

2 cups large flake oats
2 cups skim milk
1 cup raisins
1/2 packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 mashed banana

Soak oats in milk in a large bowl. Add egg and beat. Add oil (next time I'll try 1/4 cup oil) and brown sugar. Add mashed banana. Mix it all up.

In a small bowl add flour (if I had whole wheat flour I would have used that instead), baking soda, salt and cinnamon and raisins. Stir to incorporate.

Add flour mixture to wet mixture and blend together. Scoop mixture into a greased 12 muffin pan.

Cook at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

I didn't have muffin liners so had to spray olive oil in the muffin pan which is fine, except now the clean up job was a pain in the butt, since you have to clean out each individual muffin area afterwards. I also didn't have any toothpicks so used a twist tie to test for doneness. It worked.

It just occurred to me. Maybe if I had only used 1 cup of milk instead of 2, maybe I'd have actually made the muffin cookie recipe?

The pictures below are from our balcony. They're not the muffins.

Ottawa the freezing - seven layers and counting

I walk every morning around 6AM. Ottawa was rather chilly today. As it has been for at least the last month or so. Maybe chilly isn't the right word. Maybe freaking freezing is more appropriate.

It was -26C with a wind chill of -40C.

So I have learned to dress, how shall I say this, intelligently. In fact by the time I'm finished dressing (takes me about 10 minutes) I start to steam up.

Today I had on seven layers: a T shirt, three long sleeved thin layers, a woolen sweater, polyester vest and a winter coat. I wore long johns, jeans and snow pants. Then a thin pair of gloves covered by honking mittens. Then my tuque and coat hood. Oh and my ski goggles. I don't ski. And my old, but still very warm, Sorel boots. And a neck warmer up to my nose.

The ski goggles worked pretty well until I needed to remove them once I turned around to come home. I had to blow my nose and that caused the goggles to condense and freeze up.

Below are my before and after photos.

You may say I look like a moron. I saw maybe. But I'm a warm moron.

Gun violence glorified

Ottawa has a gun problem. Gang members are shooting each other. Most likely the shooters are selling drugs. It's dangerous. Especially for families and children.

So what do I see on my neighbourhood bus shelter? Why a great big gun advert of course, with two big druggy buffoon motorcycle gang guys with two big honking guns: Sons of Anarchy. Brought to you by Rogers. Fantastic.

We have gun violence in Ottawa. We have gun adverts in Ottawa. Splendid.

Get the employer to pay for sick notes

Here's a very smart doctor.

"Nova Scotia physician Ethel Cooper-Rosen is going to start charging employers $30 for sick notes, saying they put unnecessary pressure on the health-care system and expose other patients in her waiting room to viruses."

If employers, especially bureaucrats, want to make employees pay with both time and money to get a sick note, turn the tables and make the employer put their request in writing, and then bill the employer.

Perfect.