RGeiselman's Home Made Granola

R stands for Robin.  Ms. Robin's Granola Bar was so delicious, I begged her to give me this recipe to share.  She obliged, and now you too can enjoy a delicious taste of home made granola bars.  SO, if you try this out and it is all that and a bag of chips, remember to thank the good Lord (as Isaac Newton said, for filling this earth with food) and Mrs. Geiselman.

Ingredients:

As with baking you normally would have your dry and wet ingredients, I will start with the dry first:

6 cups of Quaker oats (not the instant kind)
2 cups of chopped almonds
1/4 to 1/2 cup pf ground flax seed
1 cup of brown sugar (Raw sugar can also be used instead)
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
[Mix it all up]

Wet ingredients:

1 cup of Canola oil (or olive oil) [FYI, Canola has no smell or flavor in comparison]
1 cup of honey
2 teaspoons of real vanilla flavoring.
[Mix it all up]

Then pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones and mix well, making sure all oats are evenly coated.

Directions:
Heat up the over (325 degrees F). Get a jellyroll pan and cover it with parchment paper, making sure the parchment rides up and over the sides of the pan. This will help when removing the finished product.  Dump the mixture onto the pan. Spread out and flatten or compress the mixture firmly until the mixture is firmly pressed down.  It goes in the over for 30 min.  Remove from the overn and let it cool.  After about 20 min. using a knife cut lines to form individual bars.  It if wants to come apart, stop, wait 10 more min., and try again.  Wait 1 hour (I know, don't roll your eyes on me) and lift the entire product by parchment onto a cooling rack.  Wait until room temp.  When it has cooled down you can beak it by the scores.

Eat with:
Satisfaction and a nice tall glass of Diet Coke (for sure!).

World's Finest Chocolate

They are mostly know for fundraising, but this company knows how to make chocolate like no other.  I have tried their "Continental Almonds" (chocolate covered almonds) - it is rich, creamy, smooth chocolate with a crunchy almond nut inside (wrapped in all that chocolate goodness).  Then, I tasted their "Deluxe Pecan Cluster" (aka, Turtles) and it is off the hook!  It tastes so good it will make you want to slap somebody.  The nuts were crunchy, the caramel is creamy, and the chocolate is rich.  It just doesn't get better than that...it can't.  So, if you are in the Chicago land area, and you are a chocolate lover, you must check out "World's Finest Chocolate."  No disrespect to Fannie May Candies, I know their chocolate is excellent too.  (In fact, I say that their "Cashews Classic" is really good, off the charts) and who doesn't like their chocolate truffles?  C'mon!  But the world isn't big enough for WF and FM, and I must say, I really like WF's Turtles.

And so now I will need to scour South Central PA to find a comparable or better chocolate company. For now, I have a renewed taste and affection (for the confection) for Pecan Turtles or as WF calls it "Clusters."  My first stop will be Anstine's Sweet Shop in Red Lion, then I will need to check out Fitzkies Candy in York, too bad Wolfgang Chocolate closed down, that would have been a good one to check out.  Of course, there's always Stover and DeMet's - which isn't bad at all (at least they are generally accessible just about anywhere).  Anyway, more on this to follow for sure, but until then, WF has my vote as the best Pecan Clusters (Turtles) anywhere in the world.