Homemade granola is so nice and really very easy; all you need is an hour or so to hang around giving it a stir every so often, and your minimal labor is repaid many times over. It's also, of course, a great deal cheaper than store-bought, even if you use much nicer ingredients. Well, I like to use dried cherries, which are pretty expensive, so it might come out to being only a tiny bit cheaper than buying a cheapish ready made variety, but this way you get lovely cherries! I'm thinking of getting some dried blueberries for next time and really living it up. This recipe makes a fairly enormous quantity: about a half gallon, which really does go a long way, as granola is pretty darn filling. If you live in a small household, like ours, you might prefer to halve it. That's what I did this time, although I realized that I could just as well have made the full recipe and given half away. Oh well.

VERY GOOD GRANOLA
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups nuts (slivered almonds are nice, as are chopped cashews or chopped walnuts)
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional but delicious)
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup butter (You could use vegetable oil instead, but butter is awfully good)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or vanilla extract, or both
1 cup dried fruit (say, dried cherries)

Get out 2 jelly roll pans, or sheet pans with rims, or 9" x 13" baking pans. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

Mix the oats, nuts, seeds, and coconut in a very large bowl. Meanwhile, melt the butter and stir in the sugar, syrup, salt, and cinnamon or vanilla. Combine the two mixtures. Don't add the dried fruit; that comes at the very end.

Spread the mixture evenly over the two baking sheets and bake for up to an hour and 15 minutes, until the oats start to look toasty, stirring every 15 minutes to cook evenly. I find mine are usually done after an hour. Wash and dry your large bowl in the meantime.

Remove from oven and transfer back to the bowl. Add the dried fruit and mix until evenly distributed. It won't be terribly crunchy when it comes out of the oven, but crisps up as it cools. Once it's completely, completely cool, transfer to an airtight container.