Easton Place Granola

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting brunch for a few friends. Whenever I have a party, I like giving a little parting gift. Often I make personalized stationery or other paper lovelies (for obvious reasons), but this time I thought I'd change things up a bit and make granola for my guests to take home. Today I'm sharing the recipe with you as well as printable recipe cards... a card for you and one for a friend perhaps!

Ingredients
4 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten free rolled oats
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pepitas
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup local clover honey
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup raisins


Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.Toss the oats, coconut, and seeds in a large glass bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together the oil, honey, molasses, vanilla and spices. Pour the liquids over the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well coated. Pour mixture onto a large baking pan. Bake, stirring occasionally, until the granola becomes golden brown, about 35 minutes.

• Remove the granola from the oven, spread out onto sheets of parchment paper and allow to cool. Once cooled, pour back into baking pan and mix in raisins. Store in airtight container.

This granola is a full-flavored granola. A little goes a long way in the taste department. My favorite way to enjoy this recipe is to sprinkle over Stoneyfield Banilla yogurt and mixed berries. Perfect for breakfast or a mid-morning snack!

Click on the image below to go to your free printable set of Easton Place Granola recipe cards. You can print on a 5"x7" card then cut in half. Enjoy!

A Weekend of Celebration

Our family had a wonderful weekend full of celebrating! Not only was it mother's day, but my oldest son became a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday. I've shared some of the process along the way with photos of the invitation suite and a few of the party favors. Today I'm showing you a little bit more. As you may recall, the party had a "woodland" theme. I used two existing illustrations from my collection, the snail and mushroom, and I added a third illustration: the fern.

Each guest (or couple) received nine pieces of Woodland Themed personalized stationery...

Each place setting included a dark chocolate covered pretzel rod from Munson's Chocolates and a menu card with one of the woodland illustrations on top. The place cards were also topped with one of the themed illustrations...

Here is a photo I snapped of my son's table. I will share more photos once I receive them from the photographer.

The whole day was absolutely lovely. All were invited to the luncheon directly following the service while only kids were invited to the evening festivities which lasted until 11:00 p.m. A restful Mother's Day was greatly appreciated and I'm not ashamed to tell you I never changed out of my pajamas on Sunday. And to top it off... I took a mid-day nap! Perfection.