Home Cooking

 

It's been road trip season for me. I just completed a miniature sweep of the east coast, surveying mountains, oceans, and state-run liquor stores. Now I'm about to embark on a journey from the Windy City to the Twin Cities. I've a special fondness for long distance driving--even in inclement weather when I'm plowing through dual snowstorms acutely aware of the fact that I'm a jerk of the wheel away from veering into an embankment. Highways hold some splendid adventures and I'm always excited to explore more of this overgrown sprawl of a nation. So to Minnesota it is for the first time in my life, and about time, too. 

Of course, it wouldn't be a road trip proper if I didn't first equip myself with road snacks. Gas station snackage works in a pinch but tends to get pricey and/or repulsive, so I like to plan ahead with an evening of hurried baking prior to my departure. I just put an old staple of mine out to cool; by the time I get up, it'll be ready to cut and Ziploc away. I call it just 'granola' because despite my best efforts to mold it into bars, it likes to break up and flake off into awkward, shapeless chunks that hardly resemble rectangles even at their shapeliest. They've got the taste and texture of homemade granola bars down, but something about the bar format just doesn't sit right with these guys--at least not under my knife. I usually just end up breaking them apart by hand old-school style. Oh well. They're tasty, healthy, and easily scrounged for from behind the wheel, even if they do get your fingers unreasonably sticky.