Peanut Butter Granola

Folks-
Holy cats! Another post? What am I thinking?
Today I'm posting a recipe I found at Food.com. I modified it, as usual (the original recipe used margarine instead of olive oil, called for added salt, used 3 cups of oatmeal instead of 2, omitted the bran, and included none of the optional seeds or nuts. So, yeah, I've played with this recipe a lot.) My middle child loves this!
My favorite version is posted below. I usually use an Unsalted creamy natural peanut butter without saturated fats or sugar. I've also used maple syrup instead of the honey with some success. If you want to add dried fruit, I recommend adding it after it is cooling off.
Here it is! My variation of the Hillbilly Housewife Peanut Butter Granola Recipe:



Peanut Butter Granola

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/3 Cup Peanut Butter
1/3 Cup Honey
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Oatmeal
1 Cup Unprocessed Bran

Optional:
1/2 Cup Sliced Almonds
1/2 Cup Raw Shelled Pumpkin Seeds
and/or
1/2 Cup Raw Unsalted Shelled Sunflower Seeds

Heat together olive oil, honey, and peanut butter for about 30 seconds in a microwave. Mix together and add vanilla extract. Add bran and oatmeal and toss to coat completely. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes. Stir and add optional ingredients, spread onto the sheet and bake another 5 minutes. Cool and store in a tightly sealed container. Note: watch it closely while baking since it will burn easily at the edges.

Tyler's Ultimate Barbecue Sauce

Folks-
The best barbecue sauce I have ever had was one I made from a recipe I got on Food Network once. That's a TV network I seldom watch, because it makes me want to cook like mad, and that can be an issue. I ran across Tyler's Ultimate one day, and thought the barbecue sauce recipe looked good enough to have me sit in front of the TV with a notepad and the remote for about an hour, reverse engineering the recipe from what he was doing on the TV (since when does a "dash" equal a small bucket of something?)

Since I first worked this recipe out a couple of years ago, I've found alternate ingredients for some of those in his recipe. I'm including both his basic recipe, as well as the alternates in the ingredient listing below. Enjoy!

Tyler's Ultimate Barbecue Sauce (with alternate ingredients tested by Ed)

2 Strips of smoked bacon or 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke
Large sprig of fresh Thyme or 1 tablespoon dry
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 Large Onion or 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
2-3 Cloves Garlic- Crushed and skinned or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 Cups Ketchup
1/4 Cup Fruit Preserves (Peach, Apricot, or Raspberry have tested well)
1/4 Cup Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon Paprika
1 teaspoon Cumin
2 Tablespoons Red Wine or Basalmic Vinegar
1/4 Cup Molasses
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Ground pepper to taste

Wrap bacon around fresh thyme and simmer in olive oil. Add other ingredients and simmer 20 minutes.