Domestic Diva? Perhaps...

Hello Friends, Family and Strangers...
I've recently had a resurgence of my sewing and craft interests. Even as I type, Joe is sitting at the dining room table going over my sewing machine. He's studying it, learning to thread it, figuring out how it works, understanding how the bobbin and spool of thread work together... in order to hopefully set the tension properly. I took it in for a thorough going over, because the tension was so out of whack, but once I got it home and set it up for use, it was the same old thing - tension problems. I could have taken it back to the repair guy, but he was a 'once every other week' guy at a fabric store, and I not only lost confidence in his ability, but I also lost interest in sewing, once two weeks had gone by. It only took 10 years to regain my interest, due to reading a very short article in Martha Stewart's magazine last night. All these years I thought I needed to buy a new sewing machine, had given up on the old one ever functioning properly again, but not so, said Ms. Stewart! She said, in sum, if it worked well when I bought it (1970!) it can certainly work well again. It was top of the line in 1970, which is why I've never given in to replacing it. I've had a domestic weekend. I've enjoyed indulging in comfortable behaviors like cooking and cleaning. Yesterday I got up early, cleaned the kitchen, and put a beef roast into the slow cooker to make barbecued beef. This morning I got up, made a delicious strong pot of coffee in my new French press (thank you Syndi!) and cooked a breakfast of hash browns, sausage and eggs. Joe and I ate, and after cleaning up, I pulled out all the ingredients to make a big batch of homemade granola. Is it redundant to say "homemade" granola, if I say I'm making it? Saying it makes it sound better, fresher, more natural. I happened to have all ingredients on hand, and I've been craving it since seeing a recipe in a recent foodie email newsletter. I know that once it's done I'm going to love it, so I made a double batch.
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Low Fat Granola
* 3 cups old fashioned oats
* 1 cup flaxseed
* 1 cup pecan halves
* 1 cup sliced almonds
* 1 cup chopped pecans
* 2 Tbs canola oil
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Place racks on the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

In large bowl, mix oats, pecans, cinnamon and salt. In a small saucepan, bring 1/4 cup water and brown sugar to a simmer over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour over oat mixture and mix well with a spoon. Spread over two nonstick rimmed baking sheets. Bake until oats are golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes. Total baking time should be 30 to 45 minutes. Oats will crisp up more as they cool. Let cool completely in pans.