Fashionable Dining

When I was in college many of my favorite clothes were based on the notion of dressing like a 1950's Juvenile Delinquent: a vintage black cardigan with appliquéd roses, leopard print heels, gray pedal pushers, rolled jeans, wide skirted old dresses accessorized with red lipstick, silver cat's eye sunglasses, and my hair in a ponytail.

My mother bit her tongue.

I find myself having a similar reaction as I watch the trendy young 18-20 years olds on the train with their leggings and plastic jewelry and big earrings.

I think fashion's basic rule is that if you thought it looked cool in junior high, it's dead to you forever.

I'm not sure if food trends work the same way, but I'm having a bit of 1970's food lapse here. Maybe it's backlash to the retro 80's thing that keeps popping up or maybe it's just because it's fall. Today I made a nice, albeit unfashionable, batch of an autumnal granola:

• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup almonds
• 1/2 unsweetened flaked coconut
• maple syrup
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Dried cranberries (with some orange in them courtesy of Trader Joe's)
  

Preheat the oven to 300F. Put the roasting pan on the burners toss the first three ingredients adding one at a time until you can smell them. Drizzle with maple syrup and add cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir stir stir! Put in the oven for 20 minutes (stir twice). Take out and add dried fruit and let cool.