3 November 12 • SCB

It has been a stressful week for many. My heart goes out to those in the northeast who have been through so much and continue to face huge disruptions and hardships in their lives. This week, I wanted to share a few things that have been making me smile in the hopes that they might make you smile as well.

I had the pleasure of meeting artist and blogger Jaime Rugh when I was on the east coast last month, and this week I received her beautiful Backyard Wildflowers book. What a treat on a gloomy day.

Every year I marvel at these crazy blooms from my peanut butter tree (it really smells like peanut butter!).

And, up top there, homemade graham crackers! If you subscribed to 3191 Quarterly and received your 3191Q Notebook, you know that Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain is one of my favorite cookbooks. This week, I decided to try her recipe for graham crackers.

Despite burning my first batch, I was quite happy with the wholesome, not too sweet, crisp result when I got the cooking time right. I didn’t have the teff flour she calls for on hand, so I subbed in more all-purpose which seemed to work fine. I wish I could have a graham cracker snack-time with you all.

Graham Crackers
Adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce

1 cup graham flour
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (or sub in 1/2 cup teff flour for 1/2 of the all purpose)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon unsulphured molasses
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
2. Whisk together the melted butter, honey, molasses and milk in a separate bowl.
3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until combined. Press the dough into a disk, wrap and chill for a t least an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rub two baking sheets with butter.
5. Dust your rolling surface with flour. Divide your chilled dough in half and roll out first half until it is 1/8 inch thick, dusting well with flour and moving frequently to make sure it is not sticking.
6. Cut the dough into 5-by-2 1/2-inch rectangles and transfer to baking sheet. Score each rectangle into quarters and then prick with fork or toothpick to create holes in dough (my crackers were a touch messy before baking as you can see, but, really, they turned out fine).
7. Stir the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle generously over crackers.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes (Boyce recommends 15-17 minutes, but my first batch burned at 15 minutes), rotating the pan halfway through. Grahams are ready when the edges darken. Remove to cool on a rack and repeat with remaining dough.

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One more happy thing:

I hope you all will find a way to connect with us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (we are 3191milesapart at all those avenues). MAV and I have been a little slow on the social media bandwagon, but we have engaged Chloe as our helper (learn more about Chloe at the bottom of MAV’s post), and we are really excited to connect with folks in new ways. I am especially excited to get to see bits and pieces of MAV’s day through Instagram—it reminds me of how we started at A Year of Mornings. You will be seeing posts from everyone on our team—MAV, SCB (me), CMB (Chloe) and EBT (our creative assistant Evan). The community that surrounds and supports 3191 Miles Apart is so important to us, and we are all really excited to share more and connect with you all. Thank you!!