Guest Post: Friday Favourite #16

It's not just a breakfast staple. It's home itself.

Every Friday I share a favourite song, poem, book, film, or other kind of cultural reference that evokes the feeling of home—and what it means to me. Let me know how it makes you feel in the comments below!

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Hello, Friends. I’ve got a treat for you today—my first guest post for Life at Home. Not only that, but it’s written by the one person who knows my own experience of life at home better than anyone… My husband,

James Clasper

. His piece is a beautiful and touching reminder of the domestic rituals and traditions we pick up that quickly become the cornerstone of life at home. And how something as unsuspecting as '“American muesli” can tuck us up in comfort and joy and make a house a home. I love being able to share this with you all—almost as much as I love a fresh batch of the subject in question. Enjoy!

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Orcas Island, home to the cosy Turtleback Inn

The place names grew increasingly dire. Cape Foulweather. Cape Disappointment. Deception Pass. To the east, Mount Despair. The eighteenth-century explorers who charted these shores must have felt impossibly far from home, their loneliness etched into the maps they left behind.

If only the Turtleback Inn had existed back then.

A cozy B&B on Orcas Island, it was where I found comfort after a long day's drive along that same windswept coast, two-thirds into an October road trip from San Francisco to Vancouver with my future wife—the regular author of this Substack, of course.

It was also where I became a granola fiend.

The married couple who ran the inn set out a breakfast buffet each morning, and among the offerings was a big glass jar of granola. I think I ignored it at first. But then someone—another guest, maybe one of the owners—pointed out it was homemade. I gave it a try, and that was it.

Granola had never been something I thought much about. If anything, I considered it American muesli. Big mistake. Muesli is mushy. Granola, on the other hand, has crunch. That's the whole point—oats, nuts, and seeds bound together with fat and sugars, caramelizing in the oven into something golden, fragrant, and deeply satisfying.

That morning at the Turtleback Inn, I understood: this was how granola was meant to be eaten.

That was over twelve years ago. I asked the owners for their recipe, tweaked it a little, and since then, there hasn't been a month when I haven't made a batch. In London, we ate it with milk. Since moving to Copenhagen, I prefer it with skyr, the protein-rich Icelandic yogurt.

For me, the taste is almost secondary. What matters is the scent. Granola is redolent of slow mornings and quiet rituals, of something nourishing always within reach. Its fragrance lingers long after the oven has been switched off. Sometimes, I catch a whiff of it in the stairwell, a warm and familiar welcome home.

Now it's become something of a family tradition. I make granola with my five-year-old daughter, who stands on her kitchen stool, wielding her little spatula and helping me mix the ingredients. Her face lights up when I let her have the last sticky drops of maple syrup from the bottle. It was the first recipe we made together, and she asks to help every time, drawn by the same sweet scent that first captivated me at the Turtleback Inn. And the maple syrup.

While it will always remind me of that road trip through the Pacific Northwest, along with the music of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, our car stereo favourite that autumn, granola has become something even more essential. It's not just a breakfast staple. It's home itself.

And maybe that's why I keep baking it. Because home isn't just where you live—it's something you create, over and over again. "Harvest the honey and string up the beans / That's how we make it our home," sings Bonnie “Prince” Billy on his latest album. Making granola is my way of doing the same—filling the air with warmth, making our space our home, one batch at a time.

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Here's my recipe:

Homemade Granola

Makes approximately 12 cups

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 500g rolled oats

• 100g desiccated coconut

• 100g whole or chopped cashews

• 100g whole or sliced almonds

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon sea salt

• 250ml pure maple syrup

• 210ml extra-virgin olive oil

• Optional additions:

  • Handful each of pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seeds

  • 50g sweetened dried cranberries

• For serving: milk, yogurt, or skyr

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F)

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, coconut, nuts, seeds (if using), cinnamon, and salt

3. Pour in maple syrup and olive oil; stir until evenly coated

4. Spread mixture evenly on one large (33 x 45 cm) or two smaller lined baking sheets

5. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes with a fork to ensure even browning

6. Remove when crispy and golden brown

7. Cool for 15 minutes before adding cranberries, if using

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one month.

Pro tip: Keep a close eye on the granola during the final 15 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning.

A fresh batch of granola with skyr